Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Hard Science Fiction

Long before movies like Minority Report and The Matrix, the world's writers have been recording the future as it might exist - and as it turns out, they were right. This bizarre anthology collects the most stunning predictions and imagined inventions here for the first time. Visions of Tomorrow includes "The Land Iron Clads" by H. G. Wells, who described a military tank in 1903 - long before it was ever a possibility; "The Yesterday House" by Fritz Leiber, who wrote about cloned humans; and more.

Fresh out of college with his Ship Engineer 3rd-Class certificate, Dave Walker’s only thought is to try to find a berth on a corporate ship plying the trade routes between the many habs, orbitals, and moons in the Solar System. The problem for Dave, however, isn't his straight C average; it's that his stepfather, a powerful Earth senator he’s never met, now wants him dead. Forced to take the first berth he can find, Dave ends up on the Iowa Hill, an old tramp freighter running with a minimal crew and nearing the end of its useful life.

What if you developed a technology that made it impossible for anyone to lie? About anything. Would this save humanity from itself? Or would it tear society apart? And just how far would power players around the globe go to stop it? Elias Gibson has invented such a technology. But will this lead to a glorious future, or to the collapse of civilization? Before Elias can answer this question, he finds himself battling for his very survival, and racing to uncover the identities and motives of the treacherous forces arrayed against him.

The planet of Hope Nation has always loomed large in Nicholas Seafort's life. It was there that he built a name for himself, saving the planet from civil war and from the insatiable, fishlike aliens. But not everyone in that colony appreciated Seafort's efforts. Randy Carr, son of Seafort's old friend, Derek Carr, blames him for his father's death and wants Seafort to pay for this bitter loss. Trouble brews for Seafort on Earth and on Hope Nation.

Lunar prospecting is the next big thing, and companies are raking in the bucks. Nick has a plan to get a piece of the action—but he’ll first have to overcome the agonizing difficulties of surviving up here. To do that, he must work with Joe Massad, who nearly killed Nick two years ago. Joe seems to have put aside his ambitions to conquer the moon and Earth, but has he really changed?

As tragedy strikes his multicultural family, Martin struggles to maintain his place in his adapted culture, and to provide for his child. Zendigi explores what it means to be human, and the lengths one will go to in order to provide for ones children. This emotional roller coaster explores a non-Western-European near future that both challenges ideas of global monoculture and emphasizes the humanity we all share.

When a hideous accident kills the senior officers of the UNS Hibernia, it leaves a terrified young officer to save 300 colonists and crew aboard a damaged ship on a 17-month gauntlet to reach the colony of Hope Nation. With no chance of rescue or reinforcement, Nicholas Seafort must overcome despair, exhaustion, and guilt. He must conquer malfunctions, mutiny, and an alien horror beyond human understanding. And he must save lives, and take them - in the name of duty.

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.

Toutes les énigmes trouveront leurs solutions, toutes les questions sans réponses, tous les fils seront enfin noués. Mais seulement après qu'Énée, la fille prophète surgie du labyrinthe du sphinx sur la planète Hypérion, aura accompli son destin avec l'aide et l'amour de Raul Endymion. À travers mille dangers, à travers mille voyages, à travers mille mondes.

Nach der fehlgeschlagenen Expedition der Helios wachen David und seine Kameraden an einem fernen Ort in einer fernen Zeit wieder auf und erhalten von den Fremden einen gefährlichen Auftrag: Mit einem Nachbau der Helios sollen sie das Universum umrunden. Der Lohn: eine Perspektive für die Menschheit. Doch das All ist ein noch finsterer Ort, als selbst die fremden Intelligenzen vermuteten und am Ende müssen David, Ed, Grace und Wendy am Rande des Universums um ihr Überleben kämpfen.

Omar Haddad is a brutal jihadist in Syria who appears to be invulnerable and capable of supernatural feats. But is Haddad divine, as he claims? Is he a gifted magician? Or is he making use of a stunning scientific breakthrough? And what, exactly, is keeping him from unleashing the global apocalypse he’s so eager to bring about? Brennan Craft, a quirky quantum physics genius, has the answers, and the US military is desperate to capture him.

Jim Oster ruptures the membrane between our world and afterworld (AKA, The Flimsy), creating a two-way tunnel between them. Jim's wife, Val, is killed in the process, and Jim finds himself battling his personal grief and an invasion of the Flims. The process of battling the invading Flims leads him to the center of the afterworld, where the ghost of his wife just might be. Can Jim save Earth with the help of a posse of Santa Cruz punks, and at the same time bring his wife back to life?

Investigative reporter Andrew Worth turns down a documentary on a mysterious new mental illness - "Distress," or acute clinical anxiety syndrome, for another assignment. He's on his way to the artificial island of Stateless, where the world's top physicists are gathering to decide on a new TOE, or Theory of Everything, to replace Einstein's outmoded legacy.

Stranded humans must adapt alien technology to survive on a dangerous planet. Lost in the dark, half a year into their journey to the colony world of Tantalus, Sakura Kimei, her family, and her best friend, the alien "Bemmie" nicknamed Whips, are torn from the safety of their colony ship. In a crippled lifeboat, they have one chance to find a habitable world. But even then they will find that their apparent salvation is a world of a thousand secrets.

When a robot defies his programming, is he broken? Or is he something else?

Mankind explores Venus for signs of life, and an abandoned alien outpost is discovered. Dr. Veronica Hatch is sent to investigate, and she discovers an alien race escaped its dying planet and colonized Venus. When news reaches Earth, humans fear the aliens will invade and conquer the solar system, and they prepare for war.

Nick Hall, an unwilling recipient of brain implants, can surf the Web with his thoughts and read minds. And while this makes him one of the most formidable men on Earth, he is determined to stay off the grid. But when terrorists seize control of the Academy Awards and vow to butcher the world's most beloved stars one by one in front of an international television audience, Hall is forced to reveal his astonishing capabilities.

Ignis Glace is a war-torn world of fire and ice. Tidally-locked to its tiny red sun, one side of the planet bakes while the other side is forever frozen. Known as Sunside and Nightside, these two wastelands are bordered by a narrow inhabitable region known as Twilight. Humans and mechs battle for control of their world, even while a third player approaches the game: the Skaintz Imperium. Once the aliens strike, no world is ever the same.

Few writers have successful blended hard science and speculation with fully realized characters as Gregory Benford has in his critically acclaimed novels. Now he draws us into a vortex of mystery and danger at the heart of the galaxy in his dazzling epic drama, Furious Gulf.

Onboard an ancient starship, Killeen and the Bishop tribe escape the mech-ruled world of Snowglade. Seeking refuge on a faraway planet, they discover vast wonders: an organic life-form as large as a world, a planet-coring cosmic string, a community of humans ruled by a brutal tyrant, and ultimately an alien race more awesome than any they have encountered. As they battle for survival against these myriad dangers, Killeen and his crew will gain an unforeseen ally - one that may determine humanity’s true destiny.