Showing results for "life-" in Hard Science Fiction

The Space Race of the Sixties, at the height of the Cold War, had been nail-biting—until the Soviet Union forfeited. In the thirties—amid a second Cold War—China is not about to lose the race to Mars. Nor is the United States. Nor, quite the wildcard, is a secretive cabal drawn from among the world's multi-billionaires. All of them are scrambling to launch deep-space missions on a schedule that makes the Sixties contest appear lackadaisical. This competition could only continue on the Red Planet.

After discovering the secrets to the Gaalderkhani tiles - ancient computers that house not just memories but untold destructive force - Caitlin O'Hara's son gets accidentally thrust back in time. In order to save him, she must master the power of the tiles and figure out what the Gaalderkhani's modern relatives are searching and killing for. Can she put the pieces together and bring her son back home again?

Noah Cage is a cybernetic supersoldier, a war hero and a man on his fifth and final life. He's a Lifer, an enhanced warrior. Repaired, rebuilt and improved after four lifetimes of soldiering. With each death comes further modification and enhancement, although at the loss of yet another piece of his dwindling humanity. Cage is thrust into the debacle of the Third Martian War. One that sees every man in his unit killed, including his best friend Rob Romero.

A woman plunges into consciousness in the midst of what seems like someone else’s life, sending her on a quest to discover who she is and to craft an identity that makes sense within her current circumstances. As she digs into the mystery of her life, she uncovers a top-secret government organization plotting world domination and a clandestine vigilante organization dedicated to destroying it and is caught between these warring factions.

It is the year 2051, and the International Space Institute has just sent two rival astrobiologists to search for extraterrestrial life on Europa, the mysterious ice moon of Jupiter. What they encounter could not only revolutionize science, it might make one of them the most famous person on Earth. Or does the Universe have other plans?

Big business is booming and state institutions are thriving thanks to advances in genetic engineering, which have produced a compliant population free from addictions. Violent crime is now a rarity. Mayhew McCline, a major corporation that analyzes global trends, has hired a genius: Jayna. A brilliant mathematical modeler, she has the ability to produce accurate predictions that are both good for the world and good for the bottom line. Her latest coup: finding a link between northeasterly winds and violent crime.

From a stranded alien comedian to the darkest depths of the human psyche; from a mind-blowing galactic adventure to clandestine extraterrestrial behavior on Earth. They're all here and more in this spell-binding collection of 17 short stories to keep you guessing at every turn.

What Life Can Bring is three connected science fiction stories that revolve around my fascination with time. The first story, “The Journey Home”, opens with a handsome, tattooed young man who goes by the nickname “Poly” being released from jail on a beautiful August day in 1994. Poly has high hopes for a fresh start, but he’s not able to find a job. Struggling to make ends meet and keep a roof over his head, Poly can find only one option: Join up with his old crew in a bank heist. Things don’t go entirely to plan....

What would you do if you were part of the last of humanity, stranded on the moon? That's the fate of Moon Base Armstrong after an unexpected event strands 137 people. They all volunteered to set up the base, not be humanity's last stand. The urgent, day-to-day life and death struggle to make the moon base self-sustaining gives way to despair, fear, and hope.

When the last man on Earth reveals he has a nuclear weapon pointed at the tiny Martian colony, the colonists can only survive by working together. Jaye, a Trueborn Child of Mars, isn’t like her father, Merlin. Like all the Trueborn, she is cursed with perfect memory and deep sensitivity. But not even the knowledge that Merlin killed her mother can change the fact: They need each other for more than survival.

Bearing Earth's hopes for deliverance from the alien threat, Jack Kildare and his fellow astronauts successfully complete the long journey to Jupiter. But someone on board is trying to sabotage the mission. As they approach the mysterious alien spaceship orbiting Europa, the crew fractures into rival factions. Without warning, a long-range attack cripples the human ship. Now the broken crew is the least of Jack's worries. The alien spaceship isn't a wreck, after all. And whoever is on board wants the humans dead.

Can artificial intelligence write a novel? In 2174, authors are obsolete. With the exception of a few human "author" titles printed in the small basement and back room libraries, all stories are created by the Artificial Intelligence of the Archive. Most believe the "authors" are only brands to lure people into spending their credits on print. One woman believes that one of them, author Hugh Howey, is real and still alive.

Saoirse Kenneally is on a mission to save the people of a distant world. But first, she has some problems of her own to deal with. Saoirse is an alcoholic and an addict who has been disowned by her family. None of the rehabs she has been in will take her back. And she just woke up in jail. Again. To avoid doing time she commits to a two-year term of off-planet service, one that will take her to Saturn’s moon Titan and then to a faraway star. The first hurdle is making it through training - Saoirse has a way of finding trouble even when she’s trying to behave.

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.

They were banishing him from the austere world that was his home; from the people he loved, the place he had lived, and the things he loved to do. He would never see their new city Rubin built.

When the Fault Breaks is a post apocalypse book predicated by the rupture of the Cascadia Fault. It is about the stories and lives of survivors of the Mega Quake in a world of chaos and mayhem. It is about one possible way some semblance of a normal life can happen. It is a mix of death and destruction, current social/political outlook, humor, and hope. Preppers, survivalists, and homesteaders will like the book because it has many ideas on how to live off grid in a rural or wilderness setting.

In a near future world on the brink of environmental catastrophe, a mysterious woman brokers an anonymous pact between two men for the older man to inhabit the younger man’s body when he dies in exchange for a fortune and access to vast knowledge. The consequences for both men evolve over the ensuing years, while the covert agency behind the mind swapping technology seeks to use it to rule the world.

Meet Sally. A fully-functioning-female-human-imitation-android, created as a companion for the lonely men of the world, the first of its kind. But, there are problems for her creator. Robotics engineer Dr. Harold Okamura is finally given an opportunity by Mr. Jerrald Axell, the CEO of a company with dubious intentions, to realize a lifelong ambition: to create a robot that is indistinguishable from a human being.

A teenaged Natasha Takana seeks to decode the remainder of the hidden DNA code that became the basis for a new religion reviving creationism. Her quest takes her on a voyage to a parallel dimension to learn the fate of the creators’ civilization. The conflict between the warring factions is rekindled, sweeping Natasha into the middle of it in a pursuit that crosses the boundaries of worlds and time.

The difference between a man and a robot is not that one has a soul. The difference is that man can choose to ignore it. The Uberbots have taken over. The few human survivors remain hidden. Returning from an excursion that began before the revolution, Thomas walks through his ominously silent city until he comes face to face with his creation: the Uberbots. Captured and imprisoned, Thomas is brought before the Uberbots and given a task only he, as the creator of the Uberbots, can achieve. While keen on escaping, Thomas quickly learns the Uberbots are not easily overcome.