Showing results by publisher "Audible studios" in First Contact

In this Hugo-nominated novel, an alien walks into a museum and asks if he can see a paleontologist. But the arachnid ET hasn't come aboard a rowboat with the Pope and Stephen Hawking (although His Holiness does request an audience later). Landing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the spacefarer, Hollus, asks to compare notes on mass extinctions with resident dino-scientist Thomas Jericho.

Nearly two centuries after a human colony is abandoned on an alien planet, the two races have reached a tenacious peace agreement. But when the human ship returns unexpectedly, both governments are thrown into chaos.

In this explosive conclusion to the Indian Hill series we find Mike, Tracy, Drababan, BT and the entire crew of the now destroyed USS Guardian hurtling through space, head on into their destiny. But will it be the one they seek or the destruction of all they know and have ever known.

Elliot has just finished his third year of college as a finance major. After some tragic family news, he isn’t sure what the future holds. Working part time at the video rental store, Elliot is dumped and offered a promotion, all on the eve of the island’s biggest celebratory day: The Fourth of July. With the help of his best friend, Bones, the new waitress from the local diner, and a mysterious soldier, Elliot must uncover the secrets that surround Bell Island before it’s too late.

The universe isn’t always as it appears, something that Salchar and the Free Fleet know only too well. When the black’s own creatures come tearing out from children’s nightmares, the Free Fleet will be there. Some might call those that make up the Free Fleet insane, might call them lunatics. But in this universe, it’s good to have some lunatics on your side.

The crew of Moonbase Columbus makes an amazing discovery on the far side of the Moon - a massive alien structure is erecting itself, built up atom by atom by living machines, microscopically small, intelligent, and unstoppable, consuming everything they touch. The mysterious structure begins to expand and take shape, and its creators begin to multiply. Is this the first strike in an alien invasion from the stars? Or has human nanotechnology experimentation gone awry, triggering an unexpected infestation?

Exhausted from a two-year rescue mission to a distant sector of space, and with resources strained by four thousand extra mouths to feed, the crew of the starship Phoenix yearns for the luxuries of home. But when the ship makes the final jump into atevi space, they learn the worst: supplies to their home station have been cut off; civil war has broken out on the atevi mainland; the powerful Western Association has been overthrown; and Tabini-aiji is missing and may be dead.

The Orion has fallen. After barely escaping with their lives, the crew of the Orion has scattered across an unknown world. With a diminishing hope of returning home, they have no choice but to band together. But between the local wildlife, lack of supplies, a missing crew, and a strange, ominous door that can't be opened, Dean and his new friends will need everything at their disposal to survive. This isn't the home they expected, but they didn't come this far to give up and die.

Beth, forever fanning the flames of tension and dissension, has the Stryvers, the Progerians, and the entire human race on the brink of annihilation. It is up to Michael Talbot, BT, Drababan, and the United Earth Marine Corps to stave off this extinction event, along with General Ginson aboard the outgunned, outmanned, and nearly crippled USS Guardian. Is it too late, or can it all still be saved?

The Kalu are not a long lost nightmare anymore. They came from the black. They destroyed Rosho. They ravaged Heija. That was just the scouting force. They are coming back. Power those reactors, charge those rail cannons and ready the fighters. The Free Fleet is going to war.

Having wiped out every major city on the planet, the Kyra are herding survivors into safe zones where they have promised to re-establish order and provide the basic necessities. Fences are erected to keep out the failed hybrids, known as “Dregs”. Meanwhile, the successful hybrids are sent away to fight in the Kyra’s war.

After an epic battle, the weapon is lost, but Atlas won’t succumb so easily. He’s vanished with the key to humanity’s survival, and David Bryce is left to fight on his own. Atlas finds himself in the middle of a hornet’s nest, amid an alien people that he can hardly comprehend. But their motivations are clear, and that’s enough to keep him focused on retrieving the prize.

THE BLEED is attacking on several fronts and through different realities at once. The survivors of numerous battles are brought together through a series of ancient clockwork rooms, and their individual experiences combine to paint a picture of a multiverse on the brink of total annihilation. Gods and mortals fight alongside each other on the streets and among the stars, struggling to hold back the armies of demons doing the bidding of THE BLEED.

The war isn’t going well. In five years of heavy fighting, humanity and its alien allies have steadily been pushed back toward Earth, toward the very heart of humanity itself. The virus is steadily wearing the defences down, mounting campaign after campaign to infect and enslave every other alien race. The only hope rests with newer and better weapons, with technology that may turn the tide, but can the weapons and starships be deployed in time?

Their plans to survive the end of humanity were meticulous. Thorough. Flawed. They landed back on Earth hundreds of years past their expected return, and now the planet they once called home is unrecognisable. Warring tribes threaten their survival, and members of Sierra team and Dr David Anderson must work with their now sentient AI to find a way to live peacefully with survivors of the African facility. But a greater threat than the power struggle between humans presses in, and they must choose sides to protect themselves from the terrifying plague sweeping over the continent.

At last, the Earth and the Colonial Union have begun formal discussions about their relationship in the future - a chance for the divisions in humanity to be repaired. The diplomats and crew of the Clarke are on hand to help with the process, including Ambassador Ode Abumwe and CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson, both of whom were born on Earth. But not everyone wants the human division to be repaired.... And they will go to great lengths to make sure it isn’t....

CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson has been loaned out to a CDF platoon tasked with secretly removing an unauthorized colony of humans on an alien world. Colonial Ambassador Abumwe has been ordered to participate in final negotiations with an alien race the Union hopes to make allies. Wilson and Abumwe’s missions are fated to cross - and in doing so, place both missions at risk of failure.

We Only Need the Heads is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division.

The artifact is found seven miles below the surface of the sea and beneath 40 more feet of sand. The Navy's efforts to raise a wrecked submarine uncover it - and set in motion a scientific race to retrieve it, to discover just what it is and where it came from. Denser than any substance known to man, it has broken every drill bit they've tried on it and will not budge an inch. It resists every effort to breach it - or communicate with it.

It's coming up on Cajeiri's birthday. The boy has been promised he can have the young human children he knew from his voyage sent down from the space station for a two week stay. But there's a far darker business going on in the background - a major split compromising the Assassins' Guild, which furnishes security and law enforcement to the whole continent. Tabini's consort's own father has been barred from court, and may be involved in a new conspiracy against him.

Paolo Bacigalupi's debut collection demonstrates the power and reach of the science-fiction short story. Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience.