Epic SFF Reading Recommendations

'A masterpiece' - Times

'Any new novel by the great Kim Stanley Robinson is always an event and Red Moon doesn't disappoint' - Independent

'Sci-fi fans will love the detail and the optimism about humanity's future in space' - Wall Street Journal

IT IS THIRTY YEARS FROM NOW, AND WE HAVE COLONISED THE MOON.

American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip, his purpose to install a communications system for China's Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding.

It is also the first visit for celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu. He has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveller.

Finally, there is Chan Qi. She is the daughter of the Minister of Finance, and without doubt a person of interest to those in power. She is on the moon for reasons of her own, but when she attempts to return to China in secret, the events that unfold will change everything - on the moon, and on Earth.

Red Moon is a magnificent novel of space exploration and political revolution from New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson.

Novels by Kim Stanley Robinson:

Icehenge
The Memory of Whiteness
A Short, Sharp Shock
Antarctica
The Years of Rice and Salt
Galileo's Dream
2312
Shaman
Aurora
New York 2140
Red Moon

Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award

***Paradise-1, David Wellington's gripping new survival horror set in the deepest reaches of space, is out now***

'An edge-of-your-seat tale of first contact'
Gareth L. Powell

'A terrifying tour de force . . . Gripping authenticity and an uncompromising white-knuckled pace' James Rollins

'Timely and terrifying, The Last Astronaut propels us deep into the mysteries of space . . . breathless, compulsive reading' Christopher Golden

A huge alien object has entered the solar system and is now poised above the Earth. It has made no attempt to communicate.

Out of time and options, NASA turns to its last living astronaut - Commander Sally Jansen, who must lead a team of raw recruits on a mission to make First Contact.

But as the object reveals its secrets, Jansen and her crew find themselves in a desperate struggle for survival - against the cold vacuum of space, and something far, far worse . . .

'Great action, knockout characters, scarily believable science' Jackson Ford

'AN EDGE-OF-THE-SEAT EPIC OF SURVIVAL AND ADVENTURE IN DEEP SPACE' Gareth L. Powell

'A UNIQUE MIX OF THRILLER, SPACE ADVENTURE AND CONSPIRACY NOVEL - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED' Jamie Sawyer

In the far reaches of space, a tour group embarks on what will be the trip of a lifetime - in more ways than one . . .

For one small group, a tour of the nearby Horsehead Nebula is meant to be a short but stunning highlight in the trip of a lifetime.

But when a mysterious ship destroys Sigma Station and everyone on it, suddenly their tourist shuttle is stranded.

They have no weapons. No food. No water. No one back home knows they're alive.

And the mysterious ship is hunting them.

Rob Boffard's Adrift is a thrilling science fiction tale of survival against all odds - perfect for fans of Alastair Reynold's Revenger, Becky Chamber's The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Adrian Tchaikovksy' Children of Time and John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire.

'This action-packed adventure is made for summer vacation reading' Publishers Weekly

'Adrift is rich in deep character-driven drama, built on a highly suspenseful premise' D. Nolan Clark, author of Forsaken Skies

'This book is an intense, heart-pounding, cast-away-in-the-vastness-of-space adventure that keeps you guessing right up until the end! I was so utterly enthralled, I couldn't put it down' K. B. Wagers, author of Behind the Throne

Written when landing on the moon was still a dream, and made into one of the most influential films of all time, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY remains a classic work of science fiction fifty years after its original publication.

The discovery of a black monolith on the moon leads to a manned expedition deep into the solar system, in the hope of establishing contact with an alien intelligence. Yet long before the crew can reach their destination, the voyage descends into disaster . . .

Brilliant, compulsive and prophetic, Arthur C. Clarke's timeless novel tackles the enduring theme of mankind's place in the universe.

Praise for Arthur C. Clarke:

'The king of science fiction . . . His influence continues to inform the genre' Guardian

'Arthur C. Clarke is awesomely informed about physics and astronomy, and blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations ever encountered in print' New York Times

'Arthur C. Clarke is one of the truly prophetic figures of the space age . . . The colossus of science fiction' New Yorker

'Dazzling' Time

'A brilliantly plotted yarn of survival and far-future political intrigue' Guardian

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE PHILIP K. DICK AWARD***

The last thing Sanda remembers is her gunship exploding.

She expected to be recovered by salvage-medics and to awaken in friendly hands, patched-up and ready to rejoin the fight. Instead she wakes up 230 years later, on a deserted enemy starship called The Light of Berossus - or, as he prefers to call himself, 'Bero'.

Bero tells Sanda the war is lost. That the entire star system is dead.

But is that the full story? After all, in the vastness of space, anything is possible . . .

Dazzling space battles, deadly galactic politics and rogue AI collide in Velocity Weapon, an epic space opera from award-winning author Megan E. O'Keefe.

Praise for Velocity Weapon

'An entertaining SF thriller' SciFiNow

'Furious action sequences, funny dialogue, and a plot that will keep you guessing every step of the way' K. B. Wagers

'Velocity Weapon is fast-paced, twisty, edge-of-your-seat fun. Space opera fans are in for a massive treat!'
Marina J. Lostetter

Three books in one!
The Corporation Wars trilogy is an epic vision of man and machine in the far reaches of space - a robot's eye view of a robot revolt

Carlos is dead. A soldier who died for his ideals a thousand years ago, he's been reincarnated and conscripted to fight an A.I. revolution in deep space. And he's not sure he's fighting for the right side.
Seba is alive. By a fluke of nature, a contractual overlap and a loop in its subroutines, this lunar mining robot has gained sentience. Gathering with other 'freebots', Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone.
As their stories converge against a backdrop of warring companies and interstellar drone combat, Carlos and Seba must either find a way to rise above the games their masters are playing, or die. And even dying will not be the end of it.

