The biggest secret in creation is hidden in plain sight and must be protected at all costs. Free-will and individualism are merely illusions that help maintain order throughout the universes. The truth is you aren’t even in control of the next thirty seconds of your life. At this very moment influences beyond comprehension are at work in a world more fantastic than anything ever imagined. Forces outside the boundaries of conception could, in an instant, end your life while you stand watchi...

BOOK SIX in the Plague Wars series.The Demon Plagues is the first book in the Alien Invasion section of the Plague Wars series.Ten years after Infection Day, Daniel Markis struggles to unite a shattered world in the face of nuclear attack and extraterrestrial plagues, while others grasp for power and dark technologies. Skull mounts a one-man campaign to thwart the fascist Unionists, while Jill Repeth, Spooky Nguyen ...

From the author of Rule 34 and Halting State, a tale of deception, engineering, and the most unlikely rocket propulsion technology imaginable."A Tall Tail" by award-winning science fiction author Charles Stross is a Tor.com Original set in a compelling alternative universe.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

“[Stross] has the ability to superimpose an intriguing take on contemporary events over an imaginative story peopled by bizarre characters.” – The Kansas City StarA G2 star doesn’t just explode—not without outside interference. So the survivors of the planet Moscow, which was annihilated in just such an event, have launched a counterattack against the most likely culprit: the neighboring system of New Dresden.But New Dresden wasn’t responsible, and...

A collection of the best science fiction short stories of the 20th century as selected and evaluated by critically-acclaimed author Orson Scott Card.Featuring stories from the genre's greatest authors: Isaac Asimov • Arthur C. Clarke • Robert A. Heinlein • Ursula K. Le Guin • Ray Bradbury • Frederik Pohl • Harlan Ellison • George Alec Effinger • Brian W. Aldiss • William Gibson & Michael Swanwick • Theodore Sturgeon • Larry Niven • Robert Silverberg • Harry...

From a New York Times– bestselling author, a sci-fi adventure novella about a teen recruited by an elite military academy to fight WWIII.In S. J. Kincaid's fast-paced and humorous sci-fi Insignia trilogy, the earth is in the middle of World War III when teen gamer Tom Raines is recruited to train with other young cadets as a pivotal member of the elite combat corps, the Intrasolar Forces. At the Pentagonal Spire's trainin...

Aliens are spying on Earth from one of the four worlds that make up the Warden Diamond. But it is impossible to send agents to any of the four worlds because of unique microscopic symbionts that make it impossible for visitors to leave the Diamond.Seeking a unique solution, each of the four worlds making up the Diamond is sent a person whose mind has been stripped of everything and who is now controlled by an agent of the Confederacy.The frozen world of Medusa is the last o...

Once again, the year's finest flights of speculative imagination are gathered in one extraordinary volume, compiled by acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell. From some of the most renowned visionaries of contemporary SF -- as well as new writers who are already making an indelible mark -- comes an all-new compendium of unparalleled tales of the possible that will enthrall, astonish, terrify, and elate. Stories of strange worlds and mind-boggling futures, of awesome discoveries...

Project Orion. It's a revolutionary space-based defense shield, only weeks away from deployment. Promising global protection from missile attack by rogue nations, Orion offers an "umbrella" of security to a terror-stricken world. But even the loftiest aims often conceal darker intentions. Behind closed doors, insiders maneuver to control the new superweapon with an agenda that places all mankind at risk.When Angela Browning, an ambitious journalist, receives a mysterious computer d...

A Collection of science fiction ranging from comic to apocalyptic, the stories of Anomalies challenge concepts of time, space and science. And all the while, author Gregory Benford's characters charm us.There's Claire, the hard-boiled, randy spacecraft hack – "Do I look like a people person?" – and her heroic efforts, all in the name of a fast buck in The Worm In the Well and its sequel, The Worm Turns.Or the puzzle of The Man Who Wasn't There – can we one day hope to elude...

Two centuries into the future, the Hundred Concerns, a group of powerful corporations that dominate galactic commerce, have pressured the Commonwealth of Humans into signing a pact with the Haluk, a conquering alien race with nefarious designs. Among the few people who recognize the malevolent intent of the aliens is hotheaded maverick Helly Frost.To prove that the Haluk have created demiclones--genetically engineered individuals who are perfect human replicas--Helly travels to the...

I am the last of my type existing today in all the Solar System. I too am the last existing who in memory sees the struggle for this System and in memory I am still close to the Center of Rulers for mine was the ruling type then. But I will pass soon and with me will pass the last of my kind a poor inefficient type but yet the creators of those who are now and will be long after I pass forever.