Best Selling Books by Stephen Baxter

Michael Poole finds himself in a very strange landscape . . . This is the centre of the Galaxy. And in a history without war with the humans, the Xeelee have had time to built an immense structure here. The Xeelee Belt has a radius ten thousand times Earth''s orbital distance. It is a light year in circumference. If it was set in the solar system it would be out in the Oort Cloud, among the comets - but circling the sun. If it was at rest it would have a surface area equivalent to about thirty billion Earths. But it is not at rest: it rotates at near lightspeed. And because of relativistic effects, distances are compressed for inhabitants of the Belt, and time drastically slowed. The purpose of the Belt is to preserve a community of Xeelee into the very far future, when they will be able to tap dark energy, a universe-spanning antigravity field, for their own purposes. But with time the Belt has attracted populations of lesser species, here for the immense surface area, the unending energy flows. Poole, Miriam and their party, having followed the Ghosts, must explore the artefact and survive encounters with its strange inhabitants - before Poole, at last, finds the Xeelee who led the destruction of Earth...

Centuries have passed. The wall that Ana''s people built has long outlasted her and history has been changed. The British Isles are still one with the European mainland and Doggerland has become a vibrant and rich land. So rich that it has drawn the attention of the Greeks. An invasion is mounted and soon Greek Biremes are grinding ashore on a coastline we never knew and the world will be changed for ever. Stephen Baxter''s new series catapults forward from pre-history into the ancient world and charts a new and wonderful story for our world. This is a superb example of Baxter''s belief that anything is possible for mankind - even making a new world.

For the past eight years NewCon Press has been showcasing the talent of British and British-based science fiction authors via our Best of British SF anthologies. This award-winning series is curated by editor Donna Scott, who each year faces the daunting task of selecting the very best short stories from what is invariably a strong field. Best of British Science Fiction 2023 represents one of the strongest anthologies yet Table of Contents: Introduction - Donna Scott Detonation Boulevard - Alastair Reynolds Vermin Control - Tim Lees Personal Satisfaction - Adrian Tchaikovsky The Scent of Green - Ana Sun Gauguin''s Questions - Stephen Baxter So Close to Home - Andrew Hook Boojum - Angus McIntyre The Station Master - Lavie Tidhar Art App - Chris Beckett The Blou Trein Suborbirail - L.P. Melling Blue Shift Passing By - David Cleden And if Venice is Sinking - Fiona Moore Muse Automatique - Jaine Fenn Little Sprout - E.B. Siu A Change of Direction - Rhiannon Grist Thus With a Kiss I Die - Robert Bagnall Tough Love - Teika Marija Smits The Brazen Head of Westinghouse - Tim Major Skipping - Ian Watson Pearl - Felix Rose Kawitzky About the Authors

Stories set in a variety of futures from the award-winning heir of Arthur C. Clarke: Traces gives a kaleidoscopic vision of the possibilities for humankind.

How would you survive on a planet that doesn''t spin? An awe-inspiring Planetary Romance from Terry Pratchett''s co-author on the Long Earth Books The very far future: The Galaxy is a drifting wreck of black holes, neutron stars, chill white dwarfs. The age of star formation is long past. Yet there is life here, feeding off the energies of the stellar remnants, and there is mind, a tremendous Galaxy-spanning intelligence each of whose thoughts lasts a hundred thousand years. And this mind cradles memories of a long-gone age when a more compact universe was full of light ... The 27th century: Proxima Centauri, an undistinguished red dwarf star, is the nearest star to our sun - and (in this fiction), the nearest to host a world, Proxima IV, habitable by humans. But Proxima IV is unlike Earth in many ways. Huddling close to the warmth, orbiting in weeks, it keeps one face to its parent star at all times. The ''substellar point'', with the star forever overhead, is a blasted desert, and the ''antistellar point'' on the far side is under an ice cap in perpetual darkness. How would it be to live on such a world? Yuri Jones, with 1,000 others, is about to find out ... PROXIMA tells the amazing tale of how we colonise a harsh new eden, and the secret we find there that will change our role in the Universe for ever. Readers love Proxima: ''The plot was very interesting and I really liked how the narrative alternated from the past to the future to give a better understanding of the setting . . . a thought provoking and compelling read'' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ''Some damn fine science fiction . . . There''s a strong blend of characters here, including human and AI'' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ''I highly recommend it for fans of hard sci-fi, time dilation, space exploration, colonisation and first contact . . . Baxter has gone to a lot of bother to do his scientific, ecological research to serve you an entire planet on a platter'' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ''Half hard sci-fi about surviving on a new planet, half an almost-2001 sense of mysterious alien force. It all comes together really well'' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

When Rab was a baby, his mother made a decision which would change his life. She feared he would be sent to work in the hellish mines of Mercury, to eke out his life until he was worn out, all in the name of maintaning the defense of the Solar Sytem. But when her desperate attempt to flee with her 2 year old failed, she took a desperate step to save him. She cut off his hand. Decades later, Rab has been spared the physical hardships he can no longer endure, and is now based on the Mask, the all-encompassing structure which hides the Solar Sytem from alien eyes. And it is during his watch that a spaceship arrives, one which has travelled for a hundred years from a long-forgotten colony planet. If they pierce the Mask, everything humanity has created will be left open to the alien threat. But this strange ship, bearing an offshoot of the species, may bring something else with them. Hope.

An anthology featuring some of the biggest names in British genre fiction, including rare, previously uncollected stories by Iain M. Banks, Stephen Baxter, Peter F. Hamilton, Justina Robson, Paul McAuley, Juliet E McKenna, Anne Nicholls, and Geoff Ryman, alongside original stories by Eric Brown, Ian R. MacLeod, Martin Sketchley, Kari Sperring, and Adrian Tchaikovsky. The rare reprints all appeared originally in souvenir booklets given to attendees of the Novacon convention and featuring original work by that year''s Guest of Honour. The very best of British Science Fiction. Table of Contents: Burning Brightly: Introduction by Rog Peyton Chiron - Stephen Baxter The Spheres - Iain M. Banks Acts of Defiance - Eric Brown Heatwave - Anne Nicholls Alien TV - Paul McAuley Canary Girls - Kari Sperring Softlight Sins - Peter F. Hamilton Erie Lackawana Song - Justina Robson Through the Veil - Juliet E. McKenna The Coming of Enkidu - Geoff Ryman Red Sky in the Morning - Adrian Tchaikovsky The God of Nothing - Ian R. MacLeod The Ships of Aleph - Jaine Fenn Bloodbirds - Martin Sketchley About the Authors

Set in 1962 Liverpool during the Cold War, young Laura Mann discoveres that she carries the key that will unlock the difference between the future and the end of the world. For Laura Mann is ... the H-Bomb Girl! Pursued by futuristic forces beyond her wildest imagination, Laura must find answers before time runs out.

Als een doemboodschap van vijf miljoen jaar in de toekomst de ondergang van de mensheid aankondigt, wordt een enorm ruimteschip door tijd en ruimte gezonden om dat te onderzoeken.

Domesday is the most famous and important historical record in the nation''s archives, the final product of a survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Making Domesday offers a fundamental reinterpretation of how and why it was made, exploring its conception, conduction, effectiveness, and impact.