Intriguing Science Fiction
Explore captivating science fiction books with 'Intriguing Science Fiction.' Discover mind-bending stories, futuristic worlds, and thought-provoking tales from top authors.
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The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Passenger, coming October '22.
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The Trench
by Steve Alten
A giant shark escapes from a California aquarium, creating havoc before heading to sea. As he probes the ocean depths in pursuit, biologist Jonas Taylor stumbles on a terrorist nuclear arms factory.
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Gene
by Stel Pavlou
Detective James North is called upon to deal with a young, mentally unstable man holding a child hostage at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. When he arrives, he is disturbed to discover that - although the bad guy is a complete stranger - he's been asking for North by name. The hostage situation goes wrong, and North finds himself injected with a substance that causes hallucinatory nightmares and flashes of memory that are not his own. He begins to hunt through New York for his attacker, a man he feels inexplicably compelled to kill - a man called Gene. As he does so, North unlocks the secret of his past, a past that stretches back over 3000 years. GENE is the story of forgotten Greek warrior Cyclades who fought and died in the Trojan Wars, and was fated by the gods to be reincarnated seven times. Locked in a cycle of battle with the Babylonian Magi Athanatos, Cyclades must once again strive to defeat him and thwart his quest to achieve immortality. Cyclades and Athanatos. North and Gene. But in this incarnation, neither man knows which is which, or why each of them has the instinctive need to kill the other.
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Havoc
by Jack Du Brul
New Jersey, 1937: A homicidal madman bears a safe holding a terrible secret that is thought lost when fiery fate intervenes. Decades later, the discovery of that secret is about to threaten the world once more.... Mining engineer Philip Mercer is in the war-torn Central African Republic searching for precious metal. There, he meets Cali Stone, a field researcher for the CDC who is investigating why a certain village suffers from one of the highest rates of cancer in the world-a fact that intrigues Mercer. Once back in the states, Mercer's search for answers leads him to a long-lost safe and a cryptic note inside that may reveal a three thousand year-old deception...
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Dune
by Frank Herbert
• DUNE: PART TWO • THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Directed by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert • Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsgård, with Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad'Dib—and of a great family's ambition to bring to fruition mankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Extremely funny . . . inspired lunacy . . . [and] over much too soon.”—The Washington Post Book World SOON TO BE A HULU SERIES • Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien. After that, things get much, much worse. With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover. Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .
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Neuromancer
by William Gibson
Case, a nerve-damaged data thief, is recruited by a new employer for a last-chance run against a powerful artificial intelligence.
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Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke
Without warning, giant silver ships from deep space appear in the skies above every major city on Earth. Manned by the Overlords, in fifty years, they eliminate ignorance, disease, and poverty. Then this golden age ends--and then the age of Mankind begins....
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Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon
by Diana L. Paxson
A prequel to Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Forest House follows the story of the Roman conquest of Britain, a tale in which a Celtic princess becomes her people's defender against brutal conquerors while her priestess mentor becomes a guardian of Druid traditions.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation: Resistance
by J.M. Dillard
An electrifying thriller starring Captain Jean-Luc Picard set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, his ship repaired, must now reassemble his crew. With the departure of both William Riker and ship's counsellor Deannna Troi, the captain must replace his two most trusted advisors. He chooses a Vulcan, a logical choice, and for his new first officer, Worf. But the Klingon refuses the promotion and the new ship's counsellor appears to actively dislike Worf. A simple shake-down mission should settle everything. Except that once again, the captain hears the song of the Borg collective. Admiral Janeway is convinced that the Borg have been crushed and are no longer a threat. Picard believes she is wrong, and that if the Enterprise doesn't act the entire Federation will be under the domination of its most oppressive enemy.
