Showing results for "The Group" in Hard Science Fiction

Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.

Following an accident that almost cost him his life, Howard Falcon was not so much saved as he was converted, through the use of prosthetics, into something faster, stronger and smarter...but also slightly less human and more machine than he was. And with this change came an opportunity - that of piloting a mission into Jupiter's atmosphere and ultimately of making first contact with the life forms he discovers there.

They banned him from space. But someone has offered him a way back. Can he afford the price? Famed engineer and test pilot Jericho Fox has been grounded for reasons he'd rather put behind him. But a political leader from a rival party offers to send him back to space. Fox finds himself stuck between working for the enemy and doing what he loves again. Meanwhile, high above Earth on Astraea Station, decorated astrophysicist Dr. Evelyn Park is on the verge of a scientific breakthrough that could make history.

This novel is a standalone story which takes two extraordinary characters and follows them as they independently begin to unravel some of the greatest mysteries of our universe. Their missions are dangerous, and they are all venturing into the unknown...and if they can uncover the secret to faster-than-light travel then new worlds will be at our fingertips. But innovation and progress are not always embraced by everyone. There is a saboteur at work.

Half a million years in the future, on a dead, war-ravaged world at the centre of the galaxy, there is a mile-high statue of Michael Poole. Poole, born on Earth in the fourth millennium, was one of mankind's most influential heroes. He was not a warrior, not an emperor. He was an engineer, a builder of wormhole transit systems. But Poole's work would ultimately lead to a vast and destructive conflict, a million-year war between humanity and the enigmatic, powerful aliens known as the Xeelee. The Xeelee won.

Yefremov is frequently ridiculed for his enthusiasm and faith in the viability of a communist society, as described in his best known science-fiction novel Andromeda Nebula. What is frequently overlooked is Yefremov's tremendous knowledge of history and profound understanding of psychology. His future society, while highly evolved, is not impervious to mistakes. His future humanity, having learned and discovered much, is not pausing to rest on its laurels - it continues to learn and explore.

The aliens are here. And they want to help. The extraordinary new project from one of the country's most acclaimed and consistently brilliant SF novelists of the last 30 years. The Jackaroo have given humanity 15 worlds and the means to reach them. They're a chance to start over, but they're also littered with ruins and artifacts left by the Jackaroos' previous clients.

The 21st century. Europe is divided between the First World bourgeoisie, made rich by nanotechnology and the cheap versatile slave labour of genetically engineered Dolls, and the Fourth World of refugees and homeless displaced by war and economic upheaval. In London, Alex Sharkey is trying to make his mark as a designer of psychoactive viruses whilst staying one step ahead of the police and the Triad gangs.

Humanity's future has been disrupted and shaped by the mysterious alien Jackaroo. We spread to the planets they gave us, and we discovered the ruins of a dozen previous civilisations. All previous clients of the Jackaroo, all dead. So far we have escaped that fate - but we have also escaped from the Jackaroos' planets and begun to explore the galaxy. The discovery of ancient spaceships and the unlocking of their mysteries has led to a new way of life. But humanity's failings and conflicts are always with us.

Great historic rulers attempted to take over the world with superior armies and weapons. Ludwig Shtirner decided not to follow in their footsteps. Instead, he set out to take over the world using nothing more than the power of his mind.

The year is 2100, and the chaos of the early internet era is long behind us. Mathematical proof ensures that neural implants can’t be hacked, and the Board of Reality Overseers blocks false information from spreading. When undergraduate Sergei Kraev, who dreams of becoming a professor, is accepted into a prestigious graduate program in computer science, he is thrilled and throws himself into his assigned research project - one important enough that if he succeeds, he’ll earn the academic appointment of his choice.

A group of scientists arrives to a planet claimed to be uninhabited. They discover it's nothing of the sort.

Humans and Asterians construct a huge starship, Andromeda, and set out on a voyage of discovery to the Cold Spot in the Cosmic Microwave Background—first stop, the star Ran in the constellation Eridanus. They discover an incipient space-faring saurian civilization that has deliberately hidden itself from the rest of the galaxy, fearing the military might of the civilizations they have observed through their electronic transmissions.

As the Oort Federation becomes a major force in the Solar System, Braxton Thorpe passes the Federation chairmanship to former US President John Butler. Thorpe’s group offers humanity virtual immortality, but Isidor Orlov and his Udachny Enterprises oppose their every move. While terraforming Mars for more living space, the Mars Reds prove formidable as resisters. If the Asterian starship fighter pilots are released, will they align with Phoenix or Udachny, and who will develop the right FTL technology?

Braxton Thorpe has discovered a threat to the entire solar system, but he has a problem: he's dead. Frozen at death, he awakens to find himself uploaded into an electronic matrix. Exploring beyond the matrix and the larger GlobalNet, he discovers the Oort, a distributed electronic entity older than humanity, with an unnerving secret: Aliens wiped out nearly all life on Earth once, and are coming back to do it again. The mathematical entity that is Thorpe has to find a way to convince humans of the threat, and in time to do something about it. But how, and what?

How many ways are there for driving someone mad? You could take him out of his time and propel him into another era. You could pluck him from his home and drop them in the middle of primitive jungle. You could pull him off the surface of the Earth altogether. Welcome to the Tales of Madness - a collection of three novellas by Alexander Belyaev bound to make you ponder the variety of ways in which one might lose his mind.

This book tells the remarkable story of a quantum computer programmer who unleashes an artificial intelligence program to create a substrate-neutral version of photosynthesis. However, in the Q.A.I's quest, it discovers how and why the universe was started.

They don't alter the past. They don't spy on the future. Yet, even very cautious time-travel research leaves plenty of room to get into trouble. Time, Limited is a foremost authority on space and time research. Wary of the time travel-related doomsday scenarios described by science fiction writers, the employees of the company take every precaution imaginable and move forward carefully as slowly. But when a critical experiment is threatened by a natural disaster, even the best-laid precautions go tumbling down, and the nerds have to think on their feet to protect the research and ensure the company's recovery.

An exciting new technology with limitless entertainment possibilities turns out to be a lot more than anyone had bargained for.

Surrounded by close buddies offering toasts and congratulations on the upcoming nupitals, along with sly comments about the bottom line, Sam Horton discovers more might be at stake than a transaction. It takes two to consolidate, but when the other one turns into Bridezilla, Sam's about to experience a lesson in fortitude and empathy. Technology takes a strange turn when role playing ups the ante and makes walking in others' shoes a tough lesson to swallow.