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It's just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer. At first, Zack thinks he's going crazy. Because the UFO he's staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada--in which gamers are protecting the earth from alien invaders. But what Zack's seeing is all too real. And his skills--as well as those of millions...
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Description
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...
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"July 25th, 2234: The crew of the Adamura discovers the Anomaly. On the seemingly uninhabited planet Talos VII: a circular pit, 50 kilometers wide. Its curve not of nature, but design. Now, a small team must land and journey on foot across the surface to learn who built the hole and why. But they all carry the burdens of lives carved out on disparate colonies in the cruel cold of space. For some the mission is the dream of the lifetime, for others...
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"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he's alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive....
6) Sphere
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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...
7) I, Robot
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Description
The three laws of Robotics: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm 2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when...
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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...
9) Parasite
Author
Series
Parasitology volume 1
Publisher
Orbit
Pub. Date
2013.
Formats
Description
Genetically engineered tapeworms that protect most of the human populace from illness, boost everyone's immune system, and even secrete designer drugs, begin to change and want out of the human bodies they occupy.
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Series
Description
The Seanchan invasion force is in possession of Ebou Dar. Nynaeve, Elayne, and Aviendha head for Caemlyn and Elayne's rightful throne, but on the way they discover an enemy much worse than the Seanchan. In Illian, Rand vows the Seanchan back as he did once before while in Ghealdan, Perrin faces the intrigues of Whitecloaks, Seanchan invaders, the scattered Shaido Aiel, and the Prophet himself. Meanwhile, the rebel Aes Sedai under their young Amyrlin,...
Author
Series
Space Odyssey volume 4
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Description
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.
Author
Description
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...
13) The long Earth
Author
Series
Long Earth volume 1
Description
1916: The Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong and the wind in the leaves. Where have the mud, blood, and blasted landscape of no-man's-land gone? For that matter, where has Percy gone? 2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Police officer Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive - some say mad, others alleged dangerous - scientist who seems to have vanished. Sifting through...
14) Ender's game
Author
Series
Appears on these lists
Description
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...
15) Upgrade: a novel
Author
Pub. Date
[2022]
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Description
"An ordinary man undergoes a startling transformation-and fears that all of humanity may be next-in the mindblowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion Logan Ramsay can feel his brain ... changing. And his body too. He's becoming something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human. As he sets out to discover who did this to him, and why, his transformation threatens everything-his family,...
16) Exhalation
Author
Pub. Date
2019.
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Description
"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...
17) Children of Dune
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Series
Description
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...
18) Dune messiah
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Description
Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known -- and feared -- as the man christened Muad'Dib. As Emperor of the known universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremen, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne -- and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence. And even as House Atreides begins...
Author
Description
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...
20) Artemis: a novel
Author
Description
Jasmine Bashara never signed up to be a hero, she just wanted to get rich. So when a chance at a huge score finally comes her way, Jazz can’t say no. Now, trapped between competing forces, pursued by a killer and the law alike, even Jazz has to admit she’s in way over her head. Jazz is no hero, but she is a very good criminal.