Space First Contact

Avalon was thriving. The cold sleep colonists from Earth had settled on a verdant, livable world. The fast and cunning predators humans named “grendels” were under control, and the mainland outposts well established. Avalon’s new mainland hydroelectric power station was nearly complete, and when on-line would compensate for the nuclear power systems lost in the Grendel Wars. Humans would have power, and with power came the ability to make all the necessities for life. They would survive. They would not survive as a spacefaring people.

Meet Doctor Jens. She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in 15 years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee. But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, once ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Drifting in the intergalactic deep, Dash begins the final push toward peace. From the depths of Realm lore, the Kingsport takes shape, one component at a time. But the war isn't over, and the Deepers aren’t done. The space beyond our galaxy is far from empty. The Arkubators, Deeper worlds, and other secrets begin to reveal themselves as the Realm forces fight their way, gate to gate, into areas never seen by humans. Dash will journey farther than any other human has ever gone - or so he thinks. What awaits him is a secret that will change everything humans know about their origins.

Star humans were engineered to exist within the mantle of a star, mere tools of their Earth-evolved makers in a war against the Xeelee, owners of the universe. Stephen Baxter's third novel in his magnificent Xeelee Sequence is an exotic and endearing story of an abandoned people. Abandoned to their fate, their history lost along with contact with their makers, Star people survive in an environment that is possibly the strangest in science fiction.

Firestarter does her best to fit in on the Gene, but it's a long jump from stone-tipped spears to starships. Janet and the other girls do their best to help her fit in. Eve and Aika have trouble getting to know a new AI, and Topper's past brings a new problem for the crew to work on. Come along while they work it all out.

Viceroy Miles Hunt had accomplished the impossible. He gambled the Republic, the RNS Freedom and the entire joint allied fleet in one glorious battle. Secretly, the Zodarks plotted revenge, a restart to hostilities once their spies had found Earth. With peace achieved, new exploration began. Opportunities at new settlements enticed. All believed the threat of annihilation was past them and with that comforting thought, Liam and his Belters headed for their new world. They would build and expand their society—giving the people of Earth an alternative to the Republic.

Everything had changed for Zander Greaves over the last few weeks. He'd gone from being a private military contractor with his squad in the Middle East to being isekai-ed into a different multiverse. He lost his friends and his lover, Selda, in the same hour of his arrival, sparking in him the mission to kill every single Entoma he could to repay them for his loss. Luckily, an alien named Crish arrived to help Zander adjust to his new reality.

"Resistance is futile." The greatest threat the Federation has ever faced is the half organic, half mechanical Borg. Now more dangerous than ever, the Borg threatens the Federation's past, present, and future. Read by Gates McFadden, "Beverly Crusher" on Star Trek, The Next Generation!

A magnificent combination of space opera and epic fantasy quest in the beloved science fantasy tradition of Andre Norton and C. J. Cherryh, author Jo Clayton’s masterful Diadem Saga begins with an unforgettable tale of destiny, self-discovery, survival, and an extraordinary young woman’s coming of age in a world that is not her own.

In Saucer Holler, the crew come back to Earth to have some babies and catch up on some well-deserved R&R. Babies attract mother-in-laws, though, and Bob has one for the books. The crew of the Gene are off to take Joanna’s new friend home in Roo the Day. Finding derelicts with no survivors gets them down, and one of them brings Topper to a crisis of conscience. When they find a ship that looks like Zoom built it, Bob hires the builder.

One of the greatest science-fiction epics ever written, John Varley's Titan, Wizard, and Demon comprise a groundbreaking trilogy that will live forever. Human explorers have entered the sprawling mind of the alien Gaea. Now they must fight her will. For she is much too powerful. And definitely insane....

Earth has united under the banner of the Republic. Humanity's brightest minds have deciphered the secrets of the alien technology and have begun to reverse engineer it. An elder race takes notice of humanity's strides and intervenes. Humanity is brought into the fold of a galactic alliance and learns they are not alone in their war against the insidious Zodark empire. Humans now fight alongside friendly alien races to end the bondages of slavery.

John Lee has come far from his time as a struggling survivor of the System Apocalypse. But now, his actions have gone too far, and he has drawn the ire of the Galactic Council. Not only he and his friends, but Earth itself, are faced with the displeasure of the Council. With the whole galaxy turned against them, John will have to scramble for allies and make Faustian deals to save Earth. But against the might of multiple empires, will it be enough?

You have glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer, and have less than a month to live. What price would you be willing to pay for a cure? Any price? Are you sure? Kayla, a 17-year-old teenager, and others with an assortment of lethal medical conditions are about to find out the price of life.

Nine hundred Vennans undertake a cultural exchange to Tradepoint, a space station where aliens from different worlds meet to do business. A young and gifted Speaker, Gredin, is translator and diplomat for the happy occasion. But a horrific vision shatters her first night’s sleep on Tradepoint. Venna, their homeworld, has been destroyed. Now, the safety of the only Vennans left in all of time and space, rests on Gredin’s young shoulders. Stunned and grieving, she navigates trade wars and political prejudice, bartering with other races. And the cost of failure is the unthinkable.

As a war journalist, Jonah Wall saw enough of humanity’s horrors to last a lifetime. He wrecked his marriage, alienated his two sons, and escaped by working on an oil rig in Alaska, as far from civilization as possible. But when he finds a spacecraft that was buried for millennia under the tundra, he is suddenly and reluctantly thrust into an unbelievable adventure. As the ship is being unveiled to the world, it mysteriously comes to life, taking Jonah, his estranged son, and a disparate group on a terrifying journey.

After narrowly escaping a brutal attack, Chief Kit Carson and her surviving Pathfinders reach the Zeis Homeworld. Their mission is to seek new allies among the uncharted stars continues, but first they must end the insurrection tearing across the planet, threatening the fragile negotiations. Governor Ken Hale is in a desperate race against time to build up the colony’s defenses. When his new soldiers are found dead on the colony’s streets, he must turn to a retired assassin to help hunt down the deranged killer.

Bren Cameron, acting as the representative of the atevi's political leader, Tabini-aiji, as well as translator between humans and atevi, has undertaken a mission to the human enclave of Mospheira. Both his presence on the island and his absence from the continent have stirred old enemies to realize new opportunities. Old hatreds. Old grudges. Old ambitions. The situation has strengthened the determination of power-seekers on both sides of the strait. Bren knows most of them very well, but not all of them well enough.

Hudson Powell and Tory Bellona scour the galaxy for priceless alien artefacts found inside wrecked starships called Revocaters. Once the guardians of life in the universe, the Revocaters were destroyed by a super-powered AI, known as Goliath. Thwarted before it could finish its task, Goliath has now returned to fulfil its purpose, and wipe out all sentient life in the universe.

Michael Poole finds himself in a very strange landscape.... This is the centre of the Galaxy. And in a history without war with the humans, the Xeelee have had time to built an immense structure here. The Xeelee Belt has a radius 10,000 times Earth's orbital distance. It is a light-year in circumference. If it was set in the solar system, it would be out in the Oort Cloud, among the comets - but circling the sun. If it was at rest, it would have a surface area equivalent to about 30 billion Earths. But it is not at rest: it rotates at near light speed.