Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Adventure

Once, the Queendom of Sol was a glowing monument to humankind’s loftiest dreams. Ageless and immortal, its citizens lived in peaceful splendor. But as Sol buckled under the swell of an immorbid population, space itself literally ran out.…

Captain Pausert just can’t catch a break! First, he became the mortal enemy of his fiancée, his home planet, the Empire - and even the Worm World, the darkest threat to mankind in all of space. All because he helped rescue three slave children from their masters. Of course, these three young women were the universally feared Witches of Karres - but how was he to know that?! And after he defeated the Worm World (with the help of the witches, of course), the Empress herself had sent him on a secret mission to stop a nanite plague that was raging across the galaxy.

In modern-day Los Angeles, a shadowy faction led by the governor of California develops the arcane art of combat linguistics, planting the seeds of a future totalitarian empire. Isobel is the queen of the medieval rave-themed VR game Sparkle Dungeon. Her prowess in the game makes her an ideal candidate to learn the secrets of "power morphemes" - unnaturally dense units of meaning that warp perception when skillfully pronounced. But Isobel’s reputation makes her the target of a strange resistance movement led by spellcasting anarchists.

Alice wakes up in the Los Angeles Quake Zone in 2025 having no idea how she got there. As her memories slowly return, she finds she's being hunted by several armed groups intent on capturing her alive. At the same time, Este, a survivor of the quakes that destroyed Los Angeles, makes a living as a pathfinder for salvage teams in the city. Este rescues Alice from her pursuers and learns there is something not quite right about her - Alice is convinced it is 2003.

Civilization at the crossroads. In an alternate Renaissance where magic works, a captain of Italian forces must deal with gods, goddesses, and warfare in order to save his daughter at the siege of Constantinople - and prevent a new dark age.

Everything’s for hire - even magic. If you need something done, they’re the best: a tough, resourceful mage, a lab-created genderless hacker, and a cyborg with a big gun. But when they’re hired by a virtual construct to destroy the other copies of himself, and the down payment is a new magical skill, Cloke knows this job is going to be a league harder than anything they’ve ever done.

You'd think Captain Ry Devans was a hero when he jumpstarted the cores of Mars, giving the previously dormant planet a fresh start at harboring life. But he's also the host of a life-saving alien microbe, and the most wanted man within 33 million miles - courtesy of the terrorist global juggernaut the Earth First Faction, and its sociopathic agent Paton Schiflet. They're doing everything in their power to quash the organized inhabitation of space and keep the last humans under control.

While only women can command the power of the matrix and the secret sciences which keep Darkover from Terran hands, in most respects they are still chattels. But the Free Amazons are considered equal to men, and it is they who provide the key to the Terran-Darkover dilemma.

Although Darkover was a world inhabited by humans as well as semi-humans, it was primarily forbidden ground to the Terran traders. Most of the planet’s wild terrain was unexplored...and many of its peoples seclusive and secretive. But for Andrew Carr, there was an attraction he could not evade. Darkover drew him, Darkover haunted him — and when his mapping plane crashed in unknown heights, Darkover prepared to destroy him.

The Darkovans are descendants of a long-lost Terran colony ship and distrust the Terrans, who have taken up residence on their planet, fearing these strangers intend to disrupt the Darkover society. Many Terrans do feel that the people of Darkover should abandon their “backward” culture and join the Terran Empire.

Synthia Cross is the most advanced android with artificial intelligence ever created. Some see her as a boon to mankind. Most view her as a deadly threat. When Synthia escaped from her creator, even he had no idea of the advanced capabilities she'd developed. For six months, she's hidden in the Wisconsin woods with the only human she can trust - computer genius Luke Marceau. Together, they've upgraded her body, rewritten her directives, and further enhanced her mind. Now, hunters are zeroing in on her location, and she must flee.

Eddie Cantrell, now married to the king of Denmark’s daughter, is sent by Admiral Simpson to the Caribbean to secure access to the most valuable commodity on that continent - not the gold and silver which the Spanish treasure, but the oil which up-time machines and industry need. The admiral has also provided Eddie’s small task force with the new steam-powered frigates that have just come out of the navy’s shipyards. Even with the frigates, a giant obstacle stands in his way.

Fox is a memory editor—one of the best—gifted with the skill to create real life in the digital world. When he wakes up in Field of Reeds Centre for Memory Reconstruction with no idea how he got there, the therapists tell him he was a victim in a terrorist bombing by Khadija Banks, the pioneer of memory editing technology turned revolutionary. A bombing which shredded the memory archives of all its victims, including his husband Gabe. Thrust into reconstructions of his memories exploded from the fragments that survived the blast, Fox tries to rebuild his life, his marriage and himself.

Domingos Fernandes Calabar started out as a military advisor for the Portuguese in Brazil. But to his superiors, he was still nothing more than a mameluco, a man of mixed blood. Until, that is, the Dutch arrived and he switched sides. Then the Portuguese had a new label for him: “traitorous dog”. But when Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp arrives, having barely survived the disastrous Battle of Dunkirk, Calabar’s job changes again.

Adda Karpe and Iridian Nassir have escaped the murderous AI that was trapping them on Barbary Station and earned themselves a place on Captain Sloane's fabled pirate crew. And now that they've arrived at Vesta, Sloane's home base, they can finally start making a living stealing from well-off megacorporations. Unfortunately, the political situation has deteriorated in Captain Sloane's absence. Adda and Iridian find themselves trapped in a contract with Oxia Corp., one of the very megacorporations they'd hoped to prey on, forced to rob and intimidate targets.

It's spring in Burgundy. The flowers are out and so are the cardinals - of Pope Urban's renegade papacy, now on the run from the Vatican's would-be usurper Borja. Most of the Church's senior leaders have converged upon the city of Besancon, where the Pope plans to offer an ecumenical olive branch to the other Christian denominations with which Rome has been at war. Fortunately, Urban has up-time help. He can rely upon Cardinal-Protector Larry Mazzare's theological savvy, Sharon Nichols' medical skills, and her husband Ruy Sanchez's keen-eyed experience as a bodyguard-in-chief.

After carving a free state for itself in war-torn 17th century Europe, citizens of the modern town of Grantville, West Virginia, contend with aristocratic forces determined to keep their grip on power whatever it takes. When Grantville, West Virginia, was transported back to the year 1631 - in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, no less - many things happened.

Kiana Strade can dive deeper into blood memories than anyone alive. But instead of devoting her talents to the temple she’s meant to lead, Key is determined to use her skill as a researcher for the Museum of Human Memory. . . and to avoid the public eye in opulent, cutthroat Asheburg. Valerian might look like a delicate country girl, but her lightning-fast swords protect Key from murderous rivals and her own enthusiasm alike. Vale cares about Key as a friend—and maybe more—but most of all, she needs to keep her job so she can support her parents and siblings in the storm-torn south.

It was supposed to be a routine trip for the members of the Gordian Division, both human and AI: fly out to Saturn, inspect the construction of their latest time machines, then fly back. But when the division’s top scientist and chief engineer are killed in the same freak accident, suspicions of foul play run deep. Detective Isaac Cho is sent in to investigate, but he has more on his mind than just a new case. His superiors have saddled him with an exchange officer from the neighboring Admin—Special Agent Susan Cantrell.

Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson, and Larry Niven have seen the future. Now you can, too. A constellation of the brightest lights in the science fiction and fantasy firmament have judged these authors to be the best, the brightest, the truest emerging stars in the field.