First Human Civilizations

*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* America's favorite astrophysicist has written the most entertaining and universally appealing book of his stellar career: a practical guide for dealing with Alien visitors, an exploration of how it might happen, and a cultural history of our fascination with...

The oldest stories ever written. The gods who came before all other gods. The myths that built every civilization that followed. Five thousand years ago, in the world's first cities, a civilization pressed its beliefs into clay. Those tablets contained the original versions of the stories the modern world thinks it knows — the Great Flood, the creation of humanity, the descent into the underworld, the hero who could not accept death. The Sumerians told these stories first, told them without apology, and told them with a brutal honesty about the nature of gods and humans that every ...

In October 1994, a German archaeologist walked up a hill in southeastern Turkey and found something that should not have existed. Beneath the soil lay a monumental stone temple complex, complete with ten-tonne carved pillars, sophisticated astronomical alignments, and a sealed ritual interior — built eleven thousand six hundred years ago. Seven thousand years before the Great Pyramid. Six thousand years before Stonehenge. A thousand years before the invention of agriculture itself. The builders had no metal. No pottery. No wheel. No writing. By every standard of the textbook timeline of ...

They crossed the stars to build a new home. But by the time they arrived, humanity was already a ghost. After the harrowing journey of the Aurora across centuries and light-years, Captain Morrow and her mismatched crew hoped to find an untouched world ripe for hope and rebuilding. Instead, they awaken to a silent planet—its cities shattered, its stations derelict, and the only survivor a centuries-old, half-human being whose memories might be as dangerous as they are vital. Determined to understand their fate and claim a place in this impossible future, Morrow’s crew must navigate the ...

Earth already had its apocalypse. Humanity barely survived it. Unfortunately for Major Ethan Irons, that was just the warm-up act. When the scattered remnants of humanity stumble into a much larger problem—namely a galaxy locked in a brutal, centuries-old war—Ethan finds himself promoted from “guy trying to keep a few thousand survivors alive” to “unwilling participant in an interstellar disaster.” Now he’s stuck negotiating with suspicious alien powers, dodging fleets that can vaporize planets for breakfast, and relying heavily on a sarcastic AI who believes Ethan’s ...

Blending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than four legs—a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to...

When pirates storm the Enigma-Novy Mir Space Station, astronomers Bret Texier and Sienna — a blue-skinned woman from the distant planet Zyska — are the only two who don't flee. Given three choices by the pirate captain — die, be sold as slaves, or get married — they choose the unthinkable. What begins as a desperate act of survival becomes something neither of them expected. Back on Earth, the Western Space Institute is under siege from hostile governments, public fear, and political forces determined to exploit or eliminate every alien in their midst. Bret and Sienna find unlikely ...

What if humanity is not the first? Across the record of Earth lie traces that refuse easy dismissal: isotopes that mirror nuclear waste, subsurface grids too precise for chance, vitrified stone born of unimaginable heat, and synthetic residues older than our species. Dismissed individually as curiosities, together they point toward a deeper truth—that advanced civilizations may have risen and fallen on this plane long before us. In The Evidence for Repeated Technological Civilizations, Dr. Erik Gray follows the anomalies through stone, ice, and sea to assemble a testable thesis: ...

What if consciousness does not arise from the body—but enters it? When writer Nathan Adler publishes a meditation on a mysterious interstellar object called 3I/ATLAS, he expects curiosity, skepticism, perhaps ridicule. Instead, the world begins to change. ATLAS emits an impossible blue light. Its signal pulses near the frequency of the human mind. And as attention gathers around it, people across the globe begin dreaming the same images: luminous cities, a circle crossed by a line, fire, water, and a civilization remembered not in history, but in the soul. Drawn into the mystery is Dr. ...

“The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made.”—P. J. O’Rourke Hailed as the “first freedom,” free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and...

Some say it's the second coming and the rapture, others are suspicious of the visitors. One thing's for sure, Earth will never be the same. S.E. Meyer combines ancient alien astronaut theory, ancient Sumerian codices, current religious beliefs from around the world and the book of Revelation in a way that tears down the veil of traditional thinking to reveal new though provoking theories on the origins of the human race and its many traditional beliefs. The Prodigal Sun will wow you with a fact filled, thrilling and intricately blended story that interweaves mythologies and religions in new...

The Ultimate Guide to Ancient History’s Biggest Secrets Are you ready to explore the epic events that shaped the very beginning of human civilization? This book takes you straight into the real stories, big moments, and hidden truths of the ancient world. You won’t get dry textbook facts — you’ll uncover how early people built, fought, believed, and created the foundations of the world we live in today. Inside, you will discover: Engineering Secrets Revealed: How the Egyptians pulled off the almost impossible task of building the Great Pyramids — and how a brick method from 4,000 ...

The alien abduction happens. What follows is nothing like anyone could expect. Taken from Earth without warning, a modern man finds himself transported to another planet, not a hostile one, but a quiet, stable world that has remained unchanged for generations. Its people live simply. There is no war, no technological race, and no desire to advance beyond what already works. At first, survival is the only concern. But as communication becomes possible, his modern habits of thought begin to surface. Ideas he takes for granted, innovation, efficiency, curiosity, progress, slowly ripple through...

First Hand is a sweeping, time-spanning journey told through the eyes of Lucy — an ageless observer who has walked beside humanity for over 100,000 years. From firelight to fiber optics, she has borne silent witness to the rise and fall of empires, the birth of languages, revolutions of the heart and mind, and the quiet moments history forgets. Blending rich, photorealistic detail with philosophical insight, this book traces the spiral of time not as a straight line, but as a living tapestry — one woven with memory, myth, and the enduring thread of human experience. With every turn of ...

Most scientists believe the evolution of humans has a history as long as life itself. Anatomically modern humans and all other life that has existed on the planet first came about from the single-celled microorganisms that emerged approximately 4 billion years ago. Through the processes of mutation and natural selection, all forms of life developed, and this continuous lineage of life makes it difficult to say precisely when one species completely separates from another.

Four robot explorers travelled to investigate a civilization powered by a Dyson Sphere. But when they arrived, they found that the native society had collapsed. All contact with Earth had stopped. These robots were programmed to think and act just like us. What will they find when the reach the planet? What destroyed the alien civilization? How will the robots adapt now that their mission parameters no longer make sense? These droids will find that they must struggle to survive. They will also have to struggle to redefine themselves in this new world. ##- Author's note I thought of this ...

Killing innocents is just the beginning. With civilizations across space in the crosshairs, can this powerful young Elemental end the bloodshed? Raya Salian dreams of peace. Pursuing her goal of exploring and mapping the universe, the young astronomer cherishes every conflict-free moment she can spend with her beloved. After completing a mission to investigate a mysterious nebula, she returns to dock with the main spaceship and is shattered to find the vessel destroyed, leaving everyone she loves missing or dead. Taking aim at those responsible, the furious young woman hunts for the ...

When Dr. Nola Dearing and Brigadier General Roman Bradshaw witness the departure of their colleagues to the distant Exoplanet Hispaniola, they stand at the crossroads of Earth’s future and an alien alliance. As the Western Space Institute grapples with the aftermath of a devastating bombing and the loss of two young astronomers, Nola and Rome navigate bureaucratic battles, scientific rivalries, and the looming threat of a black hole endangering an advanced alien civilization. With the arrival of Dr. Andromeda Carr and radio telescope operator Cappie Rochester, the team prepares to join a ...