“For lovers of Andy Weir’s The Martian, here’s a true hard-science-fiction tale set on the red planet — a terrific blend of high tech and high tension, of science and suspense, of character and crisis.” — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award–winning author of Red Planet Blues

“Post-apocalyptic disaster meets fractured utopian space exploration in this terrifying tale, which Cawdron (Anomaly) sets in a scientific outpost on Mars . . . This tense cat-and-mouse game plays off fears . . . to satisfying result.” — Publishers Weekly

Venturing into space and traveling to Mars sounds like an exotic adventure, but the reality of living on a rocky, frozen, lifeless planet is exacting on the Mars Endeavour crew. The exhilaration of reaching the surface of Mars has worn off for the public, and the exploration has moved into its scientific phase. The only viable option for long-term habitation lies hundreds of feet beneath the surface, in lava caves that shield humans from harsh cosmic radiation.

Connor, Harrison, and Liz are senior members of the U.S. module. When war breaks out on Earth and rumors spread to Mars, their core principles are rocked by the devastation and loss of friends and family. Whom can you trust on an international mission when your countries are at war? As colonists from different nations struggle to figure out what really happened on Earth, grief and anger become pitted against camaraderie and the spirit of exploration.

“Science fiction as it should be. Retrograde combines realistic characters with depictions of Mars as our explorers will one day find it in a powerful story. A must-read!” — Ben Bova, Hugo Award winner and author of the Grand Tour series

A dazzling new collection of the finest short form science fiction from the previous year, compiled once again by World Fantasy and Hugo Award-winning editors by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer,

Year’s Best SF 16

features some of the brightest stars of the genre—including Gregory Benford, Cory Doctrow, Joe Haldeman, and Michael Swanwick. From space travel to time travel to journeys through the mind, brilliant and original speculative fiction is alive and well and magnificently celebrated in this splendid compendium of plausible wonders.

A romantic tale of wizardry and botany!

He is a sentient plant.Herb Moss is a nice young man. He’s a Vegan: a member of a genetically engineered species, part human and part plant, living on the planet New World.  It’s a good life, really: Herb’s engaged to be married to his childhood sweetheart, Lily; has a job with his father’s firm; and can look forward to a solid if unexciting future. And as everyone keeps telling him, it’s time to put down roots. If he happens to be bored every time he thinks about it—well, that’s a normal part of growing up, isn’t it? But still, Herb’s bored. Surely, he thinks, a little romantic correspondence on the side can do no harm . . .She’s a magician’s daughter . . . Meanwhile, far away on the planet New Land, a nice young woman named Spring is feeling anything but bored. She just wishes she were. She’s been living with her widowed father, Gabriel, a practicing sorcerer, keeping house and helping out with the business. It’s been a good life . . . . . . with a big secret. But Gabriel has discovered hitherto-unknown magical secrets that can bring their possessor great riches, absolute power, and forbidden knowledge. To keep them safe, he’s sorcerously locked them deep within his daughter’s mind, where only her own true love—or, failing that, someone she likes a lot—can access them . . . so to speak.Trouble ensues.When Gabriel is killed under suspicious circumstances, Spring flees to the austere Order of Companions. There, grieving and lonely, she places a personal ad, looking for a pen pal with whom she can discuss botany. Little does she know that she’s actually placed an ad in 

Play Plant

 magazine, and that her new pen pal, Herb, thinks she’s interested in romance.Meanwhile, an ambitious wizard has learned of the existence of Spring’s secrets. And he’ll do anything to get them . . . including the obvious.

A ship full of worlds...

For John Bandicut, Earth is but a memory. Having saved Earth from destruction, he is exiled to the edge of the galaxy—where he finds an unimaginably vast structure, peopled by refugees from countless doomed planets. Magellan-fish. Shadow-people. He faces a world of uncertainties.Bandicut and his two robots must find their own way. But they are not long alone; others share a similar fate. With newfound alien companions Ik and Li-Jared—and the beautiful humanoid woman, Antares—Bandicut becomes caught up in a struggle to save another world: Shipworld itself.The foe this time is not a rogue comet but a malicious AI dubbed the boojum. From the floor of a star-spanner factory, to the galactic melting-pot cities of Shipworld, to the frightening Tree of Ice, where control of Shipworld is centered, the boojum threatens to tear Shipworld apart. And it will likely succeed, if the new band of unlikely heroes can’t find a way to stop it.This second volume of

The Chaos Chronicles

continues the headlong tumble through the worlds of fascinating aliens and believable characters that are a hallmark of Nebula-nominated Jeffrey A. Carver.(DRM-free ebook edition. Also available as part of the omnibus collection,

The ChaosChronicles: Books 1-3

.)WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID:“A dazzling, thrilling, innovative space opera... probably Carver’s best effort to date.” —

Kirkus Reviews

“An irresistibly readable story line reinforced by fascinating speculative science. Readers who come this far will be hooked for the series’ duration.” —

Booklist

“Carver’s latest novel showcases his own fertile imagination and his talent for creating a host of engagingly sympathetic characters.” —

Library Journal

“Carver is at his rousing best in this wild ride into the heart of an enigmatic world beyond the Milky Way. This is science fiction out at the frontier. Maybe beyond the frontier.” —Jack McDevitt, author of

Seeker

and

Chindi

Everyone knew time travel was impossible. Then reality intruded.

A dying man stumbles into a police station and collapses. In his fist is a mysterious coin with strange markings. He tells the police he’s from the future, and when they uncover the coin’s hidden message they’re inclined to believe him.

Daniel Rice never asked for fame but his key role in Earth’s first contact with an alien civilization thrust him into a social arena where any crackpot might take aim. When the FBI arrives at his door and predictions of the future start coming true, Daniel is dragged into a mission to save the world from nuclear holocaust. To succeed, he’ll need to exploit cobbled-together alien technology to peer into a world thirty years beyond his own.

The third book of the Quantum series goes far beyond extra dimensions of space to expose the curious paradoxes of time in a wild ride along the edges of scientific knowledge.

Acclaim for Quantum Time

Intense, edge of your seat entertainment, Quantum Time will push readers to stay up until all hours of the night to read one more page. Sci-fi and action adventure enthusiasts will love it! 5-Stars. - Midwest Book Review

Quantum Time manages the impossible: creating a time travel story with a plausible science basis and all the intricacy that quantum theory can provide. Add the complexities of human motives and frailties and a countdown to disaster, and you have a mind-bending journey to the future and back! - Kathryn Hoff, author of Bloodstone