The ship survived, but over time the original crew died out. Their children were left to continue the fight for their home against their sworn enemy, the vicious alien Malibor. They’ve lived their whole lives in space. Their idea of heaven is open air, blue skies, and the quiet of peace. But they'll never have that if they don't take it by force.

Charlie Travers figures his life can’t get much worse. He lives over a pizza restaurant, he’s lost his girlfriend, and has no prospects for a career. Then, he’s abducted by an alien robot and taken across the galaxy. When he wakes up, he finds himself stranded thousands of light-years away, and about to be killed by space pirates.

Ensign Carol Hansen is six months out of Fleet University, and six months out of a toxic relationship that made no sense to anyone but her. Serving aboard Liberty is everything she had aspired to. But that sweet time comes to an abrupt, violent end when Liberty is destroyed in an unexpected attack. Carol is lucky enough to be "ashore" in the alien city below, and barely survives the death raining down from space.

Kelvin Wiltshire lives the life of a simple cook in a remote village on the far side of Trendham. The townsfolk think little of the man and his son and believe him to be just another refugee from the Terabinian war. On cold winter nights, they share rumors of the bloody conflict and the mysterious death of Will Cartwright, the mighty mage who had the power to command storms. They like the new cook. They fear the fallen king. But the two men are one and the same.

After the collapse of the known world, Rowan Wilder opened his eyes and found himself on the first floor of the Tower. With a flawless memory and a mere eight cards to his name, he must venture out and prepare himself for the coming calamity.

When Ben Murdock receives a text message offering a fully operational starship for sale, he’s certain it has to be a joke. Already trapped in the worst day of his life and desperate for a way out, he decides to play along. Except there is no joke. The starship is real. And Ben’s life is going to change in ways he never dreamed possible. All he has to do is sign the contract. Joined by his streetwise best friend and a bizarre tenant with an unseverable lease, he’ll soon discover that the universe is more volatile, treacherous, and awesome than he ever imagined.

Since time immemorial the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace. Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy's shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels.

Commander Dalton Reeves is a maverick officer with exceptional genetic strength and a dark family history—a history that will come back to haunt him. Punished for exceeding orders one time too many, he’s packed off to the "The Abyss"—the most dangerous space station in the galaxy. But a posting that should have led to five years in obscurity will propel Reeves into the center of an interstellar war against a long-forgotten alien adversary with a bitter grudge.

We were outnumbered, outfought. Mankind was about to fall to the alien Flock. Our only chance was a desperate gamble, transforming Tier One SpecOps agents into deadly super soldiers. In the end, we won the war, but we lost the peace. The Flock surrendered and spent the next two hundred years making reparations, indentured to humanity, doing everything humans did not want to do. And the evolved super soldiers were consigned to an endless sleep. Ready if ever needed, but in time they became myths. Abandoned and forgotten.

Jolene Hartgrave, here! I went from being a top dog lawyer to a hangdog pet psychic in the ruff part of town, all thanks to a pesky curse that gave me the gift of gabbing with animals. But my luck is finally looking up. I’ve teamed up with a hottie police officer and his snarky, lie-sniffing German shepherd to catch criminals. From a murdered fashion icon spinning a web of lies to the killed curator of an occult museum, I’m doggedly helping the police bring the bad guys to justice.

Jack Bishop needs a pair of tickets aboard one of the Arks - colossal lifeboats destined to shepherd humanity to the stars. Desperate to save his wife, he signs up for a dangerous wormhole experiment...but something goes catastrophically wrong, and Jack finds himself cast into the Stellar Abyss.

Ethan Bryant was supposed to fall asleep on a ship leaving Earth and wake up 50 years later with his family on the planet Minea. Instead, after the ship's caretaker - the lone human in charge of monitoring the ship's vital systems - suddenly died, the ship's computer locked Ethan out of his stasis chamber and gave him the job. That was five years ago. Five years of checking to make sure everything ran smoothly on a ship Ethan knows almost nothing about.

Out of the blue, a young Space Fleet officer's dream becomes reality: He's made captain of a starship. Just in time for the return of humanity's most terrible enemy, after 50 years of peace. To survive against this enemy, Captain Tad Thatcher will have to do more than learn how to become an effective commander, or how to wrangle his wayward crew. He will need to reinvent space combat. From scratch.

Fight, survive, adapt, and rely only on yourself. That is Derek’s creed and what's got him through the System Integration on Earth. Everything changed when the System came. Cute bunnies and beautiful butterflies became savage killing machines. Then the Invaders arrived with a single goal: to obtain ownership of this new habitable planet. War has raged ever since. None of this mattered much to Derek, aside from making living a little more perilous.

