Showing titles in Hard Science Fiction

NOW THE NO.1 DRAMA IN THE HISTORY OF AppleTV+, SILO. In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo. Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies. To live...

Read by Sophie Aldred (Doctor Who). ‘Thrilling, terrifying and fascinating’ Tim Peake, British ESA astronaut They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . . An utterly gripping story of survival and first contact on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C...

All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.

Get ready to be blown away by this searing standalone science fiction epic where corporate samurai fight beneath merciless stars, and death is always a mere breath away. Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend has to come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she...

Could a robot ever show true creativity? Is it wise to trust self-driving cars? Will robotic body parts transform human beings into machines? Will organic technology allow robots to become human? Featuring Dr. Susan Calvin, Donovan and Powell, and the detective Elijah Baley, hero of the Robot novels, this is the ultimate collection of short stories from a genius of the genre.

A most-anticipated title from USA Today, Goodreads, BookPage, BookRiot, Seattle Times, and The Nerd Daily! Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment of Martha Wells' bestselling and award-winning Murderbot Diaries series. Having someone else support your bad decision...

No one has ever ventured deeper into space than the four astronauts of Shepherd-1. The aim of their mission is to witness the creation of the cosmos. Using the sun as a lens, they are to align a flock of probes in such a way that the moment of the Big Bang becomes visible. For astronomer Christine, this is a dream come true. So she is bitterly disappointed when the first images are obscured by a kind of veil that prevents any insight. She works obsessively to find a solution, but when she finally succeeds in lifting the veil, she sees something that would have been better kept hidden...

The Yellowstone super-eruption has put an end to modern civilization. As cities and countries continue to fall, the colony of Rivendell in the alternate Earth known as Outland looks more and more like the only real hope for humanity. But life in Rivendell isn’t getting any simpler, either. Bill and Kevin continue to discover new worlds; the population continues to rise; winter is approaching; and everyone has their own opinion about how things should be run.

Please note: The original recording has now been replaced with a new performance by Jefferson Mays. If you own this audiobook, simply re-download it from your library to access the new recording. The gates have opened the way to a thousand new worlds and the rush to colonise has begun. Settlers...

An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign; but others, less so… These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you – and you’ll never even know anything changed. And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading. But...

It’s 2555 and the remaining members of the Phoenix colony, both convicts and astronauts, have fully integrated since they were originally downloaded from cryogenic suspension. Now, as the countdown to Earth's final day approaches, two groups of colonists prepare to leave on separate missions.

Bloomsbury presents The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu, read by Jeremy Domingo. NOW A #1 BLOCKBUSTING FILM. The Sun is dying. Earth will perish too, consumed by the star in its final death throes. But rather than abandon their planet, humanity builds 12,000 mountainous fusion engines to propel the...

It has been more than forty years since the publication of this classic science fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space...

He's found a way to end their war, but will humanity survive to see it? Lords of Uncreation is the final high-octane instalment in the Final Architecture space opera trilogy. From Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The series is read by...

For someone who didn't intend to wreck the solar system's fragile balance of power, Jim Holden did a pretty good job of it.While Earth and Mars have stopped shooting each other, the core alliance is shattered. The outer planets and the Belt are uncertain in their new - possibly temporary - autonomy. Then, on one of Jupiter's moons, a single super-soldier attacks, slaughtering soldiers of Earth and Mars indiscriminately and reigniting the war.

Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.

In a time before the Foundations, psychohistory’s creator Hari Seldon is made to stand before the Emperor of the crumbling Galactic Empire to present how his scientific theory of predicting the future might be applied to the real world. However, Hari refuses to deploy his theory for political gain, setting off instead with reporter Chetter Hummin in quest of a place to safely apply his theory: Earth, the original home of humanity. All records of Earth have been lost to time. Hari will therefore have to look back into the past, in order to seal the future of humanity for ever.

In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife-edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace. In the vast space...

Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah - its former owner (protector? friend?) - submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit. But who's going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue? And what will become of it when it's caught?

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.