A wildly original alien contact novel, set against a vivid backdrop of near-Earth corporate intrigue. Trillionaire Igbal Renz has constructed a starship capable of making the twenty-year journey to Alpha Centauri. So why is he stopping at barely one-tenth that distance, with a cargo of a hundred frozen scientists and diplomats? Rumors abound that Renz Ventures, Inc., has made contact with . . . something. And yet, as deadly stealth ships prowl the space lanes and as the corporate space race threatens to devolve into outright warfare, the Four Horsemen of space industry are discovering firsthand that even in a limitless and lawless frontier, no one can ever be truly self-sufficient. About the Author Engineer/novelist/journalist/entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon, and Philip K. Dick awards. His short fiction has graced the pages of Analog, Asimov’s, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable Bloom , Amazon.com “Best of Y2K” The Collapsium (a national bestseller), To Crush the Moon , and Antediluvian. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics and founder/president/CTO of Raven Brick LLC, McCarthy hold patents of his own in seven countries, including twenty-nine issued U.S. patents in the field of nanostructured optical materials.

Forty light years from earth, the colonists on the world of Unua have somehow managed to keep civilization struggling on, despite twice daily earthquakes and technology lagging far behind that of the mother planet. But now an Unuan mining expedition has discovered an alien mineral they name centrokrist—a stone of incomparable beauty. Yet when the Earth scientists at last arrive to investigate, they find a phenomenon eclipsing this discovery. For this double-sunned solar system is nestled right next to a black hole, and waiting for them on the verge of the black hole's event horizon is an alien artifact that can't possibly exist!REVIEWS:"Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxy-spanning imagination, and the solid scientific background to make it all work."—Connie Willis"Easily the best book about the implications of relativity since Robert Forward's classic THE DRAGON'S EGG. FLIES FROM THE AMBER has a sense...

** WALDENBOOKS BOOK OF THE WEEK **** LOCUS RECOMMENDED READING LIST **An alien armada from the center of Orion makes its deadly way through the galaxy, destroying all human life in the process, and only Marine Corporal Kenneth Jonson and the Aggressor Six team can stop the onslaught.REVIEWS:"An intense and satisfying novel."—Walter Jon Williams"Wil McCarthy brings thought and insight to the realm of fast-paced, action science fiction. AGGRESSOR SIX is a taut, vivid adventure that never rests. A splendid debut for a bright light on the SF horizon."—David Brin"A fine novel... from a writer who's going to be around for a very long time. This one is a calling card."—Daniel Keys Moran"I enjoyed it... Wil McCarthy is a writer to watch."—Vernor Vinge"A neat, action-filled novel. What starts out like Heinlein ends up looking a lot more like Haldeman. AGGRESSOR SIX is a satisfying debut."—Gary K. Wolfe, Locus"An exciting debut... an exciting start to a promising career."—Fred Cleaver, The...

THE LUNAR MONASTERY TAUGHT PEOPLE HOW TO LIVE IN SPACE . . . AND THEN ONE OF ITS STUDENTS WAS MURDERED Who owns the future? Homicide detective Raimy Vaught is a losing contestant in the biggest reality show ever: the colonization of Mars. Brother Michael is a Benedictine monk who just wants to help the future happen. Andrei Bykhovski is an asteroid miner desperately escaping indentured servitude. Bridget Tobin is a hydroponic farmer studying the greenhouses of Luna. But when a fellow Mars contestant drops dead at a Lunar monastery, these four souls will find themselves on a collision course with forces far beyond the control of trillionaires or nation states. As labor disputes erupt across cislunar space, the actions of individual people will determine whose future will prevail . . . and whose will perish. Praise for Poor Man's Sky : “ Full bore show-your-work SF and a tense lunar mystery! A thrilling read.”—Max Gladstone, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author “Wil McCarthy’s skill at crafting a believable, deeply science-grounded future is on full display. He brings us the mother of all locked-room mysteries wrapped in a vision of lunar colonization that rings a bit more true than we might be comfortable with. Small, gritty moments of inspired futurism pepper Poor Man’s Sky and remind us that no matter where we go, our human nature follows.” —Kimberly Unger, author of The Extractionist and Nucleation About Rich Man's Sky :“Action SF built on a hard foundation of cutting-edge science.”—Walter Jon Williams “An action-crammed story that darts at hyper-speed from Burning Man, Nevada, to Suriname to a convent on the Moon to an orbiting colony that’s clearly up to something. A jam-packed adventure fizzing with mind-blowing concepts, and a great read!”—Connie Willis “A hard science fiction tour de force, populated by memorable characters in a tale of intrigue, adventure, and irresistible market forces.”—Linda Nagata About Antediluvian:“. . . gripping and . . . grounded in archaeology.”— Publishers Weekly “. . . plenty of verisimilitude . . . superbly intriguing and captivating . . . bravura historical recreations, full of conjectural material. . . . Presenting us with a colorful cast of characters from across the millennia who have thick and rich existences, and affirming that the cosmic stream of life flows forcefully despite all small blockades, McCarthy has written a novel that looks both forwards and backwards, thus making a stellar return to the field.”— Locus About Wil McCarthy:“McCarthy is an entertaining, intelligent, amusing writer, with Heinlein’s knack for breakneck plotting and, at the same time, Clarke’s thoughtfulness.”— Booklist “Imagination really is the only limit.”— The New York Times “The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place.”— Publishers Weekly “A bright light on the SF horizon.”—David Brin “Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxy-spanning imagination, and the solid scientific background to make it all work.”—Connie Willis “In nearly every passage, we get another slice of the science of McCarthy’s construction, and a deeper sense of danger and foreboding . . . McCarthy develops considerable tension.”— San Diego Union-Tribune “An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”— Kirkus "McCarthy's writing is prescient and engaging. Always a great read!"—Tim Akers About the Author Engineer/novelist/journalist/entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon, and Philip K. Dick awards. His short fiction has graced the pages of Analog, Asimov’s, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable Bloom , Amazon.com “Best of Y2K” The Collapsium (a national bestseller), To Crush the Moon , and Antediluvian. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics and founder/president/CTO of Raven Brick LLC, McCarthy hold patents of his own in seven countries, including twenty-nine issued U.S. patents in the field of nanostructured optical materials.

