First Contact

From China's most beloved sci-fi author, a first-contact story that weaves politics, science, and cosmic mystery.

This near-future trilogy is the first chance for English-speaking listeners to experience this multiple-award-winning phenomenon from Cixin Liu, China's most beloved science fiction author....

Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity....

In the heart of the South Pacific lies Point Nemo, the most desolate and remote place on Earth. When the International Space Station suffers a catastrophic failure and plummets through the atmosphere, it's here that Mission Specialist Julie Rohr, an astrobiologist, finds herself marooned....

When retired millionaire Bob Johansson chose cryogenic preservation, the last thing he expected was to be reanimated as a space probe that can clone itself. Meet the Bobs.

Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet....

Massively damaged in Aliens and Alien 3, the synthetic Bishop asked to be shut down forever. His creator, Michael Bishop, has other plans. He seeks the Xenomorph knowledge stored in the android’s mind and brings Bishop back to life....

The epic and highly anticipated conclusion to the listener-favorite series that had countless Audible listeners (and employees) hooked from the very first Bob - featuring, as always, a flawless performance from the inimitable Ray Porter....

In the midst of an interstellar war, Yun Tianming found himself on the front lines. Riddled with cancer, he chose to end his life, only to find himself flash frozen and launched into space where the Trisolaran First Fleet awaited....

Zac has managed to secure his island for the time being, growing into a true powerhouse through his endless struggles. However, becoming the strongest man in the world does not come without complications. A target has been placed on his back....

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”....

Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life - but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time....

Silas is inducted into the System, becoming the last in a long line of Earth's "forerunners." The rewards are great, but the danger is greater. We are not alone in the universe. The fate of five worlds hangs on how their forerunners perform....

Jack Kernigan is having a bad day...a bad year...a bad life. After being booted out of MIT, he’s back in his Ohio hometown, working for the family business, facing a life of mediocrity. Then one day, out on a delivery, his truck hits...something....

A secret buried in the Antarctic. A puzzle unsolved for thousands of years. And a Brooklyn-born master gunnery sergeant who's royally pissed that he has to babysit the researchers sent to figure it all out....

The Earth Cruiser Agamemnon is destroyed in combat, and the search for answers begins. The veteran crew of Borag gets the assignment, and the race is on. Sgt. Starn of Red Company must visit the disaster site, perform a search and rescue mission, and return to Mars alive....

Go to war or go to jail. For small-time street hustler Cam Alvarez, the choice is simple.... He has no family, no friends, no place in the world...nothing to lose....

Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence....

Writer Bobbi Anderson becomes obsessed with digging up something she's found buried in the woods near her home. With the help of her friend, Jim Gardener, she uncovers an alien spaceship....

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she's delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move....

When the Equal Grasp and other unsavory aliens launch their plot to open humanity up to the stars—in the name of profit, of course—Van and his crew spring into action, fearing the fallout of a world gone mad....

Following their successful mission to destroy the slaver ring in New York City, Wic and the members of Phantom Team pass through the Antarctic’s origin ring and find themselves deep in the heart of the Androchidan Empire....

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456....

Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming....

The gods have been angered. Hell will rain down. After Wic and the Phantom’s successful operation on Karkin Four, the team learns of the enemy’s plans for a swift retaliation: an all-out assault on New York City....

TWO BONUS SCIFI ROMANCE BOOKS INCLUDED When Rachel breaks the news to her boyfriend that she’s pregnant with his child, the last thing she expects is for him to break up with her. He doesn’t get the opportunity to leave her, though, before the invasion of earth by Vendi—large, muscular aliens bent on rounding up women and taking them to their spaceships. On board one of the ships, Rachel lies and tells the Vendi in charge of medicine, Argo, that she isn’t pregnant. Too soon, though, she realizes that the women kept on board are being forced to become breeders. She’ll do anything ...

First, the stars in the Milkey Way go dark. Then everyone on earth hears in their minds a very real voice speaking in their own language, dialect, and gender at the precise same time: ''Judgment of the inhabitants of the planet Earth will be held in five days. Please prepare yourselves for the final examination and departure. That is all". Humanity prepares for the rapture. But wait, fate takes a turn.

"After Dinner Conversation" Magazine - August 2021 They Got Their Show: A taxi driver is assigned to pick up the newly exonerated murderer of his 16-year-old daughter. Claim: The local diocese requests insurance coverage against future child sexual abuse lawsuits. Home For The Holidays: A son comes home for the holidays to find his parents have shrunk to two feet tall. Mahabbah: A scientist invents a virus that causes people to be compassionate and empathetic. The Ascension Review Of Xebob Zebble: Xebob is up for review to the highest position on the planet, and must decide if he will lie ...

