New Releases by Stephen Baxter

A thousand years has passed since a human expedition was launched to the system of the ''Hearth'', a dark matter star. Humanity - its origins forgotten - has peacefully colonised many planets. But now an expansive slaving culture begins to cross Hearthspace . . . Ulla Breen, young space-navy officer, must lead the fight against the slavers, and ultimately seek out the origin of humanity in the Hearthspace.

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.

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.

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

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. As the ramifications of this event spread across the fracturing elements of humanity, it is clear that the small crew on the spot are at the centre of the most dramatic discovery in history. But this is not the only inexplicable event happening - impossibly, at exactly the same moment, a quasar has appeared twenty-five thousand light years away, pouring heat into the solar system.

In 2145AD John Hackett''s adventure is just beginning. In Year 30, Mela''s story is coming to a close. Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller - beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back - but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming. A mission which will take him five million years to complete. Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time. Mela''s world is coming to an end. Erosion is eating away at the edges of every landmass - first at a rate of ten metres a year, but fast accelerating, displacing people and animals as the rising Tide destroys everything in its path. Putting more and more pressure on the people - and resources - which remain. She and her people have always known that this long-predicted end to their home, one of the Thousand Earths, is coming - but that makes their fight to survive, to protect each other, no less desperate . . . and no less doomed. A beautiful, page-turning story which interweaves the tale of these two characters, separated by both space and time, in a hopeful exploration of humanities'' future, this is Stephen Baxter at his best.

Trapped on an alternate Earth, the combined crews of a crashed Russian spaceship, a British expeditionary force and a group of strays from the future must work together to survive, escape, and discover what led them to this point. All are from parallel universes where small changes in history led to different realities, and the tensions between the groups are rising. But some changes were not small. The solar system has been altered, changed, shaped in the various realities, and the World Engineers - unspeakably powerful, completely unknown - are still active. Why have they populated this planet with humanity''s ancestors and dinosaurs? What is on the moon of Saturn that gives off such an odd light? And even if they can be found, can they be stopped - and should they be? Malenfant, Deidra and the rest of their party must find a way off the planet, back into space, and into the many dimensions seeking the answer...

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It is the dawn of the twentieth century. Following the Martians'' failed invasion of Earth, the British Empire has seized their technology and unlocked its secrets for themselves. It is a Golden Age of discovery, adventure, culture, invention—and of domination, and rebellion. Scarlet Traces reveals a world of ant-headed nightmares; vacuum salesmen; war machines; deadly secrets; clockwork marvels; and Sherlock Holmes, T. S. Eliot and Thomas Edison as you''ve never seen them before... Including stories by Stephen Baxter, I. N. J. Culbard, Adam Roberts, Emma Beeby, James Lovegrove, Nathan Duck, Mark Morris, Dan Whitehead, Chris Roberson, Maura McHugh, Jonathan Green and Andrew Lane.

La Terre a subi des changements climatiques sans précédent depuis que la Lune a été remplacée par une étrange petite planète rouge. Reid Malenfant part en mission afin de retrouver Emma, sa femme, qui a mystérieusement disparu à travers un anneau bleu apparu dans le ciel. Il est persuadé qu''il s''agit d''une porte donnant accès à cette nouvelle lune. Qui a provoqué tout cela ? Qui vit sur cette planète ? Troisième vie pour Reid Malenfant, troisième réalité possible où l''astronaute passionné fait une rencontre surprenante, bien différente de celle qu''il attendait depuis toujours. " La trilogie Les Univers multiples est l''une des séries majeures du genre. " ActuSF

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...

The multi-award winning Infinity Project undertakes its seventh and final voyage in the imagination of the finest science fiction authors alive… Infinity’s End Humanity has made the universe home. On the outskirts of the solar system, beyond the asteroid fields, deep in space, under the surface of planets, in the ruins of fallen civilisations, in the flush of new creation: life finds a way. From intelligent velociraptors to digital ghosts; from a crèche on an asteroid to an artist using a star system as a canvas, this is a future where Earth’s children have adapted to every nook and cranny of existence. This is life on the edge of the possible. Featuring astonishing tales from Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Naomi Kritzer, Paul McAuley, Seanan McGuire, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Justina Robson, Kelly Robson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lavie Tidhar, Peter Watts, Fran Wilde and Nick Wolven.

