Space Science Fiction

The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the 1,300 solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again.

Aiyana and Kendra Cassidy never anticipated becoming the key to humanity's survival. As leaders of the Heavy Lift Corporation, their objective is clear: secure humanity’s future among the stars. Politics? Who needs it, when the galaxy is calling? The consequences of failure are stark: three-quarters of Earth’s population face starvation within decades, and the Solarian Union’s dominance could become unassailable. Success, however, means a rebirth for humanity—a chance to explore the stars, establish new colonies, and reclaim control over their destiny.

It is the dawn of the 21st century, and America is in trouble. Public schools breed apathy and ignorance, and politics has become the art of the quick fix. There is one woman, though, who has both the vision and the money to leverage change. Mariesa Gorley van Huyten, heiress to one of the great American fortunes, is determined to bring America, and the rest of the world, back on track. She founds an educational subsidiary in hopes of raising a new, less cynical generation.

To win the war one man must break the rules of war. Because in the fight against the ruthless Sa’Nerran Empire there is only victory or death. The Sa’Nerra were close to defeat, then everything changed. Armed with a unique neural weapon, the merciless alien warriors turned fleet crew against their own. Entire warships went rogue. Suspicion and fear ran riot. Victory now required new tactics and a new kind of ship and crew.

An attitude? Why not? After all, what would you do if you were abducted by aliens and transported into a strange new universe away from your home, your family - everything familiar to you? Would it make you happy? Not likely! Now imagine you're stronger, faster, and more coordinated than every alien species you encounter. Would you start kicking some ass? Of course you would! This is the story of human superiority in the galaxy, a gritty, realistic profile of a young Navy SEAL who doesn't like aliens very much - and he makes them pay for the bad mood he's in.

When his old Spymaster reappears to help Aatroxiss in his struggles against the Frontier invasions and, ultimately, against the Empire itself, information becomes the most important factor as the number of alien invasions backed by Imperial warships increases dramatically. With too few ships to adequately defend every star system, it's a matter of coming to the rescue too late and hoping to catch and destroy the invading fleets before they can attack again.

Following the success of their Locus Award-winning anthology

The New Space Opera, editors Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan up the ante with

The New Space Opera 2, in which more of the most beloved names in science fiction spin stunning tales of interstellar adventure and wonder.

Reformed, repackaged, and re-engineered, the Stillness reveal that they never went away. They merely waited. Watching. Planning. And those plans will collide with the rising stars of an empire based on justice and action. Out in the deep black, Abel Tudor and his crew will fight to prove that command isn't given, it's earned—and their parents chose well, giving them the helm to a warship that could change history with one fateful journey.

The starship Earthling, filled with thousands of hibernating colonists en route to a new world at Tau Ceti, is stranded beyond the solar system when the ship's three organic mental cores—disembodied human brains that control the vessel's functions—go insane. The emergency skeleton crew sees only one chance for survival: build an artificial consciousness in the Earthling's primary computer that can guide them to their destination—and hope it doesn't destroy the human race.

In the future: A united Earth, to deal with the problem of population control, divides its population into classes of citizen and non-gratis. To be born a non-gratis means a life of little freedoms and the constant possibility of being assigned to work on a colony. Lacking citizenship, every aspect of their life is controlled from where they live down to marriage and childbearing regulations. The only possible escape from life as a non-gratis is to qualify for one of the limited slots available for entrance into the military.

The Blood Angels Chapter of Space Marines is under threat. Having obliterated all human life in the Red Scar region of space, the largest tendril of Hivefleet Leviathan ever seen in the Imperium has converged and is making relentlessly for Baal. To face this awesome foe, Commander Dante has called upon the Successor Chapters of the ancient Ninth Legion. The Sons of Sanguinius gather in numbers not seen since the dark days of the Horus Heresy.

Captain James Decker has lived a life of hunting, killing, and earning credits. To some, it hasn’t amounted to much, but to him, it’s led to him captaining the SC Fortune, a space cruiser with a competent crew that he’s grown fond of. After accepting a bounty hunting mission with a beautiful blonde woman as the mark, Decker finds himself soon without a ship and a crew. But as luck would have it, this same mission gives him back what he lost: a new ship and a new crew.

Jack Bennet returns from the war to find the life he left behind has moved on without him. The only option he has to make ends meet lies in a military surplus junkyard starship. What’s a former Combat Search and Rescue soldier to do? Fix up the ship, hire the cheapest pilot—a notorious drunk—and take the first contract that comes up: collect a bounty on one of the most ruthless killers in the Pirate Worlds, a place crawling with thieves, cutthroats and con artists whose primary language is violence. Jack must abandon his nice guy persona, or exploit it, if he is to survive.

Earth has been warned! But when the Council Navy shows up on their doorstep, they are woefully unprepared. Jinny Ambrosa and Tyrus Tyne have reached Earth and the Four Worlds to warn them of the impending Council invasion. But they soon learn that the Council’s shadowy agents are already there! Spies, traitors, scheming politicians, and deadly assassins will do anything to keep them from accomplishing their mission. Now, on the run from even those they considered allies, can they save humanity from the darkness?

Captain Elya Nevers and the Furies face a different kind of danger back home as they bid farewell to fallen comrades, wade into the murky realm of Solaran politics, and hunt for knowledge about the Telos relics—while being hunted themselves. Overmind X is still at large. She’s hungry to get her talons on the next artifact of alien power. Will she find it before the Solarans get their own house in order? And what terrifying existential threat to the galaxy does she become if they’re too late?

Major Rodger Y. Murphy should have died when his helicopter crashed off the coast of Mogadishu in November, 1993. Instead, he woke up in August, 2125, in a binary star system 152 light years from home. Without any memory of the otherworldly abductors who spirited them away in cold sleep, Murphy and 100 other “Lost Soldiers” have been retrieved and awakened by officers of the Consolidated Terran Republic. Promising to return to the 55 Tauri B system after completing a distant mission, they leave the twentieth century castaways with a daunting objective.

In the not-too-distant future, a 21-member crew launches from Earth. Their mission: to establish a temporary colony on Mars. Little do they know that colony will become permanent–and the last stand of the human race. Because, without warning, every single person left on Earth simply...vanishes. Now, a thousand years later, the resources needed to sustain life are running out, and the very existence of the Mars colony is threatened. Humankind has only one option–to return to its home planet.

Fleet of Worlds takes a closer look at Human-Puppeteer (Citizen) relations and the events leading up to Niven's first Ringworld novel. Kirsten Quinn-Kovacks is among the best and brightest of her people. She gratefully serves the gentle race that rescued her ancestors from a dying starship, gave them a world, and nurtures them still. If only the Citizens knew where Kirsten's people came from.

In war, there is no second place. To ensure victory, planetary governments employ private armies to help fight their battles. And the Berserkers are the best. As the galaxy's preeminent mercenary force, they are hired by governments and corporations to do jobs that are too tough, too messy, or too deadly for their own forces. Expertly trained and equipped with the most advanced weaponry, they are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill a contract - if the price is right.

When Brad Mendoza comes face to face with crack mercenary Billy Firebrand, his supposedly fictional boyhood hero, the results are nearly disastrous. Add in a duplictous princess, a case of blackmail, a kidnapped president, and yet another suicide mission, and it just isn't Brad's day. But hey, at least the ship has a hot tub!