Space Opera Comedy

A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented - something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix - part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past.

This dazzling anthology includes epic interstellar adventures, tales of space and wonder, from some of the brightest names in science fiction.

May’s humdrum life is flung into hyperdrive when she’s rescued from an alien abduction by Xan, an alien with a fondness for I Love Lucy who lives on the Audacity. But when Chaos incarnate decides to turn Earth into her personal sandbox, the Audacity and May’s new love of rocket racing are the only things that can stop her.

When petty criminal Cal Carver is locked in a cell with a deranged, semi-naked cannibal, he suspects his life has hit its lowest point. He is mistaken. Abducted by aliens and whisked across the galaxy, Cal is thrown into a team of misfits and criminals and sent on a top secret mission for the president of Space. And that's when everything starts to go very, very wrong....

Clunk, a clapped-out robot, is convinced he's about to be junked. Instead, his penny-pinching boss is sending him off to be refurbished. Being old and wise, Clunk knows there's a catch, but at first it doesn't seem too bad. He just has to help a freelancer pick up some cargo. Unfortunately, Hal Spacejock - the freelancer - is obstinate, over-confident, and woefully under-skilled, and he's never going to let a lowly robot fly his precious ship. Is there any chance this pair of misfits can lift off, collect the cargo and deliver it in one piece?

You think you’re struggling to find your place in the universe? Consider poor old Colin Douglass, a terminally ill insurance agent who awakens from centuries in cryogenic freeze to find Earth is a devastated wasteland. Now, he’s being pursued by a homicidal interstellar tourist board, and calculating insurance dividends is as outdated as making stone axes. Sci-fi-hating technophobe Colin seeks a cure for his illness in this strange new galaxy where toilets talk back, and door handles are a long-forgotten relic.

An overconfident pilot with a stolen spaceship must fix an alien device before time runs out. The Newtonians came to Earth 2000 years ago looking for a place to call home. Earth was perfect, except its sun had a fatal flaw that needed to be corrected. Once it was fixed, they were free to abandon their ship and leave it to orbit the planet below. Earthlings commonly refer to it as the moon.

Andorra Pett’s ex turns up with some bad news. Her best friend Maisie has killed herself, on Mars. Trevor doesn’t believe it. Neither does Andorra; it just wasn’t like her. He wants Andorra to come back with him to look around and see if she can find some answers. Despite her misgivings, Trevor’s paying and says she can take Cy with her. It’ll be a cheap holiday! What can possibly go wrong? It soon becomes clear that there’s a lot more going on. Rival gangs, hidden messages, and new friends all point Andorra toward a much bigger story.

After dealing with killer whales, evil scientists, the return of her long-lost mother, and, certainly not least of all, the challenges of breastfeeding, Elvie Nara has just about had it. And then the Jin'Kai (along with the aforementioned estranged mom) kidnap her baby. And before she knows it, another Jin'Kai attack puts her on the run again, but not before discovering that Olivia was implanted with a genetic tracking device.

Quentin Tipper enlisted because he didn’t want to stay a two-bit hustler like his father. Alvin Phish enlisted to impress his fiance’s father, the Admiral. Together, two nobodies become members of the Intergalactic Space Force and become...still nobodies. But when the ISF is attacked by the mysterious Femen, these two nobodies must answer the call to action.

Handle the most difficult girl in the galaxy, or everything blows up. When an alien princess arrives, a jaded celebrity handler has to keep her happy. But will he manage to get through her visit, when catering to her spoiled needs is the only way to prevent her from exploding the Earth, when rebels are trying to assassinate her, and when he starts to seriously fall in love with her?

Alfredo García Torrecilla era un hombre gris condenado a una vida gris, un profesor de Historia deprimido y deprimente cuya existencia entera no había sido más que un continuo ir de fracaso en fracaso. Todo cambió el día en que descubrió que un mundo secreto se escondía entre las líneas de la realidad, un mundo repleto de portentos y locura, de casas encantadas, de tecnología extraña, de dragones parlantes y de magia... Todo cambió el día en que descubrió que Elvis Presley seguía vivo.

Pia is a stunning woman, whose genius is sought after by the handful of multinational corporations left fighting for control over the ravaged Earth of 2056. As rampant starvation and climate destruction sweep across the planet, a final war seems inevitable both on Earth and in the Lunar Colonies. Rebel groups use cyberwarfare and brain network attacks in a seemingly futile attempt to stop the Multinats. Now Natocorps has a daring plan for how to become the sole surviving global power, but should they be helped or stopped?

That is Fanner Marston’s mantra—his reason for being—and while he knows a little about the first and a lot about the second, he may well be on the verge of learning everything there is to know about the third. Power. He may, in fact, be about to uncover the key to gaining absolute control over the entire universe. The only problem is, Fanner is certifiably insane.... His starship has crash-landed, and he’s the sole survivor, which doesn’t matter to him.

Rookie police officer Dana Loy is about to cross paths with a love-struck robot out for revenge, unscrupulous alien scavengers, an entire fleet of pirates, and a psychotically single-minded criminal mastermind. And it's only her first day on the job....

Firsten Guide is a tough, wise-cracking rebel leader who’s light years ahead of his time - and about to lead his crew into a battle that’s Beyond All Weapons. He and his fellow colonizers of Mars have faced a brutal crackdown engineered by Earth’s tyrannical government. But the resourceful Firsten has developed an extraordinary new fuel that enables him and his hardy band to escape into space - and time.