Exploration Fiction

As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida decide to take matters into their own hands. If they can quickly build their own space-worthy ship using scrap metal, appliances, and power tools, they have a chance to come from behind - thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory.

On a privately financed orbital habitat above the planet Uranus, political idealism conflicts with pragmatic - and illegal - methods of financing. Add a scientist who has funding to launch a probe deep into Uranus‘ ocean depths to search for signs of life, and you have a three-way struggle for control. Humans can’t live on the gas giants, making instead a life in orbit. Kyle Umber, a religious idealist, has built Haven, a sanctuary above the distant planet Uranus.

Lucas Trask had a beautiful bride, a powerful position, and a bright future. Yet now, he's a man obsessed with revenge, willing to cross the galaxy in search of the man who stole his happiness. The galaxy is a dangerous place, full of dangers, allies and enemies, civilizations and barbarians. As Trask pursues his quarry, he will discover new friends and foes, new planets and cultures, new challenges and opportunities. He will also find a new purpose: to build a civilization out of chaos, to create a new home for his people, and to forge a new destiny for himself.

Misanthropic psychologist Dr. Grace Park is placed on the Deucalion, a survey ship headed to an icy planet in an unexplored galaxy. Her purpose is to observe the thirteen human crew members aboard the ship - all specialists in their own fields - as they assess the colonization potential of the planet, Eos. But frictions develop as Park befriends the androids of the ship, preferring their company over the baffling complexity of humans, while the rest of the crew treats them with suspicion and even outright hostility.

Tornado Onwubiko is one of seven people on Earth paired with sentient ships to explore and research the cosmos for twenty million euros. A decade of solitary life for a lifetime of wealth. Five years into the ten-year mission of total isolation comes a consolation: a temporary meetup among fellow travelers. A lot can happen in a week. For Tornado, who left a normal life behind, a little company can be life-changing.

Hundert Jahre ist es jetzt her, dass Bender sich auf den Weg zu den Sternen gemacht hat. Seither haben Bob und die Klone nichts mehr von ihm gehört. Bob ist fest entschlossen, eine Expedition in den Deep Space zu organisieren, um herauszufinden, was mit Bender geschehen ist, doch er hat ein gewaltiges Problem: Inzwischen sind seine Klone in der 24. Generation. Manche von ihnen haben sich so verändert, dass sie gar nicht mehr er selbst zu sein scheinen. Sie haben ihre eigenen Pläne. Und so droht über Bobs Suchaktion ein Bürgerkrieg zwischen den Klonen auszubrechen.

Die letzten Menschen haben eine sterbende Erde verlassen, um in den Tiefen des Alls ein neues Zuhause zu finden. Als sie auf den Planeten Eden stoßen, scheint ihnen das Glück sicher: ideale Konditionen und eine florierende Ökosphäre. Doch was sie nicht wissen - es waren bereits Menschen hier gewesen, vor langer Zeit. Menschen, die Eden als Versuchsplaneten für ein vermessenes Projekt künstlicher Evolution ausersehen hatten. Doch ihr Experiment damals hat ungeahnte Spuren hinterlassen, und nun treffen ihre Nachfahren auf die vergessenen Kinder ihres Versuchs.

Meet the Secret Explorers—a band of brainiac kids from all around the world. Everyone in this diverse group of young experts has a specialty, from outer space to dinosaurs, and each story follows a character who gets chosen for a "secret exploration". In this fun, fact-filled installment, Leah the biology explorer and Connor the marine expert set off into the Mexican desert and have to rescue a pack of wolf cubs while avoiding dust storms!

Claim an inheritance. It's a simple goal, right? Nothing is simple when Cole returns to Centauri, the seat of Coleson Interstellar Engineering. Challenges at every turn, with no idea who he can trust. And then...the Solar Republic gets involved. Will Cole find the people working against him in time? Will they succeed in ending the Coleson line once and for all?

Lux finds traveling outside Earth's magnetic fields is possible with the gravity drive, but the military from the US and other nations begins to push hard for the tech. Could they use it to help mine the moon, asteroids, and the moons of other planets? Who controls the areas away from Earth when humans establish bases on different planets? Lux becomes known around Earth, and the fame may be too much. He finds he is a target for governments and corporations that want to control him and his knowledge.

Meet the Secret Explorers—a band of brainiac kids from all around the world. Everyone in this diverse group of young experts has a specialty, from outer space to dinosaurs, and each story follows a character who gets chosen for a "secret exploration".

Five years ago, a group of human researchers and their mercenary friends helped evacuate 26 cetaceans from Earth just ahead of their arrest. The world government didn't approve of their giving the cetaceans pinplants, and it wanted to euthanize the dolphins and orcas in their care. After finding a home on the distant ice-covered ocean world of Hoarfrost, the humans and cetaceans settled in. Less than a year later, they were attacked when the planet's previous owners, the aquatic Selroth, tried to regain possession of it.

Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller—beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back—but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming. A mission which will take him five million years to complete. Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time.

Journeying to the bustling spaceport of Hinterland after being saved from certain death by a dubious Rogue Trader, Zelia, Talen and Mekki continue their quest to reach the Emperor’s Seat. But much here is not what it seems. Alone in a strange place and surrounded by aliens, whom can they really trust, and what are the secrets of the Tau?

It is 2076: Lancer, Earth’s first starship, is on a mission to find interstellar civilizations. Although astronaut Nigel Walmsley’s experiences with alien encounters make him the expert, no one believes Nigel’s theory that machines are the dominant intelligent beings left in the galaxy and that their purpose is to annihilate all organic life. Then the explorers discover once-living planets where only machines remain – and ruined worlds where fugitive survivors must evade omnipresent and lethally advanced A.I. warships.

Where life as we know it is impossible, the real adventure begins. Venus is a hostile planet, covered by active volcanoes, but NASA launches an expedition to search for life there anyway. Their specially developed airship cruises in the clouds of Venus to serve as a research platform for its four astronauts. When they discover dangerous activities on the glowing-hot surface, there can only be one explanation: A highly sophisticated life form must be at work.

Earth Government turned soldiers into cyborgs to terraform Mars. After a decade of hard, lonely work they are little more than the machines as which they are treated—until the arrival of female settlers awakens feelings they have almost forgotten....

Unter Gottkaiser Leto II. wurde die Menschheit über die Galaxis verstreut. Nun kehrt sie aus der Diaspora zurück, und der Orden der Bene Gesserit sieht sich mit neuen Technologien und neuen Mächten konfrontiert. Da taucht aus der Wüste des Planeten Arrakis ein Mädchen auf, das mit geheimnisvollen Kräften über Shai-Hulud, den riesigen Sandwurm, gebieten kann... Frank Herberts "Wüstenplanet"-Romane, das erfolgreichste Science-Fiction-Epos aller Zeiten, in der neuen Übersetzung von Jakob Schmidt.

Master storyteller Ben Bova continues his multi-volume "Grand Tour" saga chronicling humanity's exploration of near space with Titan, a fast-paced thriller focused on the first manned mission to the Solar System's most intriguing world. Skillfully blending high drama, passionate characters, and daring speculation with the latest discoveries from the current Cassini/Huygens probe of Saturn's moon, Bova has crafted a heart-stopping tale of epic adventure on mankind's next frontier.

Sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and that is the case at hand. Space Boats Corporation has a monopoly on the spacecraft industry, right across the solar system. Their new crown jewel, SBC’s Starry Dream, launches from Earth on her maiden voyage to Mars, oblivious to those that quietly trail her. A group of meddlers interrupts the voyage, and sets off a chain of events that changes some things forever.