Showing titles in First Contact

The McCormacks have a starship, and now, they need a safe place to start harvesting the technology. They’re starting with a place in the Cook Islands, but to succeed, they have to avoid spies, figure out how to manufacture the new technology using Earth-based tools, and then introduce it without getting into too much trouble with the governments and big corporations of Earth.

Get the Earth's Last Gambit bundle, featuring all four books in this first-contact series blending hard sci-fi and edge-of-your-seat action.

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

An interstellar colony ship on Earth prepares for take-off. Before reaching their first stop—Proxima b Centauri—they are awoken from their cryo pods early, only to learn there's been an alien invasion on Earth. But it's too late. Can the crew find a safe refuge from the invaders and track down colonists from other ships?

In a world devastated by alien invasion, Jarek and Rachel were never paragons of heroism. They survived, same as anyone else. They protected what was dear—Jarek with his exosuit and beloved AI companion, Rachel with her brother. They kept things simple... until the raknoth came and took it all away.

With the Galactic Republic in ruins and Capriana Prime uninhabitable after Moldark's assault, Magnus and his team are left to pick up the pieces. Hundreds of thousands of refugees need to be evacuated before time runs out. But the Gladio Umbra aren't without their own problems. In desperate need of rest, Colonel Caldwell arranges for the gladias to take refuge on a neutral planet. But Moldark's defeat prompts several key team members to reassess their roles and make decisions that will dramatically shape the Gladio Umbra's future.

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award - winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy. An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: A graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind - hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago.

Mira Braddock's own humanity was sacrificed in order for her to become the world's savior. A cybernetic soldier enhanced with a Tier 7 Nexus Implant, she's a Mist Warden capable of manipulating the nanites inside anything and any one, making her the most powerful and feared being in existence. Mira's crusade against Earth's enemies has brought mass destruction in her wake. Millions of aliens and humans have died at her hands. Each victory increases her godlike power, and she finds herself slipping away, struggling to relate to the needs of her allies....

The problem is, we didn't come home alone. No one has ever seen anything like this. What they're calling it sends shivers down my spine: a parasitic alien pathogen. It could be a virus, a toxin, or maybe something even worse. And believe me: what we don't know definitely can hurt us. It's too late for me—I've been exposed. But this has never been about me. It's going to take some incredible risks and another long-shot space mission to get to the bottom of this, but I'll fight until my last breath to undo the damage I've done.

Everything had changed for Zander Greaves over the last few weeks. He'd gone from being a private military contractor with his squad in the Middle East to being isekai-ed into a different multiverse. He lost his friends and his lover, Selda, in the same hour of his arrival, sparking in him the mission to kill every single Entoma he could to repay them for his loss. Luckily, an alien named Crish arrived to help Zander adjust to his new reality.

Eighteen years ago the Starship Enterprise thwarted an alien invasion from another universe, and Captain Robert April took possession of the interdimensional transfer device that made it possible. Since then each captain of the Enterprise has guarded this secret with his life. Now Romulan agents have succeeded in stealing the device and are using it to banish Ambassador Sarek and Councillor Gorkon to an unknown realm in the midst of their groundbreaking Federation-Klingon peace negotiations.

Space is a dangerous place. Here, you're either a predator or soon to fall prey to a ruthless neighbor. And if you aren't tough enough to make it on your own, you'll need the backing of a formidable power to keep you safe from bigger fish. Earth used to have such protection—the great Geckho race. But unfortunately, the Geckho fell to an enemy onslaught, leaving planet Earth to fend for itself. And now, Earth humanity has precious little time to prove to their galactic neighbors that they are not to be trifled with.

Against all odds, four friends have advanced the sciences, influenced world media, and created a world government. But the aliens are coming. Will it be enough? Can Nick, David, Cindy, and Jake save the Earth, or will they be wiped out with the rest of humanity? It will take a colony ship, battlecruisers, a mission to Mars, exosuits, and casinos on the moon. They have all looked toward the future since they were 16 years old.... But the future is now.

Nathan Myers and the crew of the Legacy have been taking down some of the galaxy's worst criminals. The corrupt leaders that are hiding in the shadows have taken notice. They are combining forces and sharing technology, even resorting to acts of terrorism in hopes of putting a stop to Nathan's conquests. If the face of growing opposition, Nathan and his allies discover an even deadlier threat. The Prule that have been hiding in the galaxy for more than 200 years have suddenly come out of hiding.

The shapeshifting alien race known as the Skrulls have infiltrated every branch of the Marvel Universe, from S.H.I.E.L.D. to the Avengers, and even the interplanetary defense force S.W.O.R.D. As the New Avengers watch the leader of the Hand, Elektra, transform into a Skrull after her death, they come to realize that an attack is coming, one that has been planned for years. From heroes to villains, anyone could be a Skrull in disguise. Uncertain of who to trust, the team tries desperately to unite against an unseen foe. But it is too late.

Dan Delgado is a private investigator. When it comes to finding cheating spouses, corporate thieves, or runaway teenagers, he’s unenthusiastic, and unmatched. As a former San Francisco detective, he misses more meaningful work, but he hasn’t had the heart for it since his wife’s death five years prior. That is, until a phone call from a distraught mother, an illegal immigrant who can’t go to the police, puts him on the hunt for a missing little girl. By the time he reaches the mother’s small home, she’s missing, too. The circumstances are strange....

