Hard Science Fiction Space Opera

Kas is a junior researcher on a fact-finding mission to old Earth. But when a con-artist tricks her into wagering a large sum of money belonging to her university on the outcome of a manned robot arena battle, she becomes drawn into the seedy underworld of old Earth politics and state-sponsored battle-droid prizefights.

The lost battle of Terra Nova has shown even the biggest skeptics how serious the alien threat really is. The power blocs of the solar system unite for one last cataclysmic showdown. Meanwhile, an unlikely trio races against time to prevent the conflict from reaching Earth. Tsai Yini, the tachyon chronicler, is hoping for help from her father, who has survived a hundred-year journey and seems to have a special relationship with the attackers.

Die Erde wird von terroristischen Organisationen in Angst und Schrecken versetzt. Außerdem treten die Hitschi erstmals in Erscheinung. Aufgeschreckt durch Berichte ihrer Außenposten verlassen sie ihr Schwarzes Loch, um nach dem Rechten zu sehen. Broadheads lange verschollene Geliebte Klara wird von Wan, der in verschiedenen schwarzen Löchern nach seinem verschollenen Vater sucht, kaum gealtert aus dem schwarzen Loch geholt, findet Broadhead aber nur noch als KI vor.

Der mittlerweile schwerreiche Robinette Broadhead finanziert einen Forschungsflug in die Oortsche Wolke, um eine zuvor dort entdeckte Nahrungsmittelfabrik der Hitschi zu untersuchen. Wie bei Gateway handelt es sich um einen ausgehöhlten Asteroiden, angefüllt mit Hitschi-Technik.

Xeno City, a cross roads in a sprawling multi-species galaxy, is also a city brimming with greed, corruption and murder. Wading through this murky cesspool is J. Azize "Jazz" Singer. A private detective pursuing an honest, or not so honest, buck. When Jazz is told of the death of his childhood friend, Erta L’Hotzuma, a death the local law fails to investigate, he sets out to find out who is responsible and why. His investigation, however, soon meets strong and violent resistance and he begins to suspect he has stumbled onto something bigger than just the death of a friend.

John Bandicut and his companions are summoned to a star-cloud called Starmaker, known to humans as the Orion Nebula, to discover what force threatens newborn stars - and possibly every world within a thousand light-years. Their journey takes them not just into the perils of a stellar nursery, but into confrontation with the Mindaru, a billion-year-old AI and adversary of life as they know it. The task is daunting. But with the aid of Deep and Dark, sentient clouds who are perhaps the strangest beings they have met yet in their exceedingly strange journey, there may be hope.

Xenophobia, the fear of that which is alien, different, or strange; it is xenophobia that drove the reptilian natives of Sua’kul into the arms of an alien force even more terrible than that which they feared. Driven by a radicalized ideology and malevolent intervention, the new order on Sua’kul has become a threat to the Empire. In response the half human and half Illani noble family of Valor has been dispatched to subdue the planet before it can become another front in an ever expanding war of alien aggression against the last vestige of human civilization.

The Borwyn remain undeterred as they gather hardware and rally their allies. It’s best not to fight from within a vacuum, unless that vacuum is space, and the fight is between starships. The crew of Chrysalis are challenged afresh when their goal is changed in light of new revelations. Jaq, Crip, Max, and the rest continue their fight against the Malibor in this fast-paced continuation of the Starship series.

Few writers have successful blended hard science and speculation with fully realized characters as Gregory Benford has in his critically acclaimed novels. Now he draws us into a vortex of mystery and danger at the heart of the galaxy in his dazzling epic drama, Furious Gulf.

Millennia of conflict between humans and mechs have driven the human race to near-extinction. Now, as the fierce AI mechs begin their final assault on mankind, it soon becomes apparent that three men – three generations in a family of voyagers – are their targets. Toby Bishop, his father, Killeen Bishop, and his grandfather, Nigel Walmsley, each carry a piece of the lethal secret that can destroy their enemies. But hunted through space and time by relentless assassins, they have no idea that they possess the only weapon that can save humanity.

Still reeling from a former teammate's betrayal, Commonwealth operative Simon Kovalic and his band of misfit spies have no time to catch their breath before being sent on another impossible mission: to pull off the daring heist of a quasi-mythical alien artifact, right out from under the nose of the galaxy's most ruthless crime lord. But their cold war rivals, the Illyrican Empire, want the artifact for themselves. And Kovalic's newest recruit, Specialist Addy Sayers, is a volatile ex-con with a mean hair-trigger who might put the whole mission at risk.

War is bad for business. The crew of the freighter Fives Full want to enjoy the profits of their dangerous voyage; but when war breaks out, they're pressed into service for missions a warship can't do. Winning the war demands pilot Michigan Long act ruthlessly...and it may cost her conscience and her marriage.

The year is AD 2790. With space elevators and giant orbital fleets hovering over Earth, open war looks inevitable, and people are anxious to get away. The lines are drawn, with the Confederacy in the East and the First World Alliance in the West. In hopes of finding a refuge from the looming war, the Alliance is sending Captain Alexander de Leon to explore an Earth-type planet, code-named Wonderland, but at the last minute before launch, a Confederate fleet leaves orbit on a trajectory that threatens both the mission and Alliance sovereignty.

The deep space survey ship Ventura entered orbit and was immediately destroyed. Commander James Worthington and his crew were flying escort when the savage attack hit. With his ship heavily damaged and half of his crew dead, Worthington finds refuge on the dark side of this planet's moon. Plagued with threats from all around, he finds his old friend, Barcus, and tries to bring the remaining survivors together as a team before time runs out.

When 17-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he' s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he' s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still - that he' s been asleep for 14,000 years. Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks.

Captain James Worthington, Roland Barcus and the crew of the deep space survey ship Ventura have been betrayed and blown out of the orbit of the planet Baytirus in a heinous ambush. As they struggle to survive, the crew discovered they were sacrificed to protect a dark agenda. Now that they've fought their way free of their planet-bound trap, the survivors are ready to go home. Whether Earth wants them back or not.

Bruised by tragedy, Space Corps agent Elfrida Goto accepts an assignment on Mercury, the factory of the solar system. But she's soon swept up in an election that could lead to the evacuation of the planet's colonists. Elfrida is torn between doing her job and supporting the colonists, who've built a vibrant underground world. When violence threatens, Elfrida turns for help to a reclusive local corporation that's hiding a terrible secret.

The cryosleep chambers are beginning to fail. Surveillance of Hocklyn space has revealed that the Hocklyns are thirty years ahead of their projected schedule and will soon reach human occupied space. War could break out any day if something isn't done. The human leaders suggest a daring plan to buy them the additional time they need to strengthen the Fleet, as well as the defenses protecting their worlds.

Ignis Glace is a war-torn world of fire and ice. Tidally-locked to its tiny red sun, one side of the planet bakes while the other side is forever frozen. Known as Sunside and Nightside, these two wastelands are bordered by a narrow inhabitable region known as Twilight. Humans and mechs battle for control of their world, even while a third player approaches the game: the Skaintz Imperium. Once the aliens strike, no world is ever the same.

What waits at the galaxy’s core? Joe has begun to realize the full extent of his powers as a Shiva Knight. But the foe he faces is ancient and cunning. It’s a race to the center of the galaxy between Joe and the ruthless bot-man, Fairfax. The enemy’s armies are legion. But for Joe, it’s not about survival anymore. It’s about saving everything he holds dear. Even if it means paying with his life.