Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Science Fiction

Reed Futrell is an engineer at a uranium-enrichment plant in heartland America. His father worked at the very same plant before him. Despite his father's death in a tragic accident at the atomic plant years ago, Reed stays on, proud to perform demanding and dangerous work for the benefit of the nation. As for the radioactive "incidents" he has endured, Reed prefers to think about other things, such as Hubble photographs of distant galaxies and Albert Einstein, his dog.

The year is 2071. It is very recognizable world, only now the United States has implemented a wide-scale, government-run cloning program. Each U.S. citizen has a “copy” living separately in a cleared zone in the Midwest. If an “original” is sick or injured and requires surgery, whatever he or she needs is taken from their clone.

In the two decades since the program’s inception, no person outside the government has ever seen their copy, and no clone has ever successfully escaped—until now.

In a startling future that's coming closer every year, Chet Kinsman is an astronaut ace who has done everything one can in space - including commit the first murder. It's a secret he can never escape, not even on the moon, where he's head of the first U.S. lunar colony. A series of shocking yet strangely inevitable circumstances will force Kinsman to confront his hidden past and decide Earth's destiny. In a desperate countdown to nuclear annihilation, Kinsman will struggle against a deadly dilemma: if he rescues the world, he risks destroying himself.

He has no bank account on any world, no financial or property holdings that anyone has been able to trace. His planet of origin is unknown. Many men have served him; all but seven are dead, and none of those seven have ever seen him. He is a fugitive. His name is Conrad Bland and he is, for the moment, safe. But someone has sent an assassin to find him - and end him. Chief Detective John Sable is caught between his badge and his conscience as the two most famous executioners of all time prepare to do battle in his territory.

This fourth volume in Orson Scott Card's five-volume anthology of short stories features six tales with religious and spiritual themes, exploring the mysteries of ritual, sacrifice, faith, and death. Discover why immortal beings seek mortal gods, witness the consequences of a vengeful spirit, enter behind the scenes of the lives of television faith healers, and more.

Two dates burn fiercely in the memory of millions of Americans: November 22, 1963, and September 11, 2001. These two tragedies bracket Unafraid, a story grounded in a simple question: What if the fatal bullet fired on that sunny Dallas afternoon had veered three inches off target? Unafraid lays out a compelling answer, rich with the public adventures and private dramas of 20th-century icons—from J. Edgar Hoover to the Beatles—played out on a transformed world stage.

A dark mystery has been buried beneath the sands of the Sahara for eons. In a basement in New Mexico, four poker buddies find reason to believe that a startling secret is out there, and these four amateur adventurers are about to uncover it.

On the beach near his home, private investigator Wil Hardesty is approached by a Vietnamese fisherman. Vinh Tien is not convinced that the disappearance at sea of his only son was the accident it was ruled. Wil, a Vietnam vet, resisting the ghosts of a past war, decides to help Vinh Tien because Wil, too, lost a son to the ocean.

Three astronauts are headed out beyond Mars on the first human trip to the asteroid belt. In orbit around Earth, a construction crew is building the first permanent space station, owned by van Huyten’s consortium. Meanwhile, the president of the United States is trying to force her into making a secret deal to put weapons in orbit so he can intervene in the ongoing wars.

Some see stem-cell research as mankind’s greatest scientific breakthrough; others, a blasphemous attempt to play God. Suddenly, the possibility of immortality exists. Two brothers, both doctors, stand on opposite sides of the controversy. To Arthur Marshak, his work is a momentous gift to humanity. To Jesse Marshak, it is a curse. And between them stands a beautiful, remarkable woman that both brothers will do anything to save.

Imagine a future in which human boxing has been replaced by heavyweight bouts between massive robots. Richard Matheson’s classic short story, “Steel", is the inspiration for Real Steel, a new movie starring Hugh Jackman.

The Lost World is the account of a scientific expedition by four highspirited Englishmen - two scientists, a biggame hunter, and a journalist - deep into the Amazon jungle. In this region, cut off from the outside world by unscalable vertical cliffs and fetid swamps, they encounter a world where dinosaurs roam free and natives fight a murderous war with their fierce neighbors, the apemen. Trapped on the isolated plateau with only hunting rifles as protection the four must use savvy and intellect to escape from this primeval terror.

Alternating between nineteenth-century Europe and present-day New England, this tale follows the great British painter J. M. W. Turner - and his scene of artists, intellectuals, and lovers - and Henry, a middle-aged family man whose otherwise mundane existence is disrupted by the discovery of The Center of the World, Turner’s controversial painting of Helen of Troy that had been thought lost forever.

Where is Wendy? Leading a labor strike against the Lost Boys, of course. In Jane Yolen's first full collection in more than 10 years, discover new and uncollected tales of beloved characters, literary legends, and much more. A Scottish academic unearths ancient evil in a fishing village. Edgar Allan Poe's young bride is beguiled by a most unusual bird. Dorothy, lifted from Kansas, returns as a gymnastic sophisticate. Emily Dickinson dwells in possibility and sails away in a starship made of light. Winner of the 2018 World Fantasy Award.

A routine dig in Kazakhstan takes a radical turn for 32-year-old anthropologist Claire Knowland when a stranger turns up at the site with a bizarre find from a remote section of the desolate Kazakh Steppe. Her initial skepticism of this mysterious discovery gives way to a realization that the find will shake the very foundations of our understanding of evolution and intelligence. Corrupt politics of Kazakhstan force Claire to take reckless chances with the discovery. Ultimately, Claire finds herself fighting not just for the discovery and her academic reputation, but for her very life.

One of the world's wealthiest and most influential men, journalist Laurent Michaelmas lives in a penthouse overlooking New York City's Central Park with his superintelligent computer, Domino. He attained his fame and power after hacking into the worldwide computer network. He then went on to use his unique gifts to create a version of the UN that would ensure global peace. In short, he and Domino secretly run the world. But now, a Swiss doctor has cured an astronaut believed to have vaporized in a shuttle explosion during an expedition to the outer planets of the solar system.

It is the 50th century on Earth, and ancient historical cities such as Byzantine Constantinople can now be created on a whim for visiting tourists. Charles Philip, a man from the 20th century struggling to find his way home, finds himself fascinated with this strange new world. But beneath the surface fantasies, things are not as they seem.

When a nuclear missile launched by a rogue North Korean faction explodes in space, the resulting shock wave destroys most of the world’s satellites, throwing global communication into chaos. U.S. military satellites, designed to withstand such an assault, show that two more missiles are sitting on launch pads in North Korea, ready to be deployed. Faced with the threat of a thermonuclear attack, the United States has only one possible defense: Able One.

In the future as Bova here imagines it, Earth is an ecological nightmare, and humanity may well go the way of the dinosaurs. But overhead orbits salvation. A vast metallic island in space, the Trikon station conducts genetic research too risky to be done on earth - research that could save the planet.

This final volume of Orson Scott Card's five-volume anthology of short works features the "hidden stories", including his first published piece, some tales about Mormon family life and other stylistic departures, and several stories that were later developed into acclaimed novels such as Ender's Game, Songmaster, Invasive Procedures, and the Tales of Alvin Maker series.