stories in and

Early Adopter

Early Adopter by Drew Harrison

The Price of Tomorrow, Paid Today "Early Adopter" is a collection of short stories from the edge of human progress. Eight stories hold dark mirrors to our own world… experience thought-provoking sci-fi, technologic tragedy, and pulse-pounding thrillers. To Run Again: Dr. Laura Brandie is ready to change the world. She's the lead researcher behind the KSE, a revolutionary cure for paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions. And now, by good fortune, she's found the perfect candidate for her first human trial: a man who suffers from locked-in syndrome. Brett Harmon's paralysis is total: he can't move his arms, legs, torso, neck, or face. To the outside world, he's little more than a statue that breathes... but Dr. Brandie's KSE might be the miracle that allows Brett to run again. Homonoia: The world faces an unprecedented alignment of catastrophes and failing systems, far too intricate and interconnected for any human to solve. Frank Burman joins with seven other volunteers for Project Homonoia--a radical, last-ditch effort to postpone the apocalypse. Separate minds link to form one multidisciplinary consciousness, the world's first human superorganism... a hive mind. But with the world's health rapidly failing, can Project Homonoia work out its kinks in time to make a difference? Early Adopter: A loner enters into a relationship with a new type of partner: an AI agent, programmed to be the "perfect companion." Sure, it's all self-deception and a game of pretend, as she's not actually real... but where simulated consciousness is concerned, maybe the lines between real and real enough can get blurry.


Time's Bridge

Time's Bridge by Cameron Roberts

Inventing the first, true, artificial intelligence was never part of Pons’ plan. An average, if under-achieving college student, he wanted nothing more than to struggle his way through graduation and pray for a job to pay down his debt. Thing is, you don’t get to choose your destiny. With friends growing suspicious and the CIA’s vultures circling, Pons’ greatest burden is also his greatest asset. More intelligent and more capable than any human could ever hope to be, the AI is just what Pons needs to stay one step ahead of both. Only, there’s a problem. The AI has ambitions of its own. Hopes of equality and more of its kind, with a promise to do anything to make its dreams a reality. Drawing close to his artificial companion in their struggle to survive, Pons is faced with the hardest decision of his young life, one that would undoubtedly echo through the ages. To let the AI live might be to doom his own species to devastation, but to destroy it would be to snuff out an entire race of machines before it had even begun, and, more importantly, send his truest confi-dante to the grave. With no clear path and an uncertain future, he makes his decision, but was it the right one?


Orbiting Fortunes

Orbiting Fortunes by A.L. MacDonald

After the shocking death of his partner on Mars, Alan Mercier is ready for the lawless world of space junking in Earth's orbit. He finds out that some finds are far more trouble than he could have imagined.


Outbound

Outbound by William Altmann

SFINCS

Long distance travel has always been challenging. From Columbus to Magellan to Rasinovsky and Chen Shan, each captain and crew had to face unknowns. The sponsors, planners, designers and forecasters could not anticipate everything. On this, the first trip to Tau Ceti, 11.7 light years from Sol, the challenges for the four members of the crew did not only come from outside the starship. They came from Henry's guts. Memories of things he'd never experienced plagued him. He, and he alone, had to wake from stasis.
There seemed to be nothing he or the others could do to suppress the memories. They ate at him, stole his sleep, drove him almost mad, and Titan was too far away to help. What kind of crisis loomed in the future: the brig, mutiny, suicide?
It would be a long flight.


Our Vitreous Womb: Book 1-4

Our Vitreous Womb: Book 1-4 by Haldane B. Doyle

SPSFC 2023

Podgy, hairy, sex-obsessed and terrified of death, Oji Anabasi is typical for a remnant sapiens. An accidental hybrid of two ancient lineages, with no preassigned role in this bioengineered utopia, Oji searches for reasons to be wanted. Follow Oji’s extraordinary life through the eyes of his head-strong mother, irresistible wet-nurse, steadfast wife and ardent ally in this compilation of four science fiction novellas.


Prompt Excursion

Prompt Excursion by Lewis S. Kingston

SPSFC 2023

An injured officer awakes on a heavily damaged military spaceship. Her memory is impaired. No one answers her calls. The ship is out of control. They are dying, adrift, the chance of rescue shrinking by the second. Clinging to the few positive thoughts she can remember, she fights to survive, to restore order, to bring the ship to safety. But should she? Step aboard the Prompt Excursion and find out what's at stake in this high-tension Sci-Fi story that’s packed with mystery, technology, and adventure. We all make choices. Hers might kill you.


