Space Science Exploration

When Robert Zubrin published his classic book The Case for Mars a quarter century ago, setting foot on the Red Planet seemed a fantasy. Today, manned exploration is certain, and as Zubrin affirms in The New World on Mars, so too is colonization.

Hunted through system after system. Veronica Rose is gone. Frontier Security has fallen. And so goes Captain Thatcher’s last lifeline. Cut off from the rest of the star cluster, and surrounded by enemies, all seems lost. Thatcher must reach deep inside himself to find the resolve to keep fighting. The spacers under his command are counting on him to bring them safely home. In the darkest hour, someone must provide a light.

On March 21, 2013, the European Space Agency released a map of the afterglow of the big bang. Taking in 440 sextillion kilometers of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: We will never see the early universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology; on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct.

Vernestra Rwoh is a new Jedi Knight at age 16, but her first real assignment feels an awful lot like babysitting. She's been charged with supervising 12-year old aspiring inventor Avon Starros on a cruiser headed to the dedication of a wondrous new space station called Starlight Beacon. But soon into their journey, bombs go off aboard the cruiser. While the adult Jedi try to save the ship, Vernestra, Avon, Avon's droid, J-6, a Jedi Padawan, and an ambassador's son make it to an escape shuttle, but communications are out and supplies are low.

For a moment, things seemed to be under control for Breq, the soldier who used to be a warship. Then a search of Athoek Station's slums turns up someone who shouldn't exist, and a messenger from the mysterious Presger empire arrives, as does Breq's enemy, the divided and quite possibly insane Anaander Mianaai—ruler of an empire at war with itself. Breq refuses to flee with her ship and crew, because that would leave the people of Athoek in terrible danger. The odds aren't good, but that's never stopped her before.

Three years ago, Damien Montgomery was on the run from everyone. That is long past now, as the Mage-King of Mars has plucked him from obscurity to take advantage of his rare and powerful magical gifts. The Mage-King has plans for his newest pupil, but Damien is young and inexperienced. To season the young Mage, he is assigned to one of the warrior-judges that rove the Protectorate's stars, the Hands of the King, as an aide and apprentice.

Simon is the best delivery boy that Mr Edwards’s restaurant has ever had. He’s on time every time, and he’s gotten nothing but good reviews. But he needs more money. His mother’s medical treatment won’t pay for itself, and his father is already working three jobs to try to make ends meet. But it might just be his lucky day: Mr. Edwards has another job for him. It’s more delivery work, but not the usual kind. You might even say that it’s out of this world. Oh well. Beggars can’t be choosers, and the pay is fantastic.

Everyone knows that Chitzas are masters of spatial compression, routinely exploring distant places across the Milky Way in their wedge-shaped scout ships. But rumors abound of even greater accomplishments. Some say these intrepid explorers have reached beyond the galaxy. When a distress signal is received from deep space, making sense of the emergency becomes a personal matter for Daniel Rice. His wife is onboard that ship.

As the leader of the moon's newest "dragon", Adriana has wrested control of the moon's helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal Corporation and fought to earn her family's new status. Now, at the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation, Corta Helio, surrounded by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana's five children must defend their mother's empire from her many enemies - and each other.

According to Sumerian scholar Zecharia Sitchin, a superior race of beings once inhabited our world. In The 12th Planet—the product of 30 years of intensive research—Sitchin persuasively argues that humanity sprang from extraterrestrial forebears. In this remarkable account, you'll hear the story of how these ancient visitors traveled to Earth from the stars and planted the genetic seed that would ultimately blossom into a remarkable species—the human being.

Major Rodger Y. Murphy should have died when his helicopter crashed off the coast of Mogadishu in November, 1993. Instead, he woke up in August, 2125, in a binary star system 152 light years from home. Without any memory of the otherworldly abductors who spirited them away in cold sleep, Murphy and 100 other “Lost Soldiers” have been retrieved and awakened by officers of the Consolidated Terran Republic. Promising to return to the 55 Tauri B system after completing a distant mission, they leave the twentieth century castaways with a daunting objective.

Equipped with the entirety of human knowledge, a sentient ship is launched on a last-ditch journey to find a new home for civilization. Trillions of miles. Tens of thousands of years. In the space between, the AI has plenty of time to think about life, the vastness of the universe, everything it was meant to do, and—with a perspective created but not limited by humans—what it should do.

Baron Lee and Lady Bala are headed to Denshu, his gift from the King. There is an imposter mage who has taken over his province and he must woo the residents to support him while taking down the imposter. The town is seventeenth century in most of its infrastructure and trade. Lee knows the new king put his strongest mages in the southernmost town in the kingdom—adjacent to Darvist.

Keep your eyes down and your feet moving, or this planet will rust you. That’s what Lunar Jones tells the other kids at the relocation clinic. All of them were born on Mars, a planet that never wanted people in the first place. With resources scarce and hope even scarcer, it’s easy to get distracted looking up. After all, their ancestors descended from the stars. Martian history always starts with Earth. The first astronauts discovered that space was already occupied. Not by little green men or flying saucers. It was full of dragons.

Nothing brings change like war. A surge of new tech. New weapons. New tactics. To lead a crew to victory, a captain must understand change. He must understand command and that it is a test. A test most men fail. He must be brilliant. Resourceful. Every second. Of every day. And at night during scarce moments of rest, he must sleep the sleep of the righteous. The time has come for Commander Tad Thatcher to look in the mirror. The time has come to ask himself...am I that kind of man?

A corporate aristocracy descended from Africa rules a colony on a distant planet. Life here is easy—for the rarified and privileged few. The aristocrats enjoy a powerful cybernetic technology that extends their life spans and ensures their prosperity. Those who serve them suffer under a heavy hand. But within this ruthless society are agents of hope and change. In a secret underwater laboratory, a separatist cult has created a threat to the aristocracy. The Primes are highly intelligent, manipulative products of genetic engineering, designed to lead a rebellion.

When a human team is sent to scout a few hundred light-years in front of the death wave, it encounters a civilization far in advance of our own, a civilization of machine intelligences.These sentient, intelligent machines have existed for eons and have survived earlier "death waves" - gamma-ray bursts from the core of the galaxy. They are totally self-sufficient, completely certain that the death wave cannot harm them, and utterly uninterested in helping to save other civilizations.

Zak Nine and his friend Erro are on the run! While avoiding a band of patrolling prison guards, the boys meet another escapee who tells them the legend of an abandoned spacecraft. The boys believe that if they can find the ancient ship, they'll be able to fix it and blast off from the Planet Alcatraz. But first, they must cross the Igneous Quag an uncharted swamp full of flame-spitting snakes and hidden geysers of fatal fire!

The conclave’s forces had reached a tipping point. Due to the vast expanse occupied by the empire’s thirty-five territories, Admiral Cordelia and Commander Tocknicka previously had to bide their time. They employed discreet tactical actions to harass the Krackus overseers and their mercenaries, the Radags. Now, Tridents in the hundreds and multiple Quadrants, with their experienced crews, were in place to deliver strategic actions against the Imperium Empire.

When Noah sees an advertisement offering him a chance to rent a starship, he’s convinced it has to be a trick. Already having the worst day of his life, he’s willing to do anything for a distraction, including following a random stranger’s directions to the middle of nowhere to see a ship he doubts exists. Except there is no trick. The starship is real. And Noah’s life will never be the same.