Prime ​Squared

Dan Simmons - Hyperion ​(angol)
On ​the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits them all. On the eve of Armageddon with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope - and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable new science fiction epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man.

Frank Herbert - Dune ​Messiah
With ​millions of copies sold worldwide, Frank Herbert's magnificent Dune books stand among the major achievements of human imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis - a world as fully real and rich as our own - Dune Messiah continues the story of the man Muad'Dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to completion the centuries-old scheme to create a superbeing... "Brilliant... it is all that Dune was, and maybe a little more..." - Galaxy Magazine

Jim Mortimore - J. Michael Straczynski - Babylon ​5 - Clark's Law
DEATH ​BEFORE DISHONOR The Tuchanq, a newly discovered humanoid species, can be an important ally for the Earth Alliance commanded by President Clark. So Captain John Sheridan welcomes their ambassador to Babylon 5, not knowing that among them is D'arc - a mass murderer on the run hoping to escape into the unsuspecting worlds of the galaxy. CLARK'S LAW But the unforgiving rules of space have a different fate in store for D'arc. A terrifying accident wipes away D'arc's identity and his evil...leaving behind a loving, innocent being with child's mind-a being that must die because President Clark, a leader with his own secret agenda, orders his immidiate execition. Now, as Babylon 5 physician Dr. Stephen Franklin begs Sheridan to defy Clark's law, the captain faces the greatest test of his command-and a far greater test of his manhood, which may end his career in shame or become a shining reminder of what being human truly means...

Kathryn M. Drennan - J. Michael Straczynski - Babylon ​5 - To Dream in the City of Sorrows
THEY ​CALLED THEM THE FIRST. LINE OF DEFENSE. THEY CALLED THEM RANGERS. Ambassador to the alien world of Minbar, former Babylon 5 commander, Jeffrey Sinclair, is one of the first to learn the truth about the Shadows, the ancient race pursuing the destruction of the galaxy. Sinclair also discovers a startling secret: he is the linchpin in the plan to stop them. Now, Sinclair is asked to revive the legendary Minbari warrior group, the Rangers. But it may cost him his one chance to love... and his life. TO DREAM IN THE CITY OF SORROWS Catherine Sakai, commercial pilot and planetary surveyor, has lost her heart to Jeffrey Sinclair. Not even an attack by the Shadows can stop her from getting to Minbar to join him and the Rangers. As she trains with other pilots, including the mysterious Marcus Cole, the time is coming when their skills will be tested on their first mission. Led by Sinclair, they will venture into deepest space, into a battle of stealth and might, and toward a fate none but the bravest can face...and none but the luckiest will survive....

Iain M. Banks - Matter
In ​a world renowned within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever. Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else’s war is never a simple matter.

J. Michael Straczynski - Neal Barrett Jr. - Babylon ​5 - The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name
THE ​ENEMY WHITIN Babylon 5, designed to be a place of peace in a troubled universe, has erupted into rioting as visiting cultures clash and passions explode. Security chief Garibaldi must use all his skills to quell the violence between races. But the troubles escalate as terrifying nightmares plague everyone on board from Captain Sheridan to Vorlon Ambassador Kosh. It seems as if some "force" is touching them all... THE TOUCH OF YOUR SHADOW, THE WHISPER OF YOUR NAME Then an alien presence appears. A long, twisting band of green light nine million miles long stretches out against the darkness of space on a collision course with Babylon 5. Since it remains invisible to computer sensors, some are calling it an illusion, others are calling it an evil life force. Still others are calling it God. Now, it is up to Captain Sheridan and Garibaldi to find out, risking their lives, and perhaps their souls, to venture forth amond the stars to meet the unknown...

Peter David - J. Michael Straczynski - Babylon ​5 - In the Beginning
The ​Battle of the Line is infamous in Earth history as the climactic campaign in a long and bloody war between Humankind and the alien Minbari race. But how did this apocalyptic conflict erupt? And how did this fateful clash of two civilizations ultimately lead to the creation of the Babylon 5 space station? Here, at last, the great space epic unfolds--in a new novel based on the first full-length Babylon 5 television movie. Eager to expand their trade with other worlds, the people of planet Earth attempt to make contact with the mysterious Minbari, a race of proud and powerful warriors. But when communication turns to violence, Earth becomes the target of a latter-day holy war, waged by a civilization possessing vastly superior numbers and firepower. And the Minbari will stop at nothing short of the total extermination of its enemy: the Human race . . .

