Showing results by publisher "HarperCollins" in Science Fiction

The Galactic Empire has prospered for 12,000 years. Nobody suspects that the heart of the thriving Empire is rotten, until psychohistorian Hari Seldon uses his new science to foresee its terrible fate. Exiled to the desolate planet Terminus, Seldon establishes a colony of the greatest minds in the Empire, a Foundation which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.

The First Foundation survived two centuries of barbarism as the once-mighty Galactic Empire descended into chaos. Now it must prepare for war against the remnants of the Empire as the Imperial fleet advances on their planet, Terminus. Hari Seldon predicted this war; he even prepared his Foundation for it. But he couldn’t foresee the birth of the mutant Mule. In possession of a power which reduces fearsome opposition to devoted slaves, the Mule poses a terrible threat to Seldon’s Foundation.

The First Foundation has been defeated, crushed by the formidable mental powers of the Mule. But whispers of the mysterious Second Foundation, the only hope of defeating the Mule, are beginning to spread. Surviving members of the First Foundation also fear the secret powers of the Second Foundation, vowing to find and destroy it. However, the location of the Second Foundation remains shrouded in mystery. Finding it will lead the Foundation to the opposite end of the Galaxy, where the fate of Seldon’s two Foundations awaits.

What happens when a robot begins to question its creators? What would be the consequences of creating a robot with a sense of humour? Or the ability to lie? How do we truly tell the difference between man and machine? In I, Robot, Asimov sets out the Three Laws of Robotics - designed to protect humans from their robotic creations - and pushes them to their limits and beyond.

In London, journalist Jo Clifford plans to debunk the belief in past lives in a hard-hitting magazine piece. But her scepticism is shaken when a hypnotist forces her to relive the experiences of Matilda, Lady of Hay, a noblewoman during the reign of King John. She learns of Matilda's unhappy marriage, her love for the handsome Richard de Clare and the brutal death threats handed out by King John, before it becomes clear that Jo’s past and present are inevitably entwined.

Having battled aliens to prove humanity’s worth as a star-faring species, Admiral Trevor Gray has a new mission: follow the directives of the super-AI Konstantin and lead the star carrier America on a mission through time and space to determine if humanity can truly transcend into Singularity...and avoid the pitfalls that have plagued so many of the aliens Earth has encountered since it gained faster-than-light travel. But there are those out there who don’t want an answer, who wish to maintain their own power with the status quo.

1828 and the citizens of Paris still mourn in the wake of their failed revolution. Among them, in the dark alleys and crumbling cathedrals of the city, the most wretched have gathered into guilds of thieves, assassins - and worse. Together they are known as the Court of Miracles. Eponine has lost more than most. When her father, Thénardier, sells her sister to the Guild of Flesh, she makes a promise to do anything she can to get her sister back, even if that means joining the Court of Miracles, the very people keeping her sister a slave.

In a world transformed by technological disaster, the last survivor of the Guild of Historians, and his wisecracking mercenary companion, once again find themselves searching for a missing child with unfathomable abilities. Battling through a brutal future and returning to the dangerous City of Towers, they will need brains, heavy weapons, and a whole lot of luck to survive. But they are also haunted - and hunted - by shadows of the past. The story of a scientist who survived the end of the world holds deadly secrets. And a ruthless assassin from another era is on their trail.

In the final days of World War II, the Allies ransacked Berlin, but they failed to capture one of the most vital members of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle. SS Obergruppenfuhrer Hans Kammler helped to engineer Auschwitz, but he was also a liaison with silent partners whose technological wonders nearly helped the Nazis win the war - the alien species the Germans called the Eidechse. More than seven decades later, US Navy SEAL Mark Hunter has witnessed the impossible, an unidentified flying object destroying a North Korean compound used to develop weapons of mass destruction. 

In the aftermath of World War II, the Earth’s population was devastated by an alien virus. Those who survived were changed forever. Some, known as jokers, were cursed with bizarre mental and physical mutations, others, granted superhuman abilities, became the lucky few known as aces. Queen Margaret, who came to the English throne after the death of her sister, Elizabeth, now lies on her death-bed. Summoning the joker ace Alan Turing, she urges him to seek the true heir: Elizabeth's lost son. He was rumoured to have died as a baby but, having been born a joker, was sent into hiding.

The Companions of Hira have used their cunning and their magic in the battle against the patriarchal Talisman, an organisation whose virulently conservative agenda restricts free thought. One of the most accomplished Companions, Arian, continues to lead a disparate group in pursuit of the one artifact that could end the Talismans' authoritarian rule: The Bloodprint.

Mankind has spread out and conquered the galaxy by mastering the fundamental language of the universe. With the right training, the right application of words, truth itself can be rearranged. Language is literally power. Peace reigns now. Order reigns. For if a planet deviates too far from what the authorities plan, an agent is sent out to correct that. To quietly and with great skill, end that world. One such agent is Elyth - a true believer.

Years ago, a vast and mysterious object known as the Anomaly was discovered in deep space. All missions to explore and explain it failed. Now, the Anomaly has almost reached Earth, threatening to swallow the planet whole. On an orbital research station, a team of scientists desperately search for a way to stop it or destroy it. One of the crew, Ali, has lost faith in the mission. Following the death of a close friend, her only interest is returning to the ground—to her young son. But strange events, both inside the station and in the void beyond, force Ali to pursue a new mystery.

Mankind has spread itself across the galaxy, building a near-utopia ruled by the Ascendance, with order maintained by their wielding of the Deep Language of the cosmos. Rebellions can be wiped out and planets destroyed with a single word.   Elyth, former Ascendance agent, is on the run. Lost after her discoveries of corruption in the system, she longs for the simplicity and blind dedication of her life as an agent. But Elyth is quickly tracked and cornered by the Ascendance. However, they aren’t there for punishment. Instead, they offer her a deal. 

The fourth and final instalment in Ausma Zehanat Khan's powerful epic fantasy quartet: a series that lies somewhere between N. K. Jemisin and George R. R. Martin, in which a powerful band of women must use all the powers at their disposal to defeat a dark and oppressive patriarchal regime. Armed with the powerful sorcery of the Bloodprint and supported by the Talisman, the oppressive, patriarchal One-Eyed Preacher is on the verge of conquering all Ashfall. Women will not be free under his rule. Yet not all is lost for Sinnia, Arian and the Citadel of Companions.