Hard Science Fiction

Quirk and Moth have avoided killing each other long enough to solve another case. They decide on a local job next, and take up the search for a missing scientist. How could Quirk know this new mystery put them on a headlong collision course with his troubled past, a plethora of personal issues, and a hoard of genetic hybrid creatures with an appetite for anything that moves? When their client dies in mysterious circumstances, law enforcement pursues the dysfunctional duo all the way to a research lab in frozen Yellowknife.

Now that the truth of the genetic experiments on Mars has been revealed, new missions are on their way to gain control of this extraordinary technology. In the process, they seek to exploit and enslave the colonists—turning them into nothing more than lab rats. Worse, these newcomers are well armed, and prepared to go to war with each other to win control of the colony and its people.

Professor Elliot Brand was done with adventures. When his former lover Ashra Shah calls him to Antarctica, he knows he is getting himself into trouble. Guarded by a military unit, hidden deeply in the uninhabitable parts of the frozen continent, a ruin was found that could be the most significant archeological find in history. Elliot Brand doesn't need long to understand that if they don't act fast, it might very well be the last one, too...

Introducing "The Monsters" by Robert Sheckley, a thrilling sci-fi audiobook that explores the fascinating and bizarre world of a distant planet inhabited by sentient aliens who refer to themselves as "humans." On this strange planet, the aliens may look nothing like us, but their society is both intriguing and terrifying. While they pride themselves on being rational and ethical beings, their tendencies towards violence and argumentation make them truly monstrous. Witness their struggles with truth and deception.

How can a colony on Mars survive when the greatest danger on the planet is humanity itself. All contact is lost with the first human colony on Mars during a long, intense sandstorm. Satellite imagery of the aftermath shows extensive damage to the facility, and the fifty-four colonists who called it home are presumed dead. Three years later, a new mission sets down on the planet surface to investigate what remains of the derelict site.

Rory travels to the Moon, encountering her grandfather's footprints from fifty years ago. She returns to her parent's home, eager to forget about the last few weeks, but the Shadow persists. Silas and Cody are covertly led to the Planetae laboratory but quickly realize there's more to the tokens than their initial assumptions. Waylen struggles to maintain peace as the walls between organizations crumble. When one of his closest allies betrays them, Waylen's trust is shattered.

Children of Delcath weaves themes of identity, duty, ambition, and the interplay between human emotion and artificial intelligence into the background of a riveting coming-of-age tale. Afrit, a young miner on Kur Colony, grapples with societal expectations and personal dreams as she is embroiled in corporate manipulation and nepotism.

Kill or be killed. Take the fight to the enemy, only until you can't. Then repair, regroup, rearm, and return to the fight. Unless the enemy shows up before you're ready. Then you get ready. There are no do-overs in war. While the battle rages in space, the Borwyn decide to put boots on the ground in a daring, risk-all return to Septimus. The combat team is tasked to disrupt strategic communications. Is it even possible?

Humanity has taken to the stars, using faster-than-light travel to reach distant planets and new worlds. But in the far reaches of the galaxy, John Grant will discover a planet of humans who believe he has travelled not only through space to find them, but time. On Apis, the mysterious Fermi appear to have vanished, taking with them knowledge of the universe that humanity desires. But Marcus Owen, the robot AI now plagued with sentience, knows that the Fermi would not easily abandon the native life of Apis.

All that stands in their way is the mighty Space Fortress Tallinn, but even its garrison, starfighters, and orbital defences are no match for hundreds of thousands of Vrokan terror soldiers that swamp the planetoid. To make matters worse, special operatives attack from within, even arming prisoners locked deep in the heart of the fortress. The fortress cannot hope to stop the invasion, but every extra hour they fight gives the Leningrad Metropolis, heart of the city planet Neva time to ready their defences against the inevitable onslaught.

The difference between a man and a robot is not that one has a soul. The difference is that man can choose to ignore it. The Uberbots have taken over. The few human survivors remain hidden. Returning from an excursion that began before the revolution, Thomas walks through his ominously silent city until he comes face to face with his creation: the Uberbots. Captured and imprisoned, Thomas is brought before the Uberbots and given a task only he, as the creator of the Uberbots, can achieve. While keen on escaping, Thomas quickly learns the Uberbots are not easily overcome.

The day that changed Melody's life was like any other over the previous two years. She'd found she had a gift for writing, and her career as an author had almost healed the pain of losing her job. When the Secret Service rang her bell, everything changed. Something was nearing Saturn…and it was slowing down. Had she been right about the object?

Ariock Dovanack never asked to be a hero, let alone a demigod. But when a prophecy deemed him "The One," he dutifully amassed thousands of messianic followers in the sun-starved civilization beneath the Torth Empire's capital. Now, destined to lead the cave-dwelling Alashani people into the light of other worlds, he and a small army must first annihilate the formidable telepaths who guard the city's spaceport. By Ariock's side is Thomas Hill. A Torth/human hybrid, Thomas may be physically vulnerable, but he's also a telepathic supergenius.

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.