sci fi – hard sci fi

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Summary: Earth on the Cusp of the Twenty-Second Century Just think how the world has changed in the last seventy-six years. In 1948, scientists ran the first computer program, and "the Ultimate Car of the Future," the futuristic, three wheeled Davis Divan, debuted. Since then, a succession of inventions—the personal computer, the internet, the World Wide Web, smart phones and social media—have transformed every aspect of our lives. How might the next seventy-six years change us, in ways we can barely even begin to imagine, as culture, climate change, politics and technology continue to reshape the world? Earth in 2100 will be as unrecognizable to us as today would be to someone from 1948. Eighteen writers tackled this challenge, creating an amazing array of sci-fi possibilities. From emotional AI's to photosynthetic children, from virtual worlds to a post-urban society, our writers serve up compelling slices of life from an Earth that's just around the corner. So dive in and and take a wild ride into these amazing visions of our collective future.

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Summary: The fate of Lida looms. Agetha thought her fate was sealed, pushed to the edge of the colony to die. But with the revelation that the biomass is not only intelligent, but sentient, changes to colony are accelerating, threatening its very existence. Those who were controlled by the biomass once again have free will. Now, the human colonists are raising their voices and for the first time really influencing their new home. The planet-wide consciousness is slipping into a crisis of identity, when it doesn’t even have a sense of self. The wilds surrounding the colony are becoming increasingly unstable, and the colonists find themselves divided into those who have been touched by the biomass and those who are still wholly human. Can one small colony survive its inner conflicts as well as the titanic might of an entire planet?

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Summary: Alan Mercier's life as a cop on Mars was years and two hundred million kilometers behind him. After his partner is killed he is ready to let others do the good deeds, play the hero, and suffer the consequences. He is ready for the wild, lawless world of flying a space junker.The toughest part of space junking isn't the it's keeping the find away from other space junkers, and staying on the good side of the beautiful station manager, Kate. Then there are the finds in some are duds, some extremely valuable, and some cause more trouble than one can imagine.It's the latter such find that leads Alan from orbit to a remote island in the Pacific, then halfway to Mars, and all the way back to facing what really drives him - even if it could get him killed. Cover design by Michelle Young(michelleyoungauthor.com) Editing by B.K. Ntouris(bkntouris.wixsite.com/my-site)

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Summary: A distant star is calling us. Will it end in tears? Could the first contact between humanity and an intelligent species from outer space come at a worse time? The signal arrives when Earth is only beginning to recover from an apocalyptic cyber- and nuclear war.  Transportation is by horse. New construction relies on salvage from ruined cities, and indoor plumbing is a thing of the past. Leif Grettison was an army ranger and then an exoplanetary scout who survived two interstellar missions. He thought he had finally found a home and family to call his own when a rider appeared in town, looking for help to deal with a message received from another star system—a message nobody understands. To Leif, this message is the most important event he can imagine. He wants to learn what it says, who sent it, and have humanity respond to it. It is important enough for him to embark on horseback across what used to be the eastern United States to reach Earthbase, the birthplace of humanity’s former interstellar exploration program. At Earthbase he discovers an insular small town in the wilderness, its inhabitants riven by internal politics and preoccupied with day-to-day survival. Tech is almost nonexistent, and even those who want to respond to the mysterious star signal are not sure how. Worse, Leif’s arrival upsets the precarious balance that exists among the factions vying for control. Can Leif reconnect humanity to the stars, or will he start a civil war? If we do reach out to the stars, will we find the stuff of our dreams…or unleash Earth’s biggest nightmare yet? Will Leif regret the decisions he makes?

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Summary: Ray M. Holler is an interstellar shipping freelancer, expert smuggler, and an occasional thief with a troubled past which means that his life is far from the boring, mundane exploits of your average denizen of the Orion-Sagittarius Union, a political alliance of intelligent species inhabiting the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, more often than not, he finds himself up to his neck in situations that require wit, courage, and a decent amount of luck to maneuver out of in one piece. Throughout his adventures in a universe where a safe, peaceful life is possible but not guaranteed, Ray gets to meet a variety of interesting individuals, make new friends, reunite with old acquaintances, and maybe—just maybe—face his own demons. All Quiet In the Milky Way: Ray M. Holler’s Adventures vol. 1 brings forth five stories, accompanied by an equal amount of side vignettes. This collection will take you on an exciting journey to remote worlds that, in some aspects, may not be all that dissimilar from the one we live in today.

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Summary: RISE (noun / verb) Eight definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) An upward slope or movement 2) A beginning or origin 3) An increase in amount or number 4) An angry reaction 5) To take up arms 6) To return from death 7) To become heartened or elated 8) To exert oneself to meet a challenge Rise features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

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Summary: After a job gone wrong, Special Agent Olgo is trapped within the bowels of Mars with no means of escape. The device that imprisons the trauma within them is about to fail, and the past terrors kept hidden by it must be contained for Olgo’s sanity and everyone's safety. From the darkness comes a tiny voice, and a tinier hope: "Hello?" *** The first book in the ‘Cold Rush' Verse follows Agent Olgo as their corporate masters give them what could be their big break: a mission to Mars. But trying to change the working conditions in the planet's underground cities proves more challenging than the agent could have imagined. When a wearable device Olgo uses to block emotions begins to fail, an unlikely friendship changes everything as Olgo struggles to prevent spilling more blood on the Red Planet.

