Hard Contact

After a long journey to Saturn’s moon Enceladus, spaceship ILSE is on its way back to Earth, carrying crucial cargo. The crew is exhausted and wants nothing more than a quick return home. Suddenly, a chain of malfunctions puts the expedition in peril. The difficulties appear to be related to planet Jupiter, whose orbit they are crossing. Is it the giant planet itself that won’t let these travelers pass? ILSE’s crew is heading toward catastrophe as an unknown power is forging plans designed to influence the future of human civilization.

Ein Jahr ist seit den Geschehnissen auf der Venus vergangen. Holmgren hat alles verloren: seine Kameraden, seine große Liebe – und den Glauben an die Zukunft. Unverhofft holt ihn ein alter Bekannter für eine allerletzte Mission zurück. Diesmal steht das Schicksal aller Menschen und Pneumoiden auf dem Spiel. Denn während Europäer, Amerikaner und Chinesen einen brüchigen Frieden aushandeln, braut sich ein neuer Sturm zusammen, der alles zu zerstören droht.

Kaum haben es Holmgren und seine Begleiter unter Aufbietung ihrer letzten Kräfte zurück auf die Raumstation Utopia geschafft, entbrennt der Konflikt um das Sonnensystem mit neuer Intensität. Die Außerirdischen schlagen schnell und hart zu. Durch das sogenannte Kessler-Syndrom, eine undurchdringliche Trümmerwolke im Erdorbit, ausgelöst durch eine künstlich erzeugte Sonneneruption, wird der Großteil der Menschheit auf der Erdoberfläche eingesperrt. Die Nationen versinken im Chaos, die Raumfahrt bricht zusammen, und im Sonnensystem herrscht Ausnahmezustand.

The diplomatic mission from Earth to World ended in disaster, as the Earth scientists discovered that the Worlders were not the scientifically advanced culture they believed. Though they brought a limited quantity of the vaccine against the deadly spore cloud, there was no way to make enough to vaccinate more than a few dozen. The Earth scientists, and surviving diplomats, fled back to Earth. But once home, after the 28-year gap caused by the spaceship transit, they find an Earth changed almost beyond recognition.

Russian billionaire Nikolai Shostakovitch makes an offer to the former crew of the spaceship ILSE. He will finance a return voyage to the icy moon Enceladus. The offer is too good to refuse - the expedition would give them the unique opportunity to recover the body of their doctor, Dimitri Marchenko. Everyone on board knows that their benefactor acts out of purely personal motivations... but the true interests of the tycoon and the dangers that he conjures up are beyond anyone's imagination.

A visceral space thriller—perfect for fans of Arrival and The Martian—following the sole survivor of a catastrophic accident in space that leaves her drifting in the void with only the voice of her estranged husband, a NASA scientist, to guide her back to Earth. Commander Maryam “May”...

When Ben Saito goes searching for his father and the fate of the powerful starship sent on a mission to secure peace with Earth's colonies, he finds more questions than answers. It's clear that at least some of the starship and her crew survived, but where have they gone?

Years have passed since Earth encountered its first known interstellar object: Oumuamua. Now an even larger one has been discovered, following the exact same trajectory as its predecessor. Scientists around the world theorize that this can no longer be passed off as mere coincidence - the new contact must be an artificial construct of some kind.

Anomaly examines the prospect of an alien intelligence discovering life on Earth. The technological gulf between humanity and the alien species is measured in terms of millions of years. The only way to communicate is using science, but not everyone is so patient. Humanity's first contact with an alien intelligence is far more radical than anyone has ever dared imagine. With a technological gap of millions of years, mankind is barely able to recognize the arrival of an alien space craft outside the gates of the United Nations in New York.

It is 2019. NASA astronaut Nigel Walmsley is sent on a mission to intercept a rogue asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Ordered to destroy it, he instead discovers that it is actually the shell of a derelict space probe - a wreck with just enough power to emit a single electronic signal….

Marc and Emma are on the graveyard shift onboard the Sycorax, an interstellar spacecraft bound for New Haven, a colony world fifty light years from Earth. For the crew of the Sycorax, interstellar flight is boring—that is, until they run into a tempest. Before long, they find themselves on a crippled spacecraft falling toward a black hole, but that's the least of their problems...

Months after the expedition through the portal, Tyler Drake is still struggling with the gruesome consequences. So the call for help from Mexico comes just in time: Adriana's brother is missing—and seems to have made the journey alone to the world beyond the cave. Another race against time begins—and this time, the team has to contend with not only the dangers of an exotic world but also with terrestrial adversaries and an extraterrestrial threat, the existence of which they never even suspected. Will they succeed in saving not just one boy but an entire world?

In a universe where the laws of physics and the speed of light are completely alien to our own, the travelers on the ship Peerless have completed a generations-long struggle to develop advanced technology in a desperate attempt to save their home world. But as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: The prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future.

Nothing in Kalinda's plans includes crash-landing on a backwards sand planet full of lizard-aliens. But when she spots Warlord Nakan, she's willing to take a little detour. He's a sexy, muscular scaled creature that she wouldn't mind...studying. But no matter how interested she is, and no matter how much he lights her up inside, she's determined to get off his godforsaken planet.

This boxed set contains 3 complete science-fiction novels. This is science-fiction at its best - future engineering, intrigue, first contact. It’s a space opera like none you’ve experienced before. The audiobooks will keep you listening late into the night, and you won't be able to stop....

How did our long-lost ancestors affect our past? More importantly, how will they affect our future? Mark and Julie are brilliant scientists and Major Reagan has kept them and others alive to this point, but the most dangerous confrontations will not be with the Noridians, it will be with the Lower Houses of The Accord. Destiny is a thought-provoking journey that will cause you to inspect your basic values.

Copilots Msizi and Tariro are testing a newly constructed wormhole jump that presumably leads to unsettled habitable worlds. Then an explosion sends them off course, far from where they started and with little chance of ever making it back. Now they’re stranded on their new home for the diaspora. It’s called Malcolm X-b. But they’re beginning to wonder how many light-years from civilization they really are.

The third book in the Web Shifter's Library series returns to the adventures of Esen, a shape-shifting alien who must navigate the perils of a hostile universe.

Esen's back! And the dear little blob is in trouble, again. Things began so well. She and her human friend Paul Ragem are ready to celebrate the first anniversary of their greatest accomplishment, the All Species' Library of Linguistics and Culture, by welcoming his family back. He hopes. Having mourned his supposed death years ago, understandably, feelings are bent. Instead, they’ve unexpected guests, starting with an old acquaintance.

There's no resisting a desire like this MMA fighter Miles Dartman's casual arrangement with personal shopper Maxi Nevar would be many men's fantasy. She seeks him out, they have mindblowing sex, she leaves. Rinse, repeat. Yet lately, Miles wants more. And when Maxi requests his services via...