Books published by publisher Avon Science Fiction

Bestselling, award-winning futurist David Brin returns to globe-spanning, high concept SF with Existence. Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there's something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn't on the decades' old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth's infomesh about an "alien artifact." Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.This edition of the book is the deluxe, tall rack mass market paperback.

Nancy Kress, one of the leading writers of science fiction today, has written a number of provocative and award-winning stories and novels. But it is with the Beggars trilogy that she has reached the pinnacle of her success. Developed out of her Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novella, "Beggars in Spain," the trilogy was launched with Beggars in Spain (1993), also a Nebula nominee for best novel, and continued in Beggars and Choosers (1995). Both received widespread praise and unusual enthusiasm. Locus, for instance, referred to "the joy of reading a work of SF so intelligent, humane, involving, utterly genuine...magnificent," and went on to say, "It is Kress's brilliant achievement in Beggars and Choosers, that scientific progress and human idealism, the driving forces behind some of the best hard SF...,never leave behind the passionate muddle that is life...."Now the trilogy is completed in Beggars Ride, a compelling novel of science fiction that raises one of the most ambitious and large-scale works of the decade to the status of finished masterpiece. Kress, a writer who had been appropriately compared to H.G. Wells and Aldous Huxley, deals with evolutionary forces, genetic engineering, technological progress, and social and class conflict, confronting enduring issues that face human society in this century and the next.The Sleepless and the SuperSleepless, two generations of genetically modified superhumans, are now in conflict with each other, and with the spectrum of normal humanity, whose radical division into the rich and poor has made a parody of democracy in the twenty-second century. Human civilization has been transformed. Now it may be destroyed. And if it falls, what kind of world is left, what kind of humanity?Nancy Kress has written a work of fiction that culminates and brings to new fruition the Wellsian strain of SF invented a century ago.

The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos; a large colony of humans; and the Hive Queen, brought there by Ender. But once against the human race has grown fearful; the Starways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania.Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, can save the three sentient races of Lusitania. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But it takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the Net, world by world.Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender's children must save her if they are to save themselves.Children of the Mind is the fourth book in Orson Scott Card's Ender Quintet.THE ENDER UNIVERSEEnder seriesEnder’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the MindEnder’s Shadow seriesEnder’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in FlightChildren of the FleetThe First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth AwakensThe Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)The Swarm /The HiveEnder novellasA War of Gifts /First Meetings

David Weber's Like a Mighty Army is the hotly anticipated seventh volume in the New York Times bestselling Safehold series For centuries, the world of Safehold, last redoubt of the human race, lay under the unchallenged rule of the Church of God Awaiting. The Church permitted nothing new-no new inventions, no new understandings of the world.What no one knew was that the Church was an elaborate fraud--a high-tech system established by a rebel faction of Safehold's founders, meant to keep humanity hidden from the powerful alien race that had destroyed old Earth.Then awoke Merlyn Athrawes, cybernetic avatar of a warrior a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which Earth was lost. Monk, warrior, counselor to princes and kings, Merlyn has one purpose: to restart the history of the too-long-hidden human race.And now the fight is thoroughly underway. The island empire of Charis has declared its independence from the Church, and with Merlyn's help has vaulted forward into a new age of steam-powered efficiency. Fending off the wounded Church, Charis has drawn more and more of the countries of Safehold to the cause of independence and self-determination. But at a heavy cost in bloodshed and loss--a cost felt by nobody more keenly that Merlyn Athrawes.The wounded Church is regrouping. Its armies and resources are vast. The fight for humanity's future isn't over, and won't be over soon...Safehold Series1. Off Armageddon Reef 2. By Schism Rent Asunder 3. By Heresies Distressed 4. A Mighty Fortress 5. How Firm A Foundation 6. Midst Toil and Tribulation 7. Like A Mighty Army 8. Hell's Foundations Quiver 9. At the Sign of Triumph

Soon to be a show on Hulu! Rights to develop Wild Cards for TV have been acquired by Universal Cable Productions, the team that brought you The Magicians and Mr. Robot, with the co-editor ofWild Cards, Melinda Snodgrass as executive producer.On September 15, 1946, the Wild Card virus was released, spreading a wave of mutations around the globe. "Aces" were endowed with extraordinary powers, while "Jokers" were cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. September 15th is now Wild Card Day. With each passing year, the festivities become larger and more fevered. And 1986--the fortieth anniversary--promises to be the biggest Wild Card Day ever. But in New York City not everyone is celebrating: The Astronomer, a twisted, powerful genius, has been planning his own special festivities for Wild Card Day...a day of revenge against those who have opposed him....The Wild Cards UniverseThe Original Triad#1 Wild Cards#2 Aces High#3 Jokers WildThe Puppetman Quartet#4: Aces Abroad#5: Down and Dirty#6: Ace in the Hole#7: Dead Man’s HandThe Rox Triad#8: One-Eyed Jacks#9: Jokertown Shuffle#10: Dealer’s Choice#11: Double Solitaire#12: Turn of the CardsThe Card Sharks Triad#13: Card Sharks#14: Marked Cards#15: Black Trump#16: Deuces Down#17: Death Draws FiveThe Committee Triad#18: Inside Straight#19: Busted Flush#20: Suicide KingsThe Fort Freak Triad#21: Fort Freak#22: Lowball#23: High StakesThe American Triad#24: Mississippi Roll#25: Low Chicago#26: Texas Hold 'Em

Award-winning author, Steven Gould, returns to the world of his classic novel Jumper in Exo, the sequel to Impulse, blending the drama of high school with world shattering consequences.Cent can teleport. So can her parents, but they are the only people in the world who can. This is not as great as you might think it would be―sure, you can go shopping in Japan and then have tea in London, but it's hard to keep a secret like that. And there are people, dangerous people, who work for governments and have guns, who want to make you do just this one thing for them. And when you're a teenage girl things get even more complicated. High school. Boys. Global climate change, refugees, and genocide. Orbital mechanics.But Cent isn't easily daunted, and neither are Davy and Millie, her parents. She's going to make some changes in the world.

