Showing results by author "Craig A. Falconer" in All Categories

Not Alone: First Encounter is a prequel to the globally acclaimed Not Alone series, set several years before two worlds collide under the weight of the grandest conspiracy of all time. For the first time ever, First Encounter lifts the curtain on a deadly series of events surrounding the initial meeting between the ruthless Richard Walker - untouchable head of the controversial Interspace Defense Agency - and a young truth-seeker from Birchwood, Colorado....

When a massive meteor lights up the sky over the remote island of Kerguelen, the world holds its breath. In Birchwood, Colorado, Dan McCarthy gets to work. Following his incredible experiences of the previous year, Dan knows this was no natural occurrence. The Messengers are back - to finish what they started - and they didn't come all this way for nothing....

When a sudden impact sends a spacecraft bound for a distant research station hurtling toward a previously unseen and inexplicable planet, responsibility for the safety of its passengers immediately falls on Ivy 'Holly' Wood, a former poster child of the public space program now fleeing Earth's tyrannical leadership. The mysterious planet's startlingly Earth-like atmosphere initially breeds optimism among Holly's group of stranded survivors, but before long it becomes clear that Earth's rules don't apply.

Continuing the legacy of decades gone by, these fast-paced standalone stories offer wondrous settings, philosophical sci-fi questions, and twists that pack a punch.

All eyes fall on the closing stages of a colony-defining isolation test within Terradox’s least hospitable zone—the man-made hellscape of Little Venus, where six astronauts-in-training have survived 51 weeks surrounded by an almost impossibly hostile atmosphere. But while the astronauts of tomorrow count down their final few days until freedom, the gravest threat of all might already be on the wrong side of their Isolation Kompound’s impenetrable walls....

I wasn’t supposed to survive. The station has been hit. Everyone around me is dead. I have 11 hours of life support left and no way of contacting Earth. I’m alone. I’m stranded. I’m desperate. But I’m alive. The more of the station I explore, the surer I get that this was no accident. Someone did this, and I don't think they're finished yet.

Surviving in space was the easy part … I’m not alone anymore. I've made it down from the solitude of the station, all the way to an incredible underground bunker complex. Thousands of humanity’s best minds are by my side. I’m surrounded by secret cutting-edge technologies that almost defy belief. Too bad none of that is a match for what I’m up against now.

As two worlds reel from a colossal final pulse that cuts off all contact between them, two unimaginable discoveries raise the stakes even further. In a secret American facility, a power hidden from society for a decade is about to break free. And something much bigger, buried deep beneath the Scottish Highlands for thousands of years, is about to rise up.

They came in peace. But that was last time.... As the world gears up for the first anniversary of Contact Day, Dan McCarthy’s year-long effort to stay out of the limelight collapses in an instant. A direct call from the Messengers throws Dan into urgent action, but the fallout plants a troubling seed of doubt: This time, maybe they didn’t come here to help....

In one harrowingly destructive instant, a mysterious seismic pulse in the Scottish Highlands rips away all semblance of global security. Complacency grew in the years since Dan McCarthy brought humanity into contact with intelligent aliens, but those days are gone. When peace is shattered, fear takes over.

Some doors aren't meant to be opened.... While many on Earth grow fearful of the Messengers' remarkable powers and others lament a lack of interplanetary cooperation, two discoveries threaten to turn the world on its head. One find could simultaneously rewrite the history of two planets; one revelation could tear Dan McCarthy's life apart. With the stakes higher than ever following the birth of his daughter Piper - a child like no other with a secret the world isn't ready to handle - Dan will do whatever it takes to protect his family.

The alien creatures have made it to Earth. Entire cities are battling invasion from the menacing swarms. This is worse than Zola. It’s worse than the Leak. It’s worse than all of our nightmares put together. The creatures are indestructible, shrugging off our strongest weaponry. Now, our only hope lies inside a powerful ancient artifact we don’t understand. To save Earth’s future, we have to unlock the secrets of a lost alien past. Whatever it takes, we have to harness the power of the Orb. Humanity is coming together for one last stand against this threat from afar.

An alien message is now humanity’s only hope. Decoding the signal has given us one chance to stop the Anomaly, an ever-tightening cosmic noose, before it squeezes the life out of Earth. The only problem is, the aliens’ single instruction sounds like a bona fide death wish. They want me to step through their incredible quantum gateway, an enigma wrapped in starlight. Believe me: if I had any other option, I’d be taking it. But with the best data giving Earth a few days before the Anomaly consumes us, options are in short supply. Suicide or salvation? I’m about to find out.

Ignacio Zola saw billions of lives as collateral damage in his plan to reach a new world. But when I got in his way, I didn’t just make him angry. I made this personal. Stopping one disaster has only pushed him towards something even more diabolical. Now, I have one shot left. To stop the planet-killing cataclysm Zola has set in motion, I’ll have to repurpose some mind-blowing technology from his own abandoned research center.

An alien signal. Of all the things I expected to uncover while trying to make sense of the Anomaly, this didn't even enter my mind. But now, the signal has changed my understanding of everything. The Anomaly that's suffocating Earth isn't natural, and decoding this message could be our one shot at saving the planet. The trouble is, we don't even know where to start. What will it take to decipher the alien signal and unlock the secrets of the Anomaly? And how should we reply when we decode their message?

Earth is teeming with alien larvae. That reality has just crashed down on us like a ton of contaminated space rocks. Every time I close my eyes, I still see the huge spider-like monster rising up. I killed that one just in time, but we know that more could hatch at any moment. Even worse... we know that if any of them reach their final form, they'll be indestructible. Now, our only hope of saving Earth from this ticking time-bomb lies on the distant world of Eden. The problem? We have reason to think the natives engineered this stuff. If there was any other route forward, we'd be taking it.

When Dan McCarthy stumbles upon a folder containing evidence of the conspiracy to end all conspiracies - a top-level alien cover-up - he leaks the files without a second thought. The incredible truth revealed by Dan's leak immediately captures the public's imagination, but Dan's relentless commitment to exposing the cover-up and forcing disclosure quickly earns him some enemies in high places.

I guess saving the world once wasn't enough… First it was the auroras, lighting up Europe every night. Then came the weird clouds over Africa. The tidal shifts... the failing crops... the crazy changes to animal migration... And I think all of this is just the start. I don't buy the official line that these are natural occurrences. Not anymore. Not since a whistleblower hid a coded message in my invitation for an upcoming commemoration ceremony on The Vita. Now I know the truth—that Earth is in serious danger from the side-effects of their reckless research.

Sometimes the only way out is to fall further in…

As Earth's leaders gather to usher in a new era of interplanetary cooperation, a remarkable discovery in the skies above New Kerguelen threatens to destroy the peace on both worlds....

The problem is, we didn't come home alone. No one has ever seen anything like this. What they're calling it sends shivers down my spine: a parasitic alien pathogen. It could be a virus, a toxin, or maybe something even worse. And believe me: what we don't know definitely can hurt us. It's too late for me—I've been exposed. But this has never been about me. It's going to take some incredible risks and another long-shot space mission to get to the bottom of this, but I'll fight until my last breath to undo the damage I've done.