Les mots pleuvaient du ciel dans toute la Longue Terre, partout où il y avait des oreilles pour entendre, des yeux pour voir et des esprits pour comprendre. Cinquante-cinq ans après le Jour du Passage, l''Invitation résonne auprès de tous les êtres conscients. Mais qui en est à l''origine ? Faut-il y répondre ? Et comment ? Comment ? Ceux qui se nomment les Suivants déchiffrent sous le message extraterrestre les plans d''une machine à l''échelle d''un continent ; l''élaborer demandera la contribution de tous les peuples de la Longue Terre. Nos vieux amis, eux, ont d''autres soucis en tête. Josué Valienté, plus solitaire que jamais, s''égare dans les Hauts Mégas, où l''aventure tourne au désastre. Nelson Azikiwe se met en quête d''un petit-fils qu''il n''a jamais connu. Maggie Kauffman conduit une mission de sauvetage à deux cents millions de mondes de la Primeterre. Quant à Lobsang l''omniscient, il s''est retiré dans un monastère de l''Himalaya. Et pourtant... Rejoignez-nous Ce cinquième livre clôt la collaboration entre Terry Pratchett et Stephen Baxter, qui les a amenés à concevoir l''univers si singulier de " La Longue Terre ", un univers où seuls la tolérance, le respect d''autrui et la coopération permettent un avenir apaisé. Le nôtre ?

A sequel to the H.G. Wells classic THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, brilliantly realized by award-winning SF author and Wells expert Stephen Baxter It has been fourteen years since the Martian invasion. Humanity has moved on, always watching the skies but confident that we know how to defeat the alien menace. The Martians are vulnerable to Earth germs. The army is prepared. Our technology has taken great leaps forward, thanks to machinery looted from abandoned war-machines and capsules. So when the signs of launches on Mars are seen, there seems little reason to worry. Unless you listen to one man, Walter Jenkins, the narrator of Wells’ book. He is sure that the first incursion was merely a scouting mission, a precursor to the true attack—and that the Martians have learned from their defeat, adapted their methods, and now pose a greater threat than ever before. He is right. Thrust into the chaos of a new worldwide invasion, journalist Julie Elphinstone—sister in law to Walter Jenkins—struggles to survive the war, report on it, and plan a desperate effort that will be humanity’s last chance at survival. Because the massacre of mankind has begun. Echoing the style and form of the original while extrapolating from its events in ingenious, unexpected fashion again and again, The Massacre of Mankind is a labor of love from one of the genre’s most praised talents—at once a truly fitting tribute to a classic and brainy, page-turning fun for any science-fiction fan.

A sequel to Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s Nebula Award–winning novella “A Meeting with Medusa,” this novel continues the thrilling adventure of astronaut Howard Falcon, humanity’s first explorer of Jupiter from two modern science fiction masters. Howard Falcon almost lost his life in an accident as the first human astronaut to explore the atmosphere of Jupiter—and a combination of human ingenuity and technical expertise brought him back. But he is no longer himself. Instead, he has been changed into an augmented human: part man, part machine, and exceptionally capable. With permission from the Clarke Estate, Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds continue this beloved writer’s enduring vision and have created a fresh story for new readers. The Medusa Chronicles charts Falcon’s journey through the centuries granted by his new body, but always back to mysteries of Jupiter and the changing interaction between humanity and the universe. A compelling read full of incredible action right from the beginning, this is a modern classic in the spirit of 2001 and The Martian.

Stephen Baxter''s The Martian in the Wood, a Tor.com Original In the aftermath of the First Martian War, in the interim between it and what was to come later, England seemed to once again become a green and peaceful place, if one haunted by the terrible events in Surrey that had happened in those early years of the century. Although people hoped and prayed peace had come, they were wrong. Across the gulf of space, plans were being drawn for a return, but before they could bear fruit a terrible discovery was made deep in Holmburgh Wood, one that would tear a family apart and shock the world. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Half a million years in the future, on a dead, war-ravaged world at the centre of the Galaxy, there is a mile-high statue of Michael Poole. Poole, born on Earth in the fourth millennium, was one of mankind''s most influential heroes. He was not a warrior, not an emperor. He was an engineer, a builder of wormhole transit systems. But Poole''s work would ultimately lead to a vast and destructive conflict, a million-year war between humanity and the enigmatic, powerful aliens known as the Xeelee. The Xeelee won, but at a huge cost. And, defeated in a greater war, the Xeelee eventually fled the universe. Most of them. A handful were left behind, equipped with time travel capabilities, their task to tidy up: to reorder history more to the Xeelee''s liking. That million-year war with humankind was one blemish. It had to be erased. And in order to do that, a lone Xeelee was sent back in time to remove Michael Poole from history . . .

A remarkable collection of short stories and novellas from one of our greatest SF authors. This collection contains stories set in the worlds of the bestselling duology ULTIMA and PROXIMA, which expand on the characters and worlds of that series, including a brand new never-before-published novella. There are also a selection of alternate histories and possible futures, building on Baxter''s work with Terry Pratchett on the LONG EARTH series. Confirms Stephen Baxter''s place as one of the greatest practitioners of the SF short story.

