During a routine survey mission on an uncolonised planet, xenobiologist Kira Navarez finds an alien relic that thrusts her into the wonders and nightmares of first contact. Epic space battles for the fate of humanity take her to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and, in the process, transform not only her - but the entire course of history.

Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Antigone's parents have been murdered, leaving her father's throne vacant. As her militant uncle Kreon rises to claim it, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest. But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.

This novel chronicles the origins of our planet, as the three galactic empires fight for control of the human race.

The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery. Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade his mind in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed by an alien enemy. Many escaped, but millions more died. So mankind created enhanced humans - such as Idris - who could communicate mind-to-mind with our aggressors....

This novel tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her.

In the year 2255, a woman named Salma, twenty years old, is the first to fully see - with her own eyes, albeit moderated by her ship's instruments - the object called Planet Nine. See, but not recognise what it was. Not yet. Not that the object turned out to be a planet, or the 'ninth' of anything. Briefly thought to be a black hole, it suddenly changes, expands and sends a message. There is something waiting on its service. Something not quite human....

After 80 years of fragile peace, the galaxy's greatest alien enemy is back. Waging a brutal one-sided war, the Architects consume entire planets under their unfathomable directive. In the past, Originator artefacts - vestiges of a long-vanished civilization - could save a world from annihilation. Yet the Architects have discovered a way to circumvent these protective relics. Suddenly, no planet is safe. Facing impending extinction, the Human Colonies...

Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade - to learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't 'optimal behavior'. It's the type of behavior that results in elimination. But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, whose dead grandmaman has...

Mickey7 is no longer an Expendable and now his real troubles have begun. The colony is in decline, he has no special skills to justify his continued drain on resources except the antimatter he used to bargain for his freedom. With the colony's very existence on the line, he must get it back, or die trying.

Bringing together a diverse selection of science fiction spanning over 60 years, this collection includes stories from noted authors such as Isaac Asimov, Clifford Simak, Harry Harrison, Bruce Sterling and A.E. Van Vogt.