Showing results by narrator "Michael Braun" in All Categories

Faith Ferguson is one of New York's most sought after wedding planners. Realizing dreams and making magic happen are part of why Faith loves her job. But weddings are not always champagne and roses, and this particular year sees challenges both professionally and personally that even she questions. The Alberts' show-stopper event for hundreds on an estate in the Hamptons with orchid swans, a firework extravaganza and added family strife does not come without its problems.

A chance encounter, on his last mission, sends him hurtling through space on the Unity exploration ship XES01. Surrounded by aliens, Zade must quickly learn to interact with the non-soldiers on the crew. As he tries to earn his place amongst the ship, Zade's combat prowess quickly earns him a spot as the security officer of the ship. A seat left vacant because of a fatal exchange between the former security officer and the wildlife of a far planet. As Zade begins living the adrenaline filled life of a space explorer, he has to ask himself some very important questions.

In 1967, US Air Force fighter pilot James Shively was shot down over North Vietnam. After ejecting from his F-105 Thunderchief aircraft, he landed in a rice paddy and was captured by the North Vietnamese Army. For the next six years, Shively endured brutal treatment at the hands of the enemy in Hanoi prison camps. Bound in iron stocks at the Hanoi Hilton, unable to get home to his loved ones, Shively contemplated suicide. Yet somehow he found hope - and he became determined to help his fellow POWs survive.

She lived where the railway tracks met the saltpan, on the Ahri side of the shadowline. In the old days, when people still talked about her, she was known as the end-of-the-line woman. Vasethe, a man with a troubled past, comes to seek a favor from a woman who is not what she seems, and must enter the 999 realms of Mkalis, the world of spirits, where gods and demons wage endless war.

Humanity listened to the night sky. What we heard shattered the world. Listen. Just once. That’s it. As soon as you hear it, it has you. And once it has you, it’s over. You may think you’re in control. You’re not. You want one more listen. You want to look at that strange spot in the sky. The one that’s been slowly growing. The one that didn’t make sense...until you listened. You want to listen again, and you will do whatever it takes to make everyone else listen. By any means necessary. Even if it kills you. Just one more listen. One more. Listen.

Zoe Morgan's childhood was marked by her younger sister's tragic illness, watching as her parents dedicated themselves completely to her final days, and then later divorced. As a young woman, driven by these painful memories, Zoe set the bar high for herself, studying hard and pursuing a career in the nonprofit world, where her deep compassion towards disadvantaged children finds a focus.

It was supposed to be a peaceful exploration, Earth's first step in expanding to the stars. But, no plan survives first contact. Thrown into a battle for survival against the deadliest threats imaginable, the Marines must contend with ice and desert planets with mysterious creatures, along with a history of turmoil that threatens to spill over to Earth if not checked. Meanwhile, a genetically-engineered threat rises on Earth - one that holds the secret to this intergalactic war.

The year is 1928. On the outskirts of a large German city, three young men are earning a thin and precarious living. Fully armed young storm troopers swagger in the streets. Restlessness, poverty, and violence are everywhere. For these three, friendship is the only refuge from the chaos around them. Then the youngest of them falls in love and brings into the group a young woman who will become a comrade as well, as they are all tested in ways they can have never imagined.

An interview recorded on an iPhone. A police interrogation tape. An FBI wire. At the center of them all is a writer researching a legal thriller...or is he? And somewhere within those recordings is the truth about a murder trial and a web of lies stretching back three decades.

It is AD 312. Rome teeters on the brink of war. Constantine's army is on the move. On the Rhine frontier, Brandulf Rex, a pagan Germanic barbarian, joins the Roman army as a spy and special-forces operative. Down in Rome, Junia Flavia, the lovely and pious daughter of a nominally Christian senator, finds herself embroiled in anti-Christian politics as she works on behalf of the church.

Based on years of reporting on Samsung for the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Time from his base in South Korea and his countless sources inside and outside the company, Geoffrey Cain offers the first deep look behind the curtains of the biggest company nobody knows. How has this happened? Forty years ago, Samsung was a rickety Korean agricultural conglomerate that produced sugar, paper, and fertiliser.

Gaining strength as he moves through the galaxy, Zade is beginning to get a feel for his new ship and crew. Although his main purpose is to find Earth so he can help protect them from forces like the Unity and Domain, the enormity of his task has started to wear on him. A broken and barely understandable radio signal pulls him and the crew from their slump. Can Anne triangulate the location of Earth? How long has it been since he got taken? What will he find when he gets there? Zade has to grapple with those questions as he makes a beeline for home.

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality.

A colony survives among the icy rings of a planet, hiding from alien robots determined to destroy them … at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers, and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment … a man who can’t feel pain has been bioengineered to be a killing machine, but he refuses to give in to his fate … a man is contacted by three future versions of himself, each trying to save their world from destruction.

Exiled from Unity core space and bent to get back to Earth, Zade starts his journey in the derelict ship provided by the chancellor. After a lucky bout of clumsiness, he learns that the ship he was given is much more than meets the eye. The ancient ship, crafted with poorly understood technology, gives Zade hope that he can help mankind meet the challenges of their inclusion in the interstellar community. All he has to do is make it home with minimal delays....

Earth died, but even in death she’s still got a lot to offer. She’s not going to hand those gifts over easily, though. Who would be crazy enough to abandon the comfort of the Atlantica Stations to go treasure hunting on a dying world? Enter Dante Slate, professional Plunderer, and the very best at what he does.

Former CIA officer James ‘Wes’ Wesley paid the ultimate price for his patriotism when he was locked up in a French jail for an anti-terror operation gone wrong--abandoned by the Agency he served, shunned by his colleagues and friends, cut off from his family. Now he is shattered by the news that his ex-wife, Rachel, a State Department analyst, has been killed in a terrorist attack in Spain. He also discovers that his young son, Ethan, is missing. But Wes didn’t know he had a son--until now. Why was Rachel in Spain? And why did she keep his son secret from him?

Book 3 in Bestseller Joshua T. Calvert's next Science Fiction epic. A story of survival, invasion, and war that's perfect for fans of Jay Allan, Joshua Dalzelle, and S.M. Anderson.

To Jake Bayard’s amazement, he meets a Homo habilis: a five-foot, hundred-pound hairy hominid that was supposed to have gone extinct 1.65 million years ago. Philip is no moronic precursor to man, but a member of the elite extraterrestrial Institute, needing help to leave Earth. The problem is that Philip is a liar, a sneak, and a diabolical genius using the Traveler for his own ends. Out in the stars, Bayard discovers a conspiracy backed by ancient military tech and run by the little hominids bent on conquering everything, including Earth.

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.