Showing titles in First Contact

In the year 2031, a robot probe detects traces of biological activity on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. This sensational discovery shows that there is indeed evidence of extraterrestrial life. Fifteen years later, a hurriedly built spacecraft sets out on the long journey to the ringed planet and its moon. The international crew is not just facing a difficult twenty-seven months: if the spacecraft manages to make it to Enceladus without incident it must use a drillship to penetrate the kilometer-thick sheet of ice that entombs the moon.

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality. 

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Nyxia by Scott Reintgen, read by Sullivan Jones with Dominic Hoffman. Every life has a price in Scott Reintgen pulse-pounding new sci-fi adventure, Nyxia, as a group of teens are taken to the far reaches of the universe and forced to decide what they're...

Every winter—a season that lasts a decade and a half - the Earthmen have neighbours: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic people who only settle down for the cruel cold spell. The hilfs fear the Earthmen, whom they think of as witches, and call the farborns. But both peoples have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals, and eerie preying snow ghouls. Can the hilfs and the farborns overcome their mutual suspicions and join forces? Or will they both be annihilated?

An electrifying thriller from New York Times bestselling author Dayton Ward, set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe. 2031: United States Air Force fighter jets shoot down an unidentified spacecraft and take its crew into custody. Soon, it’s learned that the ship is one of several...

The thrilling adventure based on the acclaimed TV series Star Trek: Picard! Following the explosive events seen in season one of Star Trek: Picard, Raffi Musiker finds herself torn between returning to her old life as a Starfleet Intelligence officer or something a little more tame—teaching at...

"Such realistic brilliance you can see a whole civilisation in it" - The Times "Simply amazing science fiction that will have me grabbing book two" - Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars "one of the best scifi concepts out there" - Amazon Reviewer, 5 stars Stephen Baxter's highly acclaimed first novel...

Cleo Xavier is a renowned astronaut and explorer—not an addict. At least, that’s what she tells herself. She’s always been able to navigate the isolation and loneliness that come with space exploration, which makes her a perfect candidate to join four other astronauts on a mission to Orbis Alius, the farthest planet in the solar system, to test its terraforming viability.

When the war ended, the Zodark spies—the Mukhabarat—were dispatched to find Earth and to map Sol, the heart of the Republic. Upon its discovery, a plan was hatched, a fleet was formed, a superweapon was created, and nothing would be the same. The calm had been breached. A new war began. When a momentary rip in space-time appeared, a hostile fleet emerged. The Zodarks’ superweapon caught the Republic by surprise. As they approached Earth, the invasion force had a final obstacle to overcome—the vaunted yet untested planetary defense system. Would it hold?

When Simon and Katherine Hawke stumble upon an alien shuttle that has landed on earth, it’ll not only change the course of their lives, but of the entire world. Taking the shuttle into orbit, they discover a much larger ship left adrift with no one on board. Commandeering it, they confirm that we’re not alone in the universe and must prepare the human race for what is about to come. Recruiting from all over the world, they begin to expand their fleet and build a federation to give humans a foothold in the galaxy.

Earth's armed forces have stopped the Lanky advance and chased their ships out of the solar system, but for CDC officer Andrew Grayson, the war feels anything but won. On Mars, the grinding duty of flushing out the twenty-meter-tall alien invaders from their burrows underground is wearing down troops and equipment at an alarming rate. And for the remaining extrasolar colonies, the threat of a Lanky attack is ever present.

It’s been four years since Earth threw its full military prowess against the Lanky incursion. Humanity has been yanked back from the abyss of extinction. The solar system is at peace. For now. The future for Major Andrew Grayson of the Commonwealth Defense Corps and his wife, Halley? Flying desk duty on the front. No more nightmares of monstrous things. No more traumas to the mind and body. But when an offer comes down from above, Andrew has to make a choice: continue pushing papers into retirement, or jump right back into the fight? What’s a podhead to do?

After Sol’s construction of Tridents - Omnian-designed warships - Earthers possess the ability to transit quickly among the stars. The desire to know what happened to Earth’s colony ship, the Honora Belle, sent to the stars a millennium ago is resurrected. An Omnian Trident and the vessel Rêveur accompany three Sol Enclave Tridents in search of the Belle’s colonists. Swiftly, the Omnians and the Earthers become enmeshed in a centuries-old conflict enveloping a vast area of space inhabited by alliance races. The enemy is the Colony: a giant insectoid species.

Fans of John Carpenter's The Thing can rejoice - here is the original, previously-unpublished, longer version of John W. Campbell's classic story, Who Goes There?, filmed as The Thing and The Thing from Another World. Recently discovered at Harvard by scholar Alec Nevala-Lee, long buried in John W. Campbell's papers, here is the original version of Who Goes There? Included is a preface by Alec Nevala-Lee, an introduction by science fiction grandmaster Robert Silverberg, and the complete text of this newly discovered version of the classic novel.

Ruthless, mysterious alien invaders are unrelenting in their war to conquer Earth, adding new weapons and species to their arsenal to take the fight to humanity beyond the war-torn coastlines.

A collection of five classic TV novelisations featuring the Doctor's hectic adventures on Earth. "Slick and polished...immersive productions of much-loved novelisations...long may we enjoy them." - Doctor Who Magazine In Planet of Giants present day England becomes a nightmare landscape when a...

As one of the few humans stranded on the ice planet, I should be happy that I have a new home. Human women are treasured here, and one alien in particular has made it clear that he wants me. It's hard to push away the sexy, flirtatious Aehako when all I want to do is grab him by his horns and insist he take me to his furs. But I've got a terrible secret - the aliens who abducted me are back, and thanks to the translator in my ear, they can find me. My presence here endangers everyone...but can I give up my new life and the man I want more than anything? 

Jason McKay and Shannon Stark, two young Republic Space Fleet Intelligence officers, are given the leadership of a new special ops unit. The mission? Guard the spoiled daughter of an important senator. Neither thought the mission would be anything more than babysitting....Until the aliens invaded the colony. Implacable, relentless, merciless - the armored creatures will slaughter anyone. Survival will be the least of their challenges, as Jason and Shannon are forced to weigh the lives of the people they lead, and the ones they love, against their duty, honor, and planet.

‘Ted Chiang is one of the most exciting writers in science fiction . . . These parables are filled with hope and humanism.’ – The Daily Telegraph From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others – the basis for the Academy Award-winning film Arrival – comes a groundbreaking...