Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.
Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles, like himself, have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.
Things really start to get interesting when Bob discovers that he is not the only one on the mission, and the stakes are higher than he ever imagined. What follows is a thrilling adventure through space, filled with humor and unexpected challenges.
Ariel never knew aliens existed until she finds herself kidnapped and taken from Earth. When the Anzon declare humans useless, she learns her fate â prize for the winner of a brutal fight between large, muscled alien men.
Ral is a Zorn warrior. He has also been kidnapped by the Anzon, along with his crew. Forced into slavery, he's got one thing on his mind â freeing his people. That is, until he sees the small human woman he's willing to fight to win. He doesn't just want her body, he wants her heart forever.
In the hands of a hot alien, Ariel is about to discover how pleasurable captivity can be.
Witness the birth of the Resistance when the Rebellion defeated the Empire in the skies above Endor, Leia Organa believed it was the beginning to a lasting peace. But after decades of vicious infighting and partisan gridlock in the New Republic Senate, that hope seems like a distant memory.
Now a respected senator, Leia must grapple with the dangers that threaten to cripple the fledgling democracyâfrom both within and without. Underworld kingpins, treacherous politicians, and Imperial loyalists are sowing chaos in the galaxy. Desperate to take action, senators are calling for the election of a First Senator. It is their hope that this influential post will bring strong leadership to a divided galaxy. As the daughter of Darth Vader, Leia faces with distrust the prospect of any one person holding such a powerful positionâeven when supporters suggest Leia herself for the job. But a new enemy may make this path Leiaâs only option. For at the edges of the galaxy, a mysterious threat is growing.
A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.
Our voyage from Earth began generations ago. Now, we approach our new home. AURORA.
The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds storiesâand secretsâthat are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?
With nine storiesâfive of which have never before been publishedâand an excerpt from Marissa Meyerâs novel, Heartless, about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Stars Above is essential for fans of the bestselling and beloved Lunar Chronicles.
Years ago, family loyalty caused Fain Hauk to give up everything he loved: His military career. His planet. His fiancée. Even his name.
Now, decades later, everything has changed. He's built a new life out of the ashes of his old, and he's vowed to never let anything threaten his loved ones again.
But when old enemies align themselves with new ones, he's caught in the middle of a brutal war. And when fate throws his former fiancée back into his world and she has her own agenda that includes taking his head for what he did to her years ago, more than just his life is at stake.
The fate of the Ichidian universe and that of his brothers-in-arms hangs in the balance. It's kill or be killed, and never has the battle been more fierce...Or more fun!
Ancillary Mercy is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy that began with Ancillary Justice. For a moment, things seemed to be under control for Breq, the soldier who used to be a warship. Then a search of Athoek Station's slums turns up someone who shouldn't exist and a messenger from the mysterious Presger empire arrives, as does Breq's old enemy, the divided, heavily armed, and possibly insane Anaander Mianaaiâruler of an empire at war with itself.
Breq could flee with her ship and crew, but that would leave the people of Athoek in terrible danger. Breq has a desperate plan. The odds aren't good, but that's never stopped her before.
The original Dark Lord of the Sith stars in his first ongoing series! Ever since Darth Vader's first on-screen appearance, he has become one of pop-culture's most popular villains. Now, follow Vader straight from the ending of A NEW HOPE into his own solo adventuresâshowing the Empire's war with the Rebel Alliance from the other side!
But when a Dark Lord needs help, who can he turn to? As Vader pursues a very personal vengeance against the Rebels and investigates the Emperor's secret machinations, he clashes with weapons scavenger Aphra and deadly Battle Droids, and returns to Geonosis to build an army. But some very powerful people don't want him to learn the truths he seeks! Guest-starring Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett and more!
Collecting DARTH VADER #1-6.
Lost Stars by Claudia Gray is a captivating Young Adult novel set in the iconic Star Wars universe. It offers a unique, macro view of pivotal events from the rise of the Rebellion to the fall of the Empire, all seen through the eyes of two childhood friends, Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell.
As they grow up, Ciena becomes an Imperial officer while Thane becomes a Rebel pilot. Now on opposite sides of the war, the question that looms over them is one of fate and loyaltyâcan these star-crossed lovers find their way back to each other, or will their duties to the opposing causes forever keep them apart?