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Summary: When Peace-in-the-Sky awakens as a captive with a young girl by her side, she only understands one thing: she must escape the tribe who captured her. A brutal head injury makes the past a swirling fog, so she is reliant on the girl—her precocious daughter Anissa—to guide them. She must return Anissa to the Tribes-under-the-Dome to keep her safe from warring and vicious tribes inhabiting the wasted landscape. Every group they shelter with along the way sees something different when they look at Peace-in-the-Sky—a god, a savior, a valuable commodity, a volatile danger. She doesn't know herself, but soon realizes she can protect Anissa with the scorching power of the pillars-of-flame. Only her tender love for Anissa and her mission to return the girl home to the Tribes-under-the-Dome matter. As her body grows weaker, not even the inexorable unraveling mystery of who, or what, Peace-in-the-Sky really is can deflect her from the task. Find out what happens in Peace In The Sky by Caye Marsh!

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Summary: A damaged ship, a dying shipmate–can she save both? Under attack! The flight back to Hyvilma should have been the easy part for the crew of the Majera–until a deadly ambush by pirates sends them reeling through hyperspace. Now getting to the planet in time is the only way Captain Kitra Yilmaz can save her dying friend. But landing at Hyvilma may be impossible: war has broken out on the Frontier. With illustrations by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.

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Summary: A single father fights to retain control as he shares his body and mind with an evolving AI. It’s been nine years since the government banned all technology. So, when Joel Lodowick, a young transgender father struggling to support his five-year-old daughter, has an old bionic upload itself into his head, he is faced with a decision: Go to the cops and risk prosecution? Or use the robot’s skills to turn his life around? Scared of losing his daughter, Joel chooses the latter. Heightened intelligence and physical enhancements quickly land him a better job and a brighter future. But things take a sinister turn when Joel realizes his uninvited companion has an agenda of its own, which may or may not include leaving him in control. Unable to approach the government who covered up the truth about AI sentience, Joel finds himself on the run. With his daughter’s life on the line and his own body turning against him, he must find a way to convince the bionic in his head to value his human life before he loses the chance forever. Find out what happens in My Heart is Human by Reese Hogan!

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Summary: You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family… Quirk and Moth have avoided killing each other long enough to solve another case. They decide on a local job next, and take up the search for a missing scientist. How could Quirk know this new mystery put them on a headlong collision course with his troubled past, a plethora of personal issues, and a hoard of genetic hybrid creatures with an appetite for anything that moves? When their client dies in mysterious circumstances, law enforcement pursues the dysfunctional duo all the way to a research lab in frozen Yellowknife. Can Quirk and Moth find the scientist before they are banged up for murder, or has she already been eaten? Is it coincidence Quirk’s father-in-law bought the company? Can they expose the shadow from Quirk’s past and clear their names? Quirk and Moth need time, but it’s fast running out, and the bodies are piling up. Find out what happens in The Carborundum Conundrum!

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Summary: Mining asteroids with robots is common and sometimes the orbit of the rock is changed to facilitate extracting the valuable metals. One Monday morning, a car bomb detonates in Manhattan. As law enforcement officials scramble to find who's responsible, it becomes clear that it was a distraction. Terrorists have hijacked an asteroid and put in an orbit to hit the Earth. Suddenly the race is on to stop it. While FBI agent Juanita Flores pursues the bombers, astronauts Howard Drayden and Johnny Park put their lives on the line to save millions. Can Flores find who is responsible while Drayden and Park endeavor to avert the disaster in time?

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Summary: Forty years after landing on Lida, the colony still isn't finished. Agetha has survived many more battles than she anticipated when she first landed on her new home planet. She's older and wiser, has gained family and lost loved ones. And yet her reward for four decades of service is to be pushed to the colony’s outer edges with the other aging Generationals. But that was only the beginning of her adventure. The biomass has spent years studying the intruders who landed on its surface, carving a new home from its very essence. Never satisfied in its attempt to communicate with this new and invasive species, finally it has found a way to express its intentions. The colonists may never be the same. Discover the fate of the colony in the second book of The Biomass Conflux trilogy!

