The infection has begun, ravaging the American Southwest and leaving chaos in its wake. In this new world, there will be no last meal, no dying wish. The only reward left is to survive another day...The complete Contamination series - all in this one, special edition.

This short story collection will take you into the depths of Beck’s dark imagination: from what happens when the deepest bore hole on Earth has just passed nine miles and hits a strange open space – and it's hellishly hot down there; to an Antarctic research team examining fragments from a deep ice glacier and discovers a tiny seed that, once thawed, grows into something terrifyingly unexpected.

Indiana Jones meets The X-Files in this thrilling, globe-spanning adventure about the greatest treasure hunt of all time—where ancient secrets collide with cutting-edge technology. In the high-stakes world of ancient artifacts and clandestine organizations, a trio of unlikely misfits are drafted into a desperate race to prevent the assembly of a long lost device.

First came the development of the Personality Matrix Construct—PMC, transferring human consciousness into a machine. It changed the galaxy and the way wars were fought. Then something went wrong with PMCs and the Federation Wars toppled the galactic order. PMCs became a menace to be hunted and exterminated.

When the research starship Galileo vanishes without a trace, the powers-that-be are quick to bury the incident, eager to prevent escalating tensions that could lead to war. As a former POW, Soren refuses to give the ship up for lost. His daughter is one of the missing. Taking matters into his own hands, Soren starts pulling strings and calling in favors, determined to launch a clandestine mission to bring Galileo home. When an old friend offers him a ship for the operation, he expects a rusty relic headed for the scrapyard.

Cities all around the world reported strange alien vessels descending. Some saw them as the heralds of a new age; others fired everything they had at them. All were taken as the beams lashed down and drew them into the sky. Dean was left behind, seemingly the last man on Earth. A trail of clues left by his dead wife guides Dean on a perilous journey across America and beyond to learn the truth behind the mysterious ships and save humanity from its doom.

Get ready to experience two more origin stories in the Backyard Starship universe.

Carpenter Lowell is a disgraced Marine assigned to a remote US research station on Saturn's moon Enceladus, where scientists have made an extraordinary discovery in the ocean below. A special forces team, led by Lowell’s murderous former commanding officer, shows up to investigate. Almost immediately, everything begins to unravel. Something beneath the surface has been activated.

In Lake Maracaibo, in the northwestern part of Venezuela, a long-hidden extraterrestrial artifact underneath the ocean floor triggers a disaster. The United States military launches an expedition, sending a cutting-edge team of international researchers to the source of a magnetic instability that's destroying any electronics in the region.

Captain Axel Finn has spent his life running salvage missions with an alien crew and their war bot. This motley group has found refuge on his ship from their own tumultuous pasts. But little do any of them know, beneath his gentle demeanor, their steadfast captain is far from the peace following, adventure seeking giant of a man they all love. His pacifist ethos meant to safeguard them has edged them to the brink of financial ruin and drawn dangerous enemies.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

Annie has always had high hopes for her future. But the reality of her life just isn’t measuring up. She loves her fiancé, Greg–doesn’t she? She’s going to get her degree and open her own business–won’t she? Then, a strange old woman shows up outside her house, and she seems to know a lot about Annie. An awful lot. Annie could tell the old woman to get lost. Yet there’s something about her Annie just can’t shake. And what she learns could change her life forever–but is it the life she envisioned?

Compiled by intrepid journalist Neve Pride, this archive of recordings spans the months after dragons emerged on earth, chronicling the communities that sprang up amid the destruction, the scientists, military leaders, and experts searching for a defense, and those steadfastly seeking the missing. Neve and her young daughter Bex travel among the wreckage speaking to those left behind and surviving, against all odds. Neve records everything for history, and in the hopes of locating a clue as to where the dragons came from and how one might stop them.

For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.

With inhuman solemnity, the voice of the necromancer went on in a priest-like chant until the last echoes died out in hollow, sepulchral vibrations. Then the colored vapors cleared away. But the pale unearthly glow still filled the changer, and between Malygris and the door where hung the unicorn's head there stood the apparition of Nylissa!

When Thomas heard the cries for help, he didn’t hesitate to do the right thing. It was his chance for redemption. Until everything went wrong. The cave should have been deserted. The perfect place to hide. Instead, it’s crawling with soldiers and engineers working to unearth the impossible: Excalibur.

Fresh out of the Academy, Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting to Freedom couldn’t have come at a worse time. All over the Alliance, planets and colonies are suddenly under attack by the vicious Coven Empire. Freedom and her sister ship, Hood, are ambushed by alien warships, leaving Hood drifting dead in the void. Cole is ordered to salvage parts from the powerless Hood, but when he arrives on the unpowered hulk, Freedom is called away, marooning him and a group of malcontent techs in deep space.

