Showing titles in Hard Science Fiction

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.

A robopsychologist must outwit a machine determined to stay hidden in "Little Lost Robot"; a woman’s talent for "Light Verse" overshadows her true accomplishments with her robot servants; "The Last Question" presented to computer after computer over a hundred billion years may remain forever unanswered … and seventeen more future visions from the grand master of science fiction.

When a colonist dies in tragic circumstances, just a few sols before a major terraforming experiment, Dr. Jann Malbec begins to suspect that all is not what it seems.

For a century, Humanity has lived in a fragile “balance” with the all-powerful sentient AI, Heimer, a precarious peace enforced by the iron fist of the Ensemble Accords. But when a routine deep-space probe intercepts an impossible signal, it reveals the ultimate prize, a colossal, artificial construct known only as Stapledon Station. Now, the UN ship Kia-Kaha has made arduous journey across the vast vacuum of space, carrying Humanity’s finest minds and most guarded secrets. Among them is Xenoarchaeologist Clio Cormack, a brilliant but impulsive scientist with a history of pushing boundaries.

Could a robot ever show true creativity? Is it wise to trust self-driving cars? Will robotic body parts transform human beings into machines? Will organic technology allow robots to become human? Featuring Dr. Susan Calvin, Donovan and Powell, and the detective Elijah Baley, hero of the Robot novels, this is the ultimate collection of short stories from a genius of the genre.

The Departure is the first gripping book in Neal Asher's near-future, science fiction Owner series. The Argus Space Station looks down on a nightmarish Earth. And from this safe distance, the Committee enforces its despotic rule. There are too many people and too few resources, and they need...

No one can outrun the past in Brass Man, is the third novel in Neal Asher's popular Agent Cormac series. Imperfectly resurrected by Jain technology, Mr Crane is back from the dead. The brass killing machine is haunted by a violent past he can’t fully forget or truly remember. He seeks to heal...

An epic collection of science fiction tales around space exploration and cosmic horror by the #1 bestselling author of A Game of Thrones – with the titular story, Nightflyers, coming to Netflix in 2018. On a voyage toward the boundaries of the known universe, nine misfit academics seek out...

The race to Mars is not without its peril. As the world’s superpowers vie for supremacy in space, the true intent of the aliens, and the ultimate destiny for the human species, is revealed. Can the world marshal the will and resources of its people to strike back and take control of its own fate? Can NASA, led by Richard “Rock” Crandon, and America’s adversaries find the ultimate courage to face what lies at Discovery’s End and save the world?

A self-proclaimed Tyrant controls the colony ship still orbiting overhead—a fortress that should have been dismantled to build their new world. Armed with surveillance drones and brutal enforcers, he's turned a struggling settlement into his personal kingdom. Anyone who defies him vanishes into the ship above, never to return.

From the writer whose name is synonymous with the science of robotics comes five decades of robot visions - 36 landmark stories and essays, plus three rare tales - gathered together in one volume.

Captain Jason Burke is a man apart, and not just because he's the only of his kind for thousands of light-years in any direction. The changes to his body and to his genetic code have made him faster, stronger, more able to survive in his dangerous occupation...but they've also ensured that he'll never truly fit in with others of his species. He always assumed he would live and die with his crew and never lay eyes on another human again. He was wrong.

The military SF sequel to his extraordinary Old Man's War, John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades is the second in The Old Man's War series. Who can you trust, if you can't trust yourself? Three hostile alien races have united against humanity, determined to halt our expansion into space. The...

When a brilliant scientist gets a letter from herself about faster-than-light travel, she doesn't know what to believe. The equations work, but her paper is discredited - and soon the criticism is more than scientific. Exiled by the establishment, she gets an offer to build her starship from an unlikely source. But in the heights of Venus and on a planet of another star, a secret is already being uncovered that will shake humanity to its foundations.

Wormhole technology has revealed that our sun will die in 5,000,000 years. A race of superbeings, the fabulous Xeelee, owners of the universe, are thought to be responsible. The bizarre and wealthy cult, the Superet, funds two projects aimed at combatting the force that will murder the sun.

Throughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art of war has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe. Donal Graeme is Dorsai, taller and harder than any ordinary man. But he is different as well, with talents that maze even his fellow Dorsai. And once he ventures out into the stars, the future will never be the same....

Telekinetic is the first of a series of post-apocalyptic stories featuring the Hyllis family. The collapse of civilization has reduced their people back to iron and horsepower. The Hyllises tend to inherit “tele-talents” such as telekinesis and teleportation. Tarc Hyllis’ mother (and his grandfather before her) could “feel” things with their talent. Tarc’s father can “push” objects with his mind. Then some strangers show up to scout the town where the Hyllises live. Could Tarc’s powers, weak as they are, play a role in resisting this invasion?

A lonely planet circles a star on the very border of Province 921. Critical resources produced there are claimed by both the Mogwa and the Skay. War between the Galactic giants becomes more likely every day.

Grad-school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when, while measuring quantum relationships between gravity and light, his calibrator disappears - and reappears, one second later. In fact, every time Matt hits the reset button, the machine goes missing twelve...

'An absolute masterpiece of a book: ingenious, touching, sharp-edged. North is one of the imaginative greats' Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time From the multi-award-winning Claire North comes an extraordinary and epic tale of time travel, betrayal and a love that echoes through the...