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Summary: Is Leif really lucky?  Stranded in orbit, viewing a destroyed civilization on Earth through the screens of a starship almost out of fuel and food, he doesn’t feel that way. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. As the starship Dauntless returns from a successful mission to the planet called Heaven, Earth holds no attractions for Exoplanetary Scout Leif Grettison.  He wants only to complete the mission and leave for another star, along with ace pilot Yang Yong.  In fact, he would be happy spending the rest of his life flying the starways with her. But they and the rest of the ship’s skeleton crew awaken from hibernation to find Earth’s solar system dark and silent—no signals, no responses to their transmissions. When they make orbit, the magnitude of the disaster becomes clear: An apocalyptic war has killed billions and destroyed every last source of power and tech that 22nd-Century humans relied on to survive. Getting down to Earth is only the beginning of Leif’s problems.  Those few who survived the apocalypse are still divided, fighting over what’s left. The disastrous re-entry to Earth leaves him with no resources or allies. He lands in the middle of a makeshift family that needs him more than he’s comfortable with and hears stories—even nursery rhymes—that speak of a lucky starman.  For once, he’s the only person with tech—but if he’s caught using it, they might kill him. Can a man back from the stars end the warfare on Earth, or will he make it worse?  Can he save a family that might become his?  Is he everyone’s lucky starman?

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Summary: What if first contact happened, and nobody even noticed? Light-years away, years ago, something insignificant happened. Now, the spirits are restless. Loki has returned, seeking help for his people. Entire stations are being consumed, populations lost. No one understands why, and the threat continues to spread. Can Jack, Marsha, and teenager Po carry the weight of saving Loki’s civilization? This time, it may break them all.

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Summary: In the not so distant future…  Kiah Hasan, a young, talented computer scientist haunted by her war-torn past, is reaching for something just past the edge of theoretical possibility. Her best friend, physicist Nigel Evans, is obsessed with pushing the boundaries of space travel. And Captain Josh Walker? He’s just out here for the adventure – and Kiah. Together with the crew of Trinity Station, they head toward the Kuiper Belt and disappear just as simmering political tension on Earth erupts into outright war. A hundred years later… Admiral Darren Winters leads a mission to the Kuiper Belt to find out what happened to Trinity Station. To his, and Earth’s, surprise, not only have the Trinity Station scientists survived, but have reached levels of advanced technology due to the success of Dr. Hasan’s AGI experiments. After shaky negotiations with Earth that ends with the birth of the new nation of Survey, Admiral Winters is offered a new position with the AI ship Musashi. His first mission is to figure out what happened to the youngest AI, Loki, whose first crew was killed in a tragic accident. With psychologist Dr. Alex Campos, they uncover a secret that could endanger the newly formed Survey nation and its AIs. Can Darren and Alex find Loki before it’s too late?

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Summary: Jack Kirby just wants peace. Deeply scarred from a failed mission and struggling with the loss of his lover, Jack takes a job  as a Religious Program Specialist on a remote PreCol station. There, he finds what he never expected: a family. Marsha, a complicated woman with a deep connection to the spiritual world. Jenny, a cheerful ensign with a dangerous past. Mark, driven to demolish the atavistic cult he was born into. Can Jack protect them all as they become entangled in an espionage game with galactic stakes?

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Summary: Jenny needs time to heal – but she’s not going to get it.  After her near destruction on New Harmony, Jenny Fraiser retreats to Musashi. She submerges herself in training and meditation, trying to find her balance again. Once more, she is unexpectedly catapulted to the front lines of a war of hatred – one she is uniquely qualified to win, with some help. As a deep-cover espionage specialist, Lulu uses her sociopathic tendencies for the greater good, but she never expects love, connection – or loss. Jenny, Lulu and the others are just pawns in a galactic game, which twists and changes in response to their every move. They need to track down the seemingly omniscient game master – before its seemingly innocuous task destroys two civilisations.

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Summary: Time is running out for planet Earth. An insidious Martian plague has been infecting the planet for over twenty years, and has resisted all human efforts to eradicate it. With all life on Earth facing extinction, the only solution left is to directly access a specific piece of Martian technology. But, according to diaries left behind by Ogilvy the astronomer, the Martians have hidden it at the lake on the moon. In 1945, three rockets converted from Martian cylinders take off on the vital lunar mission, and amongst the crew is Ogilvy's nephew, Jack Stent. Will the astronauts locate the Martian shadow-weapon, thought to hold the desperately needed cure for Marseria? Can it really be used to instigate another timeline on Earth so that mankind can survive? The stakes are high and so is the risk of contact and conflict with Martians. Nearly two hundred years later, at a scientific colony on Mars, a shocking discovery is made about Jack Stent, and Ogilvy's Martian diaries are once again pivotal to human survival and the continuation of life on Earth. Gateway To Mars is the third volume of The Martian Diaries series that continues the classic H.G. Wells Mars novel in a compelling, unmissable action adventure. If you're a fan of The War Of The Worlds you won't want to miss this story of survival, despair and hope, that brings the original tale full circle. Get your copy today! What readers have said: “A really well written, excellent continuation of the story and a truly brilliant tribute to HG Wells! I do recommend!” “An excellent third part to this incredible series!” “Boy this was a good book! I love the writing style... it's very true to the original story.”

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Summary: Clarity (noun) Four definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) Coherent and intelligible 2) Transparent or pure 3) Attaining certainty about something 4) Easy to see or hear Clarity features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.