Lockstep

Tobias S. Buckell - Sly ​Mongoose
Welcome ​to Chilo, a planet blasted by corrosive rain, crushing pressure, and deadly heat. A planet where people live in floating cities high above the inferno. A select group of young men, including fourteen-year-old Timas, risk death to obtain the raw materials necessary for survival by travelling down through the acid clouds to mine the planet’s surface. Timas’s life is turned upside down when a man named Pepper crash-lands on the city. Pepper is fleeing a bizarre alien intelligence, and he bears ominous news that a full-scale invasion cannot be far behind. As Timas and Pepper try to convince the reluctant city government to prepare for war, floating cities all across Chilo fall silent one by one. Time is running out for Timas and Pepper to discover how to defeat an enemy that turns Chilo’s own citizens into monsters, and to discover the secret hidden beneath Chilo’s deadly clouds—a secret that could save the planet, and may prevent interplanetary war.

Tobias S. Buckell - Ragamuffin
The ​Benevolent Satrapy rule an empire of forty-eight worlds, linked by thousands of wormholes strung throughout the galaxy. Human beings, while technically “free,” mostly skulk around the fringes of the Satrapy, struggling to get by. The secretive alien Satraps tightly restrict the technological development of the species under their control. Entire worlds have been placed under interdiction, cut off from the rest of the universe. Descended from the islanders of lost Earth, the Ragamuffins are pirates and smugglers, plying the lonely spaceways around a dead wormhole. For years, the Satraps have tolerated the Raga, but no longer. Now they have embarked on a campaign of extermination, determined to wipe out the unruly humans once and for all. But one runaway woman may complicate their plans. Combat enabled, Nashara is more machine than flesh, and she carries inside her a doomsday weapon that could reduce the entire galaxy to chaos. A hunted fugitive, she just wants to get home before she’s forced to destroy civilization—and herself.

Paul J. McAuley - Eternal ​Light
In ​the aftermath of an interstellar war an enigmatic star is discovered, travelling towards the Solar System from the galactic core. Its appearance adds a new and dangerous factor in the turbulent politics of the inhabited worlds as the rival factions - the power-holders of the ReUnited Nations, the rebels who secretly oppose their power, and the Religious Witnesses - all see advantages to be gained. But what awesome technology started the star on its journey half a million years ago - and why?

Eric Brown - Necropath
Jaded ​telepath, Jeff Vaughan, is employed by the spaceport authorities to monitor incoming craft from the stars. There, he discovers a sinister cult that worships a mysterious alien god. The Church of the Adoration of the Chosen One uses drugs to commune with the Ultimate, and will murder to silence those who oppose their beliefs. The story follows Vaughan as his mistrust of his fellow humans is overturned by his love for the Thai street-girl Sukura, while he attempts to solve the murders and save himself from the psychopath out to kill him. Necropath is Eric Brown's triumphant return to hard SF.

Eric Brown - Xenopath
Book ​two of the Bengal Station Trilogy, Xenopath, is set two years after the first volume, Necropath. Vaughan is a happy man, married to Sukara and with a child on the way. Working for a telepathic detective agency, Vaughan investigates a series of murders linked to the colony world of Mallory, and the slaughter of innocent aliens there by the Scheering-Lassiter colonial organisation. But not only does the investigation put his own life in danger, but back on Bengal Station Sukara’s life is threatened too.

Robert Reed - Marrow
The ​Ship has travelled the universe for longer than any of the near-immortal crew can recall, its true purpose and origins unknown. It is larger than many planets, housing thousands of alien races and just as many secrets. Now one of those secrets has been discovered: at the centre of the Ship is ...a planet. Marrow. But when a team of the Ship's best and brightest are sent down to investigate, will they return with the origins of the Ship - or will they bring doom to everyone on board?

Robert Reed - The ​Well of Stars
The ​Great Ship is home to a multitude of alien races and a near-immortal crew. They have toured the Milky Way for millennia, the best and the brightest from a thousand worlds, but the true purpose of the Ship has remained hidden. Now, time is running out. The huge spacecraft is heading for the dark, immense, region of space known as the Ink Well, and the only entity in the universe more vast and mysterious than the Great Ship is lying in wait.

Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix ​Plus
Schismatrix ​Plus, is Bruce Sterling's new trade paperback. For the first time in one volume: every word Bruce Sterling has ever written on the Shapers-Mechanists Universe. In the last decade, Sterling has emerged a pioneer of crucial, cutting-edge science fiction. Now Ace Books is proud to offer Sterling's stunning world of the Schismatrix--where Shaper revolutionaries struggle against aristocratic Mechanists for ultimate control of man's destiny. This volume includes the classic full-length novel, Schismatrix, plus thousands of words of mind-bending short fiction.

Rick Remender - Fear ​Agent Omnibus 2.
The ​outlook isn't sunny for Heath Huston or his ensemble of Fear Agents — planet Earth is infested by Feeder aliens, robotic conquerors are manipulating the universe through time travel, and Heath discovers a traitor in their midst! Rick Remender (Uncanny X-Force) teams up with artists Tony Moore (The Walking Dead) and Jerome Opena (Avengers) for a relentless, heartfelt sci-fi adventure that harks back to the glory days of EC Comics. This second volume of the deluxe Fear Agent Library Edition, which collects issues #17-32 of the popular series, also includes Tales of the Fear Agent bonus stories and a massive gallery of covers, sketches, and pin ups.

Rick Remender - Fear ​Agent Omnibus
When ​down-and-out alien exterminator Heath Huston stumbles upon an extraterrestrial plot to commit genocide against the human species, he must put down the bottle and resume his role as a peacekeeper. . . the last Fear Agent! Acclaimed writer Rick Remender (Uncanny X-Force, Venom) is joined by superstar collaborators Tony Moore (The Walking Dead, Venom) and Jerome Opeña (Uncanny X-Force, Punisher) in channeling the aesthetic sensibilities and spirit of high adventure of classic science fiction, war, and horror comics — three of the genres that made EC comics the high-water mark of sequential storytelling. Fear Agent takes readers through lush new worlds populated by jellyfish superbrains, wild apemen, and sentient amoeba beasts, and finally back to the frontlines of humanity's war with an automaton regime bent on universal domination! This deluxe hardcover omnibus, the first of two, collects issues #1-15 of the acclaimed Fear Agent comics, along with half of the Tales of the Fear Agent sidestories, covers, pinups, and artists' sketch galleries.

M. S. Murdock - Prime ​Squared
Amid ​his royal family on Mercury Prime, Kemal Gavilan relays a message to Earth: The laser project NEO discovered is his own family's plot to rule the solar system. Kemal must destroy the weapon without blowing his cover for his power hungry uncle, the reigning Sun King, would kill him instantly. When Kemal learns that Aldala Valmar has a prototype, the prince comes up with a plan.

Joan D. Vinge - World's ​End
Hot ​on the heels of The Summer Queen, this novel is a must-read for fans of Vinge's Hugo Award-winning series. BZ Gundhalinu, a policeman who became an outcast after saving the future Summer Queen, quits his job to follow his ne'er-do-well brothers into the godforsaken waste, World's End, to prospect. BZ's odyssey will set the stage for The Summer Queen.

Cordwainer Smith - Norstrilia
Norstrilia ​tells the story of a boy form the planet Old North Australia (where rich, simple farmers grow the immortality drug Stroon), how he bought Old Earth, and how his visit to Earth changed both him and Earth itself.

Lois McMaster Bujold - Falling ​Free
Leo ​Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: min your own business, fix what’s wrong and move on to the next job. Everything neat and according to spec, just the way he liked it. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Could you just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation? Leo Graf adopted a thousand quaddies—now all he had to do was teach them to be free.

Lois McMaster Bujold - The ​Warrior's Apprentice
After ​failing to pass the physicals for the Barrayaran Military Academy, the brittle-boned, dwarfish son of Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan uses a clever touch of creativity to finance a shipment of munitions into a war zone. When this simple merchant expedition draws the attention of an unexpected enemy, Miles is forced to masquerade as commander of a fictional fleet of hired guns he names after the mountains near his home - the Dendarii Mercenaries. His original crew of misfits grows into a considerable force as enemies become allies, guided by the delicate political manoeuvrings Miles learned from his father. Miles' ability to think himself out of a tight spot makes him a natural - if unlikely - leader, but this adventure in deep space is just a warm-up. On his homeworld of Barrayar, a deadly plot has been hatched against his father, Aral. A carefully planned trap is being laid, and only the wiles of the empire's unlikeliest hero can thwart it...

