YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME When accusations of piracy and mass murder are laid against his homeworld, Damien Montgomery is sent to resolve the crisis. As counter-accusations fly and an old flame re-enters his life, the newest Hand of the Mage-King of Mars finds himself in the midst of a bloody interstellar shadow war. With the death toll mounting, Damien must decide whether he should trust the world he came from - or the world that asked for his help. The wrong choice will trigger a civil war that could shatter human civilization. No pressure. Voice of Mars is book 3 of the Starship's Mage series.
Charged with unlocking mysterious Aeldari devices, Iron Father Kristos of the Iron Hands soon realises the xenos are not alone in their attempts to thwart his duty… For ten thousand years, the Voice of Mars has been a secretive, but powerful position upon the Iron Council. Yet its ambitions, first seeded during the Horus Heresy, are only now beginning to mature. Iron Father Kristos is charged with unlocking the mysterious Eldar devices known collectively as the ‘Dawnbreak Technologies.’ Before he can recover the first element from Fabris Calivant, the Eldar orchestrate a vicious greenskin invasion which descends upon the Knight World. Kristos soon realises the xenos are not alone in their attempts to thwart his duty. His own brothers also seek to possess the formidable powers for their own ends. In a mission that pitches Clan against Clan, Iron Hand against Iron Hand, to what lengths will the Iron Father go to secure victory?
The most comprehensive look at our relationship with Mars—yesterday, today, and tomorrow—through history, archival images, pop culture ephemera, and interviews with NASA scientists Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since the ancient Egyptians observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war and plague. But it wasn't until the 19th century when “canals” were observed on the surface of the Red Planet, suggesting the presence of water, that scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs became obsessed with the question of whether there’s life on Mars. Since then, Mars has fully invaded pop culture, inspiring its own day of the week (Tuesday), an iconic Looney Tunes character, and many novels and movies, from Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles to The Martian. It’s this cultural familiarity with the fourth planet that continues to inspire advancements in Mars exploration, from NASA’s launch of the Mars rover Perseverance to Elon Musk’s quest to launch a manned mission to Mars through SpaceX by 2024. Perhaps, one day, we’ll be able to answer the questions our ancestors asked when they looked up at the night sky millennia ago.
A debut collection of darkly humorous, feminist speculative fiction from the Balkans, “sly, uncommon stories” by “a major talent” (Jeff VanderMeer, award-winning author of Hummingbird Salamander). Mars showcases a series of unique and twisted universes, where every character is tasked with making sense of their strange reality. One woman will be freed from purgatory once she writes the perfect book; another abides in a world devoid of physical contact. With wry prose and skewed humor, an emerging feminist writer explores twenty-first century promises of knowledge, freedom, and power. “Bakic’s stories are a dark delight—a treasury of forbidden pleasures, moments of resistance and resilience, and terrifying possibilities.” —Strange Horizons “At turns funny, surreal, and grounded in simple language but flung through twisted realities, the stories in this collection are provocative and utterly readable.” —The Brooklyn Rail “Skillfully disorienting.” —BUST “There’s an immediacy to Bakic’s offbeat worldview, sometimes strange and surreal, sometimes terrifying and upsetting, that pairs perfectly with the madness of the current political moment.” —Locus Magazine “Bosnian writer Bakic’s debut teems with the oddball narratives of George Saunders, the eerie atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe, and the feminist intellect of Marge Piercyc. . . Told in a straightforward manner that transports speculative fiction into almost realist territory, Bakic’s collection imaginatively and strikingly examines sci-fi tropes from not only the point of view of women, but also from the voice of an effortlessly gifted writer whose future is much brighter than that of those depicted in her stories.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
ROGUE MAGE TURNED INTERPLANETARY ENVOY Three years ago, as Ship’s Mage of the starship Blue Jay, Damien Montgomery was pursued to the edge of human space by both the agents and enemies of the Mage-King of Mars — before being brought in from the cold. Now, trained in new skills by the Mage-King himself, Damien has been sent to the planet Ardennes alongside Alaura Stealey, Hand of the King. A rebel movement there has destroyed cities fighting a Governor seemingly lost to corruption. But not all on Ardennes is as it seems. As allies becomes enemies and an entire world comes apart in chaos around him, Damien will find both his skills and integrity tested to the utter limit.