The novel not only revisits the aftermath of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi but also offers tantalizing hints about the then-upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For fans of the franchise, Lost Stars is a must-read that deepens the lore and explores the complex emotions and relationships that define the galaxy far, far away.
More than twenty-five years after the groundbreaking movie Star Wars: A New Hope first hit the silver screen, Star Wars remains one of the most beloved sagas ever told. Together, the three original Star Wars movies â A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi â told one epic: a heroic tale of innocence lost and wisdom gained, of downfall and redemption, of the never-ending fight between the forces of good and evil.
Read the story of the movies â all three in one trade paperback volume â and rediscover the wonder of the legend that begins:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away . . .
Luke Skywalker lived and worked on his uncleâs farm on the remote planet of Tatooine, but he yearned to travel beyond the farthest reaches of the universe to distant, alien worlds. Then Luke intercepted a cryptic message from a beautiful, captive princess . . . and found himself catapulted into the adventure of a lifetime.
Luke Skywalker, proud Princess Leia, and headstrong Han Solo . . . merciless Darth Vader, wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, loyal droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, and the inscrutable Yoda . . . Chewbacca the Wookiee, shifty Lando Calrissian, and the vile Jabba the Hutt . . . all the vivid characters from the Star Wars universe spring to life in these thrilling pages.
The Star Wars Trilogy is a must-read for anyone who wants to relive the excitement, the magic, and the sheer entertainment of this legendary saga â now and forever.
Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames heâs spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure. But hey, thereâs nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues donât get chosen to save the universe.
And then he sees the flying saucer. Even stranger, the alien ship heâs staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armadaâin which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders. No, Zack hasnât lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what heâs seeing is all too real. And his skillsâas well as those of millions of gamers across the worldâare going to be needed to save the earth from whatâs about to befall it. Itâs Zackâs chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he canât help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesnât something about this scenario seem a littleâŠfamiliar?
At once gleefully embracing and brilliantly subverting science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing youâve ever read before.
Children of Time is a thrilling race for survival among the stars. Humanity's last survivors have escaped Earth's ruins in search of a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?
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 ageâa world terraformed and prepared for human life.
But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.
Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
Born an Outcast, Talyn Batur has spent the whole of his life fighting against the prejudice of his people. An Andarion without a father is not something anyone wants to be.
But when his companion's brother draws him into a plot against the Andarion crown, he finds himself torn between the loyalty to their planetary government that his mother has beaten into him and his own beliefs of justice and right.
Now, he must decide for himself to remain a pawn of their government or to defy everything and everyone he's ever known to stand up to tyranny. It's a gamble that will either save his life or end it.
And when old enemies align with new ones, it's more than just his own life at risk. And more than just his homeworld that will end should he fail.
At the dawn of time, there were 13 Houses in the Zodiac Galaxy. Now only 12 remain.... Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars. While her classmates use measurements to make accurate astrological predictions, Rho canât solve for âxâ to save her lifeâso instead, she looks up at the night sky and makes up stories.
When a violent blast strikes the moons of Cancer, sending its ocean planet off-kilter and killing thousands of citizensâincluding its beloved GuardianâRho is more surprised than anyone when she is named the Houseâs new leader. But, a true Cancerian who loves her home fiercely and will protect her people no matter what, Rho accepts.
Then, when more Houses fall victim to freak weather catastrophes, Rho starts seeing a pattern in the stars. She suspects Ophiuchusâthe exiled 13th Guardian of Zodiac legendâhas returned to exact his revenge across the Galaxy. Now Rhoâalong with Hysan Dax, a young envoy from House Libra, and Mathias, her guide and a member of her Royal Guardâmust travel through the Zodiac to warn the other Guardians.
But who will believe anything this young novice says? Whom can Rho trust in a universe defined by differences? And how can she convince twelve worlds to unite as one Zodiac? Embark on a dazzling journey with ZODIAC, the first novel in an epic sci-fi-meets-high-fantasy series set in a galaxy inspired by the astrological signs.
Seeking atonement for past crimes, Breq takes on a mission as captain of a troublesome new crew of Radchai soldiers, in the sequel to Ann Leckie's NYT bestselling, award-winning Ancillary Justice. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey.
Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor.
With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew - a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.
Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy has become one of the new classics of science fiction. Beautifully written and forward thinking, it does what good science fiction does best, taking readers to bold new worlds with plenty explosions along the way.
Censured at the Council of Nikea for his flagrant use of sorcery, Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons Legion retreat to their homeworld of Prospero to continue their use of the arcane arts in secret. But when the ill-fated primarch foresees the treachery of Warmaster Horus and warns the Emperor with the very powers he was forbidden to use, the Master of Mankind dispatches fellow primarch Leman Russ to attack Prospero itself.
Magnus has seen more than the betrayal of Horus, and the witnessed revelations will change the fate of his fallen Legion and its primarch, forever.
Rosemary Harper doesn't expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she's never met anyone remotely like the ship's diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.
Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazyâexactly what Rosemary wants. It's also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn't part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other.
To survive, Rosemary's got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballsâan experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn't necessarily the worst thing in the universe.
Super Extra Grande, penned by the celebrated Cuban science fiction master Yoss, is a grand space opera that earned the 20th annual UPC Science Fiction Award in 2011. Set in the far reaches of a distant future, the novel unfolds across the Milky Way, introducing a universe teeming with bizarre and diverse creatures. From world-enveloping amoebas and sensual females sustaining themselves on their mates' reproductive offerings, to articulate reptiles and other beings culled from the annals of Cuban and global science fiction, these entities fill roles as varied as comrades, explorers, intimate companions, educators, and military commanders within the Galactic Commonwealth.
The story's hero, Jan Amos Sangan Dongo, occupies a unique niche in this fantastical ecosystem as a veterinarian dedicated to the care of the galaxy's gargantuan fauna. When a colonial dispute endangers the delicate equilibrium among the Galaxy's seven sapient species, Dr. Sangan embarks on a perilous journey inside an enormous creature to retrieve two ingested ambassadorsâwho also vie for his affection.
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Once, she was the Justice of Toren â a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
Abaddon's Gate is the third book in the New York Times bestselling Expanse series. For generations, the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt - was humanity's great frontier. Until now.
The alien artefact, working through its program under the clouds of Venus, has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark. Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core.
As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them. Join this breakneck science fiction adventure and discover the secrets of the universe.
Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-bestselling Lunar Chronicles. Sheâs trying to break out of prisonâeven though if she succeeds, sheâll be the Commonwealthâs most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoitâs grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesnât know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmotherâs whereabouts, she has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own. As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.
The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future.
The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong, it is an event that will change her life. Swan was once a woman who designed worlds. Now she will be led into a plot to destroy them.
Death Stalks Them All...
Kere is the second most infamous member of the shadow organization known as Sentella. An explosive engineer who strikes terror into the hearts of the League, the bounty on his head is truly staggering. No one knows his true identity.
The daughter of a traitor, Zarya Starska grew up hard on the back streets of hellâher family hunted to the brink of extinction. But Zarya dreams of a different life and a different world. A world where the harsh hand of the Caronese emperor doesnât destroy his subjects. As a Resistance leader, her goal is to topple the government that needlessly ruined the lives of her family and comrades-in-arms. In this deadly quest, the only person she can trust is a mysterious man known only as Kere.
By The Light Of Day...
Kere has a dark secret and a brutal past. As he aids the Resistance, heâs actually working to bring down his own familyâthe Cruelsâso named for the viciousness in their blood that runs so deep, no other name would do. Born and bred from one of the oldest and noblest families in the United Systems, Kereâs real name is Darling Cruel. And the one thing he wants most is to see his uncle, who stole the crown by murdering his father, pay for his crimes.
If You Tell A Lie Long Enough, It Becomes The Truth...
In order to protect his mother from execution, Darlingâs entire life has been built on a lie that he dare not breathe a contrary word about. His hands tied by his uncleâs cruelty. No one has ever seen the real him. No one except Zarya. Sheâs the only person heâs ever fully trusted with the truth. But when she betrays him by allowing a weapon he designed solely for her to be used against him, all bets are off.
The Hero Is Now The Monster...
Betrayed to the deepest level, Darling becomes an enemy even worse than his uncle. His goal is not only to reign, but to kill every Resistance member he can find. He wonât rest until all of them are dead and that includes Zarya.