ONE OF THE BEST SF WRITERS IN THE BUSINESS . . . Manifold: Origin is] filled with marvelous scientific speculations, strange events, novel concepts, and an awe-inspiring sense of the wonders of the universe. -Science Fiction Chronicle In the year 2015, astronaut Reid Malenfant is flying over the African continent, intent on examining a mysterious glowing construct in Earth''s orbit. But when the very fabric of the sky tears open, spilling living creatures to the ground and pulling others inside (including his wife, Emma), Malenfant''s quest to uncover the unknown becomes personal. While desperately searching to discover what happened to the woman he loves, Malenfant embarks upon an adventure to the very fount of human development . . . on earth and beyond.

Return to the eon-spanning and universe-crossing conflict between humanity and the unknowable alien Xeelee in this collection of stories, available in ebook for the first time! Baxter''s future history, known as the Xeelee sequence, is an exemplar of the form: it comprises his first four novels - Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux and Ring - and these marvellous linked stories, as well as those in the new collection XEELEE: ENDURANCE. Contains 21 short stories, all set in the XEELEE universe.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER ''Imaginative, sense-of-wonder at its best . . . thrilling stuff from the masters'' Independent on Sunday ''A thrilling and ceaselessly entertaining ride'' SFX 2040-2045: In the years after a cataclysmic eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But he is not what he seems. For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their ''long childhood'' in a hidden community located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear are causing ''normal'' human society to turn against the Next - and a dramatic showdown seems inevitable . . . ___________________ The Long Mars is the third in the Long Earth series.

The "stepper" enables a person using it to step sideways into another America, another wherever that person happened to be, another Earth. And if the person using it keeps on stepping, they keep on entering even more Earths. This is the Long Earth. And the further away a stepper travels, the stranger - and sometimes more dangerous - the Earths become

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, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

The Long War by legendary author and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and award-winning science fiction novelist Stephen Baxter follows the adventures and travails of heroes Joshua Valiente and Lobsang in an exciting continuation of the extraordinary journey begun in the New York Times bestseller The Long Earth. War has come to the Long Earth.... Humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by stepping, which Joshua and Lobsang explored a mere decade ago. Now "civilization" flourishes, and fleets of airships link the multiple Earths through exploration, trade, and culture. Humankind is shaping the Long Earth, but in turn the Long Earth is shaping humankind. A new America that has christened itself "Valhalla" has emerged more than a million steps from the original Datum Earth. And like the American revolutionaries of old, the Valhallans resent being controlled from afar by the Datum government. In the intervening years, the song of the trolls—graceful, hive-mind humanoids—has suffused the Long Earth. But in the face of humankind''s inexorable advance, they are beginning to fall silent . . . and gradually disappear. Joshua, now married and a father, is summoned by Lobsang. It seems that he alone can confront the perfect storm of crises that threatens to plunge all of the Long Earth into war. A war unlike any that has been waged before... The full list of books in the Long Earth series include: The Long Earth The Long War The Long Mars The Long Utopia The Long Cosmos

Signs of life have been found on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

Star humans were engineered to exist within the mantle of a star, mere tools of their Earth-evolved makers in a war against the Xeelee, owners of the universe. Stephen Baxter''s third novel in his magnificent Xeelee Sequence is an exotic and endearing story of an abandoned people. Abandoned to their fate, their history lost along with contact with their makers, Star people survive in an environment that is possibly the strangest in science fiction. Microscopic inhabitants of superfluid air above a Quantum Sea and below the tangled Crust of the Star, swimming in an electric-blue grid, the Magfield, which is subject to violent storms, Star people struggle, like us, to make sense of their world... and the threat hanging over it. Though the truth is far more disturbing and ominous than they feared, they will confront, finally, their makers, and they will rebel against the purpose for which they were created.

Stephen Baxter''s highly acclaimed first novel and the beginning of his stunning Xeelee Sequence finally enters the SF Masterwork series! A spaceship from Earth accidentally crossed through a hole in space-time to a universe where the force of gravity is one billion times as strong as the gravity we know. Somehow the crew survived, aided by the fact that they emerged into a cloud of gas surrounding a black hole, which provided a breathable atmosphere. Five hundred years later, their descendants still struggle for existence, divided into two main groups. The Miners live on the Belt, a ramshackle ring of dwellings orbiting the core of a dead star, which they excavate for raw materials. These can be traded for food from the Raft, a structure built from the wreckage of the ship, on which a small group of scientists preserve the ancient knowledge which makes survival possible. Rees is a Miner whose curiosity about his world makes him stow away on a flying tree - just one of the many strange local lifeforms - carrying trade between the Belt and the Raft. And what he finds will change his world...

2020. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity, Reid Malenfant ventures to the far edge of the solar system, where he discovers a strange artifact left behind by an alien civilization: A gateway that functions as a kind of quantum transporter, allowing virtually instantaneous travel over the vast distances of interstellar space.