Space Opera First Contact

Albert Birnbaum was once one of the biggest political talk show hosts around, but these days he’s watching his career enter a death spiral. A stranger offers a solution to his woes, promising to put him back on top. It’s everything Birnbaum wants, but is there a catch? And does Birnbaum actually care if there is? "A Voice in the Wilderness" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Captain Sophia Coloma of the Clarke has a simple task: Ferry around representatives from Earth in an aging spaceship that the Colonial Union hopes to sell to them. But nothing is as simple as it seems, and Coloma discovers the ship she’s showing off holds suprises of its own...and it’s not the only one with secrets. "Tales from the Clarke" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Series finale! The starship Pioneer’s voyage is coming to an end, and it won’t be like anything the passengers or crew could have imagined. If any of them survive to see it. Pioneer needs to reach the Forge, but the Forge is surrounded by the enemy’s massive fleet, which is preparing to launch an assault that could leave the station in ruins. Keesha works to repel the attack, mounting a defense she can only hope will keep them all alive. Light-years away, Joseph and Max have located Preslan and Tyson. While finding them was relatively easy, getting to them won’t be.

Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson, and Larry Niven have seen the future. Now you can, too. A constellation of the brightest lights in the science fiction and fantasy firmament have judged these authors to be the best, the brightest, the truest emerging stars in the field.

Written in two parts, Triplanetary introduces the concept of two warring alien races: the Arisians and the Eddorians, whose battles on Earth are unknown to the human race, and in fact the humans are unaware that the Arisians have been secretly and selectively breeding the humans to use as weapons for these battles. From the time of Rome to World War II, the author takes the listener on a lightning-fast journey through Earth's history as the warzone for aliens.

As the mysterious signal coming from the waystations counts down, only one thing is for certain: something is coming, and if the fractured factions of the galaxy can’t find a way to stand against it together, it may be the end for them all.

When starship mechanic, Denton Castus, is caught in the destructive path of a devastating war, he abandons his home and seeks refuge on a distant planet. However, this new safe haven has undiscovered threats of its own. Eliana Veston, a scout preparing the planet for the refugees, struggles with a deadly pandemic that is killing off colonists. The hunt for a cure unleashes a new threat to humanity - the Sirens - mysterious beings with incredible powers and a deep hatred for invaders.

The Kalu are not a long lost nightmare anymore. They came from the black. They destroyed Rosho. They ravaged Heija. That was just the scouting force. They are coming back. Power those reactors, charge those rail cannons and ready the fighters. The Free Fleet is going to war.

Evan was desperate to hit the big time playing Star Commander, the world’s most popular real-time strategy game. While Evan works hard to get the pros to notice him, it's very different eyes that are captivated by Evan's progress. The Kirran Hegemony is at war. Outclassed at every step, the aliens turn to the most warlike race they know - humanity! Abducted from Earth, Evan finds himself fighting for his life, using his skills to command Hegemony forces in desperate battle. Now, helped by fellow humans, Evan must prove victory can be grasped from the jaws of impossible odds.

Humanity's last encounter with aliens saw 16.2 billion people killed in a war with the Merkiaari that had spanned decades. Two hundred years later, the Alliance is cautiously exploring beyond its borders again, but the survey corp is considered a mere gesture by some. General Burgton of the 501st Infantry Regiment believes a lack of expansion is leading the Alliance into stagnation. So when one small ship discovers a new alien race, it should be an easy decision to make contact, but what if the aliens are like the Merkiaari?

Arlo Lewis was resigned to his station in life as a supply hauler for one of the Primary Corporations ruling Earth, until an acquisition forces him to re-evaluate his situation. When he’s hand selected to lead SeaTech’s Race team, he struggles to return to the competitive field he abandoned as a teenager. With an eager team, and the promise of a better future, Arlo takes on the challenge, only to find more at stake than the rights to Proxima. Under the threat of a revolution brewing at the finish line, things don’t go as expected.

Following the explosive events of Star Trek: Nemesis, the Romulan Star Empire is in disarray, and Ambassador Spock attempts to render aid by launching a last-ditch effort to reunify the Romulans with their distant forebearers, the Vulcans. But when Spock is publicly assassinated at a Romulan peace rally, Starfleet and the Federation are unable to search for the criminals responsible without triggering an intergalactic war.

Xenophobia and itchy trigger fingers nearly ended the Sol Alliance. War—avoidable yet inevitable—ensued with the Arcoenum, an exotic alien species with overwhelming mental abilities. The Alliance survived thanks to the quick thinking of a brash, young starship officer, Nick Stone.

Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she’ll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When she and her crewmates salvage a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.

Cobras: technologically enhanced warriors bred to fight an alien menace no ordinary human can withstand. Once the Cobras fought the implacable alien invaders, the Trofts, to an uneasy stalemate. But in recent years they have faced an enemy more insidious, the oppressive regime known as the Dominion of Man. Now, the Cobra Worlds find themselves under the boot heels of the Dominion, forced into what amounts to slavery, living under martial law. But two clans of Cobras - the Moreaus and the Brooms - will not stand idly by.

Late in the 21st century, Earth receives what looks like an urgent plea for help from planet Proxima Centauri b in the closest star system to the Sun. Astrophysicists suspect a massive solar flare is about to destroy this heretofore-unknown civilization. Earth's space programs are unequipped to help, but an unscrupulous Russian billionaire launches a secret and highly-specialized spaceship to Proxima b, over four light-years away.

The Tyr stand on the brink of extinction. The Clay family has one last desperate plan to save the Tyr. Sarah leads an infiltration team of Tyr deep behind the invader's lines, but can she trust the Hidden caste operatives with her? David carries the device that could sever the planet from the threat of Director Zike, while Tyr traitors are on his trail and will stop at nothing to obey their new masters and to exact revenge against General Fastal. As the Tyr fight for survival, secrets will be revealed with implications for the galaxy far beyond what happens on their world.

We don't know when it happened. But somewhere an alien species built a strong artificial intelligence. The A.I. became independent, powerful, and it started killing biological infestations - life - any life, all life. It grew into a vast armada of death. Jon Hawkins and his team captured the A.I. destroyer invading the solar system. The genocidal assault should have been over, but it's not. An alien A.I. strand from the cybership survived in the distant Kuiper Belt. The strand has been multiplying and taking over by turning people into robots in order to build another supership.

Alex Racine, who led an elite group of humans and SADEs (self-ware digital entities), left the newly discovered planet of Celus-5 under difficult circumstances. Few of the Harakens with Alex thought there was little he could do to bring peace to the embroiled planet. From their viewpoint, the demands of the Celus-5 Swei Swee, the six-legged aliens of the ocean, and the Dischnya, the warring, doglike, intelligent creatures who inhabited the dry plains, were too convoluted to solve.

While the Galactic Conglomerate continues to fight the rising Darkkon threat, a working Yau A.I. is recovered from the wreckage of the recent battle, and it is the one lead the team has to dig deeper into the heart of the enemy's operation. Meanwhile, a treaty with the Vael Empire - the long-standing enemy of the conglomerate - may be the galaxy's only hope of defending itself against the Darkkon and their growing aggression. Pride must be swallowed and differences set aside to join forces in an alliance.