Book picks similar to
Scanners and Others: Three Science Fiction Stories by Cordwainer Smith


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Master Walk


Sharon Lee - 2003
    He faces pirates, politics, police, and plots. All he has to do is survive. . .In Master Walk, award-winning science fiction authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller bring a new YA universe to life. Introducing The Advocacy, a rough-and-tumble civilization that has a mix of sentient races and a lot to learn."Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are so good, it's scary." -- S. L. Viehl, author of the StarDoc series"Nobody else in the field combines space opera and comedy of manners with the same deftness and brio as these two." -- Debra Doyle, co-author of the Mageworlds novels". . .classic space adventure. . .is full of action. . . The world building is outstanding. . ." -- Booklist

The Scout


Eric Tozzi - 2012
    It's heading for Earth at twelve thousand miles per hour...and it will land virtually undetected. For Jack McAllister, a young writer who has finally launched a career for himself, it begins tragically: his estranged father, a former NASA engineer, dies suddenly at his home in Merriweather, Indiana, leaving Jack's Alzheimer's-stricken mother a widow. But in the wake of personal heartbreak, he's confronted by an even more astonishing event--the covert landing of an alien machine in the forest just a few miles outside of town. Now Jack must unmask the true purpose of the otherworldly device that has begun a detailed environmental survey of the woods. Aided by the town's young and resilient female deputy sheriff, he soon discovers that the alien scout is only one small part of a much larger operation, and the countdown to a terrifying global catastrophe is about to take place. Drawing deeply from his father’s scientific influence, all while attempting to avoid the snares of a sexy, seductive and scheming local TV reporter, Jack uncovers—and ultimately finds himself an unwilling component of—an alien plan set to terminate life on Earth as we know it.

Admiral's Oath


Glynn Stewart - 2022
    Under a cloud of suspicion, he has been assigned to a quiet sector far from the front of the Terran Commonwealth’s war with the Castle Federation and its allies.But when the Federation’s Operation Medusa cripples his nation’s communications and plummets an interstellar empire into silence, Admiral Tecumseh finds himself thrust into command of an entire fleet—and responsible for the safety of billions of innocent souls.Enemies internal and external alike challenge the nation he is sworn to serve. Duty and honor call him to action to protect the innocent, and the Admiral and his new fleet are called to war once more.But the darkest treason lurks where no one expects it…

The Lois McKendrick Omnibus: Trader's Tales 1-3


Nathan Lowell - 2018
    Welcome to the Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper. This file contains the full contents of the first three novels in the series. It's a great way to find out how it all started.

Delovoa & Early Years


Steven Campbell - 2014
     -How Delovoa became so intelligent -How Delovoa first joined the military as a scientist -Early experiments with artificial intelligence -Where ZR3 came from -Meeting the Ontakians -Delovoa's advanced work with mutations -Delovoa's exile as a criminal -Early life on Belvaille and his unique, and pervasive, impact on the city -Why Hank came to Belvaille -Hank's first job -Where Hank got his plasma pistol -Hank's first murder -Introduction of glocken -Where the Gentleman's Club and Athletic Club came from -Hank's first love -How and why Belvaille changed and became what it is today NOTE: while the stories are stand-alone, it contains many references to characters and events in Hard Luck Hank novels.

Ghost Riders In The Sky


Timothy Zahn - 2020
    With every voyage taking exactly five hours, whether the distance is one light-year or a thousand, the drive allowed humanity to finally escape Earth and reach for the stars.But while the aliens owned the technology, they needed humans to make it practical. Specifically, humans who could temporarily leave their bodies and guide the tunnelships through the void of space.Nathan Skoda is one such navigator. After hundreds of trips, and with hundreds yet to go, all he wants is to finish out his indenture before he succumbs to burnout. So when he’s approached with a plan that might free the navigators from the Meerian chokehold, he decides to check it out.But when the Meerians move to protect their monopoly, Skoda realizes he’s let himself in for more than he bargained for.And he discovers that, dark though his life may be, there’s an even deeper darkness lying beneath the surface.

Porter


Laurence E. Dahners - 2011
    Whereas most science fiction stories of "teleportation" such as Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky" or the "stepping discs" in Larry Niven's stories focus on the moving of large objects long distances, this one explores the notion that even the ability to open a small portal between nearby locations would give the possessor of such an ability tremendous power. Of course others would like to have Allie's power and try to gain control of it, first by capturing her father and then by kidnapping her family. This takes her away from her new career as a guitar-playing "Rock Goddess". To their dismay, the villains have not considered that the power to make "ports" gives Allie the ability to protect herself and her family.

The Translocator: The Complete Saga


M.G. Herron - 2018
    Spectacularly.Archaeologist Eliana Fisk is ripped from Earth while the whole world watches.She lands on a strange new world inhabited by a lost tribe of ancient Mayans. Meeting them, getting first-hand exposure to age-old customs and rituals...it seems like an archaeologist's dream.But what if their rituals have a darker meaning? What if the god these people pray to is no god at all?And how in the worlds will she ever get back home?Thus begins a pulse-pounding race against time that hurls Eliana into the great unknown, revealing ancient technologies and marvelous mysteries more outlandish than she ever imagined.The Translocator is an action-packed sci-fi thriller perfect for fans of Stargate, The Atlantis Gene, and other archaeology-inspired science fiction adventures.Get it now.Originally published as The Auriga Project, The Alien Element, and The Ares Initiative, this edition brings all three novels together in a single volume. Now available as an audiobook narrated by the wonderful Tess Irondale!

