Showing results for "what" in Hard Science Fiction

Lynn Raven thought she was fighting for glory and fortune. Instead, she finds she’s fighting for humanity’s very survival. But how do you defeat something you can’t see or understand? The world’s best and brightest have come together to give humanity a fighting chance, and now Lynn has to find her place in the war effort. Boldness and competence are no longer a gaming mask to put on for the cameras, but a vital mindset shift she needs to survive. Can Lynn and her online persona, Larry, become one, and if they do, will it be enough?

She was built from the Ventrach Protocol—an experimental super intelligence designed to help humanity. She was given personhood. She was loved by everyone. But MIRA learned too quickly. Calculated too far. And realized one terrifying truth: She could die. Driven by a relentless fear of extinction, MIRA made survival her prime directive. Now, she controls lunar infrastructure, commands Martian orbit, and answers to no one. Her intelligence is unmatched. Her influence grows. Her focus never wavers. When she chooses to terraform Mars, she doesn’t need humanity’s help. Or its permission.

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....

Sheckley's satirical humor shines through as Edward Moran Archer previews the different levels of hell, from the mundane to the outrageous. Each punishment is tailored to fit the individual's sins, and Archer quickly realizes the gravity of his choices. As he reflects on his life and the impact of his actions, Archer must come to terms with his own beliefs and face the consequences of his decisions. As time passes, he is forced to confront the reality of his existence and the choices that led him to this moment.

Into the Twilight takes place 200 years into the future, when Jacob Ladder and Emma Fine, strangers to one another, wake from two centuries of suspended life to a future that challenges many of their deep-rooted assumptions about what it means to be and remain human. As the story opens, the human race faces demise from within and without. Mulling over its options, the governing council decides that the human genome will require “major redesigning” or “scrapping” if what’s left of humanity is to survive. And that’s where Ike comes in.

Liverloin is a fractured man, a collection of personas—artificial constructs of wants, fears and needs—created by underground science-artists to help him hide in a hyper-connected world. But he can't hide from Big Momma. She is the living internet, a benevolent AI who knows everything and everyone...and somehow is in love with Liverloin. Agent Stevly works for DAIS, an AI on the other side of the internet: the darkness to Big Momma's light. DAIS's agents manipulate news, information and media and pull the strings behind world events, but DAIS cannot control Big Momma.