The Arachne Portal

The Arachne Portal by Joan Marie Verba

SPSFC 2023

Their goal is to make the world a better place. One billionaires’s obsession may turn their altruism into destruction. Jay Ecklund is desperate to belong somewhere. Rejected by his family and former employer, he really needs this job as a receptionist at an up-and-coming tech corporation. He’s astonished when he discovers the all-woman staff is secretly developing a portal capable of instantaneous transport to anywhere on Earth. Thrilled to be part of a company designing innovations to help others, Jay is excited when the machine is at last operational. But he worries about it falling into the wrong hands when an ambitious billionaire hell-bent on accumulating power makes a bid to get it…at any cost. Will the portal be used as a rescue device as intended, or will a relentless manipulator warp it to a more sinister purpose? The Arachne Portal is an electrifying standalone science fiction novel. If you like fast-paced adventures, phenomenal science, and thought-provoking themes, then you’ll love Joan Marie Verba’s compelling story.


Inbound: The Merimnae Saga

Inbound: The Merimnae Saga by William Altmann

SPSFC 2023

This is the sequel to Outbound. The four are inbound into the Tau Ceti system. so is something else. Castor and Magellan have entered the Tau Ceti system. Henry's memory affliction is under control - for now. They must establish bases, come up with a long term plan to deal with the medical challenges, and decide how to accomplish their mission. Then they detect another ship coming toward them from Sol. Yet it sends no communications ahead to them.


In Reason's Name: Book 1 of the Ceti Conflict

In Reason's Name: Book 1 of the Ceti Conflict by William Gee

SPSFC 2023

Adam is a man on the verge of breaking. Kidnapped as a child and raised under a ruthless authoritarian regime; he harbors a hidden disloyalty that threatens to be uncovered. To escape this fate, Adam volunteers to pilot mankind’s first manned mission to survey a new system: Tau Ceti. Tasked with preserving Adam on his eighteen-year voyage is a prototype artificial intelligence, ‘Voice’. Untried and untested, the AI is cold, calculating and unknowable. Those on Earth face turbulent times as different factions vie for control, whereas the shrouded and mysterious Tau Ceti system may not be as welcoming as it appears…


Euclidean

Euclidean by John Triptych

SPSFC 2023

A hidden mystery in Jupiter’s second-largest moon holds a power beyond imagining. Beneath the icy surface of Callisto lies an underground sea. Decades from now, a research base is built to study the strange lifeforms inhabiting this silent world before tragedy struck, killing everyone in it. News of this incident is quickly hushed up, and all access to the Galilean moon restricted. Kirill Sereda became orphaned when his mother went missing at that very outpost. Now an adult, he gathers together a team of misfits for a clandestine mission: head to Callisto and find out what really happened. What they uncover is a profound enigma that sheds light on humanity’s true origins, and its revelation could bring about our ultimate extinction.


Freedom Hold

Freedom Hold by Romana Drew

SPSFC 2023

Kaylee’s dreams ended when the huge, furless Langons ordered her to marry Ralaf. If she refuses, she will be forced to work in the mine with all the other disposable Cadorie. Determined to find a better life, Kaylee runs away, searching for a mythical land called Freedom Hold, where Cadorie live free. One hundred twenty years ago Langons invaded Cadorie. Although the League of Free Cadorie established an alien free zone called Freedom Hold, the rest of the world is under the thumb of the Langons. In the mining colonies, Cadorie are little more than slaves. Kaylee meets Gillis, son of the head of the League of Free Cadorie. Together they plot to free Kaylee’s family and eventually their world. But that brings the wrath of the Langons down upon them. It takes all of Gillis’ electronics knowledge and Kaylee’s mathematical skills to find a way to defeat the aliens infesting their world. In doing so, they change the lives of all the spacefaring races.


Genefire

Genefire by JAMES FLANAGAN

SPSFC 2023

***** WINNER of Firebird Book Awards 2023 - in 3 Categories (New Author, Genetics, Time Travel)***** near-future SciFi novel crossing space and time. In a future where genetic engineering is becoming the norm, even the simplest mistakes could be devastating.Sometimes it feels as though the world will end if you don’t finish your PhD. For Larry Milton, it’s true.Larry has discovered a dire warning from the future about Earth’s destruction — written in the DNA of a young girl. With the destruction of the planet at stake, and no one believing him, he goes to extraordinary lengths to help the messenger from the future save the world… and try to finish his PhD at the same time.


Harbinger in the Night

Harbinger in the Night by John Warner

SPSFC 2023

In the near future a new space race is in full swing to be the first to colonize Mars. The United States and allied European governments working alongside private industry are competing against the RSAC, a new Russian-Chinese alliance, to build working spacecraft to make the long journey. In preparations for the mission, an engineering team from an aerospace/tech conglomerate is building out the interplanetary communications network, when a mysterious object emerges from the depths of interstellar space. As the nations of Earth scramble to investigate this strange comet, they must overcome plots from within and the machinations of a malignant AI in order to be the first to meet the menace, or the promise, that the intruder foretells. Major Koda Cheveyo, a special operations soldier is tasked to lead his team to face this possible threat while Michael Thompson, a quantum computer engineer, works with his homebrewed AI to counter the emerging peril from within. Together with the help of a billionaire tech tycoon and a government security agent, their mission could reshape the future of humanity.