The Twisted Hand Of Fate...
Zarya is the only hope to reach the heart of the man her people once considered their ally. A man who hates her with a fury so great that she knows itâs just a matter of time before he kills her. But if she can find the part of him that once trusted her, the part of him that once loved her, she might be able to save not only her own life, but those of her people. Itâs an impossible mission. Too bad she doesnât play the odds.
Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.
Itâs been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. Everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to act on his visionâno more Phydus, no more lies.
But when Elder learns shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a mystery that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier. Their successâor failureâwill determine the fate of the 2,298 passengers aboard Godspeed. But with each step, the journey becomes more perilous, the ship more chaotic, and the love between them more impossible to fight.
Beth Revis catapulted readers into the far reaches of space with her New York Times bestselling debut, Across the Universe. In A Million Suns, Beth deepens the mystery with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.
A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someoneâone of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship âtried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.
Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians and returned as a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic.
The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All thatâs left are nightmares and a deep, abiding fear. What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan canât quite remember, yet canât entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic.
With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for heâs never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hopeâand a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.
In this pulse-quickening novel, Alfred Bester imagines a future in which people "jaunte" a thousand miles with a single thought, where the rich barricade themselves in labyrinths and protect themselves with radioactive hit men â and where an inarticulate outcast is the most valuable and dangerous man alive. The Stars My Destination is a classic of technological prophecy and timeless narrative enchantment by an acknowledged master of science fiction.
A desperate girl on the run with nowhere to hide...
A warrior who has made a vow never to claim a bride...
Sophia Waterhouse is being Hunted and the only man who can save her is the one she fears the most...
Sophia Waterhouse has always been afraid of needles and vampires, so thereâs no way she wants anything to do with a modern day Count Draculaâeven if he does come wrapped in the package of a huge Kindred warrior with blond hair and ice blue eyes. Sheâs only on the Kindred Mothership to participate in her sister Livâs wedding and thatâs all.
Sylvan is a Tranq Kindred who has made a sacred vow never to call a bride. After a devastating rejection on his home planet, his heart is a block of ice no one can meltâor so he thinks until he meets Sophia.
When their ship is forced down in the middle of a rugged mountain range, Sophia and Sylvan are stranded. Running for their lives, they have only each other to depend on. Will they give in to the intense attraction between them or will the evil hunting Sophia take its toll?
In a world where the League and its assassins rule, where betrayal and treachery are everywhere... the only survivors are those who are... BORN OF SHADOWS.
For Caillen Dagan, a defiant soldier of fortune, survival isn't a right, it's a brutal daily battle. Moving through the Ichidaian universe like a wraith, his brushes with the law and death are legendary. But when an act of rare heroism reveals his hidden birthright, he's forced into a world much more dangerous and cold-hearted than the bloody streets where he was raised - one of obscene wealth and lethal politics.
Ferocious and determined, Desideria serves as an official bodyguard for her queen. Born of questionable genetics, she will do anything to prove herself worthy of the weapons she carries and the position she's won by combat. But when she uncovers a ruthless plot to assassinate the queen and overthrow her country's government, Desideria is caught in the crosshairs.
With assassination contracts out on both of them, Caillen and Desideria must learn to fight together or die alone. And if they fail, their governments will fall into the hands of an unimaginable evil.
Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand. Despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away, a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries...
Twenty years have passed since Darth Bane, reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, demolished the ancient order devoted to the dark side and reinvented it as a circle of two: one Master to wield the power and pass on the wisdom, and one apprentice to learn, challenge, and ultimately usurp the Dark Lord in a duel to the death. But Baneâs acolyte, Zannah, has yet to engage her Master in mortal combat and prove herself a worthy successor.
Determined that the Sith dream of galactic domination will not die with him, Bane vows to learn the secret of a forgotten Dark Lord that will assure the Sithâs immortalityâand his own. A perfect opportunity arises when a Jedi emissary is assassinated on the troubled mining planet Doan, giving Bane an excuse to dispatch his apprentice on a fact-finding missionâwhile he himself sets out in secret to capture the ancient holocron of Darth Andeddu and its precious knowledge. But Zannah is no fool. She knows that her ruthless Master has begun to doubt her, and she senses that he is hiding something crucial to her future. If she is going to claim the power she craves, she must take action now.
