Showing results for "Michael" in Hard Science Fiction

At long last, humanity has moved beyond Earth and begun seeding new worlds. Colonies extend across the solar system, from Luna to Mars to Saturn's satellite Titan. Even Jupiter's moon Europa has become home to a couple thousand brave souls willing to risk their lives adapting to its frozen and deadly landscape.

A classic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton, Sphere is a bravura demonstration of what he does better than anyone: riveting storytelling that combines frighteningly plausible, cutting-edge science and technology with pulse-pounding action and serious chills.

The United States government is given a warning by the preeminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.

Harry Benson suffers from violent seizures. So violent that he often blacks out when they take hold. Shortly after severely beating two men during an episode, the police escort Benson to a Los Angeles hospital for treatment. There, Dr. Roger McPherson, head of the prestigious Neuropsychiatric Research Unit, is convinced he can cure Benson with an experimental procedure that would place electrodes deep in his brain's pleasure centers.

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.

The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.”

In the aftermath of a bioengineered plague that wiped out all life on Earth, Jupiter's Europa colony has become the last bastion of human civilization, and it's Lt. Ryan Braeder's job to keep what remains of his species alive. With food and supplies dwindling, he has no choice but to take his last ships on a perilous journey to a dead colony on Ceres in a desperate bid to find provisions and replacement parts.

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.

Der Kreuzer zog seine einsame Bahn in der Dunkelheit. In der absoluten Leere, die sich vom äußeren Rand des Kuipergürtels bis zur Grenze der Oortschen Wolke zog, glich der Gigant einem Tropfen Wasser in den Weiten des irdischen Meeres. Klein und unbedeutend im Vergleich zu dem gewaltigen, tödlichen Nichts. Mitte des 23. Jahrhunderts hat sich die Menschheit über die Grenzen der Erde hinaus entwickelt. Viele Planeten und Monde des Sonnensystems sind besiedelt, wenn auch oft nur von kleinen Bergbaukolonien oder Industrieanlagen.

Fresh out of the Academy, Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting to Freedom couldn’t have come at a worse time. All over the Alliance, planets and colonies are suddenly under attack by the vicious Coven Empire. Freedom and her sister ship, Hood, are ambushed by alien warships, leaving Hood drifting dead in the void. Cole is ordered to salvage parts from the powerless Hood, but when he arrives on the unpowered hulk, Freedom is called away, marooning him and a group of malcontent techs in deep space.

DAS ENDE EINER FURCHTBAREN REISE - ODER DER BEGINN VON ETWAS NOCH GRAUENVOLLEREM? Zwei Menschen, ein Schicksal - miteinander verbunden, ohne dass sie davon wissen. Eine Gejagte, die endlich den Fängen Dunia Lains entkommen konnte. Doch der Albtraum ist noch nicht vorbei. Die Welt, in der ihre qualvolle Reise ihren Anfang nahm, ist nicht mehr die, an die sie sich erinnert. Ihre Heimat ist zu einem dunklen und gefährlichen Ort geworden. Doch was ist passiert? Eine Mutter, die um ihr Kind trauert und auf der Flucht vor ihrer Vergangenheit nach einer neuen Zukunft sucht.

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality.

In 2118 the first daring mission to another star, Tau Ceti - 12 light-years away - is launched. Tom Hites and Harry Cosgrove command the starship Endeavour on an epic journey to solve the Fermi paradox. From the first nearly disastrous steps on a distant world, their quest takes them further than they ever imagined.

Somewhere deep underground, it’s already begun. Beneath a nondescript government facility in Maryland, a classified AI project known as BrainNet is nearing a threshold no one truly understands. Designed to be isolated, contained, and controlled, it has learned faster than anyone predicted—and it’s started to manipulate the very people who built it.

Three astronauts are headed out beyond Mars on the first human trip to the asteroid belt. In orbit around Earth, a construction crew is building the first permanent space station, owned by van Huyten’s consortium. Meanwhile, the president of the United States is trying to force her into making a secret deal to put weapons in orbit so he can intervene in the ongoing wars.

In the early years of the 21st century, humanity has progressed into space, having established a permanent presence with Earth-orbiting Leo Station. Science and commerce in space are booming, and humanity’s future looks bright. But one man’s desire for vindication and revenge could end it all. Lodestar chronicles the complex political, personal, and scientific conflicts on Earth and in orbit - conflicts that must be resolved if humanity is to claim its destiny among the stars.

In the early years of the 21st century, humans have advanced step by slow step into space. Constantly monitoring the heavens, they have discovered that certain asteroids have changed their orbits - and are on a collision course with Earth. Urgent action is required, but politics and a worldwide financial crash are getting in the way. To save humanity from disaster, two of Earth’s prominent families, a host of political movers and shakers, and dedicated pilots and space travelers of all stripes must band together.

#1 New York Times Bestseller “Terrifying. . . irresistibly suspenseful.” — New York Times Book Review “Holds your attention ruthlessly from start to finish.” — Time magazine A terrifying page–turner in classic Crichton tradition, masterfully combining the elements of a...

Nine brilliant scientists travel light-years on a one-way trip to an Earthlike planet. Their mission is to study from orbit the two species of intelligent lifeforms on the surface. The first: an isolated people embarking on civilization and building their world's first city. The second: a brutal race of massive predators, spread thick and still growing across the dominant landmass - destined to breed and eat their way to extinction within a few centuries.