Lois McMaster Bujold - Young ​Miles
It ​isn't easy, being Vor. Being a Vor lord on the war-torn planet Barrayar wasn't easy. Being an officer in Barrayar's military wasn't easy. And being the leader of a force of spaceborne mercenaries while maintaining a secret identity wasn't easy in fact it should have been impossible, to say nothing of being a capital offense on Barrayar. Not that impossibility or great danger would slow down young Miles Vorkosigan much. Washed out of the Barrayaran Military Academy for being overly fragile (he had been biochemically damaged during an assassination attempt while still in his mother's womb), Miles' natural (if unorthodox) leadership qualities quickly led to his off-handedly acquiring a fleet of nineteen ships and three thousand troops, all unswervingly loyal to him or at least to his alter ego, Admiral Naismith. In short order, he foiled a plot against his father, returned to and graduated from the academy, solved a murder among his people, joined a mutiny against a deranged superior officer, thwarted an interstellar invasion, and rescued the Barrayaran Emperor. Then things get interesting. Publisher's Note: "Young Miles" was previously published in parts as "The Warrior's Apprentice", "The Mountains of Mourning", and "The Vor Game".

Lois McMaster Bujold - Cetaganda
Cetaganda ​is the latest installment of the Hugo-award winning adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, in which Miles and Cousin Ivan go to Cetaganda to play the part of sprigs of the nobility doing their diplomatic duty by good old Barrayar. The idea is that they will gain diplomatic polish on this simple mission, but when the Cetagandan empress dies naturally and her lifelong attendant dies unnaturally - apparently a suicide, but there are rumors - Miles and Ivan find themselves in the thick of it. Miles tries to play detective in a strange, complicated, and deceptively alien culture. Meanwhile, handsome and lascivious Ivan manages to get himself involved with several women at the same time - all of whom are TROUBLE from the word go. Miles had always wanted to save the Empire - it was just that the Cetagandan wasn't exactly the empire he'd had in mind...

John Varley - The ​Ophiuchi Hotline
THE ​BRILLIANT NOVEL THAT LAUNCHED THE VARLEY PHENOMENON The invaders came in 2050…They did not kill anyone outright. hey said they came on behalf of the intelligent species of Earth—dolphins and whales. The Invaders quietly destroyed every evidence of technology, then peacefully departed, leaving behind plowed ground and sprouting seeds. In the next two years, ten billion humans starved to death. The remnants of humanity that survived relocated to the moon and other planets. But they are not alone in their struggle—someone or something, somewhere in deep space, is sending them advanced scientific data via the Ophiuchi Hotline. And by the twenty-fifth century, the technological gifts from the Hotline—especially its biological and medical solutions—have created a world unlike any ever known or imagined…

Peter F. Hamilton - The ​Abyss Beyond Dreams
TO ​SAVE THEIR CIVILISATION HE MUST DESTROY IT ...When images of a lost civilization are 'dreamed' by a self-proclaimed prophet of the age, Nigel Sheldon, inventor of wormhole technology and creator of the Commonwealth society, is asked to investigate. Especially as the dreams seem to be coming from the Void - a mysterious area of living space monitored and controlled because of its hugely destructive capabilities. With it being the greatest threat to the known universe, Nigel is committed to finding out what really lies within the Void and if there's any truth to the visions they've received. Does human life really exist inside its boundary? But when Nigel crash lands inside the Void, on a planet he didn't even know existed, he finds so much more than he expected. Bienvenido: a world populated by the ancestors of survivors from Commonwealth colony ships that disappeared centuries ago. Since then they've been fighting an increasingly desperate battle against the Fallers, a space-born predator artificially evolved to conquer worlds. Their sole purpose is to commit genocide against every species they encounter. With their powerful telepathic lure - that tempts any who stray across their path to a slow and painful death - they are by far the greatest threat to humanity's continued existence on this planet. But Nigel soon realizes that the Fallers also hold the key to something he'd never hoped to find - the destruction of the Void itself. If only he can survive long enough to work out how to use it ...

Walter Jon Williams - Aristoi
Williams ​evokes a future reminiscent of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light, in which the promises of science and technology are fulfilled. In the far-distant future, only a specially adapted group of people--the Aristoi--can operate the ultra-advanced computer system that controls their vast interstellar empire.