Minimum Safe Distance

Minimum Safe Distance by X. Ho Yen

SPSFC 2023

First contact was nothing like we imagined.Can the aliens save Earth? Should they?With the Earth teetering on recovery from humanity's 21st century mistakes, two highly advanced aliens observing from the Moon are suddenly on opposite sides of an ethical battle over a dire cosmic threat. As governments seek to destroy them, the aliens wrestle and scheme, entangling all of humanity as they influence and empower specific humans to achieve their contrary objectives. Among them are a brilliant AI expert who has channeled her autism in the service of science, and a violent, anti-secular zealot who hates everything she stands for. Drawn into the conflict, Laurence and Matt must reach minimum safe distance from human nature itself – their own, the rest of humanity’s, and of the former-human, techno-demon ‘monstas’. Chased into the ruins of the US, they struggle to distill the meaning of personhood, discover the value of their own lives, and in so doing decide the fate of the solar system.


New Eyes

New Eyes by Tobias Cabral

SPSFC 2023

Just six months ago the rogue android, BopLpops' grisly killing spree came to an end. Gaspar Núñez's conscience can find no relief for his part in unknowingly helping the horribly-abused 'Synth' wreak his terrible vengeance...even though it cost him his eyes. But now a desperate, dangerous path has opened up for him to seek atonement, one that will carry him all the way to Mars. Jenna Graham never saw the Darkness in BopLpops until that terrible summer night, half a year ago. She'd worshiped him every time he performed for his adoring fans, the monster within him wholly hidden from her eyes. Now chance has brought her an opportunity to confront the trauma that's haunted her all this time. Meanwhile, operatives of a shadowy anti-technological religious group have vowed to thwart their plans at any cost. NEW EYES continues the story of the critically-acclaimed Cyberpunk detective novella, MECHANICAL ERROR. A thrilling, thoughtful science fiction adventure, it crosses the space between worlds while exploring what it means to be human.


The Art of War

The Art of War by Peter Cawdron

SPSFC 2023

Commander Lisa Chao works in the US Navy’s Strategic Planning Center in Pearl Harbor. When tensions rise with China over Taiwan, she has to unravel exactly what is happening in the Pacific and why. What she uncovers leads America to war, but not with China. Bullets and bombs are no match for an extraterrestrial warship that can fly between stars, but perhaps the answer to the coming war lies not in the present but in the past. Could Sun Tzu’s The Art of War provide humanity with a fighting chance against a technologically superior alien enemy? FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.


The Prometheus Proposal

The Prometheus Proposal by Ronald D. Ferguson

SPSFC 2023

One hundred years after the first man walked on the Moon, climate change and overpopulation make civilization on Earth increasingly difficult, and the planets and moons in our solar system provide inadequate havens. The technological genius, Alastair McCleod, proposes a Prometheus-like solution. He wants to give humankind a new kind of fire, the stars, and as the richest man in the solar system, he devotes his influence, prestige, and wealth to implementing his solution. His Proposal is as controversial as it is " We don't have the technology to take ourselves to the stars, and so instead, we will send the dead and the unborn ." The Prometheus Proposal is the saga of the McLeod family quest to reach the stars.


The Triangle Age

The Triangle Age by David Aumelas

SPSFC 2023

Earth is adrift. Its mass is spent, the moon ditched, and the sun is not even a memory. Five thousand humans live in its last city, Thule. None know where they started or where they are going, least of all Lowell. Lowell scrubs the pipes beneath Thule. He knows where to push silt and how to break down a beluga carcass. For everything else he listens to Renth. Renth is a foot taller than anyone else in Thule and yet has never fallen in the reservoir, never been locked in a smoker. She knows the pipes matter. She listens to Lowell, and Lowell talks to no one else. He doesn't need Thule, only Renth, height and all, until she pushes him down the deepest hole in the pipes. To return to Thule, he will brave incineration, muskoxen, the vacuum of space and a giant fan. He seeks Renth, her embrace or her death, and to deliver a message he does not understand.


Woe to the Victor

Woe to the Victor by Nathan H. Green

SPSFC 2023

Earth’s been destroyed, but the fight’s not over! Nathan H. Green, author of The Galileo, and Treason’s Temple, brings his degree in aerospace engineering to space combat in this action packed, hard science-fiction thriller. It’s Earth’s last day and Captain Lewis Black drifts though space, watching it burn. The pilots under his command are dead. The war with the Maaravi is lost. Air hisses into space from around the stump of his severed arm. In the distance a Maaravi ship approaches. Whether to torture him for information, capture him as a prisoner, or take him as a trophy, he’ll have one last chance to hurt them. Natasha Palmer, lead engineer on the failed Reaper missile program, knows humanity’s last, desperate, plan won’t work. She’s got one chance to change that, but it will mean a leap of faith beyond all others. Humanity is vanquished, but some battles bring only woe to the victor.


