Space First Contact

The Devil's Heart is a legendary object of unsurpassed power and mystery. Worlds that believe in magic consider it Darkness's mightiest talisman; and worlds of science consider it a lost artifact of some ancient and forgotten race. Some say the Heart enables its possessor to control people's minds and to amass wealth enough for a dozen lifetimes, while others think it capable of raising the dead, perhaps even changing the flow of time itself. But to all, the location of this fabled object has remained a mystery, until now.

On Earth, the moratorium on mercenary contracts is disrupting Jim Cartwright’s efforts to stand up the new Terran Federation. Making matters worse, Jim has received intelligence that someone is squatting on asteroids in our Solar System...and Sansar Enkh is pretty sure they don’t have Earth’s best interests in mind. Fearing the aliens have plans for another invasion - or worse - Jim takes his ship, Bucephalus, and sets off to investigate.

The invasion has begun. On the capital world of Vassar-1, the Allied Independent Colonies find themselves in a race against time to stop a terrorist plot that could bring chaos to the galaxy. As the terror spreads, Earth provides nothing but deception and subterfuge. With time running out, it's up to Ben and Ada to deliver an AIC agent with vital information. But not everything is what it seems.

"One of the best long-running SF series in existence" ( Publishers Weekly) continues with the second novel in a brand-new Foreigner sequence. The civil war among the alien Atevi has ended. Tabini-aiji, powerful ruler of the Western Association, along with Cajeiri, his son and heir, has returned to the Bujavid, his seat of power. But factions that remain loyal to the opposition are still present, and the danger these rebels pose is far from over.

It is 2076: Lancer, Earth’s first starship, is on a mission to find interstellar civilizations. Although astronaut Nigel Walmsley’s experiences with alien encounters make him the expert, no one believes Nigel’s theory that machines are the dominant intelligent beings left in the galaxy and that their purpose is to annihilate all organic life. Then the explorers discover once-living planets where only machines remain – and ruined worlds where fugitive survivors must evade omnipresent and lethally advanced A.I. warships.

When a new Srack overlord ambushes Jake and his apprentices, they are served a painful lesson in humility. Only the timely arrival of Vilak, The One Who Vanishes, saves their lives, and that isn't going to work twice. The fate of Earth, Calden, and several other planets is at stake. Fortunately, the events of the past have provided a plan for the future. All they must do is find four ancient weapons and pass a series of tests on the Ulniiri homeworld. Then the real fighting can begin.

Now the McCormacks are finally going to get into space. At least if the big governments on Earth don’t stop them. They’ve managed to accumulate enough money to build a city, and now they’re going to build a space station that will create a safe place to manufacture their new technology, and a way to demonstrate to the world that humans have a future in space. But as they demonstrate more advanced technology, they attract more interest from the world’s governments. What will it take to keep their dream alive?

The McCormacks have a starship, and now, they need a safe place to start harvesting the technology. They’re starting with a place in the Cook Islands, but to succeed, they have to avoid spies, figure out how to manufacture the new technology using Earth-based tools, and then introduce it without getting into too much trouble with the governments and big corporations of Earth.

Lieutenant Callum Harper hadn't intended on punching his commanding officer quite so hard. But maybe it wasn't such a bad turn of events. Court-martialed and dumped on a reject raft bound for Earth, Cal feels optimistic about a life where getting blown up, shot, or even eaten is altogether less of a concern. And, more importantly, a life where the only person he's responsible for is himself.

After the end of the Enterprise™'s five-year mission, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy struggle to establish new lives apart from one another and the starship. The newly promoted Admiral Kirk is placed in charge of a specially created Starfleet division and attempts to defuse a critical hostage situation; Mr. Spock, who, in the midst of a teaching assignment on Vulcan, finds the one thing he least expected; and Dr. McCoy, whose unerring instinct for trouble lands him smack in the middle of an incident that could trigger an interstellar bloodbath.

Sixty-seven years ago the Qash'vo'tar conquered Earth. Ever since then, the aliens had ruled from above. The Qash'vo'tar did not care what humanity did on the ground, as long as they didn't attempt to build anything that could get them to the stars. And now, sixty-seven years after they had been conquered, it was time for humanity to show the Qash'vo'tar that they had been right to fear humanity.

A secret backdoor meeting between Ambassador Ode Abumwe and the Conclave’s Hafte Sorvalh turns out to be less than secret, as both of their ships are attacked. It’s a surprise to both teams - but it’s the identity of the attacker that is the real surprise, and suggests a threat to both humanity and The Conclave. "A Problem of Proportion" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

At last, the Earth and the Colonial Union have begun formal discussions about their relationship in the future - a chance for the divisions in humanity to be repaired. The diplomats and crew of the Clarke are on hand to help with the process, including Ambassador Ode Abumwe and CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson, both of whom were born on Earth. But not everyone wants the human division to be repaired.... And they will go to great lengths to make sure it isn’t....

Ava is a human servant aboard an alien Phor transport spaceship. The ship specializes in transporting cargo, and Ava tends to the engine. An alien Vorbax is brought on board to be transported to an enemy planet for a war crimes trial. But is he really a helpless prisoner? Why does Ava feel drawn to him? Will she become part of his plans? Now Ava is caught in the middle of something bigger than her heart and certainly bigger than what the ship she's on can handle.

After the vicious attacks on Victoria Bravo, Commander Tara Mason and the newly formed Force 25 have no time to refit and reconstitute their depleted forces. Deputized by the Peacemaker Guild and charged with a time-sensitive mission - finding James “Snowman” Francis - Tara and her mercenaries deploy to the wintry world of Snowmass to follow a 50-year-old lead on Snowman’s disappearance. Snowmass, though, is far from peaceful.

They have absolute power; after all, they are the ones with the weapons. The only other armed agency, the Peacemaker Guild, is far smaller and unable to bend them to their will. But absolute power has the tendency to corrupt absolutely, and this is becoming increasingly apparent as the guild’s members pursue their hidden agendas.

In an effort to improve relations with the Earth, the Colonial Union has invited a contingent of diplomats from that planet to observe Ambassador Abumwe negotiate a trade deal with an alien species. Then something very bad happens to one of the Earthings, and with that, the relationship between humanity’s two factions is on the cusp of disruption once more. It’s a race to find out what really happened, and who is to blame. "The Observers" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Jim Cartwright, commander of Cartwright’s Cavaliers and Minister of War for the Terran Federation, has been struggling with all the hats he has to wear. Merc commander, minister, and leader of Earth’s Raknar forces for their allies, the Dusman. The strain’s causing him…issues, and he decides to visit the surviving human colonies to get away for a bit.

Earth is a distant memory. Habitable extrasolar planets are still out of reach. For generations, humanity has been clinging to survival by establishing colonies within enormous vacuum-breathing space beasts and mining their resources to the point of depletion. Rash, dreamy, and unconventional, Seske Kaleigh should be preparing for her future role as clan leader, but her people have just culled their latest beast, and she’s eager to find the cause of the violent tremors plaguing their new home.

Kanti had spent many sleepless nights torturing himself with thoughts of the day when he would give up on returning to Tish. Old and grey, back-stooped from decades of labor, he would try to get up out of bed, and change his mind. Why bother? He couldn’t have been more wrong. He was still young, his pelt still tanned, and his back didn’t hurt when he rose. Everything had conspired to keep the two lovers apart: rivals, foes, distance. Now, he needs his friends’ help more than ever if he wants his old life back.