Hard Science Fiction

When the Sun is threatened by an alien microbe, the fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of an unlikely hero – and an even more unlikely friendship.

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....

Stranded on the surface of Mars, astronaut Mark Watney’s only hope for survival is science, a sense of humor, and maybe some potatoes.

On the Moon, crime pays, but small-time crook Jazz Bashara may have just uncovered a conspiracy of lunar proportions. Welcome to Artemis.

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days....

The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking audiences to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

From a New York Times best-selling and Hugo award-winning author comes a modern masterwork of science fiction, introducing a captain, his crew, and a detective as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl....

Bob Johansson didn't believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe....

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....

Juliette, now mayor of Silo 18, doesn’t trust Silo 1, especially its leader, Donald. But in the world of the Silos, there is no black and white—everything is shades of gray....

For generations, the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt—was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has appeared in Uranus's orbit, where it has built a massive gate that leads to a starless dark....

Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down....

The fourth book in the NYT best-selling Expanse series, Cibola Burn sees the crew of the Rocinante on a new frontier, as the rush to colonize the new planets threatens to outrun law and order and give way to war and chaos. Enter a new frontier....

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....

Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison - a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world...

For 12,000 years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future - to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years....

Fifty-six hard years after the events of The Machine Crusade, after the death of Serena Butler, the bloodiest decades of the Jihad take place....

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....

A classic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton, Sphere is a bravura demonstration of what he does better than anyone: riveting storytelling that combines frighteningly plausible, cutting-edge science and technology with pulse-pounding action....

With the Cielcin united under one banner, the Sollan Empire stands alone after the betrayal of the Commonwealth. The Prophet-King of the Cielcin has sent its armies to burn the worlds of men, and worse, there are rumors … whispers that Hadrian Marlowe is dead, killed in the fighting....

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us....

How can a colony on Mars survive when the greatest danger on the planet is humanity itself? All contact is lost with the first privately funded colony on Mars during a long and destructive sandstorm. Satellite imagery of the aftermath shows extensive damage to the facility....

It is the year 12,020 GE and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor....

Film noir meets Jurassic Park. Petra is a medical engineer for zoologists and fertility clinics. Why is she getting death threats, and what did she do to merit an ankle monitor? As the science advisor to a major contender for the presidency, she needs a PR boost. Hendrix is on his fourth career, having failed as a rock guitarist and a war journalist. His last chance is to write a book that makes the country support this abrasive scientist. He’s always been a sucker for a woman in trouble. Warning: this novel talks about the science and ethics of how babies are made.

A spell at GCHQ sounded like a refreshing change for academic historian George. But his life is thrown upside down when he gets put in a team with a gifted physicist, Alex, and multi-talented prankster mathematician, Betty, who have covertly broken through the accepted rules of physics to produce an extraordinary novel technology.

The use of an i-Vector zap to thwart Betty's kidnap has caused unforeseen and unimagined changes to the future. An eccentric old-fashioned vicar arrives, delivering a chilling message, and Betty finds her safety in jeopardy again from a completely unanticipated direction.

Bestseller in Hard Sci Fi and Genetic Engineering Sci Fi! An eccentric scientist has left widowed philosophy professor Nora Binford an unexpected bequest: eight cages of lab rats and a shiny flash drive containing secret research into extending human life. The research could help cure her son’s life-threatening genetic disorder and ease the ills of old age for millions … or it might trigger catastrophic changes to the human genome. A teacher at a beach-town community college, Nora is more comfortable running seminars than making life-altering decisions about potentially dangerous ...

This is a series of stories set in the same universe and at the same time as Hannah Sawyer and Starfarers Dream. They range from the flight of the Nihon, and its subsequent adventures to the story about Donna Merriweather's origins and then to the life of a war correspondent sent to cover the war.

The Dark Conscious: Conclusion to The Seagu11 Project by T. Lee Baumann, (www.google.com/profiles/tleebaumann), concludes the challenging journey of the spaceship Schwartzschild, en route from its 26,000 light-year passage to the Milky Way’s central black hole. Having completed the goal of the original mission, the Schwartzschild crew is now forced to unlock the ultimate secrets of the conscious universe. At the end of The Seagu11 Project (Volume 1), an alien race had abducted fellow crewmember Lyle Turk. In this second and final volume of the Seagu11 series, the aliens have isolated ...

