Showing results by publisher "Podium Audio" in Hard Science Fiction

Jack looked directly at Kurt, but his friend avoided eye contact. His eyes moved to Nadya before following her gaze to Sarah, who stared blankly into the room. He wanted to reassure them—to remind them that they had succeeded. They saved Earth from the remnants of the enemy fleet. But it felt like a lie. The weight of failure sat on him, forcing him to confront the fact that all they did was postpone the threat. His mind locked onto a single thought: it would take just under three hundred years for the enemy transmission with the knowledge stolen from Alpha to reach their home world.

Nine brilliant scientists travel light-years on a one-way trip to an Earthlike planet. Their mission is to study from orbit the two species of intelligent lifeforms on the surface. The first: an isolated people embarking on civilization and building their world's first city. The second: a brutal race of massive predators, spread thick and still growing across the dominant landmass - destined to breed and eat their way to extinction within a few centuries.

After suffering a near-catastrophic defeat by Terran Fleet Command, the Pelaran AI strain gambles on a bold, “hands-on” approach to controlling the destiny of a human world. On the pre-industrial world of Didara 4, Dryden Beck awakens alone in the depths of the Scarsdow Forest, knowing that he has murdered thousands of his own people, but with no memory of how or why. He soon discovers that he has been forever changed; modified against his will to serve as the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of a ruthless puppet master bent on total domination.

The race to Mars is not without its peril. As the world’s superpowers vie for supremacy in space, the true intent of the aliens, and the ultimate destiny for the human species, is revealed. Can the world marshal the will and resources of its people to strike back and take control of its own fate? Can NASA, led by Richard “Rock” Crandon, and America’s adversaries find the ultimate courage to face what lies at Discovery’s End and save the world?

In 1558, during the reign of Bloody Queen Mary, Earth is visited by extraterrestrials who initiate first contact. Their mission is to gather samples of life on Earth and observe but not interact with humanity. After witnessing a brutal execution, their patience is tested beyond breaking point... First Contact is a series of standalone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life.

In the apocalypse, the first weapon Adrian will have to upgrade is himself. The end of the world as we know it couldn’t come at a worse time for him. One minute, he’s an operations manager who’s overseeing a construction job in the wilderness. The next, an unknown energy force changes the very nature of life itself, from the smallest organism to the top of the food chain. The Earth’s surviving inhabitants, its environment, and the very laws of physics have all undergone fundamental transformations. Many of those changes aren’t pretty.

Survival hangs in the balance for Renton Hicks and his fellow colonists at Moon Base Delta. With a tight blockade being imposed by the Xilinex Corporation, their supplies are running dangerously low. Hope emerges in the form of a Martian evacuation ship carrying genetic engineering technology that could potentially secure their future. However, getting their hands on it demands not just outwitting Xilinex but also securing assistance from the last vestiges of the SINO power block.

Danae is not only herself. She is concealing a connection to a grieving collective inside of her body. But while she labors as a tech servant in the dangerous underwater enclave of Bloom City, her fractured self cannot mend. In a desperate escape, Danae and her lover, Naoto, hire the enigmatic ex-mercenary Alexei to guide them out of the imploding city.

Professor Elliot Brand was done with adventures. When his former lover Ashra Shah calls him to Antarctica, he knows he is getting himself into trouble. Guarded by a military unit, hidden deeply in the uninhabitable parts of the frozen continent, a ruin was found that could be the most significant archeological find in history. Elliot Brand doesn't need long to understand that if they don't act fast, it might very well be the last one, too...

Every beginning is also an end. Rem, the Foxkin Oracle of the Wildwood, knows this better than most, seeing as he is on his second life. Most people don't get another chance at the whole life thing after a stupidly oversized adventurer's hammer uses their head to paint a tree, but a goddess on the Pantheon of the Divine sees great potential in Rem. Granted salvation by his Patron, Rem becomes a Dungeon Core, a magical entity tasked with creating the trials essential to helping adventurers become the true warriors they were meant to be.