Peter David - J. Michael Straczynski - Armies ​of Light and Dark
The ​Drakh have assaulted Earth with deadly Shadow technology--but the worst is yet to come in this stunning continuation of the Babylon 5 epic adventure . . . Centauri Prime has been infiltrated by malevolent allies of the Shadows, creatures known as the Drakh. While Centauri citizens continue to rebuild their war-torn planet, their secret masters work feverishly toward one ultimate goal: to crush the Interstellar Alliance once and for all. As the Drakh carry out their horrific plans, Emperor Londo Mollari languishes on his throne, a puppet of the Drakh-bred keeper, an insidious creature that monitors his every thought, word, and action. While the emperor broods, the power-obsessed Lord Durla--an unwitting Drakh pawn--follows his own agenda. But Drakh control is not absolute. Vir Cotto--a most unlikely hero--has begun a resistance movement, and Alliance President John Sheridan has sent his most trusted troubleshooter, Michael Garibaldi, to investigate. Yet this move may prove costly, and though the Centauri continue to build a new military machine, the Alliance avoids any overt confrontation, hoping the problem will go away.

E. E. 'Doc' Smith - Galactic ​Patrol
Terror ​of the Space Raiders! The space pirates of Boskone raided at will, menacing the whole structure of interstellar civilization. Masterminded by a super-scientist, their conquering fleets outgunned even the mighty space cruisers of the Galactic Patrol. When Lensman Kim Kinnison of the Patrol discovered he secret of the Boskonian base, it was invulnerable to outside attack. But where a battle-fleet would meet insuperable resistance, a single infiltrator might penetrate the Boskonian defences - if he had the guts to take million-to-one odds. Kinnison had guts enough to take on the odds - even with the future of the civilized Universe riding on his shoulders... Galactic Patrol is the third novel in the epic seven-volume Lensman series, a saga of galactic adventure in the great tradition of adventurous science fiction. Each Lensman book is a complete, exciting novel in itself - watch out for each one as it appears in Panther Scienc Fiction.

Frank Herbert - Destination: ​Void
Soon ​after the start, they went mad, the three powerful, disembodied human brains that should have guided them for the 200-year journey to Tau Ceti. Could they manufacture a replacement before emerging from the Solar System into nothingness? Would the circuits reproduce the characteristics they needed, characteristics like conscience, love and guilt? Or would they end up with a zombie? a monster? a power-crazy fanatic? - or a genius? What they did build was fantastic, unguessable. Yet, looking back, it was always on the cards.

Kim Stanley Robinson - 2312 ​(angol)
The ​year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future. The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong, it is an event that will change her life. Swan was once a woman who designed worlds. Now she will be led into a plot to destroy them.

Paul McAuley - The ​Quiet War
Twenty-third ​century Earth, ravaged by climate change, looks backwards to the holy ideal of a pre-industrial Eden. Political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people are imprisoned in teeming cities; millions more labour on Pharaonic projects to rebuild ruined ecosystems. On the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, the Outers, descendants of refugees from Earth's repressive regimes, have constructed a wild variety of self-sufficient cities and settlements: scientific utopias crammed with exuberant creations of the genetic arts; the last outposts of every kind of democratic tradition. The fragile detente between the Outer cities and the dynasties of Earth is threatened by the ambitions of the rising generation of Outers, who want to break free of their cosy, inward-looking pocket paradises, colonise the rest of the Solar System, and drive human evolution in a hundred new directions. On Earth, many demand pre-emptive action against the Outers before it's too late; others want to exploit the talents of their scientists and gene wizards.Amid campaigns for peace and reconciliation, political machinations, crude displays of military might, and espionage by cunningly wrought agents, the two branches of humanity edge towards war . ..

Peter F. Hamilton - The ​Naked God
Hell ​just went quantum... The Confederation is starting to collapse politically and economically, allowing the 'possessed' to infiltrate more worlds. Quinn Dexter is loose on Earth, destroying the giant arcologies one at a time. As Louise Kavanagh tries to track him down, she manages to acquire some strange and powerful allies whose goal does not match her own. The campaign to liberate Mortonbridge from the possessed degenerates into a horrendous land battle, the kind that hasn't been seen by humankind for six hundred years. Then some of the protagonists escape in a very unexpected direction... Joshua Clavert and Syrinx now fly their starships on a mission to find the Sleeping God - which an alien race believes holds the key to finally overthrowing the possessed.

