trope: First contact

State of Chaos: a Cade Rearden Thriller

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State of Chaos: a Cade Rearden Thriller
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Over twenty years ago SETI closed most of the large radio telescope earth stations. One of them is not as abandoned as it seems, and it just received an alien message from 95,000 light years away.

The alien message arrives with breathtaking possibilities. And with it a life-and-death struggle for the future of humanity. Technology intertwines with terrorism and sabotage in a race against the clock.

Now Ex-Special Forces Captain Cade Rearden must get past his own trauma and become the warrior needed to defeat an unseen enemy intent on destroying the human race. Pulling together a crack military team, Rearden must take down a rogue AI intent on launching a chain of deadly attacks on American soil. And the key to staying one step ahead of the enemy could lie in understanding and protecting the incredible alien message.

State of Chaos is the first book in the riveting Cade Rearden science fiction thriller series. If you like near-future technology, complex heroes, and high-octane action, then you’ll love JK Franks’ explosive adventure. Buy State of Chaos to join the fight against an AI Apocalypse today!

A Murmuration of Opas

A Murmuration of Opas
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Mankind is spreading through the Solar System but, as yet, is still alone in the vastness of space.

That is all about to change.

A small team of intrepid scientists and engineers have made the long trip through the dark to Jupiter’s moon, Europa, and set up camp on an icy plain under the looming watch of Jupiter above them.

Initial samples show that the planet is host to primitive, unicellular life.

A submersible makes its first dive under the moon’s icy surface and finds signs that the life forms may not be quite so primitive after all. They uncover an indigenous species that shows signs of being capable of swarming together to achieve goals impossible for a single cell, a colonial organism that they nickname Opa. These Opas swarm in several different configurations in the cold dark ocean beneath.

The teams A.I. is set the task of deciphering the science behind the Opa’s dances, a swirling, and swooping that looks very similar to the movements of great flocks of birds back on Earth. Science is done, samples are taken back to the lab on the surface… and that’s when the trouble begins.
The Opas have been given a chance to roam in a new environment. A human environment.

Mankind is not the only species hungry for exploration. The Opas escape into the expedition’s living quarters.

They are curious, and hungry.

They are voracious for food…

And they will kill every living organism in the space station!

Encounter with Tiber (by buzz aldrin !)

Encounter with Tiber (by buzz aldrin !)
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n Apollo 11 astronaut and the Nebula Award–nominated author of Directive 51 present a novel that “conveys the wonder and promise of space” (Publishers Weekly).

Born the year of the Moon landing, Chris Terence spends his life fighting to return humanity to that pinnacle. An engineering student with dreams of spaceflight, he finds upon graduation that the United States no longer has need for astronauts. Years of bureaucratic meddling have reduced the space program to a shell of itself, and it will take the greatest scientific find in history to send humanity skyward once more. After years battling budget hawks, Chris finally gets his chance to walk on the Moon. While there, he finds evidence of an ancient alien civilization, the Tiberians, who visited Earth’s satellite eight thousand years before. Understanding what happened to those long-forgotten travelers will define the lives of Chris and his son, as they fight against all odds to unlock the secrets of the universe.

“The collaboration of the first man to pilot a moon lander (Aldrin) with a major voice in contemporary science fiction (Barnes) has produced a fascinating chronicle of man’s first encounter with alien intelligence”

Across a Billion Years

Across a Billion Years
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A team of space archaeologists makes an astonishing discovery about an ancient alien race in this science fiction tale from “a master of his craft” (Los Angeles Times).
Graduate student Tom Rice is thrilled to embark on his first deep-space archeological expedition. He is part of a team from Earth, venturing out in search of artifacts from a civilization that ruled the universe many millennia ago. Called the High Ones, the members of this long-gone society left tantalizing clues about their history and culture scattered throughout space. One such clue, a “message cube” containing footage of the ancient ones, is more interesting than all of the others combined. It seems to indicate that the High Ones aren’t extinct after all—and just like that, Tom Rice’s archeological mission has become an intergalactic manhunt, one filled with ever-increasing danger that will send the explorers hurtling headlong into the greatest adventure—and peril—of their lives. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Robert Silverberg including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Probe

Probe
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What if First Contact doesn’t come the way we expect it—or with the sort of aliens we expect? When both sides have secrets within secrets to keep, how is anyone supposed to know the truth—or live long enough to tell it? Will it turn out to be the greatest discovery of all time… or the biggest hoax?

Bob Hanson, the chief scientist of a major aerospace corporation, has made an incredible discovery: a wrecked alien spacecraft adrift in the Asteroid Belt. The evidence is compelling—video images from the Prospector space probe he himself had created. The military enthusiastically embraces an investigation of the extraterrestrials, remarkably indifferent to the inconsistencies that begin to appear.

Undeterred, Hanson keeps digging… and finds much more than he had ever bargained for. Soon on the lam, he, and everyone to whom he turns, is hunted. Before long only one conclusion remains unassailable—that his mysterious opponents play for keeps. Are aliens manipulating events on Earth? Did unscrupulous corporate executives invent the aliens in search of giga-buck government contracts? Has the Pentagon fabricated an alien menace for its own purposes?

Or is the truth something really unimaginable?