Chronicler Tsai Yini monitors the tachyon communication system, which transmits data faster than the speed of light. When classified results from an astrobiologist's research are leaked to her, she cannot believe what she reads. The report reveals that intelligent life forms exist on a tropical planet in the Gliese system. Their civilization is still in its infancy but revolves around an artifact of unknown origin that seems to influence their body chemistry.

On the International Space Station, an unthinkable disaster occurs. Was it an accident? ESA astronaut Thomas Ehrmann and NASA astronaut Patricia Michaels escape in a Soyuz capsule. The Russian authorities in Kazakhstan have questions and want to know what happened to the third member of the crew, Oleg Rashkin. They both refuse to talk. What are they hiding? Amina Young is a psychologist with the ESA. In her mid-thirties, she specialized in and advanced the field of psychological analysis of astronauts. If anyone can get to the facts about the incidents that happened on the mission, it's her.

The Galactic Star Alliance has been alive and well for millions of Earth years. Hundreds of thousands of worlds and trillions of beings move across the many home worlds of the Alliance. This revelation invites many questions: How is faster-than-light speed travel possible, and could cohesive, interstellar civilizations exist without it? Is it conceivable to govern a coalition not of different countries but of different species?

After years of hard work, Tyler built his IT Security company into a massive success. He trusted his people and now it was time to enjoy the fruits of that labor. Everything was perfect until an unexpected discovery. Should they go through the Maya portal? Adriana's small diving instruction shop is popular enough with the tourists for her to scrape out a living, but it's not the life she expected. When she got the call, it seemed impossible. Wasn't Xibalbá a myth? In a fantastic world of danger and possibility, two people want to discover the truth, but for entirely different reasons.

Henry Stasik, an Internal Affairs agent for the globe-spanning Coalition, is no stranger to crooked agents or scandals. He's a truth-junkie. An addict. But when international celebrity Anastasia Danicheva specifically demands his presence at a police station, everything changes. The Coalition, which has brought peace through uniting the world under a single banner, wants her dead. But none of their case against her adds up.

Shifting alliances throw the diplomatic situation into chaos. In this second of a planned five-novel series, you will find out what's happened to the survivors of the expeditionary force, who's manipulating the Alliance, and, finally, what the true motivations of the frightening crabs are. Can Admiral Stokes and his naval commanders prevail against a rapidly shifting tapestry of potential foes?

The Lumari Collective stands on the verge of chaos. After a prominent member of their society aided a violent mob, security personnel work to undo his efforts. They turn to the humans caught in the middle, Carson Flint and Nell Brooks, outsiders who might provide an edge against the terrorists. But time is running out, and plans are in motion that may bring the entire civilization to its knees before it can be saved.

Raphael is the holy grail of AI: a superintelligent robot that’s been programmed to be the perfect moral being. Or at least that’s what Andy, its creator, believes. But when an accident forces Andy to stay home, he learns that the robot has disappeared from its lab, mysteriously bypassing the sophisticated security system and cognitive “laws” meant to keep it in check. The robot has never been in the outside world. Will its programming hold or will it unravel? Confined to a wheelchair and under siege by a parent company hiding its own dark secrets, Andy is about to find out.

A year after destroying the wormhole generator in France and thus blocking the way to Earth for an allied AI, she lives with AcesAzrael in Switzerland. She fights alongside the last free humans against the approaching Forum and its unstoppable troops. There is still no trace of Janika, but when the Swiss make a dangerous plan shortly before their final defeat, there is only one hope for June and Ace: to find Janika and uncover the secret of a new, mysterious place in the metaworld.

The lost battle of Terra Nova has shown even the biggest skeptics how serious the alien threat really is. The power blocs of the solar system unite for one last cataclysmic showdown. Meanwhile, an unlikely trio races against time to prevent the conflict from reaching Earth. Tsai Yini, the tachyon chronicler, is hoping for help from her father, who has survived a hundred-year journey and seems to have a special relationship with the attackers.