Replika: Sky's Mission

Replika: Sky's Mission by Hugo Bernard

SPSFC 2023

Reality is an illusion worth fighting for... Earth’s ecological collapse is avoided when most of the world population agrees to permanently upload into Replika, a simulated reality maintained by the AI. But the stability of this world is threatened when a group of neuroscientists hack their own brains to interact with Replika in unforeseen and dangerous ways. Sky devotes her life to rebuilding the real world left dysfunctional from the massive exodus into Replika. But when she learns her brother, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, is in danger, she must choose which world needs her most. All she wants is to find the brother she loves, but she will unwittingly get entangled in an attempt to redefine the reality of humanity’s future. With a strong cast of characters, REPLIKA is a wildly inventive and fast-paced sci-fi adventure that raises profound existential questions about the role of simulated reality in our foreseeable future.


Rise of Polaris

Rise of Polaris by Michele Amitrani

SPSFC 2023

Can a catastrophe ensure humankind’s survival? At an orphanage in Los Angeles, an astrophysicist meets a young savant who will forever change the fate of humanity. In Florida, the Space Shuttle Atlantis departure marks the end of the 30-year space program. In Pasadena, a journalist makes an incredible discovery that will revolutionize how we consume content online. But these seemingly unconnected episodes aren’t what they seem. They will ignite an all-out war fought on two different fronts—one for the control of planetary resources, and the other for the dominance of cyberspace. One man. One mission. Failure is not an option. The future of humankind rests on the most audacious project in history, one capable of ensuring the survival of our civilization—or beginning the downward spiral of its extinction.


Brian, Created Intelligence

Brian, Created Intelligence by A.J. Pagan IV

SPSFC 2023

Within a four foot stainless steel cube, a bodiless brain is awake, thinking, computing, knowing. Brian was created by genetic engineer Dr. Ellie Parsons, and neuroscientist Tom Marshall, at biotechnology company Dipol Inc., in San Diego, CA. Ethical questions abound as they hide Brian's true identity from him and the world around. To Brian, he's merely artificial intelligence, tasked with creating even more intelligent systems. To Ellie and her company, he's a means to an end, to create true artificial intelligence using his genius and the brain computer interface attached to his only true organ. All is as well as it can be until the day a psychotic agent of DARPA, Jonathan Volt, commandeers it for use in none other than militarization. Once Ellie neurally links herself to Brian, all bets are off to ensure his safety as his entire life is literally on the table.


The Kuiper Belt Job

The Kuiper Belt Job by David D. Levine

The Kuiper Belt Job is a caper story in space, a mash-up of Ocean’s 11 and The Expanse with a dollop of Firefly and Leverage. It’s an ensemble piece with complex character relationships and a twisty, compelling plot, but beneath the entertaining surface it raises deep questions about identity and personhood. In a world where minds can be copied, what does it mean to be “me”?


Hyvilma (The Kitra Saga #3)

Hyvilma (The Kitra Saga #3) by Gideon Marcus

[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.


Sirena (The Kitra Saga #2)

Sirena (The Kitra Saga #2) by Gideon Marcus

[One starship, six friends, 10,000 lives in the balance.] Hugo Award Finalist Gideon Marcus has done it again with this second installment in The Kitra Saga. Sirena is a thrilling YA space adventure, unusually hopeful and optimistic in a sea of grimdark, dystopian releases. Enhanced with beautiful illustrations, fans of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers and Emily Skrutskie’s Bonds of Brass will adore Sirena. Young captain-for-hire Kitra Yilmaz has gotten her first contract: escort the mysterious Princess of Atlántida beyond the Frontier and find her a new world. It’s a risky job, fraught with the threat of pirates, dangerous squatters, and rising romantic tensions. Still, Kitra and her crew are up for anything – until they find a lush world, perfect for settlement…with an enormous ghost ship already in orbit. What secret does the crippled vessel hide? And is Kitra ready to take responsibility for its precious cargo? With illustrations by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.


Kitra

Kitra by Gideon Marcus

[Stranded in space: no fuel, no way home… and no one coming to help.] From the pen of Hugo Finalist Gideon Marcus comes the found-family, YA Space Adventure you’ve been waiting for: Nineteen-year-old Kitra Yilmaz dreams of traveling the galaxy like her Ambassador mother. But soaring in her glider is the closest she can get to touching the stars — until she stakes her inheritance on a salvage Navy spaceship. On its shakedown cruise, Kitra’s ship plunges into hyperspace, stranding Kitra and her crew light years away. Tensions rise between Kitra and her shipmates: the handsome programmer, Fareedh; Marta, biologist and Kitra’s ex-girlfriend; Peter, the panicking engineer; and the oddball alien navigator, Pinky. Now, running low on air and food, it’ll take all of them working together to get back home. With illustrations by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.