About the Author

Author of fifteen SF novels (five of them collaborations with Larry Niven) and dozens of shorter works, Edward M. Lerner won the inaugural Canopus Award for fiction “honoring excellence in interstellar writing.” His stories have also been nominated for Locus, Prometheus, and Hugo awards.

Saturn Run

Saturn Run
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“Fans of Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers will eat this up.” –Stephen King

For fans of THE MARTIAN, an extraordinary new thriller of the future from #1 New York Times–bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Sandford and internationally known photo-artist and science fiction aficionado Ctein.

Over the course of thirty-seven books, John Sandford has proven time and again his unmatchable talents for electrifying plots, rich characters, sly wit, and razor-sharp dialogue. Now, in collaboration with Ctein, he proves it all once more, in a stunning new thriller, a story as audacious as it is deeply satisfying.

The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope—something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don’t decelerate. Spaceships do.

A flurry of top-level government meetings produces the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out.

The race is on, and an remarkable adventure begins—an epic tale of courage, treachery, resourcefulness, secrets, surprises, and astonishing human and technological discovery, as the members of a hastily thrown-together crew find their strength and wits tested against adversaries both of this earth and beyond. What happens is nothing like you expect—and everything you could want from one of the world’s greatest masters of suspense.

Star Shroud (Ascension Series Book 1)

Star Shroud (Ascension Series Book 1)
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They’ve been watching us for hundreds of years.
Now they need our help.
Earth is not safe.

Zack is good at finding things, but when he discovers a global conspiracy, life as he knows it is over. Sometimes the truth doesn’t set you free. It traps you instead.

Kept secret for 60 years, the discovery of an alien signal forces an unlikely team to investigate a mysterious structure discovered in the furthest reaches of the solar system. Join the crew of the Athena, Earth’s most advanced spaceship on the ultimate journey beyond our wildest imagining.

Strap yourself in. The Star Shroud is the first book in this action-packed space opera series. Readers describe them as “a cross between David Weber and John Ringo.” If you like space opera adventure stories with clever heroes, impossible situations, and chilling discoveries, then you’re in for a fun nonstop thrill ride. Read it now!

Find out why thousands of readers have fallen for Ken Lozito’s thrilling series!

The Mote in God’s Eye

The Mote in God's Eye
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The united ‘Second Empire of Man’ spans vast distances, due to the Alderson Drive which has enabled humans to travel easily between the stars. After an alien probe is discovered, the Navy dispatches two ships to determine whether the aliens pose a threat… Called by Robert A. Heinlein: “Possibly the greatest science fiction novel ever written,” this magnificent exploration of first contact and a truly alien society is a “must read” for science fiction fans.

“As science fiction, one of the most important novels ever published.”
– San Francisco Chronicle

“Possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read.”
– Robert A. Heinlein

“A superlatively fine novel…no writer has ever come up with a more appealing, intriguing, and workable concept of aliens.”
– Columbus Dispatch

“A spellbinder, a swashbuckler…And, best of all, it has a brilliant new approach to that fascinating problem — first contact with aliens.”
– Frank Herbert

“One of the most engrossing tales I’ve read in year…fascinating.”
– Theodore Sturgeon

First Contact (In Her Name, Book 1)

First Contact (In Her Name, Book 1)
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In the first book of the In Her Name: The Last War trilogy, the Terran survey ship Aurora makes a startling discovery in an uncharted star system: two planets inhabited by an advanced, and decidedly unfriendly, non-human civilization. Disabled by gigantic alien warships before it can escape, the Aurora is boarded by nightmarish blue-skinned warriors with claws and fangs who slaughter the crew in ritual combat using primitive weapons. The sole survivor, Midshipman Ichiro Sato, is returned to Earth as a messenger bearing a device that warns of an impending attack.

If you’re new to the In Her Name series, here is the author’s recommended reading order:

1. The Last War Trilogy

  • First Contact
  • Legend Of The Sword
  • Dead Soul

2. The Redemption Trilogy

  • Empire
  • Confederation
  • Final Battle

3. The First Empress Trilogy

  • From Chaos Born
  • Forged In Flame
  • Mistress Of The Ages

Childhood’s End By Arthur C. Clarke

Childhood's End
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The inspiration for the Syfy miniseries. Childhood’s End is one of the defining legacies of Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and many other groundbreaking works. Since its publication in 1953, this prescient novel about first contact gone wrong has come to be regarded not only as a science fiction classic but as a literary thriller of the highest order.

Spaceships have suddenly appeared in the skies above every city on the planet. Inside is an intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior alien race known as the Overlords.

At first, their demands seem benevolent: unify Earth, eliminate poverty, end war. But at what cost? To those who resist, it’s clear that the Overlords have an agenda of their own. Has their arrival marked the end of humankind . . . or the beginning?

Praise for Childhood’s End “A first-rate tour de force.”—The New York Times “Frighteningly logical, believable, and grimly prophetic . . . Clarke is a master.”—Los Angeles Times “There has been nothing like it for years; partly for the actual invention, but partly because here we meet a modern author who understands that there may be things that have a higher claim on humanity than its own ‘survival.’ ”—C. S. Lewis “As a science fiction writer, Clarke has all the essentials.”—Jeremy Bernstein, The New Yorker