Space Exploration Science Fiction

The science fiction genre has become increasingly influential in mainstream popular culture, evolving into one of the most engaging storytelling tools we use to think about technology and consider the shape of the future. Along the way, it has also become one of the major lenses we use to explore important philosophical questions. The origins of science fiction are most often thought to trace to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, a story born from a night of spooky tale-telling by the fireside that explores scientific, moral, and ethical questions that were of great concern in the 19th century - and that continue to resonate today.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

Zero, Nyx, and the other Pathfinder colonists have adjusted to life on Kaguya. But Earth has built much faster starships-the Dreamcatcher arrives 10 years early, and the Stargazer arrives so early it actually got there before the Pathfinder did! Now the Stargazer is a lost shipwreck, and the race is on to find it, and who should show up looking for it but Nyx's dangerous family: Big Mama, Jim, and Kratt. Nyx and Zero will face kidnappers, pirates, shipwrecks, warlords, dragons, and maybe a new ally or two on their way to save the day once again.

After 25 years serving as the human Monitor of the Interstellar Ark, Hermes, Orion is scheduled to be placed back into hibernation with the other crewmembers. Knowing he'll die there and be replaced before the ship's voyage is over, he decides that he won’t — can’t — accept that fate. Whatever it takes, Orion will escape Hermes and see what's beyond, even if it means defying the regulations of his only friend — the ship-wide artificial intelligence known as Dan.

It’s the end of term, and the students are in the grip of revision fever…until a real fever takes over. The only possible cure lies in a distant nebula, but with the whole school under quarantine, who will be brave enough to go and get it?

Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.

‘Ted Chiang is one of the most exciting writers in science fiction . . . These parables are filled with hope and humanism.’ – The Daily Telegraph From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others – the basis for the Academy Award-winning film Arrival – comes a groundbreaking...

A cease-fire that has lasted seven years... Worlds half-destroyed that have been rebuilt anew... Friends and crewmates scattered light-years apart... New leaders that would be kings... The Jung threat has been renewed, in ways not imagined. It will take a new savior to inspire the masses, and once again lead those willing to fight against oppression. But who will the new savior be?

With Nevermore done and dusted, it’s back to Earth where the fight for the Milky Way Galaxy is about to begin... But first, a fun trip to the moon with Jake’s best-buddy space worm, Sandy. After that little adventure, it’s time for the final preparations before the long-awaited Prima Guardian arrives, signaling the start of the battle for the Milky Way Galaxy. A battle that turns out to be a large ordeal, with every inhabited planet in the galaxy involved and free to either ally with one another or face the System Event alone.

Matt Dodson reports to the Colorado base of the Interplanetary Patrol, a new cadet with a fierce desire to become a member of the Patrol, which for over a century has kept the peace throughout the Solar System. Matt and fellow cadets soon leave the Earth base for training on Terra Station, where...

A man awakens, adrift in deep space, with little memory of who he is - only to discover that he is the commander of a space mission; the rest of the crew is gone; and he is apparently a writer of some small renown named Neil Gaiman.

Lynesse la quarta figlia è una giovane e impavida principessa con il dono di finire sempre in mezzo a qualche guaio. Quando però il regno viene attaccato da un demone, sa che l'unico modo per salvare il suo popolo è appellarsi al patto stipulato fra la sua famiglia e lo stregone Nyrgoth l'antico. Ma Nyrgoth non ha nulla di magico; è in realtà un antropologo terrestre inviato sul pianeta Sophos 4 per studiare la società postcoloniale di Lynesse e per raccogliere dati sulla storia e sulla cultura del posto, senza interagire con gli abitanti per nessun motivo.

It has been waiting through the ages. Now it's time . . . A scout ship discovers a human outpost lying derelict in space – and a planet better left unexplored. Thousands of years ago, Earth’s terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien...

Bloomsbury presents The Redemption of Time by Baoshu, read by Bruno Roubicek Published with the blessing of Cixin Liu, The Redemption of Time extends the astonishing universe conjured by the Three-Body Trilogy. Death is no release for Yun Tianming – merely the first step on a journey that will...

If you like your space adventures with a side of sarcasm and a cargo hold full of questionable life choices, Ray Guns and Late Fees delivers. Ride shotgun with a pair of blue-collar spacers as they sail through the stars, patching together jobs with duct tape and stubborn optimism. Out here, pirates aren’t legends, they’re coworkers you haven’t shot at yet. Every deal comes with fine print written in plasma fire, every port hides someone looking to cheat you, and every “simple haul” has a nasty habit of turning into a running gunfight before the coffee gets cold.

Quando un enigmatico monolite viene trovato sotto la superficie lunare, gli scienziati non immaginano che quell'antico e straordinario manufatto abbia più di tre milioni di anni né che, una volta riportato alla luce, cominciasse a inviare un potente segnale indirizzato verso l'orbita di Saturno. Che cos'è veramente quel monolite? A chi è rivolto quel segnale? Per scoprirlo, la nave spaziale Discovery parte alla volta di Giapeto, satellite di Saturno.

Nove anni dopo il disastro, il relitto della Discovery vaga abbandonato nello spazio interplanetario, portando con sé i misteri del fallimento di quella missione. Ora, una spedizione congiunta di astronauti russi e americani ha il compito di raggiungere la nave spaziale alla deriva e scandagliare la memoria di Hal 9000, l'intelligenza artificiale deviata che ha portato la Discovery alla rovina. Perché il computer si è ammutinato? Che fine ha fatto l'equipaggio? Cosa ne è stato del comandante Bowman?

The return of humanity's oldest enemy... An alien prophecy that predicts our species' downfall... And a captain who's the only thing standing in the way of his starship getting mothballed. Wait, what? Imagine Captain Keyes’ surprise when the fate of the galaxy turns out to depend on him, his decrepit ship, and his oddball crew.

Top Gun heads to outer space in this throwback to the classic science fiction of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. Strapped in to artificial wings spanning 25 feet across, your arms push a tenth of your body weight with each pump as you propel yourself at frightening speeds through the air. Inside a pressurized dome on the Moon, subject to one-sixth Earth's gravity, there are swarms of chiseled, fearless, superbly trained flyers all around you, jostling for air space like peregrine falcons racing for the prize.

Reissued after seventy-five years out of print—and in hardcover for the first time in a generation—David Starr, Space Ranger is the first book in the Lucky Starr series written by the legendary Isaac Asimov, author of Foundation, the Galactic Empire series, and I, Robot. Conway could...