Sixty-seven years ago the Qash'vo'tar conquered Earth. Ever since then, the aliens had ruled from above. The Qash'vo'tar did not care what humanity did on the ground, as long as they didn't attempt to build anything that could get them to the stars. And now, sixty-seven years after they had been conquered, it was time for humanity to show the Qash'vo'tar that they had been right to fear humanity.

The only way I've been surviving through the chronic pain of my mutation is the drug, Kixx. I hate what the addiction has done to me, but what I resent the most is that I've had to barter with a lowlife Rogastix for my supply. One day, he shows off his new property-a human female. He makes me a deal to protect her until he can exchange her for a healthy supply of Kixx of which I'll get a lion's share.

The alien creatures have made it to Earth. Entire cities are battling invasion from the menacing swarms. This is worse than Zola. It’s worse than the Leak. It’s worse than all of our nightmares put together. The creatures are indestructible, shrugging off our strongest weaponry. Now, our only hope lies inside a powerful ancient artifact we don’t understand. To save Earth’s future, we have to unlock the secrets of a lost alien past. Whatever it takes, we have to harness the power of the Orb.

A hundred and fifty years in the future, the United States and China launch a joint mission to send an interstellar voyage to a carbon-rich planet composed almost entirely of diamond. The crew’s mission: to mine the planet of its riches and transport them back to Earth. But what they don’t realize is that they aren’t the first to set foot on this strange new planet…and the original visitors might not be willing to share.

There have been eighty requests to send an Observer into the hinterlands of the planet Aka to study the natives. Much to everyone's surprise, the eighty-first request is granted, and Observer Sutty is sent upriver to Okzat-Ozkat, a small city in the foothills of Rangma, to talk to the remnants in hiding of a cult practising a banned religion. On Aka, everything that was written in the old scripts has been destroyed; modern aural literature is all written to Corporation specifications.

Earth-scientist Rocannon has been leading an ethnological survey on a remote world populated by three native races: the cavern-dwelling Gdemiar, the elvish Fiia, and the warrior clan, Liuar. But when the technologically primitive planet is suddenly invaded by a fleet of ships from the stars, rebels against the League of All Worlds, Rocannon is the only survey member left alive. Marooned among alien peoples, he leads the battle to free this newly discovered world - and finds that legends grow around him as he fights.

"After Dinner Conversation" Magazine - December 2022 Mrs. Robinson: Set in Elizabethan England, a young woman marries a too-good-to-be-true heir to an estate, only to find out he has a secret. Male Privilege: The narrator is picked by the retiring Mayor to be his successor, but his questionable past catches up to him before election day. The Bargain: Alien real estate developers visit earth to let us know our planet is in a prime development location and set to add 40 billion inhabitants. The Kill Registry: In a world where everyone in society gets "one free kill," the narrator finds out ...

"Who Goes There?" is the novella that formed the basis of John Carpenter's classic film The Thing. Campbell's classic story tells of an Antarctic research base that discovers and thaws the ancient, frozen body of a crash-landed alien with terrifying results!

In the title story, a man's newfound ability to walk in the past allows him to dwell among dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers . . . and something even more timeless. In "Construction Shack," the first manned expedition to Pluto reveals that no matter how advanced aliens may be, even they don't always get everything right. And in "Univac 2200," the thin line between humans creating technology and humans becoming technology is about to be crossed-and there may be no going back.

The story continues as I, we, all of us, strive to find a solution to the problems which plague Chi'cagoa Rea and the unfortunate demihumans who live here. Bonny Red, myself, my sister, Rebecca... all of us do our best, but sometimes good ideas can come from unexpected sources, and are all the more galling because they should have been expected. Fauve has an idea, an idea so crazy, so dangerous, so absurd, that it might just work. And because of what we learn, I a long buried truth of human nature comes to light, and it illuminates a buried truth of my own home world's distant past. In the ...

When you're a space pirate sailing between stars and planets with nobody telling you where to go, you can always take a detour, especially when opportunity presents itself in the form of possible lost treasures from ancient civilizations, and a way to get through permastorms that have locked the galaxy's greatest powers out of...whatever lies beyond, for thousands of years. That's the situation that Captain Bonny Red of 'The Red Spark' finds herself in when she wins an ancient harmonic electron map off of a less than ethical gambler during a routine run of supplies and personnel to an ...

Contains: Boozehounds I: In which Captain Bonny Red encounters humanity for the first time and finds true kindred spirits from across the stars. Boozehounds II: In which a raid reveals a change in the behavior of the Zenti Expanse and the pirates of The Red Spark embark on a rescue. Boozehounds III: Captain Bonny Red and company find themselves trapped on a primitive world and become embroiled in a fight between a group of marauders, and a people who have just begun to settle down. Bonus Content: Previously unpublished shorts and the author's failed attempt at a story's first few chapters.