Humanity has colonized the solar system -- Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond -- but the stars are still out of our reach. Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for -- and kill on a scale unfathomable to...

Not far into our future, the dazzling technology that runs our world turns against us. Controlled by a childlike?yet massively powerful?artificial intelligence known as Archos, the global network of machines on which our world has grown dependent suddenly becomes an implacable, deadly foe. At Zero Hour?the moment the robots attack?the human race is almost annihilated, but as its scattered remnants regroup, humanity for the first time unites in a determined...

A group of scientists journey to the bottom of the sea to explore a sunken spaceship in this thriller from the author of The Andromeda Strain (1969). A group of American scientists are rushed to a huge vessel that has been discovered resting on the ocean floor in the middle of the South Pacific. What they find defines their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently, undamaged...

Le Guin's Hainish series begins with the assumption that centuries ago humanoids from the planet Hain ventured through the solar system establishing colonies on various planets including Earth. For mysterious reasons these colonies lose all contact and knowledge of each other until the 21st century when an attempt is made to establish a galactic league. Individual stories in this loosely organized series explore the inherent communication difficulties...

The world in the year 3001 seen through the eyes of an astronaut, revived after a thousand-year sleep. The earth is encircled by space cities, accessed by elevators and education is a breeze, computers enabling the brain to absorb complicated information in milliseconds. By the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal -- an experience that shocks him to his core. Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all...

"THE UNIVERSE BEGAN AS AN ENORMOUS BREATH BEING HELD." In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity's oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with...

Andrew "Ender" Wiggins is the result of a desperate breeding experiment, combined with years of harsh and unforgiving training. Ender thinks he is only playing computer simulated war games--in fact, he is commanding the last great fleet to earth. In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" lives with his kind...

The Children of Dune are twin siblings Leto and Ghanima Atreides, whose father, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, disappeared into the desert wastelands of Arrakis nine years ago. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilities -- making them valuable to their manipulative aunt Alia, who rules the Empire in the name of the House Atreides. Facing treason and rebellion on two fronts, Alia's rule is not absolute. The displaced house Corrino is plotting...

Eccentric geologist Professor Hardwigg is intrigued by the encrypted message he finds between the leaves of an ancient manuscript. His nephew Harry helps him crack the code, revealing a message from a medieval alchemist claiming to have found a route to the very bowels of the Earth. The professor becomes obsessed with the quest, waving aside the siren warnings of his fearful nephew. Their subterranean adventure begins at an Icelandic volcano, where...