Freed from his captors by the Meraki Dominya, Nathan learns his sister was also taken and strikes a deal to rescue her. Joining their ranks, he meets Arista, a lethal alien commando trained to kill first and not ask questions later. Working together, he discovers that beneath her tough exterior, there is also a kindred spirit. But as the risks around them escalate, he must determine whether she is truly friend or foe.

In the icy darkness of the Arctic Ocean, a violent showdown between ruthless whale hunters and fervent environmentalists ends in explosive catastrophe: both ships sinking into the frigid abyss. Marooned on a desolate island, the survivors, now bitter enemies, are forced into an uneasy truce to withstand the merciless cold. Enter Jane Harper: undercover agent, razor-sharp and unflinching, wielding her wit as deftly as her fists. As she rallies the fractured group, they stumble upon ancient Viking ruins and awaken something primal and terrifying.

Sixteen years ago, during a pause in the Algarian War, Duke Alessio Valente implemented a coup in the Star Kingdom of Narantea, killing King Altan Kotaro and Queen Brooke Kotaro. Before he died, though, the king gave his four children, Kellye, Yoshi, Jonatan, and Jayme Kotaro, to four trusted advisors and told them to take them to where they’d never be found.

One man and his family of warriors love nothing better than mech battles, powered swords, and boarding actions. They're about to get their fill. Duke Uron Marlboro led his mighty house to victory in the Zezner war. The last thing he expected was for his political allies to turn on him once the planetary invasion was thwarted. With a civil war brewing between the noble houses, Uron has one option: lead a long-awaited expedition to find his people's mysterious home world.

All his life, Mark Fields has dreamed of joining the Defense Force to fight the vicious, alien Exlian, just like the rest of his renowned family. But so far, he’s … a dishwasher, trapped in a dead-end job with no powers, no money, and even fewer friends. But an encounter with a dying woman changes everything—granting him the abilities he needs to join the training camps—and his life finally feels like it’s turning around, faster than a movie martial-arts montage (just ignore the weird cat).

When a lightning bolt strikes the golf course near Don, it sends him into a coma from which he awakens in another time period. 1850 Charleston, S.C., a time when issues over slavery and tariffs were leading the South into 'Secession from the Union'. Gaining employment as a newspaper reporter and writing under the pseudo-name of 'the Harbinger', he utilizes his knowledge of what will happen to the Lowcountry as the result of the coming Civil War.

Lem’s a mace-wielding teen space-ninja in a universe of sentient insectoids, purple jungles, and insane electromagnetic fields. She solves most problems by hitting harder, and never plays by her enemy's rules - until Jared Diebol captures her. Diebol is the rising leader of an army uniting the galaxy by force. He believes that the violent energy being Njande has “contaminated” Lem and her friends from another dimension to conquer the matter-based universe. Diebol’s army usually kills contaminated people - but he vows to cure Lem.

After the majority of his body is destroyed during a high-risk operation, Aiden Thorn is subjected to an experimental, potentially lifesaving procedure… one he never tacitly agreed to undergo. With no choice but to see the unorthodox new process through, he accepts his fate and works to adapt to his new life. But when an intergalactic corporation steps in and essentially claims ownership of Aiden and everyone like him, he is forced to do the two things he does best… survive, and fight.

As Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville is gathering an army to join King Edward III in the war against France, a most astonishing event occurs: a huge silver ship descends through the sky and lands in a pasture beside the little village of Ansby in North East Lincolnshire. The Wersgorix, whose scouting ship it is, are quite expert at taking conquering planets, and having determined from orbit that this one is suitable, they initiate standard procedure. Their ship carries guided missiles and nuclear weaponry—but they have long since lost the art of hand-to-hand fighting.

Adam Eberhardt has always felt different, but he never would’ve guessed he was a clone of Albert Einstein. Science geeks don't usually live inside the body of a hulk. A brain that never shuts off can be a blessing or a curse, but Adam hasn’t felt many blessings during his sleepless nights, regular victims of his severe anxiety disorder. Weaving through harrowing childhood memories, science research, and self-doubt, he most enjoys spending his mind power thinking about his wunderkind fellow student, Margot. . .who remains oblivious to his interest.

In a riveting blend of adventure, discovery, and moral reckoning, Stranded is a thrilling exploration of human nature set against the backdrop of a world beyond imagination. Will the group find a way to return from this Lost Eden, or will their conflicting agendas lead to irreversible consequences?

Major Ethan Irons thought surviving Earth's near-extinction event was the pinnacle of disaster, but when the remnants of humanity are catapulted into a galactic conflict beyond their wildest nightmares, he's plunged into an unimaginable odyssey. Armed with nothing but his wits, a sardonic AI companion, and unlikely alliances with enigmatic alien species, he must navigate the treacherous waters of intergalactic politics and warfare. Can Ethan and his ragtag band of survivors rekindle the flame of hope for humanity?