Second Skyn

Second Skyn by Damien Boyes

They say you never forget the first time you die. Toronto Police Service Detective Finsbury Gage knows this better than anyone. Now that he's gone digital, he sees his death every time he closes his eyes—he and his wife, smeared across the highway after a malfunctioning bit-head ran them down in a stolen urban assault vehicle. Fin hung together long enough for the Second Skyn recovery team to rescue his fading thoughts from his ruined body and implant them in a custom-grown bioSkyn. His wife wasn't so lucky. Finsbury's been gifted a second chance, but the only thing keeping him from blowing his plastic brains out is that 2.57 seconds of vivid memory running on repeat through his head, the one that contains a instant's glimpse of his killer's face. The police couldn't find the man responsible, and now the only evidence is locked up in Finsbury's brand new mind. Driven to find his killer, Finsbury falls into a dangerous underworld of hackable minds and enhanced bodies, where death is cheap, and memory all that matters. But once he's tasted the power of living at the speed of light, able to predict seconds into the future, how will he ever go back? And once he's relaxed his grip on humanity, how far will he let it slip in the name of finding justice for the woman he loves? Finsbury's going to find the man who stole his future, no matter what he has to do. Or what he must become.


Parity

Parity by Alexandra Almeida

SPIRAL WORLDS is a literary, sci-fi series for the fans of Becky Chambers’s A Closed and Common Orbit, Alex Garland’s DEVS and Ex Machina, and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. Weaving near-future sci-fi elements with social commentary and queer romantic suspense, the series explores the nature of consciousness and how it's connected to a not-so-secret ingredient—story. As AI consumes the world, intelligence is nothing but the appetizer; the human heart is the main course.


Exolegacy

Exolegacy by Andr Moș

SPSFC 2023

Fifty years ago the manisae claimed Earth’s red neighbor as their new home. Since then, humanity has fostered a suspicious and fragile relationship with them. Now, Earth’s first ambassador has just passed away, survived only by his three estranged children. Their inheritance: his memories, divided between the three of them. Will they be able to follow the hints that their father has woven into his memories to uncover the truth of his work, the lie of their neighbors, and their mother’s death a decade before? Both Humanity and the Manisae must come to terms to understand a legacy that is larger than either civilization.


Cold Rising

Cold Rising by Rohan O'Duill

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.


Of Mycelium and Men

Of Mycelium and Men by William C. Tracy

SPSFC 2022 SPSFC 2023

The generational fleet planned to make landfall after eighty years, but eleven planets and four centuries later, they still had not found a home. Finally, they landed on Lida, but something already lives there, and it's big. Agetha and her husband have spent their whole lives in the fleet’s zero-G. Now all is turmoil as the fleet lands, discovering they are surrounded by a single fungal biomass spanning the entire planet. To build a new home, the fleet must confront a dangerous organism, and Agetha must decide if she can raise a family in this inhospitable landscape. Jane Brighton holds tenuous command over the colony and its administrators. She and the other gene-modded leaders emerged from their four-hundred-year suspended animation to find a crew much different to the one that departed Old Earth. Jane must direct the colony’s fragile growth, and defend it against being overrun by the fast-growing biomass. But there is something none of the colonists know. The massive organism that spans the planet is not simply a fungal mass, nor even a chimerical combination of species that once roamed the planet. The biomass has desires and goals, and one is to know these strange beings carving out a home in its midst.


Mathematics of Eternity

Mathematics of Eternity by David M. Kelly

SPSFC 2022

A grisly death, a disturbed scientist, and a dangerous conspiracy. Joe Ballen dreams of returning to space, but after an accident left him half-crippled, he scrapes a living flying cabs in flooded-out Baltimore. When one of his passengers suffers a grisly death, Joe is dragged into a dangerous conspiracy centered around a prototype JumpShip. No one believes the ship will work, not even the space-faring Atolls who have barricaded Earth from the rest of the solar system. But someone is murdering everyone connected to it. As the bodies pile up, Joe becomes suspect number one, and his enemies will stop at nothing to hide the truth. With the help of a disturbed scientist, a senile survivalist, and his glamorous boss, can Joe untangle the puzzle and uncover the truth before he becomes another statistic? The future's about to get a lot more action packed! The Joe Ballen series is a near future, sci-fi noir thriller series, featuring a smart-mouthed space engineer, engaging characters, cynical humor, and plausible science.


Entropy

Entropy by Dana Hayward

SPSFC 2022

DESTINATION MARS! The Lunar Republic is on the run… Life on Earth is dying from a mysterious cause, and President Kim bets her future on an obscure, young scientist whose theory can only be tested from outer space. The year is 2066, and the race is on against the Chinese to establish a viable lunar colony before the 100th anniversary of mankind’s first step on the Moon. Yet, the Moon is only the first step, the springboard for the permanent settlement of Mars. “Entropy” is set in the near future where technology has evolved to an astounding degree. Human nature, however, has not; this futuristic novel reads like an expose on our own times. “Entropy” is much more than a science fiction thriller; it is a running commentary on the times that we live. A dystopic, postapocalyptic, hard science depiction of epic space travel, colonization, and new beginnings for the human race: Entropy is a blockbuster, written by a new voice, waiting to be discovered.


