Showing titles in Hard Science Fiction

Conn Maxwell returns from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, “The Junkyard Planet”, with news of the possible location of Merlin, a military super-computer rumored to have been abandoned there after the last war. The inhabitants hope to find Merlin, which they think will be their ticket to wealth and prosperity. But is Merlin real or just an old rumor? And if they find it, will it save them - or tear them apart?

In “Terraform,” AJ—Ell’s soon to be brother-in-law—gently takes her to task for not being bold enough to undertake the terraforming of Mars. They begin the first steps to initiate that massive undertaking. Ell’s son Zage, a prodigy who’s now turning six, is continuing to follow his interests in biology and genetics by working in Dr. Reggie Barnes research lab. There he’s become interested in Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, Zage’s friend Carley is having trouble with her newly found brother. Eli’s proving to be an abusive alcoholic like his father.

Bob kann es nicht fassen. Eben hat er noch seine Software-Firma verkauft und einen Vertrag über das Einfrieren seines Körpers nach seinem Tod unterschrieben, da ist es auch schon vorbei mit ihm. Er wird beim Überqueren der Straße überfahren. Hundert Jahre später wacht Bob wieder auf, allerdings nicht als Mensch, sondern als Künstliche Intelligenz, die noch dazu Staatseigentum ist. Prompt bekommt er auch gleich seinen ersten Auftrag: Er soll neue bewohnbare Planeten finden. Versagt er, wird er abgeschaltet. Für Bob beginnt ein grandioses Abenteuer zwischen den Sternen - und ein gnadenloser Wettlauf gegen die Zeit.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future...unbeknownst to Earth, the galaxy is home to a number of spacefaring societies. This confederation enforces a strict protocol forbidding any contact with civilizations that have not yet achieved both a substantial spacefaring capability and sufficient maturity to control the technology explosion before triggering their own extinction.

By the middle of the 21st century, humanity has managed to overcome a series of catastrophic events and maintain some sense of stability. Space exploration has begun again. Science has led the way. But then one day, the sun goes out. Solar panels are useless, and the world begins to freeze. Earth begins to fall out of its orbit. The end is nigh. Someone has sent us a sign.

Tiona, Vaz's daughter, is starting grad school in physics, has a "bad boy" musician boyfriend, and does her own strange variety of charity work at a homeless shelter. Her professor has her start work on a project to try to achieve high-temperature superconduction by doping the graphene membranes her lab partner has figured out how to precipitate.

Centuries after a war with the Mutes, the first aliens to be encountered by humankind, a startling new discovery in the far reaches of the Orion Nebula appears. On a planet with conditions favorable to life, explorer vessel The Columbia comes across a small town seemingly inhabited by an intelligent species not yet discovered. But when a highly publicized follow-up mission is sent to make contact mere months later, the entire town has vanished, leaving no trace—or such is presumed to be the case until Alex Benedict and his archaeological crew show up to investigate.

When a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, veteran star pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly Omega clouds that continue to haunt her.

In the late 21st century, a neurotechnology called Bridge has changed the world. Bridging allows a person to program their own body and mind to achieve untold enhancement. There was one problem: it only works in children. Within a single generation, a new world order developed. Bridged Children grew smarter, faster, and stronger than the adults, and demanded equal rights. The adults fought back.

Book 3 of a science fiction thrill ride about a crew of young soldiers mustering the courage to fight back against both a vicious alien enemy, and the terrifying void of being stranded in space. It's perfect for fans of Daniel Gibbs, J.N. Chaney, and Vaughn Heppner!

Noah Harris and Ashley Flynn are field agents for a powerful organization tasked with protecting humanity from the misuse of game-changing technology. But when they discover hidden portals that link Earth to numerous planets, they are thrust into a maze of deception and intrigue they can't begin to understand....one that not only has them battling for their very lives, but that will decide the fate of worlds. Because, inexplicably, each of the planets contain human civilizations, and the rulers of our nearest portal neighbor have come up with a brilliant, twisted plan to conquer ours.

My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself. In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind. Here is one truth: out there in deep-space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.

It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them. A seventeen-year-old street girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a new Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide. Lyda Rose, another patient in that detention facility, has a dark secret: She was one of the original scientists who developed the drug.

Revolution threatens a longstanding peace.... Thirty years after the Syndicate Corporation saved Earth from climate-change extinction, SynCorp’s Five Factions rule the solar system with an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Food, entertainment, safety, security - SynCorp provides it all. In return, the Company requires complete loyalty and obedience to corporate law.

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but with many nuclear bombs detonated around the planet. It was no longer a topic of conversation around the dinner table as in years past. Nobody was prepared, including the world's governments. Yet the threat was always real, and the devastation was predictable. The damage was incalculable. Millions died at the points of impact. Nuclear winter spread across the globe. A rapidly cooling climate shocked humanity and all living things...to their death.

The Star is an 1897 apocalyptic short story by H. G. Wells. Here is an impressive story based on the inter-action of planetary bodies and of the sun upon them. A great star is seen approaching the earth. At first it is only an object of interest to the general public, but there is an astronomer on the earth, who is watching each phase and making mathematical calculations, for he knows the intimate relation of gravitation between bodies and the effect on rotating bodies of the same force from an outside source. He fears all sorts of wreckage on our earth.

Apollo 32, commanded by career astronaut Vivian Carter, docks at NASA's Columbia Station in lunar orbit en route to its main mission: exploring the volcanic Marius Hills region of the Moon. Vivian is caught in the crossfire as four Soviet Soyuz craft appear without warning to assault the orbiting station. In an unplanned and desperate move, Vivian spacewalks through hard vacuum back to her Lunar Module and crew, and escapes right before the station falls into Soviet hands.

An alien message is now humanity’s only hope. Decoding the signal has given us one chance to stop the Anomaly, an ever-tightening cosmic noose, before it squeezes the life out of Earth. The only problem is, the aliens’ single instruction sounds like a bona fide death wish. They want me to step through their incredible quantum gateway, an enigma wrapped in starlight. Believe me: if I had any other option, I’d be taking it. But with the best data giving Earth a few days before the Anomaly consumes us, options are in short supply. Suicide or salvation? I’m about to find out.

Summoned to the home planet of her family's business empire, space-fleet commander Kylara Vatta is told to expect a hero's welcome. But instead, she is thrown into danger unlike any other she has faced and finds herself isolated, unable to communicate with the outside world, commanding a motley group of unfamiliar troops, and struggling day by day to survive in a deadly environment with sabotaged gear. Only her undeniable talent for command can give her ragtag band a fighting chance.

Despite the best efforts of both the Republic of Aquitaine Navy (RAN) and the Freiburg Empire, pirates remain a problem for smaller communities, away from the main starlanes. Due to Jessica Keller's success on her previous mission to cause problems for the Freiburg Empire, the head of the senate requests Jessica's assistance on a very special assignment: pirate hunting. What sort of mischief can Jessica and her crew cause in a backwater system? Particularly when given the full backing of the senate?