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Changelings
by Anne McCaffrey
“[A] solid start of a new series . . . fast-paced adventure.”—Publishers Weekly Twin brother and sister Ronan and Murel are true children of Petaybee, the sentient planet that is their home. Like their father, they are changelings, able to converse telepathically with creatures and to transform into seals. The Petaybeans wish to protect the twins from curious scientists, but no one realizes that Ronan and Murel hunger to discover the origins of their shape-shifting talent—and that their search for knowledge will place them in the path of peril. Meanwhile, Petaybee is changing. To investigate its sudden evolution, the twins’ father heads out to the open water in his seal form—and is presumed lost. Only Ronan and Murel, with their remarkable talents of transformation, can hope to find him and bring him home . . . if they dare to risk exposure and face the dangers of the newly unstable sea. “The story is exciting and generously laced with humor, but besides those qualities, the characters . . . and their interactions are so well realized as to utterly charm readers.”—Booklist
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High Times Presents Paul Krassner's Pot Stories for the Soul
by Paul Krassner
To solicit these stories, Paul Krassner contacted 250 friends and acquaintances and announced the project in High Times and on the air. Including "The Bust at Ken Kesey's Place, " "How the Yippies Mailed 30,000 Joints to Perfect Strangers, " and "The Acid Trip of a Death Row Prisoner, " these true tales range from funny to bizarre to poignant.
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The Nail and the Oracle
by Theodore Sturgeon
This book contains ten major stories by the master of science fiction, fantasy, and horror written during the 1960s. The controversial “If All Men We re Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?” shows the author’s technique of “ask the next question” used in a way that shatters social conventions. “When You Care, When You Love” offers a prescient vision of the marriage of deep obsessive love and genetic manipulation, written long before actual cloning techniques existed. “Runesmith” constitutes a rare example of Sturgeon collaborating with a legendary colleague, Harlan Ellison. Included also are two other rarities: two detective stories and a Western that showcase Sturgeon’s knack for characterization and action outside his usual genre. “Take Care of Joey” has been read as an allusion to the complex personal relationship between Sturgeon and Ellison, while “It Was Nothing, Really!” hilariously skewers the mores of the military-industrial complex. As always, these stories demonstrate not only Sturgeon’s brilliant wordplay but also his timeliness, with “Brown-shoes” and “The Nail and the Oracle” standing out as powerful commentaries on the use and abuse of power that might have been written yesterday.
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Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game—adapted to film in 2013 starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford—is the classic Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novel of a young boy's recruitment into the midst of an interstellar war. 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. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel. THE ENDER UNIVERSE Ender series Ender’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind Ender’s Shadow series Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight Children of the Fleet The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) The Swarm /The Hive Ender novellas A War of Gifts /First Meetings
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Dragonflight
by Anne McCaffrey
On the beautiful planet Pern, land holders and craftsmen have traditionally tithed food and supplies to the dragonweyrs, their only protection from the dreaded, life-threatening thread. But it has been over 400 years since the last threadfall, and some people have come to doubt that the menace will ever strike again.
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Merrick
by Anne Rice
At the center is the beautiful, unconquerable witch Merrick. Her anscestors are the grat Mayfair Witches, of whom she knows nothing and from whom she inherits the power and the magical knowledge of a Circe. Into this exotic realm comes David Talbot-hero, storyteller, adventurer, almost mortal vampire, visitor form another dark realm.
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Fleet of Worlds
by Larry Niven
A brand-new novel set in Niven's Known Space, two hundred years before the discovery of the Ringworld.
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Armageddon's Children
by Terry Brooks
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “In this exciting first of a new fantasy trilogy, bestseller Brooks effortlessly connects the Tolkien-infused magic of his Shannara books . . . with the urban, postapocalyptic world of his Word and the Void series. . . . Longtime Brooks fans and newcomers will be riveted.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) In our world’s near future, civilization has fallen into terrifying chaos. Navigating the scarred landscape that once was America and guided by a powerful talisman, Logan Tom has sworn an oath to seek out a remarkable being born of magic and destined to lead the final fight against darkness. In time, Logan’s path will cross with others: Angel Perez, herself a survivor of death-dealing forces, and a makeshift family of refugees forced to survive among street gangs, mutants, and marauders. Common purpose will draw Logan and his allies together. Their courage and convictions will be tested and their fates will be decided, as their singular crusade begins: to take back, or lose forever, the only world they have. “Dynamic . . . compelling . . . mesmerizing . . . [with] a cliff-hanger that leaves readers salivating for the sequel.”—Booklist (starred review) “Strongly recommended . . . a transformative work.”—SFRevu
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The Dark Design
by Philip José Farmer
Years have passed on Riverworld. Entire nations have risen, and savage wars have been fought--all since the dead of Earth found themselves resurrected in their magnificent new homeworld. Yet the truth about the Ethicals, the powerful engineers of this mysterious "afterlife," remains unknown. But a curious cross-section of humanity is determined to change that situation . . . at any cost. Intrepid explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton leads the most remarkable voyage of discovery he has ever undertaken. Hot on his heels are Samuel Clemens, King John of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Spurred by the promise of ultimate answers, they chart a course across the vast polar sea--and toward the awesome tower that looms above it. But getting there will be more than half the battle. For death on Riverworld has become chillingly final . . .