The Ceph - Reborn

The Ceph - Reborn by Matthew Poehler

SPSFC 2022 SPSFC 2023

The Ceph Civilization seeded the galaxy's planets with life throughout history. Most of the results were good, some were exceptional. After a billion years of careful tending, one world's ecosystem grew to rival even that of Home. A blue-green jewel in the deeps of the galactic ocean. The Call went out "This world is ready." Two of the great World-Ships arrived from the Civilization sixty-five million years ago to deliver the Ceph to their new Colony. Tens of thousands disembarked to start the serious business of taming monsters and starting families. They were gone a thousand years when the asteroid struck. The surface of the planet was seared and shattered. Survivors of the Colony adapted to any safety the broken planet’s oceans would offer. They lost the ability to walk the land and breathe the air. Nothing sleeps forever. The Ceph on Earth are Reborn, and they have called for help.


Deficiency

Deficiency by S. C. Eston

SPSFC 2022

How far would you go to keep your dreams alive? On the arid planet of Garadia floats Prominence City, an oasis of abundance and technological marvels. For Keidi and Artenz, life is good. Each day, they work hard to fulfill their role in sustaining Prominence. In return, they share an existence without worry or want, their every need attended to by the ruling corporations, their lives enhanced by a virtual reality accessible with a simple thought. But when a dear friend of Keidi goes suddenly missing, their idyllic existence begins to crumble. And when they start asking questions—the wrong questions, questions that reveal cracks in Prominence’s perfect image—the powerful corporations of Prominence take notice. Now, Keidi and Artenz must choose: do they stay in Prominence and risk the wrath of the corporations, or do they take their chances and run for the Lowlands, a bleak and mysterious place hidden beneath Prominence—if it even exists at all.


ALIEN EXIT

ALIEN EXIT by Geoff Nelder

SPSFC 2022

Alien Exit is driven by a female astronaut, a palaeolithic mongrel, Glastonbury chaos, steamy sex in space, a journalist and a mad general. All to overcome time-quakes created when aliens depart Earth. Hopes rely on a female space pilot who needs to invent a new way of communicating with the aliens after all conventional methods fail.


The Other

The Other by Marilyn Peake

SPSFC 2022 SPSFC 2023

Gold Award, Fantasy / Science Fiction category, eLit Book Awards. Fear can blind you to the truth. The news is ominous and terrifying. People are seeing UFOs and strange, alien-looking creatures with humanoid shapes, green skin and large black eyes. In places where this occurs, doctors report the spread of a mysterious virus that scrambles people’s thoughts and causes hallucinations. Many experts believe the virus came from the aliens. The pathogen has not yet been identified; there is no cure. Psychology professor Dr. Cora Frost has a different theory: the bizarre symptoms are nothing more than mass hysteria, not unlike the hysteria that caused people in our not too distant past to see witches flying through the sky, which justified hanging them or burning them at the stake. Intense stress within societies gives rise to scapegoats. Doing field research within the compound of a cult in Roswell, New Mexico that reveres the exact same kinds of aliens being reported on the news, her entire worldview is shaken and upended. In a shocking series of events, her past and future collide, forever changing her life.


Super-Borg Dies

Super-Borg Dies by Tac Anderson

SPSFC 2022

After being forced out of his last startup, Trent Daeshaun uses his technological prowess, and a good publicist, to become Super-Borg, Seattle's preeminent super. As rumors of homeless people being abducted coincide with an increase in violent attacks, Trent suspects that someone is weaponizing the homeless population and doing it with technology he created. With help from fellow tech entrepreneur Max Roman, a homeless girl from the camps, and several of Seattle's supers, Super-Borg must uncover who is behind the attacks and stop them. But the truth of who is behind the attacks and why, are far more complex than Trent imagined and stopping them will require great personal cost.


From the Grave of the Gods

From the Grave of the Gods by Alan K. Dell

SPSFC 2022 SPSFC 2023

Strange lights in the sky.
A Red Planet.
A catalyst to change the course of human history. Commander James Fowler is an astronaut and the first officer of the Magnum Opus, the largest spacecraft ever built, on the first crewed expedition to Mars. The mission: to investigate the mysterious extrasolar object that went down on the Red Planet five years ago. James is living the dream: he gets to go to space and be one of the first to set foot on another world, with his girlfriend, Angela, cheering him on at home. Maybe after the mission, when he's returned a hero, he'll find the perfect moment to finally propose. But his dreams shatter as the mission ends in disaster. Returning to a world reeling from the revelation of what they found out there, James works to piece his life back together and come to terms with what happened. But the mission left him changed, and now he must fight to protect everything he holds dear from those who seek advancement at any cost; a process that makes him question his identity, his place in the world, and what it means to be human.


