A unique science fiction first-contact novel told from the aliens' point-of-view; a 21st-century Gulliver's Travels with Homo sapiens as the Lilliputians. The last thing the factfinders - who call themselves Life - expected to find while traveling in space in The Curious on a mission from their planet, The Living World, was other life. But one day they stumble upon the third planet out from a backwater sun and find it teeming with a vast diversity of life, including one sentient and cognizant, if primitive, species that they dub: Otherlife.

The search for answers on Earth has become deadly. After the Sphere mysteriously goes dark, Nolen Aromas and William Walker double down, throwing their enormous wealth into an intricate dance of wits to control Wendy, Earth’s only known AI. However, a newly freed Wendy has plans of her own, and Earth and the battered Martian colony find themselves pawns in the dangerous game.

Eden Lucas is having the worst week of her life. Everyone she ever knew is dead. In fact, it seems like life on Earth is at an end. Yet, as she grapples with her despair, the train that hovers three feet above the ground in front of her suggests there must be other survivors. What she finds aboard defies explanation. Meals that appear just by thinking about them; doors that open into a vacuum; new friends whose ages and experiences don't seem to make any sense.

The rain began nineteen years ago, and it never stopped: more than a foot of rain per day until almost the whole of North America was underwater. Those who survived the first year were forced to take drastic measures, and those who held to the veneer of civilization were few and very far between. Seventeen-year-old Tanner grew up after the rain began. She and her adoptive caretaker, Russell, have long sought a fabled Colorado refuge, a dream that has kept them going through years of brutal trials as they try to stay one step ahead of the “face eaters”.

Kim is sleepwalking through life. She has everything she needs: a decent apartment, plenty to eat, a close-knit circle of friends. She is comfortable, but is she happy? No, not really. And then, one day a seemingly innocent lark sends her life spinning out of control, and nothing will ever be the same again. Follow Kim on her journey of self-discovery as she learns the dark and disturbing secrets of the companies and their AIs.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

In the isolation of the Himalayas, the snows still fall, but they are tinged with the ash of a nuclear winter; the winds still blow, but they wail with the cries of ghosts. The seventh and final blast is near. As the world heaves its final breaths, the people of the Tibetan plateau—civilization’s final survivors—are haunted by spirits and terrorized by warlords. Though the last of the seven prophesied cataclysms is at hand, young Karma searches for a father who disappeared ten years earlier, presumed dead.

A secret buried in the Antarctic. A puzzle unsolved for thousands of years. And a Brooklyn-born master gunnery sergeant who's royally pissed that he has to babysit the researchers sent to figure it all out. But when Patrick "Wic" Finnegan finally sees what the team has uncovered, he can't believe his eyes, nor is he prepared for the violence to come. Soon, the portal opens and unleashes a storm of unbridled fury upon humanity.

The post-apocalyptic routine couldn’t be better for Kate. Doing her part to rebuild the world’s population, her husband and their genetically privileged children are her pride and joy. But as her spouse becomes distant, she fears her flawless family is on the brink of collapse. Confused and distraught as he continues to withdraw, Kate finds comfort in a handsome younger man who mentors her son. But as she and her new beau become entwined, her husband suddenly reasserts his claim. And giving in to his renewed loyalty could set their carefully ordered society ablaze.

High above Daros, 16-year-old Brecca Vereen prepares to unload a cargo of trade goods aboard her father's ship, The Envy's Price. Nellen Vereen shows her a mysterious artifact bound for a contact below, one that will earn them a lot of credits, and one that they definitely won't be declaring to customs. Materializing out of nowhere, alien invaders fire upon all ships and knock out communications. The Envy's Price is crippled, and as her father tries to guide it down from orbit, Brecca rescues the illicit artifact and jettisons in a life pod to an uncertain fate below.

Supergenius and quasi-villain Rex normally can’t go a week without accidentally endangering Decimen City with her science shenanigans. It’s been two weeks since her genetically engineered dinosaurs rampaged through town—a good streak for her—but the peace is broken when actual villain Last Dance sets his sights on Decimen. And he wants Rex’s help. Before Rex can say “I didn’t do it,” superheroes who’ve dragged her to jail on her worst days are crowding her lab to conscript her into quasi-herodom.

No one has ever ventured deeper into space than the four astronauts of Shepherd-1. The aim of their mission is to witness the creation of the cosmos. Using the sun as a lens, they are to align a flock of probes in such a way that the moment of the Big Bang becomes visible. For astronomer Christine, this is a dream come true. So she is bitterly disappointed when the first images are obscured by a kind of veil that prevents any insight. She works obsessively to find a solution, but when she finally succeeds in lifting the veil, she sees something that would have been better kept hidden...

Captain Herix Trellis just wanted to command the UPS Alpaca, not fight to the death against a vicious reptilian alien species known as the Gorkeens. One year after crash-landing on an unknown planet and with his crew dispersed, there isn’t much hope of a rescue. One issue is they got there by a portal they couldn’t avoid, and now they have no idea where they are or when. Another problem is that over half the crew has been enslaved and used for food. It also doesn’t help that another third of the crew escaped and has not been heard from since.

It’s the find of a lifetime - an ancient alien spaceship, hanging in a forgotten corner of space. For Song, this could change everything. She’s got as many problems with her finances as she does in her marriage - but maybe, at last, her passion for wreck-diving will pay off. One piece of unknown tech could set her whole crew up for life. The ship conforms to nothing in their records, and dwarfs the largest human vessels. Battle-scarred, and old before humanity ever reached the stars, it’s a mausoleum of an unknown, long-dead species. And it’s just winked at her.

Sara Morin, a brilliant computational biologist, makes a discovery that will fundamentally change our understanding of human evolution. But when she publishes her results, she ignites a firestorm she never expected.