This boxed set includes: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon Orson Scott Card's classic and worldwide bestselling series is the winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards!Ender’s Game opens in the last desperate days of Earth’s war against the implacable insectoid aliens. In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers.Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child.Ender's Shadow tells the parallel story of Bean. Bean's desperate struggle to live, and his success, brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....Shadows of Hegemon takes us to the period after the War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more.Tor books by Orson Scott CardThe Ender UniverseEnder Quintet#1 Ender’s Game#2 Ender in Exile#3 Speaker for the Dead#4 Xenodice#5 Children of the MindEnder’s Shadow Quintet#1 Ender’s Shadow#2 Shadow of the Hegemon#3 Shadow Puppets#4 Shadow of the Giant#5 Shadows in FlightThe Second Formic War (With Aaron Johnston)#1 The SwarmOther Books in the Ender UniverseChildren of the Fleet A War of Gifts (novella)First Meetings (novella)Other SeriesHomecomingThe MithermagesThe Tales of Alvin Maker

A new chapter in Hugo Award-winning author Ben Bova's hard science fiction Star Quest series unfolds in Survival. A human team sent to scout a few hundred lightyears in front of the death wave encounters a civilization far more advanced, a civilization of machine intelligences.These sentient, intelligent machines have existed for eons, and have survived earlier “death waves,” gamma ray bursts from the core of the galaxy. Self-sufficient and completely certain that the death wave cannot harm them, they have no interest saving other civilizations, organic or machine.Now that the humans have discovered them, they refuse to allow them to leave their planet, reasoning that other humans will inevitably follow if they learn of their existence.The Star Quest Trilogy#1 Death Wave#2 Apes and Angels#3 Survival

Six-time Hugo Award winner Ben Bova chronicles the saga of humankind's expansion beyond the solar system in Apes and Angels, the second book of the Star Quest Trilogy which began with Death Wave.Humankind headed out to the stars not for conquest, nor exploration, nor even for curiosity. Humans went to the stars in a desperate crusade to save intelligent life wherever they found it. A wave of death is spreading through the Milky Way galaxy, an expanding sphere of lethal gamma radiation that erupted from the galaxy's core twenty-eight thousand years ago and now is approaching Earth's vicinity at the speed of light. Every world it touched was wiped clean of all life. But it’s possible to protect a planet from gamma radiation. Earth is safe.Now, guided by the ancient intelligent machines called the Predecessors, men and women from Earth seek out those precious, rare worlds that harbor intelligent species, determined to save them from the doom that is hurtling toward them.The crew of the Odysseus has arrived at Mithra Gamma, the third planet of the star Mithra, to protect the stone-age inhabitants from the Death Wave. But they’ll also have to protect themselves.The Star Quest Trilogy#1 Death Wave#2 Apes and Angels

Orson Scott Card's classic and worldwide bestselling Ender Quintet series won the Hugo and Nebula awards! Included in this ebook bundle: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, and Speaker for the Dead Andrew “Ender” Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games, at Earth’s elite military academy, the Battle School; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an inscrutable alien that seeks to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast. Ender’s Game is an international bestseller, read and loved by generations. It has been named one of the top ten science fiction novels of all time.Ender’s story continues in Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card’s award-winning sequel. Ender Wiggin has run far and fast, using the effects of near-light-speed travel to out-live his past and become nearly anonymous. He is now the Speaker for the Dead, the author of The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, and he has come to the planet Lusitania to tell the truth about a man’s life at his graveside. But Lusitania is a very special place, the first planet humans have found that harbors an intelligent life-form, though it is very strange indeed. And Ender has more reason than any other man to seek communication, and peace between humanity and the pequininos.Ender in Exile is the story of Ender’s first voyage from Earth, and his first arrival on a former Formic colony world. in. In the confined world of the colony ship, Ender’s diplomatic and tactical genius are put to the test against an enemy he cannot kill. This novel falls immediately after Ender's Game in chronological sequence, but was written long after Children of the Mind, and the books of the Shadow series. You can read it at any point after Ender's GameAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

SF masters Gregory Benford and Larry Niven spin a tale of alien encounters and strange technologies on an epic scale In Bowl of Heaven, the first collaboration by science fiction authors Larry Niven (Ringworld) and Gregory Benford (Timescape), the limits of wonder are redrawn once again as a human expedition to another star system is jeopardized by an encounter with an astonishingly immense artifact in interstellar space: a bowlshaped structure half-englobing a star, with a habitable area equivalent to many millions of Earths…and it's on a direct path heading for the same system as the human ship.A landing party is sent to investigate the Bowl, but when the explorers are separated―one group captured by the gigantic structure's alien inhabitants, the other pursued across its strange and dangerous landscape―the mystery of the Bowl's origins and purpose propel the human voyagers toward discoveries that will transform their understanding of their place in the universe.