Showing results for "K" in First Contact

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement.

Sometimes even gods need help. In Galactic Pot-Healer that god is an alien creature known as The Glimmung, which looks alternately like a flaming wheel, a teenage girl, and a swirling mass of ocean life. In order to raise a sunken city, he summons beings from across the galaxy to Plowman’s Planet. Joe Fernwright is one of those summoned, needed for his skills at pot-healing—repairing broken ceramics. But from the moment Joe arrives on Plowman’s Planet, things start to go awry.

The lines. No ship can traverse the void without them. Only linesmen can work with them. But only Ean Lambert hears their song. And everyone thinks he's crazy.... Most slum kids never go far, certainly not becoming a level 10 linesman like Ean. Even if he's part of a small and unethical cartel, and the other linesmen disdain his self-taught methods, he's certified and working. Then a mysterious alien ship is discovered at the edges of the galaxy.

Three remarkable journeys into the stars: Worlds of Exile and Illusion includes Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions. These three spacefaring adventures mark the beginning of grand master Ursula K. Le Guin’s remarkable career. Set in the same universe as Le Guin’s groundbreaking classics The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these first three books of the celebrated Hainish series follow travelers of many worlds and civilizations in the depths of space.

The lines. Mysterious yet familiar: the key to controlling every ship in the galaxy. Once they were thought of as tools, but since linesman Ean Lambert discovered strange new lines in an alien vessel, they have become so much more - symbols of a power too great to ignore.

Evil is flooding the galaxy, and for some reason, destiny has chosen me to stop it. The only problem is, I don’t know how. Luckily, I meet some men along the way who are willing to follow me on this mission. If the king could see me now, draped in leather and wielding pistols and knives rather than wearing ballgowns and reading old scrolls, he would collapse onto his golden throne.

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award - winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy. An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: A graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind - hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago.

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary’s mission to Winter, an unknown alien world whose inhabitants can choose—and change—their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so, he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Step aboard a deep-space transport and experience one of Philip K. Dick’s earliest and most thought-provoking sci-fi tales. Beyond Lies the Wub explores the nature of intelligence, communication, and survival when a crew encounters a mysterious, telepathic creature with unsettling wisdom. Blending humor, suspense, and existential questions, this timeless short story will leave you questioning reality itself.

N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.

Ull Rigel is a fit and worthy Tornian warrior, the first male of a powerful and respected Lord. Because of this, he'd always believed he'd be able to attract a female, securing his bloodline. But he hadn't. He hadn't even been able to attract one of the Earth females they'd discovered. But his younger brother, a third male, did. Now, the Emperor was sending Ull to Earth to protect it from the Ganglians who were abducting the females his brother warriors so need. Trisha Burke had plans for her life. Career. Family. Friends. But one moment changed all that.

All Kirall wanted to do was bring his mate home, love her, and make sure she never suffered again as she had on Earth. All Autumn wanted was to make a home on Mondu, love Kirall, and maybe have a family. While some on Mondu embrace and support the return of the Supremes, others do not. Not everyone is happy Supremes have returned. Change causes conflict. Lives are about to change. All is threatened when an Elder was discovered carrying a jewel that the Varana took from Autumn's brother, Jack.

Autumn thought she knew who she was - then she discovered she was a rare type of dragon shifter called a Supreme Dragoon. Now she is heading to her new mate’s home world to meet more of their kind. Nerves were to be expected, but Autumn is about to get more than she bargained for. Kirall always knew who he was, a Prime Dragoon, one of the strongest of his kind. He'd never doubted who he was or his place until he traveled to Earth and met her. Autumn descended from a line of Dragoon thought to have died out many millennia ago. Their mating changed all he'd been taught to believe.

I conquered her planet and pillaged her body. Now I’m back for her heart. A decade ago, I brought war to Solgad, home of the Jal’zar. I sacked the planet and slaughtered the people, all to save my race from extinction. Until one of their female warriors hissed defiance, promising me death at her hands no matter how her body longed for mine. Each night, she came to end me, only to succumb to the raw urges of her mating heat. Each night, I gave her hungry womb what it needed, the way we coupled neither safe nor sane. I was the enemy she couldn’t kill.

The lines. The soul of every ship. It was once thought there were only 10, but that was before an alien vessel appeared at the edge of space - before Ean Lambert heard more lines singing. Ean's ways of communicating with lines is strange. But his abilities make him a valuable tool - or weapon - to command. Captain Selma Kari Wang has lost everything - her ship, her crew, her legs. But the New Alliance of Worlds is not done with her yet.

It's an Enchanted world... A world like no other... A world you've never seen before... Enter the Realm of Revein'sev... From the Gates of Rantarie, through the Woods of Shavana'Ka and into the Mountains of Ramari on a quest to heal the Heart of Revein'sev. What will they find beneath the Looking-glass lake of the In'gula or at the Coast of the Forgotten at Ba'La Stone? Will they overcome the Ela'voo?

Imagine a time and space traveler from another planet. One that looks human and exemplifies the ideal world he comes from, a world free from human nature's greed and cruelty. That creature would be "prot", as he calls himself, the newest patient at the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute. Prot seems to know more than he should about faster-than-the-speed-of-light-travel.

When three probes sent to Mars suffer suspicious catastrophic failures, a clandestine manned mission is dispatched to investigate the probes’ wreckage for clues to explain their demise. The manned mission is led by Lieutenant Colonel Avery Lockett. He is joined by flight engineer, Captain Nick Reed, and mission specialist, Dr. Christine Baker. Together they embark on a dangerous journey aboard the spaceship Cetus Prime - dangerous because they know what awaits them around Mars. UMOs, or unidentified magnetic objects.

Athshe, planète lointaine de 27 années-lumière de la Terre, a été colonisée, il y a un million d'années, par le peuple de Hain. Alors qu'elle est toute entière couverte d'eau et de forêts d'essences d'arbres terriens et peuplée par des humanoïdes à la fourrure verte, un vaisseau intervient pour installer un système de communication avec la Terre.

When Hail confronts the Farian gods, the last thing she expected was to discover that they were part of a race of aliens who'd attacked the galaxy long before humanity's ancestors had crawled out of the sludge of Earth's oceans. The discovery carries with it dire news: the Hiervet, who'd once subjugated the mighty Svatir, are coming - a consequence of Hail's decision not to kill the Farian gods. Now the fate of the galaxy is on the line, and Hail will have to make one final gamble to leverage chaos into peace.