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Angels & Demons
by Dan Brown
The explosive Robert Langdon thriller from Dan Brown, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code and Inferno—now a major film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones. Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war. This is the book that started it all: we meet Robert Langdon for the first time, caught up in a race against time to find an apocalyptic time-bomb, planted by an ancient secret society that has surfaced to carry out its ultimate threat: to destroy the Vatican.
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The Venetian Betrayal
by Steve Berry
The "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Alexandria Link" offers a gripping international thriller that sends Cotton Malone on a perilous quest for the truth about the mysterious death of Alexander the Great.
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The Wall
by Jeff Long
A hardcore freefall into adrenaline and revenge set on the towering 'big walls' of El Capitan, the world's greatest monolith.
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Treasure of Khan
by Clive Cussler
When an oil survey team is abducted after a suspicious accident, Dirk Pitt follows leads to Mongolia, where he learns about a megalomaniac's plot to supply oil to China and to undermine global oil markets. By the author of Black Wind. 500,000 first printing.
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The Oath
by Frank E. Peretti
The community of Hyde River, an isolated mining town in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, watches in terror as residents suddenly vanish. Yet the more locals are pressed for information, the more they close ranks, sworn to secrecy by their forefathers' hidden sins. Only when Hyde River's secrets are exposed is the true extent of the danger fully revealed.
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Sleeper Cell
by Jeffrey Anderson
Biodefense, the nation's top-secret agency against bioterrorism, must race against time to stop a nanotechnological plague that has been unleashed on the unsuspecting population by a sleeper cell within the United States.
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Death and the Devil
by Frank Schatzing
The author of the #1 international bestseller "The Swarm" returns with a gripping and historically rich thriller set in medieval Germany.
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Dark Gold
by David Angsten
His summer after college graduation was never supposed to turn out this way. But when Jack Duran's older, vagabond brother Dan goes missing in Mexico, Jack heads to Puerta Vallarta to find him. With two friends in tow, Jack follows Dan's trail of shady dealings, which leads him to a Bahamian yachtsman and his bikini-clad crew. Sailing down the jungle-covered coast, they soon discover that Dan had been searching for a shipwreck. But some treasures are meant to stay buried... When they finally locate the sunken ruins, they begin their furious search for the booty until, one by one, the divers begin to disappear. Could they be the victims of el Diablo Blanco, a deadly local legend come to life? Blinded by the prospect of untold riches, Jack travels toward the very brink of the abyss as he pursues his harrowing quest for... DARK GOLD
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Natural Selection
by Dave Freedman
A team of marine scientists is on the verge of making the most stunning discovery in the history of man: a previously unknown predatory species, alive now, evolving just like the dinosaurs-and being forced out of its world and into man's for a violent first encounter. In their quest for answers, they engage a host of fascinating characters-experts in neurology and deep sea geology, flight-simulation wizards, and evolution historians-and set off together to exotic locales, experiencing love, friendship, loyalty, and betrayal along the way. When people start dying, the real hunt begins. Weaving science and thriller in a way not seen since Jurassic Park, Natural Selection is that rare blend of intricately layered research, rich characters, and tornado pacing.
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Vigil
by Robert Masello
The unearthing of a mysterious fossil of a creature older than the earth and the discovery of a long-lost legendary parchment bring paleontologist Carter Cox face to face with the forces of darkness as he is given the task of deciphering their sinister message that unleashes a mythic evil on modern-day New York. Original.