Collects the three novels in the Corporation Wars trilogy - Dissidence, Insurgence and Emergence.

Praise for Ken MacLeod
'Prose sleek and fast as the technology it describes . . . watch this man go global'
Peter F. Hamilton

'MacLeod's novels are fast, funny and sophisticated. There can never be enough books like these: he is writing revolutionary SF. A nova has appeared in our sky'
Kim Stanley Robinson

'MacLeod is up there with Banks and Hamilton as one of the British sci-fi authors you absolutely have to read'
SFX

'A nailbiting story of survival'
-- GUARDIAN

May Knox floats in space, the only survivor of a catastrophic accident. There is just one person who can save her - and his life is in danger, back on Earth.

It's Christmas Day, 2067.

Silent Night drifts across the ruins of a wrecked spaceship, listing helplessly in the black. A sole woman, May, stirs within - the last person left alive of a disastrous first manned mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter.

There is only one person who can help her - her ex-husband Stephen, a NASA scientist who was heading up the mission back on Earth. Until, that is, she broke his heart and he left both her and the mission.

As May fights for life, Stephen finds his own life is under threat, putting both of them at risk.

In this twisty, gasp-inducing thriller, when each breath is a fight for survival, their relationship is the difference between life and death.

'Science fiction with a generous helping of humanity - the best kind of speculative writing'
-- CHRISTINA DALCHER, AUTHOR OF VOX

'The best survival thriller since The Martian'
-- JOHN MARRS, AUTHOR OF THE ONE

NOW A PRIME ORIGINAL SERIES

Leviathan Wakes is the first book in the New York Times bestselling and Hugo-award winning Expanse series - over 7 million copies sold worldwide.

'Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be' George R. R. Martin

Humanity has colonised the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is an officer on an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew discover a derelict ship called the Scopuli, they suddenly find themselves in possession of a deadly secret. A secret that someone is willing to kill for, and on an unimaginable scale. War is coming to the system, unless Jim can find out who abandoned the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money - and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and Holden, they both realise this girl may hold the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries and secret corporations, and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

The Expanse is the biggest science fiction series of the last decade and is now a major TV series.

Praise for the Expanse:

'The science fictional equivalent of A Song of Ice and Fire' NPR Books

'As close as you'll get to a Hollywood blockbuster in book form' io9.com

'Great characters, excellent dialogue, memorable fights' wired.com

'High adventure equalling the best space opera has to offer, cutting-edge technology and a group of unforgettable characters . . . Perhaps one of the best tales the genre has yet to produce' Library Journal

'This is the future the way it's supposed to be' Wall Street Journal

'Tense and thrilling' SciFiNow

The Expanse series:
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War
Abaddon's Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
Babylon's Ashes
Persepolis Rising
Tiamat's Wrath
Leviathan Falls
Memory's Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection

'Proper galaxy-spanning space opera' Iain M. Banks on Seeds of Earth

Action-orientated sci-fi with a spaceship crewed by rogues and scoundrels, perfect for fans of Star Wars, Firefly or Farscape

For Pyke and his crew it should have been just another heist. Travel to a backwater desert planet, break into a museum, steal a tracking device then use it to find a ship buried in the planet's vast and trackless sandy wastes.

Except that the museum vault is a bio-engineered chamber, and the tracking device is sought after by another gang of treasure hunters led by an old adversary of Pyke's, the devious Raven Kaligara. Also, the ship is a quarter of a million years old and about two kilometres long and somewhere aboard it is the Essavyr Key, a relic to unlock all the treasures and technologies of a lost civilisation . . .

'Splintered Suns splices new and old space opera, cyberpunk, quest fantasy and heist caper -- the maddest thing I've read since Van Vogt!'
Ken MacLeod

"Splintered Suns is a masterpiece of future nostalgia. All who love mischievous interstellar derring-do in pursuit of ancient relics of departed races as well as exotic panoplies of sentient species, all who love space opera should feast upon this generous novel. Let us revel in the admirable jaunty technicolour richness which Mike Cobley serves up so entertainingly-for this is how the universe ought to be"
Ian Watson, author of the Games Workshop Warhammer 40K novels Space Marine and The Inquisition War trilogy

The record-breaking debut novel that won every major science fiction award in 2014, Ancillary Justice is the story of a warship trapped in a human body and her search for revenge.
Ann Leckie is the first author to win the Arthur C. Clarke, the Nebula and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in the same year.

They made me kill thousands, but I only have one target now.

The Radch are conquerors to be feared - resist and they'll turn you into a 'corpse soldier' - one of an army of dead prisoners animated by a warship's AI mind. Whole planets are conquered by their own people.
The colossal warship called The Justice of Toren has been destroyed - but one ship-possessed soldier has escaped the devastation. Used to controlling thousands of hands, thousands of mouths, The Justice now has only two hands, and one mouth with which to tell her tale.
But one fragile, human body might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.

'ENGAGING AND PROVOCATIVE'
SFX Magazine

'UNEXPECTED, COMPELLING AND VERY COOL'
John Scalzi

'HIGHLY RECOMMENDED'
Independent on Sunday

'MIND-BLOWING'
io9.com

'THRILLING, MOVING AND AWE-INSPIRING'
Guardian

'UTTER PERFECTION, 10/10'
The Book Smugglers

'ASTOUNDINGLY ASSURED AND GRACEFUL'
Strange Horizons

'ESTABLISHES LECKIE AS AN HEIR TO BANKS'
Elizabeth Bear

The Imperial Radch trilogy begins with Ancillary Justice, continues in Ancillary Sword and concludes with Ancillary Mercy.
Also available now: Provenance is a stunning standalone adventure set in the same world as Ancillary Justice. NPR calls it 'A fitting addition to the Ancillary world'.