Peter David - J. Michael Straczynski - The ​Long Night of Centauri Prime
The ​beginning of an exciting new adventure that continues the Babylon 5 legacy . . . Bombed to the brink of oblivion, the planet Centauri Prime is starting the slow and painful process of rebuilding, under the watchful eye of Emperor Londo Mollari. But Londo is in turn being watched--and manipulated--by the conquest-hungry Drakh. The malevolent beings are reshaping the Centauri Republic into a secret seat of power from which to strike out at their enemies--especially the Interstellar Alliance. All but helpless to resist, Londo watches as his beloved Homeworld is transformed into a ruthless police state. And the Drakh have willing allies, including one of Londo's own countrymen--Durla, a powerful official with his own sinister agenda. As the abuses of the repressive new Republic escalate, the double-edged Drakh master plan begins to unfold. Their goal is to smash the Interstellar Alliance by assassinating its president, John Sheridan, and to obliterate Earth, using a fabled, monstrous Shadow weapon known as a Planet Killer . . .

Peter F. Hamilton - The ​Dreaming Void
AD ​3580. The Intersolar Commonwealth has spread through the galaxy to over a thousand star systems. It is a culture of rich diversity with a place for everyone. Even death itself has been overcome. But at the centre of the Commonwealth is a massive black hole. This Void is not a natural artefact. Inside there is a strange universe where the laws of physics are very different to those we know. It is slowly consuming the other stars of the galactic core - one day it will devour the entire galaxy. Inigo, a human, has started to dream of a wonderful existence in the Void. He has a following of millions of believers and they now clamour to make a pilgrimage into the Void to live the life they have been shown. Other starfaring species fear their migration will cause the Void to expand again. They are prepared to stop them no matter what the cost. And so the pilgrimage begins...

Peter F. Hamilton - The ​Temporal Void
The ​second book in Peter F. Hamilton's bestselling Void Trilogy Humanity is in turmoil as a fanatical cult, inspired by projected dreams from the Void, prepares to journey beyond its boundaries - no matter what they will unleash in doing so... Investigator Paula Myo is determined to find the Void's 'Second Dreamer', Araminta, who is channelling the latest visions of Edeard the Waterwalker. A messiah, it's his crusade against injustice that has influenced billions to risk journeying into the unknown. It's only as the dreams reach their culmination and Edeard's story nears its end that the Void's true nature will be revealed. And by then it may be too late...

Dan Simmons - The ​Hyperion Omnibus
The ​Hyperion books are credited with single-handedly reinventing and reinvigorating SF in the 1990s. A broad canvased, hugely imaginative and exciting SF epic, the books draw on the works of Keats and provide a uniquely intelligent and literary approach with cutting edge science, compelling characterisation and edge-of-your-seat excitement. The story is continued in ENDYMION and THE RISE OF ENDYMION, which Gollancz will also be publishing in an omnibus volume.

Iain M. Banks - The ​Player of Games
The ​Culture - a human/machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game... a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.

John Scalzi - The ​Human Division
Following ​the events of The Last Colony, John Scalzi tells the story of the fight to maintain the unity of the human race. The people of Earth now know that the human Colonial Union has kept them ignorant of the dangerous universe around them. For generations the CU had defended humanity against hostile aliens, deliberately keeping Earth an ignorant backwater and a source of military recruits. Now the CU’s secrets are known to all. Other alien races have come on the scene and formed a new alliance—an alliance against the Colonial Union. And they’ve invited the people of Earth to join them. For a shaken and betrayed Earth, the choice isn't obvious or easy. Against such possibilities, managing the survival of the Colonial Union won’t be easy, either. It will take diplomatic finesse, political cunning…and a brilliant “B Team,” centered on the resourceful Lieutenant Harry Wilson, that can be deployed to deal with the unpredictable and unexpected things the universe throws at you when you’re struggling to preserve the unity of the human race. Being published online from January to April 2013 as a three-month digital serial, The Human Division will appear as a full-length novel of the Old Man’s War universe, plus—for the first time in print—the first tale of Lieutenant Harry Wilson, and a coda that wasn’t part of the digital serialization.

Peter F. Hamilton - Pandora's ​Star
In ​AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of them interlinked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately four hundred light years across. When an astronomer on the outermost world of Gralmond observes a star 2000 light years distant - and then a neighbouring one - vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth to discover what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some kind of galactic conflict? Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need to build a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find each 'vanished' star encased in a giant force field - and within one of them resides a massive alien civilisation.