While Bane storms the remote stronghold of a fanatical Sith cult, Zannah prepares for her Masterâs downfall by choosing an apprentice of her own: a rogue Jedi cunning and cold-blooded enough to embrace the Sith way and to stand beside her when she at last wrests from Bane the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith.
But Zannah is not the only one with the desire and power to destroy Darth Bane. Princess Serra of the Doan royal family is haunted by memories of the monstrous Sith soldier who murdered her father and tortured her when she was a child. Bent on retribution, she hires a merciless assassin to find her tormentorâand bring him back alive to taste her wrath.
Only a Sith who has taken down her own Master can become Dark Lord of the Sith. So when Bane suddenly vanishes, Zannah must find himâpossibly even rescue himâbefore she can kill him. And so she pursues her quarry from the grim depths of a ravaged world on the brink of catastrophe to the barren reaches of a desert outpost, where the future of the dark sideâs most powerful disciples will be decided, once and for all, by the final, fatal stroke of a lightsaber.
When the Imperial prison barge Purge â temporary home to five hundred of the galaxyâs most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves â breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict, and seemingly abandoned.
But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back â bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine. And death is only the beginning.
The Purgeâs half-dozen survivors â two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board â will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isnât really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.
Ender in Exile is a captivating addition to the acclaimed Ender series by Orson Scott Card. This novel is the first true, direct sequel to the classic Ender's Game.
In Ender's Game, the world's most gifted children were taken from their families and sent to an elite training school. At Battle School, they learned combat, strategy, and secret intelligence to fight a dangerous war on behalf of those left on Earth. However, they also learned some important and less definable lessons about life.
After the life-changing events of those years, these childrenânow teenagersâmust leave the school and readapt to life in the outside world. Having not seen their families or interacted with other people for yearsâwhere do they go now? What can they do?
Ender fought for humanity, but he is now reviled as a ruthless assassin. No longer allowed to live on Earth, he enters into exile. With his sister Valentine, he chooses to leave the only home heâs ever known to begin a relativisticâand revelatoryâjourney beyond the stars.
This story explores the untold years between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, capturing Ender's journey from the ages of 12 through 35. It is a profound exploration of war and society, filled with action and adventure, and features characters that readers will never forget.
Join Ender as he navigates the complexities of exile and discovers unexpected allies and adversaries. Ender in Exile is a must-read for fans of the series, offering a deeper understanding of Ender's universe and the events that shaped him.
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to collect organisms and dust for study. One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona. Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.
Frank Herbert's Dune ended with Paul Muad'Dib in control of the planet Dune. Herbert's next Dune book, Dune Messiah, picked up the story several years later after Paul's armies had conquered the galaxy. But what happened between Dune and Dune Messiah? How did Paul create his empire and become the Messiah? Following in the footsteps of Frank Herbert, New York Times bestselling authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are answering these questions in Paul of Dune.
The Muad'Dib's jihad is in full swing. His warrior legions march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemiesâthose who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. And Paul himself begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?
Paul of Dune is a novel everyone will want to read and no one will be able to forget.
The Player of Games explores the extraordinary Culture - a utopian human-machine symbiotic society. This society has produced many expert Game Players, among whom Jernau Morat Gurgeh stands out. Master of every board, computer, and strategy, Gurgeh embodies The Player of Games.
Bored with his unending success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, a realm both cruel and incredibly wealthy. There, he engages in their infamous game - a game so complex and reflective of life that its victor ascends to the throne as emperor. Facing mockery, blackmail, and near-death experiences, Gurgeh accepts the challenge of the game, embarking on what could be the greatest challenge of his life - or his ultimate demise.
For generations, the dragonriders had dedicated their lives to fighting Thread, the dreaded spores that periodically rained from the sky to ravage the land. On the backs of their magnificent telepathic dragons, they flew to flame the deadly stuff out of the air before it could reach the planet's surface.
But the greatest dream of the dragonriders was to find a way to eradicate Thread completely, so that never again would their beloved Pern be threatened with destruction.
Now, for the first time, it looked as if that dream could come true. For when the people of Pern, led by Masterharper Robinton and F'Lar and Lessa, Weyrleader and Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr, excavated the ancient remains of the planet's original settlement, they uncovered the colonist's voice-activated artificial intelligence system - which still functioned!