After eight years alone on Earth 2, Geddy Starheart is ready to get off. Off-world, that is. But before he can, someone steals his ship. His quest to find it takes him on a hilarious, galaxy-spanning adventure with his only friend--the ancient alien trapped in his head. Geddy rose through the ranks of a shady auction house dealing in stolen goods. When it got too dicey, he fled to Earth 2 and changed his identity. Years later, he watched the last transport leave for Earth 3. Everyone figured him dead, and he was good with that.

Ananke thought her week couldn't get worse, but as she hunts for the man who screwed up her previous job, things really go sideways. Turns out, she's not the only one having problems. Rosario can acquire anything for anyone, but can she obtain freedom for herself when her latest assignment goes awry? Dylan's sure his new gig will be a walk in the park - or rather, a drive, given that he's a courier. Unfortunately, the road is a bit bumpier than he expected.

Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear. At the moment, however, he's a 22 year old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change. In a burning barn a body is found--and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down. But Officer Oliver thinks it's something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden - others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.

Humans call them Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues scattered on distant planets throughout the galaxy, encoded with strange inscriptions that defy translation. Searching for clues about the Monument-Makers, teams of 23rd century linguists, historians, engineers and archaeologists have been excavating the enigmatic alien ruins on a number of planets, uncovering strange, massive false cities made of solid rock. But their time is running out.

Jason Burke was a man hiding from himself in a small cabin high in the American Rocky Mountains when his simple, quiet life was shattered one night by what he first assumed was an aviation mishap. But when he investigates the crash, what he finds will yank him out of his self-imposed exile and thrust him into a world he could have never imagined.

When FBI agent David Stafford finds himself on the Bureau's "out" list for publicly blowing the whistle on a corrupt colleague, he receives a low-profile assignment to investigate an Atlanta military base, where someone is suspected of auctioning off equipment without authorization.

A daring hostage rescue leads to the discovery of an imminent terrorist attack. Thanks to the Outriders, thousands of lives are saved. Until they aren't. Despite the intelligence and the warnings provided by the unit, the terrorist attack goes off unhindered.

On June 30, 1908, an object fell from the sky, releasing more energy than a thousand Hiroshima bombs. A Siberian forest was flattened, but the strike left no significant crater. The anomaly came to be known as the Tunguska Event, and scientists have never agreed whether it was the largest meteor strike in recorded history - or something else. Alien artifacts have been uncovered since the 1908 event, and a new star drive is discovered.

Short novels are movie-length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This audio collection presents the best-of-the-best short science fiction novels published in 2014 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form of storytelling.

The first to disappear is a ski instructor in the secluded mountains of Colorado. Hours later, a pregnant woman is abducted from a crowded hospital. Two places, two incidents, a single motive. And so it begins....

When Richard Marcinko wrote his best-selling autobiography, Rogue Warrior, he and co-writer John Weisman were bound by government restrictions and could only tell a fraction of his incredible story. Now the tales he could not tell, the secrets he could not reveal explode in Rogue Warrior II: Red Cell - a riveting ne novel with Marcinko himself as the hero.

Hannah Bryson is a marine architect who's been given a fascinating assignment. A Russian nuclear submarine called The Silent Thunder has been purchased by the United States for exhibition in a museum. Hannah must create a schematic of the sub to check for hazards and design seamless modifications to make it safe for the thousands of expected visitors. But soon she discovers that she's being used as bait.

Chemistry grad student Kevin Hamilton is sure his advisor Michael Ward's death in a suspicious fire was no accident. The young PhD candidate received a cryptic message from Ward just before the fatal blaze - a warning that their recent collaboration on a supposedly failed experiment had actually brought about one of the most important discoveries of the century: Adamas, a chemical process worth billions, and one with the potential to topple entire industries.

Dreamland is the place where the nation's top minds come to develop artillery and aircraft that push beyond the cutting edge. And where the Air Force's top guns come to test them, on the frontlines of a new era in warfare. The fiasco of a spy's infiltration has the Pentagon looking for an excuse to close Dreamland down. To clean up the mess, and save Dreamland from the congressional chopping block, Lt. Colonel Tecumseh "Dog" Bastian is sent in.

Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the prime minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris' blood - and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the Marines.

The award-winning, bestselling author's first novel. The beamjacks work in zero-gravity constructing satellites in the vacuum of deepest space. And they're not going to let the military control them anymore.