Space Exploration Fiction

Nearly two decades prior, generation ship Kap’s Needle left Earth to start a new colony on what was believed to be a life-sustaining planet. The mission came with promises of generational wealth, fame, and glory for all ninety thousand passengers aboard. But after arriving on what was to be their new home, those promises quickly evaporated. The mission had become a spectacular failure and the crew a maligned disgrace.

They say you can’t go home again… …especially if you’re the governing mind for an interstellar military starship. It's official: Sergeant Henry Morgan has now spent more time as a starship than he spent dead. His mission is more than a century old, but in some ways, he feels like it's just begun. A desperate distress call from Earth has brought him back to his old cosmic stomping grounds, for your standard save-humanity-from-extinction-by-alien-constructs operation.

Bienvenido est en crise. Après avoir échappé au Vide, la planète dérive à des millions d'années-lumière du Commonwealth. Sa population humaine ne peut compter que sur elle-même pour vaincre les Fallers, des créatures extraterrestres traquant toute forme de vie intelligente, capables d'infiltrer une société humaine et de prendre la place de ses citoyens en alimentant une méfiance généralisée.

Damien Montgomery, Hand of the Mage-King of Mars, has dealt with pirates, conspiracies, terrorists, and space battles in the service of his King. A warrior-judge charged to maintain peace across the stars of the Protectorate, he is well overdue for a vacation. Most people's idea of a vacation isn't a murder investigation, but the Hands aren't most people. A quiet task on an isolated research base seems the perfect mission to Damien and his King alike—until the discoveries of that remote archeology site bring fire and death down on Damien and the scientists alike!

The universe is hungry. For power. For money. For war. And—revenge. Stripping osmium from across the stars, thieves will stop at nothing to fuel the nightmarish industry of Stolen Persons, their souls locked away in chips made of the rarest metal known. Among these thieves is Helum Gauss, the visionary criminal whose empire spans a hundred worlds. But his massive corporation, BeneStar, lost—badly—to Van and the Guild, and Gauss won’t take no for an answer.

Van and his crew have killed an empire. The problem is the empire doesn’t know it’s dead. Moving among the stars, the Peacemakers are faced with their greatest challenge—removing an evil so vast, it has a presence in every known star system. To that end, they’ll need to move quickly. To do so, they must be mobile, and that means big changes in their tactics. . . and their crew. With the help of a shadowy figure known as the Body Thief, Van will continue his policy of justice and freedom for all citizens, even if they began life on a computer chip.

Humanity is on the brink of annihilation. Only one man can turn the tide. For centuries, we explored the stars and settled new worlds. But a mysterious alien threat emerged, launching devastating attacks and seizing entire star systems. Every fifty years they come, silent and relentless, before disappearing again into the dark. And as they close in on humanity’s home worlds, one more defeat could mean total extinction.

On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process. Elma York’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.

Van's next mission has begun, and at the heart of it is the power to save lives. Meanwhile, a hungry galaxy looks to a brilliant young scientist for answers, making her the most wanted person in known space. After years of research, Adayluh Creel perfects a resource to feed sixteen races—or more—all with one golden plant capable of growing on the most hostile worlds. For her efforts, she wants nothing, but savage forces will seek to possess what she would give away for free, thus controlling the food source for billions of people.

Nothing brings change like war. A surge of new tech. New weapons. New tactics. To lead a crew to victory, a captain must understand change. He must understand command and that it is a test. A test most men fail. He must be brilliant. Resourceful. Every second. Of every day. And at night during scarce moments of rest, he must sleep the sleep of the righteous. The time has come for Commander Tad Thatcher to look in the mirror. The time has come to ask himself...am I that kind of man?

The comparative utopia of 23rd-century Earth is about to go dreadfully awry when a seemingly benign alien race is abruptly revealed to be one of the worst threats humanity has ever faced. Driven by an intense religious extremism, the Olyix are determined to bring everyone to their version of god as they see it. But they may have met their match in humanity, who are not about to go gently into that good night or spend the rest of their days cowering in hiding.

Phssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission was to save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years before.

Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days, and Brennan figured to meet that ship first.

Jeff Dolan always wanted to be an astronaut. After helping a private space company build a ship that can travel to Saturn's largest moon in five months, he gets his chance. Shortly after launch, a devastating malfunction forces Jeff and the crew to make a choice: continue to Titan or go back home. As the truth about their mission unravels, one thing is clear: Someone on Earth knew about the system flaw and covered it up. Yet surviving the journey isn't the crew's only concern. Even if they make it to Titan, they will face another problem: Something is already there.

Roy Court and his crew are taking the trip of a lifetime—several lifetimes in fact—duplicated and dispatched across the galaxies searching for Earthlike planets. Many possibilities for the future. Yet for Roy, no matter how many of him there are, there’s still just one painful, unchangeable past. In what world can a broken relationship be reborn? The universe is so vast, there’s always room for hope.

In the future, venturing out into the stars is more than a way for humanity to chart the cosmos—it's big business. Every time a new planet is discovered, the highest bidder gets first dibs with exclusive property rights for a year. Anything they can find, they can keep. The planet Limbo was considered a waste of rock to most, which is the only reason apprentice cargo master Dane Thorson and the rest of the crew of the Solar Queen could afford to bid on it. But they soon discover that Limbo is far from uninhabited, the Solar Queen is far from the first ship to explore it.

Van is a veteran now, and the lessons are getting tougher. But so is he. When a ghost ship arrives in port, filled with the victims of a crime beyond imagination, Van and his crew will be drawn into a chase that goes beyond any star system the Peacemakers know.

Look outward beyond the stars with six stories from bestselling visionary authors. An AI awakens to its purpose. A researcher seeds a thousand new worlds for one more chance at love. A murder rocks the crew of an interstellar ship. With a sweeping sense of wonder, these stories explore the galaxy . . . and the horizons of humanity’s potential.

Mercenary life is hard. No home. No family. Always looking over your shoulder, likely for the rest of your life. When you find a crew that you can trust, you do anything for them. Jason Burke has a crew like that. He would kill for them...and he would die for them. Right now, they need his help, and it will take all of his cunning and skill to bring them home safely. He is alone, without his powerful ship, the Phoenix, and the criminal cartels he’s going up against are some of the most ruthless in the galaxy. For Captain Burke it’s all or nothing: bring his friends home safe...or die trying.

Hiding from her problems as she vacations at a beach house, Gloria's only concerns are walking her dog, relaxing by the pool, and kayaking. Then she spots a strange sea-creature stalking her as she paddles around a secluded cove.