And the computer had incredible news for them: There was a chance - a good chance - that they could, at long last, annihilate Thread once and for all!
Six million years ago, at the dawn of the star-faring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones, which she called shatterlings. But now, someone is eliminating the Gentian line.
Campion and Purslaneâtwo shatterlings who have fallen in love and shared forbidden experiencesâmust determine exactly who, or what, their enemy is, before they are wiped out of existence.
The year is 3589, fifteen hundred years after Commonwealth forces barely staved off human extinction in a war against the alien Prime. Now, an even greater danger has surfaced: a threat to the existence of the universe itself.
At the very heart of the galaxy is the Void, a self-contained microuniverse that cannot be breached, cannot be destroyed, and cannot be stopped as it steadily expands in all directions, consuming everything in its path: planets, stars, civilizations. The Void has existed for untold millions of years. Even the oldest and most technologically advanced of the galaxyâs sentient races, the Raiel, do not know its origin, its makers, or its purpose.
But then Inigo, an astrophysicist studying the Void, begins dreaming of human beings who live within it. Inigoâs dreams reveal a world in which thoughts become actions and dreams become reality. Inside the Void, Inigo sees paradise. Thanks to the gaiafield, a neural entanglement wired into most humans, Inigoâs dreams are shared by hundreds of millionsâand a religion, the Living Dream, is born, with Inigo as its prophet. But then he vanishes.
Suddenly there is a new wave of dreams. Dreams broadcast by an unknown Second Dreamer serve as the inspiration for a massive Pilgrimage into the Void. But there is a chance that by attempting to enter the Void, the pilgrims will trigger a catastrophic expansion, an accelerated devourment phase that will swallow up thousands of worlds.
And thus begins a desperate race to find Inigo and the mysterious Second Dreamer. Some seek to prevent the Pilgrimage; others to speed its progressâwhile within the Void, a supreme entity has turned its gaze, for the first time, outward.
Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better knownâand fearedâas the man christened MuadâDib. 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 throneâand a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.
And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his familyâs dynasty...
This essential Star Wars Legends novel is the first in a trilogy chronicling the rise of the fearsome Sith lord Darth Bane.
On the run from vengeful Republic forces, Dessel, a cortosis miner, vanishes into the ranks of the Sith army and ships out to join the bloody war against the Republic and its Jedi champions. There, Desselâs brutality, cunning, and exceptional command of the Force swiftly win him renown as a warrior.
But in the eyes of his watchful masters, a far greater destiny awaits him. As an acolyte in the Sith academy, studying the secrets and skills of the dark side, Dessel embraces his new identity: Bane. But the true test is yet to come. In order to gain acceptance into the Brotherhood of Darkness, he must defy the most sacred traditions and reject all he has been taught. It is a trial by fire in which he must surrender fully to the dark sideâand forge from the ashes a new era of absolute power.
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.
Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.
John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.
Humanity pushed its way to the stars - and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out. Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild.
But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they've built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever.
Eight hundred years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This "rebirth" was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, "Nimue" - or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban - is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.
Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, "Nimue" takes a new gender and a new name, "Merlin." His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he'll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that's just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.
And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new era of invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Church...and, inevitably, lead to war.
Having recovered from his grievous injuries, Warmaster Horus leads the triumphant Imperial forces against the rebel world of Isstvan III. Though the rebels are swiftly crushed, Horus's treachery is finally revealed when the planet is razed by virus bombs and Space Marines turn on their battle-brothers in the most bitter struggle imaginable.
Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.
Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.
So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn't want to meet?
You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees X-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices that he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed, and a fainter hope that she'll do any good if she is needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called "vampire," recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesistâan informational topologist with half his mind goneâas an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.
You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find.
The Alliance has been battling the Syndics for a centuryâand losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who has emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief...
Captain John "Black Jack" Geary's legendary exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic "last stand" in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns from survival hibernation and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics.
Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance's one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic "Black Jack" legend...
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young & fighting pointless formal wars.
Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard ofâpart of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemonyâ Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes, a war draws closerâa war threatening to overwhelm everything & everyone he's ever known.