Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Martha’s Murderbot novel, Network Effect, the fifth entry in the series. The events occur just after the fourth novella, Exit Strategy.
Murderbot—the sardonic, almost-homicidal, media-loving android created by Martha Wells—has proven to be one of the most popular characters in 21 st century science fiction. Everything that makes this protagonist (it would be wrong to call Murderbot a hero) beloved of fans is on display in Compulsory.
While trying to watch episode 44 of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, Murderbot is—again, what is it with humans?—distracted by something that is technically outside its purview. A miner is suddenly in danger following a pointless (to Murderbot’s way of thinking) argument, and the choice is to risk discovery and leap into action, which would require hitting the pause button during a very exciting part of SanctuaryMoon, or to follow orders and stay still.
This is a tougher choice than it seems. But then, when has Murderbot ever been faced with an easy choice?
A shorter version of this story originally appeared in Wired magazine.
An artificial intelligence on a star-spanning mission explores the farthest horizons of human potential—and its own purpose—in a mind-bending short story by New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi.
Equipped with the entirety of human knowledge, a sentient ship is launched on a last-ditch journey to find a new home for civilization. Trillions of miles. Tens of thousands of years. In the space between, the AI has plenty of time to think about life, the vastness of the universe, everything it was meant to do, and—with a perspective created but not limited by humans—what it should do.
John Scalzi’s Slow Time Between the Stars is part of The Far Reaches, a collection of science-fiction stories that stretch the imagination and open the heart. They can be read or listened to in one sitting.
- Stability - Roog - The Little Movement - Beyond Lies the Wub - The Gun - The Skull - The Defenders - Mr. Spaceship - Piper in the Woods - The Infinites - The Preserving Machine - Expendable - The Variable Man - The Indefatigable Frog - The Crystal Crypt - The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford - The Builder - Meddler - Paycheck - The Great C - Out in the Garden - The King of the Elves - Colony - Prize Ship - Nanny
Other editions of this volume have the same list of stories, and were published under these titles: - The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford, - Paycheck and Other Classic Stories, - The King of the Elves (+1 extra story).
Humanity's war is eternal, spread across the galaxy and the ages. Humanity's best hope to end the endless slaughter is the Livesuit forces. Soldiers meld their bodies to the bleeding edge technology, becoming something more than human for the duration of a war that might never end.
The first novella set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's epic Captive's War series.
What has been awakened is unbound. The Boy is getting his first taste of freedom. As their comrades fall, fear threatens to consume the survivors in part four of The Boy in the Iron Box.
Liev’s get his men out of this ancient stone prison, take their chances with the wolves, and descend the summit at first light. But in this snowbound hell, there’s soon to be a frightening new twist to survival.
From Academy Award–winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro comes Risen, part four of The Boy in the Iron Box, a blood-chilling series of short stories about an ancient secret that was never meant to be unleashed, featuring exclusive interior artwork. Each can be read or listened to in one breathless sitting.
Original tales by such science fiction luminaries as Orson Scott Card, Harry Turtledove, and Connie Willis, written in honor of Isaac Asimov's fiftieth anniversary in the genre, are set in one of his fictional universes.
"And everywhere the Humans went, they found life..." This dazzling future history, winner of the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award, is the most ambitious and exciting since Asimov's classic Foundation saga. It tells the story of Humankind - all the way to the end of the Universe itself.
Here, in luminous and vivid narratives spanning five million years, are the first Poole wormholes spanning the solar system; the conquest of Human planets by Squeem; GUTships that outrace light; the back-time invasion of the Qax; the mystery and legacy of the Xeelee, and their artifacts as large as small galaxies; photino birds and Dark Matter; and the Ring, where Ghost, Human, and Xeelee contemplate the awesome end of Time.
Eve (1997) The Sun-People (1993) The Logic Pool (1994) Gossamer (1995) Cilia-of-Gold (1994) Lieserl (1993) Pilot (1993) The Xeelee Flower (1987) More Than Time or Distance (1988) The Switch (1990) Blue Shift (1989) The Quagma Datum (1989) Planck Zero (1992) The Gödel Sunflowers (1992) Vacuum Diagrams (1990) Stowaway (1991) The Tyranny of Heaven (1990) Hero (1995) Secret History (1991) Shell (1987) The Eighth Room (1989) The Baryonic Lords (1991) Eve (1997)
Otto McGavin is peaceful and idealistic by nature, an Anglo-Buddhist, who seeks employment with the Confederacion because he believes in it and its mission to protect the rights of humans and nonhumans. The only problem is that the Confederacion needs him as a Prime Operator for its secret service, the TBII, and the TBII wants Otto as a spy, a thief and an assassin. It's not, of course, a problem for the Confederacion, which simply uses immersion therapy and hypnosis for Otto's training, and then sends him out in deep cover on a variety of dangerous missions on a number of bizarre worlds. But for Otto, it's a different what he has to witness and what he is forced to do take a terrible toll on him ...
Welcome Back!
Track your reading progress and sync your library.