The coldly methodical and unrelenting Iron Hands Space Marine Chapter clash with the cybernetic soldiers of the Adeptus Mechanicus over control of the world of Thennos. Ever since the dark days of the Great Heresy, the Iron Hands have a long and tortured history. Their years of suffering and war has left them hardened and believing in a brutal tenet: the flesh is weak. Heavily cybernetic, their flesh extensively altered, these warriors of the Imperium are more machine than man, cold in aspect as well as demeanour. Their methods of recruitment are harsh, their rituals arcane, their pride unshakable. So when a world under the protection of the Chapter falls foul of insurrection, the Iron Hands answer with fire and cold retribution. It matters not that Thennos is considered sovereign territory by the Adeptus Mechanicus - the Iron Hands' campaign is one of extermination. But there is something dark lurking within Thennos, a horror that defies the purity of cold logic and the machine, and threatens something more, something ruinous...
Considered one of Ben Bova’s most famous Grand Tour novels: “A gripping, realistic tale of man’s first expedition to the red planet. Don’t miss it” (Terry Brooks, New York Times–bestselling author of The Shannara Chronicles). Jamie Waterman is a young Navaho geologist who is picked for the ground team of the first manned expedition to Mars. He will be joining an international team of astronauts and scientists. But once the crew land on the red planet, they soon discover they must battle not only the alien land on which they have invaded but earthbound bureaucrats as well. When they come face to face with a chasm ten times as deep and large as the Grand Canyon, all twenty-five astronauts must face the most shocking discovery of all . . . “The science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.” —Ray Bradbury, author of Farenheit 451 “A splendid book . . . Of his many books, Mars must be the most important.” —Arthur C. Clarke, author of Islands in the Sky
For millenia humans have considered Mars the most fascinating planet in our solar system. We’ve watched this Earth-like world first with the naked eye, then using telescopes, and, most recently, through robotic orbiters and landers and rovers on the surface. Historian William Sheehan and astronomer and planetary scientist Jim Bell combine their talents to tell a unique story of what we’ve learned by studying Mars through evolving technologies. What the eye sees as a mysterious red dot wandering through the sky becomes a blurry mirage of apparent seas, continents, and canals as viewed through Earth-based telescopes. Beginning with the Mariner and Viking missions of the 1960s and 1970s, space-based instruments and monitoring systems have flooded scientists with data on Mars’s meteorology and geology, and have even sought evidence of possible existence of life-forms on or beneath the surface. This knowledge has transformed our perception of the Red Planet and has provided clues for better understanding our own blue world. Discovering Mars vividly conveys the way our understanding of this other planet has grown from earliest times to the present. The story is epic in scope—an Iliad or Odyssey for our time, at least so far largely without the folly, greed, lust, and tragedy of those ancient stories. Instead, the narrative of our quest for the Red Planet has showcased some of our species’ most hopeful attributes: curiosity, cooperation, exploration, and the restless drive to understand our place in the larger universe. Sheehan and Bell have written an ambitious first draft of that narrative even as the latest chapters continue to be added both by researchers on Earth and our robotic emissaries on and around Mars, including the latest: the Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter drone, which set down in Mars’s Jezero Crater in February 2021.
A shuttle accident claims the lives of the Mage-King of Mars and his heir. The Crown and the Mountain fall to the Mage-King's daughter. Even as they get a handle on the list Kiera's father left them, Damien is grimly certain of one thing: when it comes to the deaths of Kings, he doesn't believe in accidents.
THE FUTRE IS OURS When humans first evolved, we were basically indistinguishable from animals. Then we harnessed the power of fire, and it catapulted us beyond a state of animalism. Since then, human innovation has propelled us from one technological revolution to the next. We are now at the next world-altering wave of technological evolution: artificial intelligence. But the current AI offerings cannot fulfill our fundamental desire to communicate with our technology through speech. We didn't evolve to type or use a mouse; we evolved to have conversations, including with our technology. We want the USS Enterprise shipboard computer, J.A.R.V.I.S. from Iron Man, the interface from Her. But we are not there yet. Conversational AI and AI in general are collectively our next fire, light bulb, or internet. And we must thank Apple, Google, and Amazon for whetting our appetite with Siri, Google Home, and Alexa. But now we're ready for what's next. That's where the groundbreaking work of computer scientist Jason Mars and Clinc, the company he founded, comes in. Breaking Bots paints a thrilling portrait of the past, present, and future of the AI revolution through Jason's unlikely journey to AI stardom, the extraordinary rise of Clinc from a scrappy start-up to a juggernaut toppler, and the paradigm-shifting technical and cultural DNA that makes Jason's work and Clinc's technology the future of AI. The AI revolution is at hand--and you are part of the journey!