Following their first victory against a rogue unit of Repub Marines, Magnus finds his newly trained gladias pinned down by a squadron of Talons. But when he discovers that their prisoners may hold critical answers to bringing down the enemy, Magnus must stop at nothing to get his team to safety and interrogate the enemy combatants.

The Milkyway’s predominant species discovers a lost colony of their ancestors—humans—populating today’s Earth. Then our genetic link draws the attention and enmity of their galactic rivals.

The Shongairi conquered Earth. In mere minutes, half the human race died, and our cities lay in shattered ruins. But the Shongairi didn't expect the survivors' tenacity. And, crucially, they didn't know that Earth harbored two species of intelligent, tool-using bipeds. One of them, long-lived and lethal, was hiding in the mountains of eastern Europe, the subject of fantasy and legend. When they emerged and made alliance with humankind, the invading aliens didn't stand a chance. Now, a select few blood-drinking immortals are on their way to the Shongairi homeworld.

The Korvil have attacked Earth, setting into motion a full-scale war that humans have little hope of surviving on their own. In the heat of battle, the Shiravans come to their rescue, turning the tide of the enemy invasion. This forms a tentative peace between the two races, but there are many more steps before reaching a full alliance.

Sita Dulip has missed her flight out of Chicago. But instead of listening to garbled announcements in the airport, she discovers a method of bypassing the crowds at the desks, a nasty lunch, whimpering children, their punitive parents, and the blue plastic chairs bolted to the floor: she changes planes—literally. Sita discovers entire planes of existence and visits societies not found on Earth—bizarre societies that share similarities with Earth's cultures and sometimes open doors into the alien.

I thought things would change when I found the others. We would stop running. We would fight the Mogadorians. And we would win. But I was wrong. Even though we have come together, we barely escaped from them with our lives. And now we're in hiding, figuring out our next move. The six of us are powerful - but not strong enough to take on their entire army. We haven't discovered the full extent of our Legacies. We haven't learned to work together. Time is running out, and there's only one thing we know for certain: We need to find Number Five before they do.

Earth-scientist Rocannon has been leading an ethnological survey on a remote world populated by three native races: the cavern-dwelling Gdemiar, the elvish Fiia, and the warrior clan, Liuar. But when the technologically primitive planet is suddenly invaded by a fleet of ships from the stars, rebels against the League of All Worlds, Rocannon is the only survey member left alive. Marooned among alien peoples, he leads the battle to free this newly discovered world - and finds that legends grow around him as he fights.

THE BLEED is attacking on several fronts and through different realities at once. The survivors of numerous battles are brought together through a series of ancient clockwork rooms, and their individual experiences combine to paint a picture of a multiverse on the brink of total annihilation. Gods and mortals fight alongside each other on the streets and among the stars, struggling to hold back the armies of demons doing the bidding of THE BLEED.

Lucky and crew think the worst is behind them when a ship finally arrives to whisk them away from a doomed diplomatic mission. It doesn't take long to learn how wrong they are. Before they know it, a seemingly vanquished foe returns more powerful, and with more resources, than ever.

Earth has united under the banner of the Republic. Humanity's brightest minds have deciphered the secrets of the alien technology and have begun to reverse engineer it. An elder race takes notice of humanity's strides and intervenes. Humanity is brought into the fold of a galactic alliance and learns they are not alone in their war against the insidious Zodark empire. Humans now fight alongside friendly alien races to end the bondages of slavery.

The year is 1961. The Cold War is in full swing and the space race is on. Russia aims to send humanity to space. But what if space comes to humanity instead? Yuri Gagarin’s epic flight into space is disrupted when an alien Mothership jumps into orbit, causing a cosmic car crash that defies all odds. Everything changes. The US and USSR must quickly put aside their differences. In exchange for the Earth’s help in the rebuilding of their Mothership, the mysterious aliens, the Vulbathi, offer promises of technology beyond humanity's wildest dreams.

Over two hundred years after the first colonists landed on Pax, a new set of explorers arrives from Earth on what they claim is a temporary scientific mission. But the Earthlings misunderstand the nature of the Pax settlement and its real leader. Even as Stevland attempts to protect his human tools, a more insidious enemy than the Earthlings makes itself known. Stevland is not the apex species on Pax.

Harmon Tomeral wanted nothing more than to go to space. Sent to an orphanage when his parents were killed in a sandstorm, the odds were stacked against him. Despite that, he made it to the academy and graduated in the top 10 percent of his class...only to find out the fleet did what it wanted, regardless of regulations, and he came from the wrong planet. He didn’t give up his dream, though, because where there’s a will, there’s a loophole, and Harmon and his friends found their loophole in the Top Fleet Marine competition - the winner would get 100,000 credits....

The origins of human history begin to unravel as Earth learns they are not the only humans in the galaxy. The sudden discovery of humans living on multiple planets beyond their own has created more questions than it’s answered. When humanity arrived on New Eden, a hideous new alien race, the Zodarks was discovered. In the face of an existential threat to their own survival, the historical warring factions of Earth will need to unite if they want to save themselves from extinction and understand the true origins on human history.