Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Science Fiction

United States Diplomat Danielle Lowen was there when one of her fellow diplomats committed an unthinkable act that had consequences for the entire planet. Now she’s trying to figure out how it happened before it can happen again. Putting the puzzle pieces together could solve the mystery - or it could threaten her own life. "The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

It is the morning after the storm. Thick fog covers everything. In the stifling, claustrophobic atmosphere, Howie and his group head out for supplies. Skirmishes and tense fights take place and there are messages left in blood at key sites: 'he's coming'. As the day progresses, Howie becomes increasingly darker in thought, and more demanding of his team. By the end of the day they have discovered a munitions factory, but can Howie hold it together?

Northern Morocco: Dr. Kate Warner cured a global pandemic, and she thought she could cure herself. She was wrong. And she was wrong about the scope of the Atlantis conspiracy. Humanity faces a new threat, an enemy beyond imagination. With her own time running out and the utter collapse of human civilization looming, a new hope arrives: a coded message from a potential ally.

Throughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art of war has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe. Donal Graeme is Dorsai, taller and harder than any ordinary man. But he is different as well, with talents that maze even his fellow Dorsai. And once he ventures out into the stars, the future will never be the same....

From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey. The ninth book in the epic series, and the third book in the third Foreigner trilogy, Deliverer is a worthy contribution to Cherryh's magnum opus that is destined to be a classic.

Coming from the poverty-stricken Elfor settlement on the Humility, Master Thief Yasmine Dufont just wants a way off the stinking ship and to put a whole lot of distance between her and gangster ex-boyfriend, Dimitri. But when a dream score of credits goes disastrously wrong, she’s left on the run with a hidden code that everyone seems to want to get their hands on. Addict Detective Zhang Woo will do anything for his next fix.

Exiled from Liad after bombing a city to save it from The Department of the Interior’s infernal weapons and plans, Clan Korval has gone to ground on the back-water planet Surebleak, whose people are as untamed as its weather. The old Boss-controlled fiefdoms largely fell to Pat Rin yos’Phelium’s influence, but the world is restive, the influx of outworld lawyers, guns, and money a brewpot for armed dissatisfaction.

Udo is chosen to be named count. The title comes with the wealth and privilege he's always wanted, but he has a nagging feeling it will be more trouble than it's worth. Things become complicated as Hanman, counselor to Ditmar the King, coerces Udo into informing against Gerold of the Four Fires, Ditmar's chief general in the war with Walhaz. Udo resolves to play this part to the best of his ability but is soon horrified when that same general convinces Udo into informing against Hanman.

The saga of two young friends trapped in an endless nightmare of suspicion and surveillance, of cyber-programmed servants and a ruling class with century-long lives – and the enigmatic woman who dominates them all.

The Tyrell are a race that love to fight. The more difficult the fight, the better they like it. Every race they find is given the same level of technology and a specific amount of time to exploit it before the Tyrell come back looking for a fight. Humanity is warned by another alien species that the Tyrell are coming, and the race is on to build an Alliance of races strong enough to stand up against an empire whose expansion has been relentless.

This long-awaited culmination of the Agent of Change sequence of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's internationally acclaimed Liaden Universe novels pits unexpected friends and unexpected enemies against each other in a war that spans planets and races - and threatens to bring interstellar violence to the very surface of fabled Liad.

In The Swords of Lankhmar, a plague of rats overruns the capital city and glittering gem of the land of Nehwon. Commissioned to guard a ship of grain from the cursed rodents, brother-in-arms Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser soon discover the plague has progressed to a fatal point. Mustering the strength of sorcery, they descend into the depths of Lankhmar and rise to battle in order to save the soul of the ill-fated city.

An American writer of travel guides in need of a new location chooses to travel to a small and obscure Eastern European country. The moment Grafton crosses the border he is in trouble, much more than he could have imagined. His passport is taken by guards, and then he is detained for not having it. He is released into the custody of a family, but is again detained. It becomes evident that there are supernatural agencies at work.

Created as an experiment by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community populated by over 10,000 children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future - all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past.

Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ("Pages from a Young Girl's Journal") but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.

Sold into slavery as a child, Mari was raised on a vessel repair station, growing up to become a highly prized engineer. So she’s surprised when her owner not only grants her freedom, but finds her a paying job aboard the Vorge. Mari’s determined to impress her new captain and crewmates. It’s the only way she’ll remain free, safe from the hands of other slavers. But there seems no impressing Dovis, the ship’s head of security. He’s huge, hairy, scary, and seems to hate humans.

The war between Almacia and the Empire of Kolakolvia is in its hundredth year. Casualties grow on both sides as the conflict leaves no corner of the world untouched. Illarion Glaskov’s quiet life on the fringes of the empire is thrown into chaos when an impossible tragedy strikes his village. When he is conscripted into the Tsarist military, he is sent to serve in The Wall - an elite regiment that pilots suits of armor made from the husks of dead golems.

C.J. Cherryh, one of the most prolific and acclaimed SF writers in the world, delivers the seventh book in her Foreigner series, and the first book in the new Foreigner trilogy - the epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient race. From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true SF odyssey.

Four classic tales of the undead, read by Bill Wallis, Anthony Head, John Telfer and Cornelius Garrett.

The United Eastern States has fallen. Lee Harden and a band of survivors have escaped President Briggs' invasion force. Their only options are to attack Briggs while his forces are delayed on the East Coast...or admit that they've been beaten and go into hiding. For Lee Harden, the decision seems obvious. But as disparate forces, factions, and loyalties begin to converge under the pressure cooker of all-out civil war, Lee is forced to confront not only insurmountable odds, but also the darkest parts of himself that he has left buried in the years since this all began.