Showing results for "John A" in Hard Science Fiction

Three against the stars! A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention.... First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets.... The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System.... These were the three challenges that tested the skill and minds of the brilliant team of scientist-astronauts Arcot, Wade, and Morey.

The universe is a dangerous place in John Scalzi's Old Man's War, the first in The Old Man's War series. At seventy-five years old, John Perry is after a fresh start - so, naturally, he joins the army. Earth's military machine can transform elderly recruits, restoring their lost youth. But in...

The military SF sequel to his extraordinary Old Man's War, John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades is the second in The Old Man's War series. Who can you trust, if you can't trust yourself? Three hostile alien races have united against humanity, determined to halt our expansion into space. The...

In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.

Hard-core military science fiction at its very best, John Scalzi's The Last Colony is the third in The Old Man's War series. They must save themselves – or die trying. John Perry was living peacefully on one of humanity's colonies – until he and his wife were offered an opportunity these...

Aemilius thought he would die heroically in battle like his forefathers, mourned by a loving wife and many children, but he’s barely a man when a harpy flies down out of the old myths and knocks him from his horse. Stunned and helpless, he waits for his end … and is saved. Formed on the bloody battlefield of Teutoburg, the Hidden Legion are an order of soldiers, magicians, and rogues so secret that the Empire itself would hunt them down if they were exposed. And now Aemilius is one of them.

Lynn Raven thought she was fighting for glory and fortune. Instead, she finds she’s fighting for humanity’s very survival. But how do you defeat something you can’t see or understand? The world’s best and brightest have come together to give humanity a fighting chance, and now Lynn has to find her place in the war effort. Boldness and competence are no longer a gaming mask to put on for the cameras, but a vital mindset shift she needs to survive. Can Lynn and her online persona, Larry, become one, and if they do, will it be enough?

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.

One thousand years after Earth was destroyed in an unprovoked attack, humanity has emerged victorious from a series of terrible wars to assure its place in the galaxy. But during celebrations on humanity’s new homeworld, the legendary Captain Pantillo of the battle carrier Phoenix is court-martialed then killed, and his deputy, Lieutenant Commander Erik Debogande, the heir to humanity’s most powerful industrial family, is framed for his murder.

The UFS Phoenix is finally homeward bound. On the way is Tuki Station, in barabo space, hit just now by a force of sard ships, working in concert with a larger invasion from alo space. An alo and deepynine fleet has attacked, and humanity's forces are in turmoil despite all of Phoenix's efforts over the past three years to prepare them. Nia leads the assault, Styx's old AI queen nemesis from the Drysine/Deepynine War, the greatest armed conflict in Spiral history, 25,000 years ago. But what does Nia seek?

It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.

The planet is called Banshee. The air is unbreathable, the water poisonous. It is the home of the most implacable enemies that humanity, in all its interstellar expansion, has ever encountered. Felix is a scout in A-team Two. Highly competent, he is the sole survivor of mission after mission. Yet he is a man consumed by fear and hatred.

The Lumari Collective stands on the verge of chaos. After a prominent member of their society aided a violent mob, security personnel work to undo his efforts. They turn to the humans caught in the middle, Carson Flint and Nell Brooks, outsiders who might provide an edge against the terrorists. But time is running out, and plans are in motion that may bring the entire civilization to its knees before it can be saved.

Fleeing Earth after an alien invasion, the human race stands on the threshold of evolution. Their new home is Luna, a moon colony blessed with creature comforts, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex changes. But the people of Luna are bored, restless, suicidal - and so is the computer that monitors their existence.

Upon the ancient drysine moon/city of Defiance, the UFS Phoenix is being rebuilt, but her crew cannot do so in peace. Parren factions jostle for control of not only Defiance, but of the drysine data-core that Phoenix won at such an awful price. But the parren do not lay sole claim to that ancient knowledge, and within the bowels of the machine-city, something long-dead is awakening. While aliens battle, Captain Debogande struggles to decide his next step. Human emissaries beckon him home, while a terrible new threat drives him toward the far edge of Spiral space.

One of the greatest science-fiction epics ever written, John Varley's Titan, Wizard, and Demon comprise a groundbreaking trilogy that will live forever. Human explorers have entered the sprawling mind of the alien Gaea. Now they must fight her will. For she is much too powerful. And definitely insane....

A terrorist attack. A daring raid. Ambitious individuals hungry for power. The Crossroads are in trouble. Carson Flint and his team have settled into a quiet life in their establishment. Two newcomers arrive with lofty goals of changing the entire planet. When two members of the community go missing, it acts as a launching point for a chaotic event, leaving the remaining citizens to fight for their lives or lose everything. Meanwhile, Supreme Commander Garvin of the Lumari Collective launches an investigation into a horrendous explosion and an attempted assassination on their queen.

Late in the 26th century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors---alien-killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons---and a renegade named Clavain who is determined to find them. But other factions want the weapons for their own purposes---and the weapons themselves have another agenda altogether.

Separated from her ship, Major Trace Thakur is stranded on the reeh-occupied world of Rando. The native corbi have suffered beneath reeh tyranny for 800 years, and many have given up hope. But Trace needs the data stored in the reeh’s genetic technology and command center - the Rando Splicer - if she’s to learn how to save humanity from impending disaster, and is planning an assault against overwhelming odds. She’ll need help from the UFS Phoenix, though, which is caught in a ritual medieval battle to change the croma leadership.

Deep within hostile Reeh Empire space, the UFS Phoenix is hunting another AI queen. This one is named Chion, and she has been installed at the heart of Reeh Empire power, enslaved against her will, for the past 8,000 years. Within her vast knowledge lies the most intimate data on Nia, the deepynine queen now threatening humanity's very existence. Freeing Chion could be the key to beating Nia and saving humanity. But Phoenix's allied drysine queen, Styx, and Chion's AI former sidekick, Shali, both want Chion for their own purposes.