A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language must be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths—except the last, now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won’t go insane, even as he feels the end approaching. And now they think they’ve found their man....

With all other claims to the Stradivarius nullified and all command requirements met, Orion has somehow found himself captain of a starship.He's assigned his brother Syzygy the role of First Mate and recruited Echo, Galek, and Arcana to fill the other officer positions, but now the team must navigate the daunting task of actually managing a spaceship—something none of them are exceptionally well equipped to pull off. Galek works to turn a crew full of nannies, aste...

We all know that video games are fun, but can a video game make you cry? Can it tell you a powerful love story? Can a video game make you think differently about war? About the environment? About the choices you make?Whether it’s playing through blockbuster-esque adventures (Uncharted, God of War, The Last of Us), diving deep into hidden bits of story and lore (Red Dead Redemption II, BioShock, Journey) or building relationships...

Peter Killian, curator at Los Angeles’s Constantine House, wakes in a hospital with a concussion, a police guard… and no memory of how he got there.According to the LAPD, he’s the prime suspect in the theft of a priceless Tenth Century Chinese sculpture.Peter knows one thing with absolute certainty: he’s not a thief. Unfortunately, that conviction isn’t shared by Detective Mike Griffin — a sharp-eyed, hard-edged cop who seems infuriatingly determined to see Peter arrested.

One day, Jyosh will climb the heavens and slay a dragon god.Though nothing could seem less likely for a slave, especially one whose body is too broken to cycle sunshine into destructive magical energy. Until he meets a woman who can secretly teach him the lightblade, an energy sword transmuted from sunlight, capable of changing size, shape, and performing incredible magical feats according to the wielder's skill level.Except she only exists in his dreams. E...

The fourth book in our Ask the Experts series, The Environment tackles questions about the world around us. In this book, our experts field queries on the weather, natural disasters, natural resources, climate change, and unusual phenomena.

Do you want to avoid perishing in a hail of asteroids? Us too. That's why we created Astra Epsilon: the perfect escape for your mind, even though your body is about to be destroyed.As the end of the world rapidly approaches—both figuratively and literally—Astra Epsilon seems to be the last hope humanity has of sidestepping that awkward thing called death.With only a few weeks to spare, two brothers and a trio of roommates arrive at the local Ascension Port,...

From roller rinks and record players to coin-operated condom dispensers and small-town mobsters, Till the Wheels Fall Off is a novel about an unconventional childhood among the pleasures and privations of the pre-digital era.It’s the late 1980s, and Matthew Carnap is awake most nights, afflicted by a potent combination of insomnia and undiagnosed ADHD. Sometimes he gazes out his bedroom window into the dark; sometimes he wanders the streets of his small so...

For going on two decades, Scientific American’s “Ask the Experts” column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We’ve taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains.Now, we’ve combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. Organized...

A compelling and accessible new perspective on the modern science of psychology, based on one of Yale’s most popular courses of all timeHow does the brain—a three-pound wrinkly mass—give rise to intelligence and conscious experience? Was Freud right that we are all plagued by forbidden sexual desires? What is the function of emotions such as disgust, gratitude, and shame? Renowned psychologist Paul Bloom answers these questions and many more in Psych, his ...

A charming YA novel about a family who puts on an immersive, interactive play to save their historical homeFinn lives in a family of theater lovers. His older brothers are both actors, and one of his moms is an actor and the other one is a director. They even live in an enormous historic mansion owned by the Beauregard, Minnesota’s largest regional theater. Finn is desperate to be an actor, too, despite the fact that he can never seem to remember his lines. When a ...

In this installment of the Ask the Experts series, Chemistry, our professors, scientists, and researchers tackle reader questions about the substances that compose all matter, their properties, and how they interact and change. Queries range from elementary questions, such as why some elements change color over a flame, to how chemistry works in everyday life, to how certain substances affect the body and more.