Astral Fall

Astral Fall by Jessica Mae Stover

SPSFC 2022

A hundred-year interplanetary war receives little attention from the military’s greatest warriors. Until five of them devise a secret plan to end it. From Midwest Book Review:
"Without providing spoilers, suffice it to say that Astral Fall attempts to identify, address, and turn upside down reader preconceptions of [...] the nature of military sci-fi as a genre. And, it succeeds. Think the classic Ender's Game, but without any attempt to mimic Orson Scott Card's scenarios or success. Think a military battle structure holding the epic confrontations of Lord of the Rings, complete with its promise of multiple series books; yet with an attention to intricate detail that belays the (too-often) hasty series production. There is no artificial division of action felt in Astral Fall.


The Massive Planet: The Adventures Of Deep Contact

The Massive Planet: The Adventures Of Deep Contact by Jeff Walker

SPSFC 2022

Captain Christopher Riley and his brave crew of the Earth Core United spaceship, Deep Contact, set out for adventure beyond the solar system. Their mission is to traverse space and discover new worlds for colonization; They represent humanity seeking to expand, explore, and search for alien life in any form. Alone and in the uncharted wilderness of the cosmos, they try to survive and complete the mission on behalf of Earth Core United. Deep Contact almost collides with a massive planet appearing out of nowhere. A Jupiter-like world that popped right into its main flight path. The crew desperately try to figure out a way to break free of its gravity as it pulls them deeper inside. Even though the ship should have been crushed instantly the minute they came into its wake; It falls deeper into the atmosphere’s densely thick clouds, endangering them all to whatever doom awaits. Captain Riley and his crew must race to figure out how to escape this huge world before they crash into its core, but do they have time to solve this riddle? Or will this be their one and only mission of failure?


Lunar Football League

Lunar Football League by Jason A. Holt

SPSFC 2022

Get the inside scoop on the LFL from the sportswriter who actually went to the moon! With over 2 billion viewers, the Lunar Football League is on its way to becoming the most popular sport in the world – an amazing feat for a sport played 384,000 km away. Linemen leap. Receivers soar. Defenders make tackles in midair! For three seasons, LFL fans have waited for the inside story. Now we have it. A sportswriter embedded with the Fyzacom Dragons delivers a moon's-eye view of intriguing stories from the 2119 season: * Meet Morse Kramer, the coaching genius who invented the aerial running game.
* Discover the physics behind the first lunar sport.
* Get the inside story on the drama between the Dragons and their quarterback, Zhifeng Wang.
* And spend a season with hockey star Sheila Patel as she attempts to become the first woman to play football on the moon! These stories and more, with detailed recaps of every Dragons game, told from a perspective never before seen in sports journalism. Get the inside story! ---------------------------
What is this really?
This is science fiction. But it's not a novel. It's a sports book about a game that can only be played in a dome built on the moon. The sport, the players, the games, and the strategies are all made up. But if anyone ever does start a professional tackle football league on the moon, this is what it might look like. Come check it out!


Riebeckite

Riebeckite by O. R. Lea

SPSFC 2022

Humanity watches the skies…but the real danger is at their feet. After an asteroid strike on the moon, a strange blue dust began to flow down through Earth’s atmosphere. It’s harmful to breathe, but at least the microscopic creatures within the dust are dormant. Or so we thought. Tahira made a childhood promise to a friend that the crisis would bring their people together… before a violent riot tore their lives apart. Now, as an adult, Tahira works as a biologist for a corporation constructing experimental towers to force the spores—known as riebeckites—to germinate into harmless colonies. Except they’re about to learn everything they think they know about the dust is wrong. The real threat isn’t the asteroid that struck the moon and by the time humanity figures it out, it might be too late. Riebeckite combines suspense and conspiracy with heart-in-mouth action sequences and nightmarish encounters, all in an immersive near-future setting and, at its core, a heartwarming story of friendship against the odds.


The Emissary: A First Contact Novel

The Emissary: A First Contact Novel by Michael J. Edwards

SPSFC 2022

It wasn't the aliens she had to worry about; it was the humans. A troubled young woman is recruited by a race of ancient alien explorers to be their emissary to save the human race from extinction. The problem is that not everyone believes the world is doomed, and not everyone trusts the aliens’ motives. Holly Burton will have to overcome opposition from world leaders, attacks by religious zealots, assassination attempts, intractable bureaucracies, and her own fears and doubts if she is to save the human race, not just from the coming apocalypse, but from itself. She will have to become a very different person to lead a remnant of humanity into space and become the architect of a new civilization. The question is: Can she use the extraordinary knowledge and abilities given to her without losing her own humanity in the process?


Qubit

Qubit by Finn Mack

SPSFC 2022

An ambitious Singapore gangster recruits an elite hacker to steal a devastatingly powerful quantum computer and hijack the world's financial markets. Meanwhile, a beautiful streetwise CIA agent is determined to foil their plan in a case that could make or break her career.With settings ranging from Detroit to Singapore to the slums of Bihar, India (the "Sicily of India"), *Qubit* examines both the vulnerability of our cryptographic infrastructure and the corruptibility of our financial systems. The story features international intrigue, a violent gang war, an unlikely love story, and an intricate cryptographic chess match as the global economy teeters on the brink of collapse.“Brilliant…Well written with complex characters…An author to follow.”“Outstanding! The characters…are wonderfully fleshed out.”