SHORT STORY: A very short story about the cost of cutting down a tree. I Came Home From Saving the Rainforest is one of six short solarpunk stories in the Halfway to Better collection. If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers' Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Halfway to Better.

In the not-so-distant future, society is transformed by groundbreaking advances in genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. In this world, Tina, a savvy young blogger with partial feline augmentations, navigates the complexities of life where human capabilities can be expanded in unimaginable ways. As she uncovers a secretive group known as the Locusts, who are creating genetically spliced creatures for insurrection, Tina finds herself at the heart of a moral and ethical storm. Balancing her personal enhancements with her human instincts, she delves deeper into a society divided by ...

In the deep darkness of an ancient underground city lurk scorpions the size of wolves… Best seller in Hard Science Fiction and Science Fiction Adventure! Scarred ex-soldier Booker takes a job on the gritty frontier world of Silverrock, managing security for an archeological dig. But when the huge scorpions that haunt the caverns attack the dig’s brilliant young linguist, Booker learns that the ruins hide more than broken crockery. For the future of humanity, Booker must protect the site long enough for Lucien to decipher its ancient inscriptions while fending off miners eager to extract...

A hidden mystery in Jupiter’s second-largest moon holds a power beyond imagining. Beneath the icy surface of Callisto lies an underground sea. Decades ago, a research base was built to study the strange lifeforms inhabiting this silent world before tragedy struck, killing everyone. News of this incident is quickly hushed up, with all access to the Jovian moon restricted. Kirill Sereda was orphaned when his mother never returned from that very outpost. Now an adult, he gathers together a team of misfits for a clandestine mission: head to Callisto and find out what really happened. What ...

“A twisty, satisfyingly unpredictable SF action tale. Even die-hard SF readers won’t see some of the turns coming”—Kirkus Reviews “[An] engrossing ride … [that’s] a meaningful metaphor for all the people one person becomes throughout life: how everyone grows, reinvents, and regenerates, even without special DNA. Mikheyev presents a narrative as malleable as its protagonist: changing genres from chapter to chapter, but always clinging to its core heartfelt message”—IndieReader He cannot die. He can only vanish. And a nefarious organization wants the powers he has. It's a ...

SHORT STORY: At the bottom of the sea, a trawler crawls across an abyssal plain, carefully cleaning microplastics off the ancient mineral-rich nodules, when the crew finds something that shouldn't be possible. Slimy Things Did Crawl is one of six short solarpunk stories in the Halfway to Better collection.

Mercy Smith leads the team that is building the fastest space shuttle ever. Now her friend Red wants to steal the unstable Tetra-1 because Earth needs the information from an orbiting alien artifact. When Mercy volunteered to ride along to prevent the prototype from exploding, she didn’t count on Chinese and Muslim weapons of mass destruction or corporate spies. After landing on the artifact, she discovers there’s a new world inside, one they name Sanctuary. Although there are vast technological treasures, first the astronauts have to pass a complex test to see whether humanity is fit ...

An eclectic collection of stories of strange voyages in time and space. •Dragon Fire - The pilot of a Fokker Triplane is transferred through time to fight aerial duels with dragons. •Twilight’s Last Gleaming - An AI interstellar space probe is the last defense for the human race. •Second Chance - The crew of a small base on the Moon discovers the remains of ancient alien visitors. •Prize Crew - Privateers fight a querrila war against the powerful UNE Navy in the Asteroid Belt. •Assassin - Ruthless aliens invade the Solar System and an ancient warship is Earth's last defense. •...

SHORT STORY: Living in a flooded lighthouse is probably illegal, but no one has come to kick her out, so she keeps furtively tending the oyster beds and feeding the crows. But when a storm brings an unexpected, and unwelcome, visitor, her time in this final refuge might be at an end. Planting the Shell-Bones is one of six short solarpunk stories in the Halfway to Better collection. If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers' Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Halfway to Better.