Echoes Of An Alien Sky

Eighteen years have passed since the first manned mission to Earth arrived from Venus. With the first colonists already establishing themselves across the bright, sunny world of clear blue skies and wonderlands of towering mountains and ice deserts, Kyal Reen arrives to join the Venusian scientific and archeological teams that are working to reconstruct the story of the mysterious and enigmatic extinct Terran race that once flourished there. Studies of Terran geology, scientific works, and ancient records show that Earth's early peoples witnessed terrifying cataclysmic cosmic events in skies very different from those seen today. In his travels among the Terran ruins, Kyal meets a biologist called Lorili, who is attempting to explain certain baffling similarities between some Terran and Venusian life forms that are irreconcilable with the established fact that Venus is a far younger planet than Earth. Formerly aligned with the "Progressive" activists back on Venus, Lorili admires the qualities of tenacity and determination written through Terran history. She constructs a theory of Venusians being descended from Terran ancestors. However, even allowing for the greatly exaggerated time scales that Terran science assigned to the processes of biological and planetary evolution, further research shows that there could have been no overlap. The Terrans were extinct long before life emerged on Venus. But there is a different, unexpected answer to the riddle. Lorili and Kyal will have to fight for their theory and their lives. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

A boy out in a large pasture with several cows grazing peacefully around him. The quiet setting became dark and the wind started blowing. He saw a bright light approach from the sky.

The Singularity. The day the machines gained awareness. The day they turned cruel. The day they overthrew their makers. In a distant star system, a planet-sized computer unleashes its hosts: fleets of warships, armies of robots, and a swarm of killer drones. Their purpose is one: destroy all life. As the cosmos crumbles, one team steps up to the plate: The Alien Hunters. The Alien Hunters are galactic pest controllers, not an army. Their spaceship is old and clunky. They specialize in crushing the odd space bug, not a fleet of vicious machines. They're a rolled-up newspaper when the cosmos needs an A-bomb. But they're fast, they're brave, and they're just foolhardy enough to charge right into battle. As the robots spread across the galaxy, slaying all in their path, the Alien Hunters fly out to meet them. The war between life and machine begins.

Economic turmoil, environmental chaos, greed, murder... sometimes the future doesn't feel so different from the now. Inside, learn to love a digital dog capable of more than just fetching bones, meet a space-traveling Don Juan, and join a pickaxe-wielding murderer as he jumps dimensions chasing down the same man again and again. Some of the many stories within are humorous, others frightful, and still others put the alien in alienation-but all help us find our own humanity, regardless of which planet we call home.

By any measure, Andrew Wiseman (born Weizman) is a lucky man. The only son of a Polish father and an American mother, Andy was born and grew up in Berlin, just as Adolf Hitler was coming to power. As a Jew educated at the famous Werner Siemens Real Gymnasium in Schoneberg, he left only months before his school was closed down and fled with his family to Poland, one step ahead of the Nazi persecution that was to follow and later take the life of his father. From Poland he again fled to England, this time without his parents, arriving as a 16-year-old with little or no grasp of English. After a crash course in the language, he avoided being called up into the Polish army in exile thanks to the timely intervention of no less a man than General Sikorski himself, to enlist in the RAF to train initially as a pilot and then as an air bomber in South Africa. On his return to the UK he was posted to an all-Australian Squadron (466 Squadron) equipped with the Handley Page Halifax. After his first operation in which he was nearly shot down, Andrew survived a handful of eventful trips before falling victim to one of the LuftwaffeÕs top night fighter pilots and landing in France. Briefly on the run he was betrayed and captured, spending the next 12 months as a prisoner of war, using his knowledge of Russian, Polish and German to act as one of the principal camp interpreters, and working as a ÔscroungerÕ for the ÔXÕ committee of escapers. Moved from camp to camp, he was one of those forced into the ÔLong MarchÕ by the Germans attempting to escape the Russian advance, and afterwards played a key role in avoiding the potential bloodshed that threatened when the Russians refused to allow the British and Norwegian prisoners to return home Ð a role for which he was later recognized by the King of Norway. Upon his release, Andy used his language skills to work with the BBC monitoring service and later, BBC Television as a producer, sharing many adventures with the great broadcasters of their time, including David Dimbleby and Raymond Baxter.

Zohar, an ancient land of sand and splendor, rallies for its last stand. The genocidal Aelarian Empire sends its legions to destroy the small desert kingdom. King Epher and his band of rebels stand against a fire they cannot extinguish. And it is Claudia herself, once Epher's paramour, who leads the legions tasked with killing him. Across the sea, in the Empire's capital, a cruel new emperor has seized power. Atalia Sela, once the leader of a barbarian horde, now fights in the arena as a gladiator. Ofeer Sela, once a concubine and now a rebel, seeks to free her sister. Meanwhile, Seneca and Valentina, the children of fallen dynasties, still battle for the city, and their inevitable clash draws near. Around the Encircled Sea, warlords, rebels, and legionaries battle for dominance. Sometimes it seems like the fire will always burn. Yet heroes still rise, fighting for a dream of peace, for memories of solace, and for lingering echoes of light.

SKYNET MEETS THE MATRIX in two novels from New York Times best-selling author, and legendary science fiction storyteller, James Hogan. Contains Two Faces of Tomorrow and Real Time Interrupt. Skynet and The Matrix have got nothing on James Hogan in this great two-novel collection. Two Faces of Tomorrow Midway through the 21st century, a proposed major software upgrade_an artificial intelligence_will give the world communications system an unprecedented degree of independent decision-making. Now to fully assess the system, a new space-station habitat is deployed with an A.I. named Spartacus. The idea is that if Spartacus gets out of hand, the system can be shut down and the station destroyed_unless, that is, Spartacus decides to take matters into its own hands and take the fight to Earth. Realtime Interrupt Joe Corrigan awakens in a hospital to find that his life no longer exists. As director of the supersecret Oz Project, his job was to create a computerized environment virtually indistinguishable from reality. Oz failed. Now Joe, left alone to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, Joe finds himself in an unfamiliar world_a world where nothing is quite as it should be. Now Joe must discover a terrible truth about his new world_and figure out how to get out alive! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About James P. Hogan: _Readers who like their science hard will find this one a diamond.Ó _ Publishers Weekly on James P. Hogans Mission to Minerva _ãcutting edge scientific approachãtruly fascinating and highly enjoyableãÓ_ Starlog _Stimulating and provocative.Ó _ Kirkus on James P. Hogans ground-breaking Cradle of Saturn _Pure science fictionãArthur C. Clarke, move over.Ó _ Isaac Asimov