A Song for Lya: And Other Stories


George R.R. Martin - 1976
    Winner of the 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novella.Other short stories in this collection:With morning comes mistfallThe second kind of lonelinessOverrideDark, dark were the tunnelsThe heroFtaRun to starlightThe exit to San BretaSlide show

New Frontiers: The Complete Series (Books 1-3)


Jasper T. Scott - 2019
    SCOTT Synopsis from book one... A MISSION TO ANOTHER WORLD COULD BE OUR ONLY HOPE... The year is 2790 AD: with space elevators and giant orbital fleets hovering over Earth, open war looks inevitable, and people are anxious to get away. The lines are drawn, with the Confederacy in the East, and the First World Alliance in the West. In hopes of finding a refuge from the looming war, the Alliance is sending Captain Alexander de Leon to explore an Earth-type planet, code-named Wonderland, but at the last minute before launch, a Confederate fleet leaves orbit on a trajectory that threatens both the mission and Alliance sovereignty. The resulting power struggle will determine not only the fate of Alexander's mission, but the fate of the entire human race. Get all three books of the New Frontiers series for one low price: 1,200 pages, over 100,000 copies sold, and more than 2,000 reviews on Amazon. This military sci-fi trilogy is a fan favorite. In This set Excelsior (Book 1) Mindscape (Book 2) Exodus (Book 3)

Escape from Oz


Piers Platt - 2017
    But when the government bans professional fighting, his life spirals out of control. Convicted of murder, he's sentenced to life in prison. But all of the felons he's ever known have disappeared from Earth, never to return. He's about to find out firsthand what happened to them. He'll have to stay alive amongst Earth’s most ruthless felons if he wants to survive … and become the first man to escape from Oz.

The Illustrated Harlan Ellison


Harlan Ellison - 1978
    Featuring the stories "Deeper Than The Darkness", "Croatoan", "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" - (formatted in 3-D and includes the 3-D glasses!), "The Discarded", "An Ellison Tapestry", "Riding the Dark Train Out", and "I'm Looking For Kadak"

A Voice in the Night


Jack McDevitt - 2018
    Jack encountered Gilbert Chesterton’s Father Brown tales a few years later and they ultimately became the prime influence in his science fiction. The issue with Father Brown was never a question of who committed the murder, but rather what in heaven’s name is going on here? Why does an astronaut, in “Cathedral,” sacrifice her life to collide with an asteroid that she knows poses no threat to the Earth? Why does a scientist who’s designed an actual working AI in “The Play’s the Thing,” hide what’s he’s done? How is it that the lives of two people working at Moonbase in “Blinker” depend on a quasar? In “Lucy,” Jack shows us why sending automated vehicles to explore the distant outposts of the solar system may not be a good idea. And in “Searching for Oz,” an alternate history story, how things might have been if SETI had gotten what it was looking for. He describes our reaction in “Listen Up, Nitwits,” when a voice begins speaking to us, apparently from Jupiter, in Greek. And in “The Lost Equation,” a Holmes adventure, we discover who really was first to arrive at e=mc2. Jack also provides two episodes, “Maiden Voyage” and “Waiting At the Altar,” from Priscilla Hutchins’ qualification flight; and an effort by a sixteen-year-old Alex Benedict, in the title story with his uncle Gabe and Chase Kolpath’s mom, Tori, who are trying to understand why a brilliant radio entertainer, lost in the stars when his drive unit suffered a malfunction, never said goodbye. These and fourteen other rides into odd places await the reader.

Under the Empyrean Sky


Chuck Wendig - 2013
    It's the only crop the Empyrean government allows the people of the Heartland to grow. And the genetically modified strain is so aggressive that it takes everything the Heartlanders have just to control it. As captain of the Big Sky Scavengers, Cael and his crew sail their rickety ship over the corn day after day, scavenging for valuables, trying to earn much-needed ace notes for their families. But Cael's tired of surviving life on the ground while the Empyrean elite drift by above in their extravagant sky flotillas. He's sick of the mayor's son besting Cael's crew in the scavenging game. And he's worried about losing Gwennie, his first mate and the love of his life, forever when their government-chosen spouses are revealed. But most of all, Cael is angry, angry that their lot in life will never get better and that his father doesn't seem upset about any of it. Cael's ready to make his own luck . . . even if it means bringing down the wrath of the Empyrean elite and changing life in the Heartland forever.

Citadel 32: A Tale of the Aggregate


Tom Merritt - 2015
    But someone wants to stop him from pursuing it. Meanwhile on Earth, a monk of the Citadel discovers a strange ancient artwork. Could it lead to truth of the myth of the Moon Men? Finding out the truth could kill him.