or awaken an ancient evil and destroy all life in the galaxy.The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew break it to her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials... and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars. File Under: Science Fiction

    But now Cobb is just an aging alcoholic waiting to die, and the big boppers are threatening to absorb all of the little boppers--and eventually every human--into a giant, melded consciousness. Some of the little boppers aren't too keen on the idea, and a full-scale robot revolt is underway on the moon (where the boppers live). Meanwhile, bopper Ralph Numbers wants to give Cobb immortality by letting a big bopper slice up his brain and tape his "software." It seems like a good idea to Cobb.

    Looking for a new world to call their own, they brought with them a rich mélange of cultures, religions, and dialects from a far-off planet called Earth. Mighty were the old-fathers, with the power to shape the world to their liking—but that was many generations ago, and what was once known has long been lost. Steamboats and gas-filled blimps now traverse the planet, where people once looked up to see great silver cities in the sky.Like his world, John deBrun has forgotten more than he remembers. Twenty-seven years ago, he washed up onto the shore of Nanagada with no memory of his past. Although he has made a new life for himself among the peaceful islanders, his soul remains haunted by unanswered questions about his own identity.These mysteries take on new urgency when the fearsome Azteca storm over the Wicked High Mountains in search of fresh blood and hearts to feed their cruel, inhuman gods. Nanagada's only hope lies in a mythical artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, said to be hidden somewhere in the frozen north. And only John deBrun knows the device's secrets, even if he can't remember why or how!Crystal Rain is the much-anticipated debut novel by one of science fiction's newest and most promising talents.

    Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.

    Gordon Mere minutes after arriving at their Nantucket family beach home, 9-year-old Scotty Sullivan was out the back door, scrambling toward the shore, with Larry, the family dog—fast on his heels. Now late in the afternoon in mid-spring, the typical summer beach crowd visitors were still weeks away. Then Scotty became aware of an odd-looking object, hovering just above the crashing surf. In an age of hobbyist’s drones and all sorts of flying gadgets, he wasn’t overly concerned until the large flying object moved much, much, closer. A storm was brewing and dark clouds blanketed the sky. Nervously, Scotty turned and tried to spot his house—somewhere off behind the dunes—but it would be sixteen years before he’d see it again.

    But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake.Answering Campion’s distress call, investigator Rasheed Fin is tasked with finding out who is responsible for these deaths. Soon a sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, one that will have repercussions for the entire system—from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed to Earth itself.

    These men, women, and non humans are determined to restore the Federation despite the corrupt politicians standing in their way. They have to pick up the pieces Fleet Admiral Irons has left behind and soldier on without him in the hope that he'll return someday. Jethro is one of those people, a new marine recruit. He's a Neo Panther, a member of the Anvil cat clan, and although he's young, he's a professional assassin and ready and eager to prove himself. Perhaps too eager. To what lengths will he go to fight for what's right? Will his first taste of true combat be his last? But first will he survive Boot camp and the infamous F platoon's Neo drill sergeant?This is the beginning of his story.

    A moon full of settlers who cannot thrive. Mahina's terraformers built a high-tech urban paradise. Then Earth flooded the colony with desperate refugees, cop Sass Collier among them. The settlers who arrived with Sass died decades ago. Outside the citadel, their descendants die weak and young.Sass fought a rebellion against the city once. She won concessions to give the settlers a chance at health. She paid with 20 years in prison.Now she’s out, a reformed character. She assembles an oddball crew doing odd jobs. She intends to mind her own business – how to make a profit on the skyship Thrive.But her fellow settlers are still failing.While her business model careens toward circus acts, Sass dares to defy the city again, to solve Mahina’s failure to thrive.Pick up Skyship Thrive because you love upbeat character-driven SF with fun technology. Suggested for fans of Firefly or Nathan Lowell’s Solar Clipper books.

    Unfortunately, this results in no customers, no cargo jobs and no hope of paying off the huge loan on his precious ship.When a debt collector kicks in his airlock and threatens his life, Hal grabs the nearest job and blasts off without reading the fine print. Can he deliver the freight and pay off his debt, or is this Hal’s last cargo run?

    He can rise no higher.Or so he thought.His superior sees more in him and is sending him to a place that will change his life.Welcome to Azophi Academy.A different kind of second chance.Jackson learns fast - the academy believes in active participation – even if you die trying.Can Jackson cope with Cia, his new partner and pilot? She’s unlike him in every way and enjoys making sure he knows it.He’ll have to learn a lot - and fast - if he’s going to survive the Azophi experience. More importantly, humanity needs him to survive, because the aliens are training their best too.Who will have the greatest warriors?

    Unfortunately Cormac is nearly burnt out, "gridlinked" to the AI net so long that his humanity has begun to drain away. He has to take the cold-turkey cure and shake his addiction to having his brain on the net.Now he must do without just as he's sent to investigate the unique runcible disaster that's wiped out the entire human colony on planet Samarkand in a thirty-megaton explosion. With the runcible out, Cormac must get there by ship, but he has incurred the wrath of a vicious psychopath called Arian Pelter, who now follows him across the galaxy with a terrifying psychotic killer android in tow. And deep beneath Samarkand's surface there are buried mysteries, fiercely guarded.This is fast-moving, edge-of-the-seat entertainment, and a great introduction to the work of one of the most exciting new SF talents in years.

    Successful in its efforts to create a glittering interstellar empire, founded on the use of an ultra-advanced computer and bioengineering technology, humankind becomes the prey of its own creation, the Aristoi.

    Unfortunately, it wasn’t the good kind.Sucked through a wormhole, Charlie woke in a galaxy ruled not by technology, but by magic. A galaxy of spell-casting Aliens, Space Vampires, gladiators, and Dragons. For the spaceman from Earth, it was enough to make his head spin. And his luck was only getting worse.Welcome to the Charlieverse.Contains Books 1-3 of the Dragon Mage series:1. Bad Luck Charlie2. Space Pirate Charlie3. Dragon King Charlie

    When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, they proved that space travel was both possible and profitable. Now, one century later, a plantation in the flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby. A tomboy who shares her father's deft hand with complex automatons. Being raised on the Martian frontier by her Martian nanny, Arabella is more a wild child than a proper young lady. Something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England. Arabella soon finds herself trying to navigate an alien world until a dramatic change in her family's circumstances forces her to defy all conventions in order to return to Mars in order to save both her brother and the plantation. To do this, Arabella must pass as a boy on the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company with a mysterious Indian captain who is intrigued by her knack with automatons. Arabella must weather the naval war between Britain and France, learning how to sail, and a mutinous crew if she hopes to save her brother from certain death.

    Before the Eradication.One man had a chance to stop it all, and failed...Captain Dryker is a washed up vet mining on the fringes of the Kuiper belt. He loads rocks into the Folly’s railgun, and fires them back to his corporate overlords on Earth. Boring, just the way he likes it. Until one day it isn’t.An alien signal bursts from Pluto, which as it turns out is neither a planet, nor a planetoid body. It is an ancient defense satellite activated because it detected the return of the Vuka Spectra. The Void Wraith.Dryker is the closest ship on the scene, but not the only one vying for the prize. Hostile aliens have emerged from our sun using something called a Helios Gate. The savage Tigris have come not just for the satellite, but to conquer Earth.Dryker’s only hope is finding something, anything, within the installation to counter the alien’s superior technology and save mankind.The prequel to the Void Wraith Saga. Learn how it all began...