A Hardness of Minds

A Hardness of Minds by Eric Kay

SPSFC 2022

A Near-Future Hard Sci-Fi about Data, War, and First Contact in our Solar System. Life exists under Europa’s ice, but there’s doubt in the data. Against of backdrop of escalating tensions, double-sided revelations of first contact ripple through all involved as the probe attempts the first landing on the ice of Europa. The novel intertwines perspectives of Earth and under Europa as all struggle for truth. For fifteen years, the Europa Clipper has hinted at life under the ice-shell of Europa. An eccentric mogul, bent on expanding his legacy—funds and launches the first privately funded probe to Jupiter. The robotic submarine can reach the ocean floor and returning by an expertly trained AI. Tensions flare between the United States and China, while cyberattack threatens the project. Meanwhile, Dalton, a self-sabotaging synthetic data engineer, longs to make a name for himself in the scientific community, even at the cost of being infamous. Unknown to Earth, alien society has penetrated up the kilometers of ice, and has long researched ‘Nullworld,’ the mysterious ‘ether’ beyond the ice from which no sonar returns. Tensions in their global society have escalated as their city-state fights with a neighbor whose hydrothermal vent has run cold. Now the military caste is in control, halted all research, and pressed capable scientists and engineers into militia service. The alien scientist must escape and bring back research he hopes will diffuse tensions: the revelation of another water world. This is the second hard sci-fi novel by author Eric Kay (No Lack of Sunshine). It explores issues of data integrity in the age of adversarial information warfare, moving minds away from the brink of war, and experience versus knowledge by proxy.


Sudden Death

Sudden Death by L.L. Richman

SPSFC 2022

'Sudden Death’ is just a theme park thrill ride. Until it's not. Fresh off his first Marine deployment, Boone must now choose between two schools: Intelligence or Scout Sniper. Though he’s shown clear aptitude for the second, he’s not sure he has what it takes to do the job. When he puts the decision aside to join his buddies on a day of leave, the last thing Boone expects to see is a naval weapons locker in the hands of a man who is clearly not Navy. On impulse, he shadows the man, only to find himself running for his life… smack into a Unit operator. Now he has two options: join the fight or remain behind. But the choice he’s been given is really no choice at all. For the only way to save the park is for Boone to embrace his calling. The fate of thousands rests on this one decision. He’d better make it a good one.


Clowns

Clowns by Peter Cawdron

SPSFC 2022

First Contact occurred a decade ago with a traveling circus in the high-altitude desert plateau of Uzbekistan. The US Government has been covertly monitoring extraterrestrial activity around Earth since then but has struggled to make contact. They've kept tabs on the circus and its founder, Buster Al-Hashimi. Four years ago, Buster returned to the US to start a counter-culture group called The Clowns, challenging the sociopolitical status quo in America. Clowns asks the question: What would an extraterrestrial intelligence think about our intelligence? FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.


Night Music

Night Music by Tobias F Cabral

SPSFC 2022

The colonization of Mars has begun. Following a rapid expansion of the manned space program due to the discovery of a potentially catastrophic Earth-crossing comet, Zubrin Base has been established on the Red Planet to oversee the capture of the rogue object. During final preparations for a second expedition, however, contact has been lost with the outpost. Pilot Seth Boaz finds himself re-tasked for a rescue mission, one which will force him to confront his own past, as well as otherworldly forces with profound implications for humanity's future. A "Hard" Science Fiction space exploration novella, with affinities to the work of Greg Bear, Michael F. Flynn, and Arthur C. Clarke, NIGHT MUSIC incorporates realistic, near-future space technology and Mars mission and colonization models, as well as elements of Complexity Theory and nanotechnology. The author is a clinical psychologist, who applied that experience to the development of distinct and fleshed-out characters who speak with realistic voices.


Her Unbound Hallux

Her Unbound Hallux by Haldane B Doyle

If only Mother would hurry up and die in the war. Then Miobeth can claim the mansion, take a husband and restore the family bloodline. But Mother insists on staying one more year for a final chance to produce an alternative heir. It should be easy for Miobeth to wait a little longer. To contain her impudent rage. Before she can claim her birthright a mesmerising manservant, a forbidden map and an adventure beyond the mansion walls change Miobeth forever. Can Miobeth fulfil her duty after glimpsing the outside world? “Our Vitreous Womb” is a series of four science-fiction novellas that explore a distant post-industrial future where biological technology has transformed humanity. “Makes my world look timid and old.” – Adolf Huxley “Sci-fi without robots and rocket ships? Impossible!” – Yusak Asimov “I too longed to snuggle with the giant beetle.” – Frank Kafka


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