*** A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK ***Mycora: technogenic life. Fast-reproducing, fast-mutating, and endlessly voracious. In the year 2106, these microscopic machine/creatures have escaped their creators to populate the inner solar system with a wild, deadly ecology all their own, pushing the tattered remnants of humanity out into the cold and dark of the outer planets. Even huddled beneath the ice of Jupiter's moons, protected by a defensive system known as the Immunity, survivors face the constant risk of mycospores finding their way to the warmth and brightness inside the habitats, resulting in a calamitous "bloom."But the human race still has a trick or two up its sleeves; in a ship specially designed to penetrate the deadly Mycosystem, seven astronauts are about to embark on mankind's boldest venture yet—the perilous journey home to infected Earth!Yet it is in these remote conditions, against a virtually omnipotent foe, that we discover how human nature plays the greatest role...

What if all our legends are true? A rousing, fast-paced novel of time travel unlike any other, from acclaimed author Wil McCarthy.What if our legends are older than we think? All the Stone Age has left behind are rocks and bones; all other materials have rotted away, leaving no trace. But what if “cave men” never existed, and the Stone Age was a time of great sophistication still preserved in our oldest stories? In a brilliant and dangerous brain hacking experiment, Harv Leonel and Tara Mukherjee are about to discover entire lifetimes of human memory coded in our genes, and reveal ancient legends – from knights and trolls, to flood myths, to the birth of humanity itself – that are as real as they are deadly. Before disaster erased the coastlines and river valleys of the Antediluvian age—before the Flood—men and women struggled and yearned and innovated in a world of savage contrasts into which Harv and Tara are thrust, unprepared. Will their science be enough to save them? About Antediluvian: “. . . gripping and. . . grounded in archaeology.”—Publishers Weekly Wil McCarthy: "McCarthy is an entertaining, intelligent, amusing writer, with Heinlein's knack for breakneck plotting and, at the same time, Clarke's thoughtfulness."—Booklist “‘Imagination really is the only limit.’”—The New York Times “The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place.”—Publishers Weekly "A bright light on the SF horizon.”—David Brin “Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxy-spanning imagination, and the solid scientific background to make it all work.”—Connie Willis “In nearly every passage, we get another slice of the science of McCarthy’s construction, and a deeper sense of danger and foreboding... McCarthy develops considerable tension.”—San Diego Union-Tribune “An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”—Kirkus

The sequel to Aggressor Six, one of the major characters is wakened from a two-thousand-year cryostatis, and struggles to come to terms with the changes, including an unthinkable union.See what's happened to the humans and the Waisters now!

A NEW NOVEL OF REAL SF FROM WIL McCARTHYWhen billionaires control the space program, where does that leave the rest of us? Space: a tycoon's playground. From a space station full of women to a monastery on the Moon, from a Martian reality-TV contest to a solar shade large enough to cool the Earth, the dreams of a handful of trillionaires dictate the future of humanity. Outside the reach of Earthly law and with the vast resources of the inner solar system at their disposal, the “Four Horsemen” do exactly as they please. The governments of Earth are not amused; an international team of elite military women, masquerading as space colonists, are set to infiltrate and neutralize the largest and most dangerous project in human history. But nothing is that simple when rich men control the sky, as everyone involved is about to discover. About Rich Man's Sky: "Action SF built on a hard foundation of cutting-edge science."—Walter Jon Williams "An action-crammed story that darts at hyper-speed from Burning Man, Nevada to Suriname to a convent on the Moon to an orbiting colony that’s clearly up to something. A jam-packed adventure fizzing with mind-blowing concepts, and a great read!"—Connie Willis "A hard science fiction tour de force, populated by memorable characters in a tale of intrigue, adventure, and irresistible market forces."—Linda Nagata About Antediluvian: “. . . gripping and . . . grounded in archaeology.”—Publishers Weekly “. . . plenty of verisimilitude . . . superbly intriguing and captivating . . . bravura historical recreations, full of conjectural material. . . . Presenting us with a colorful cast of characters from across the millennia who have thick and rich existences, and affirming that the cosmic stream of life flows forcefully despite all small blockades, McCarthy has written a novel that looks both forwards and backwards, thus making a stellar return to the field.”—Locus About Wil McCarthy: "McCarthy is an entertaining, intelligent, amusing writer, with Heinlein's knack for breakneck plotting and, at the same time, Clarke's thoughtfulness."—Booklist “Imagination really is the only limit.”—The New York Times “The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place.”—Publishers Weekly “A bright light on the SF horizon.”—David Brin “Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxy-spanning imagination, and the solid scientific background to make it all work.”—Connie Willis “In nearly every passage, we get another slice of the science of McCarthy’s construction, and a deeper sense of danger and foreboding . . . McCarthy develops considerable tension.”—San Diego Union-Tribune “An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”—Kirkus

No writer stretches the boundaries of science fiction LIKE Wil McCarthy does. Now this acclaimed author has crafted his most wildly ambitious and stunningly original novel yet, an unforgettable tale set in a wondrous future in which the secrets of matter have been unlocked and death itself is but a memory. A future also imperiled by a bitter rivalry between two brilliant scientists: one perhaps the greatest genius in the history of humankind, the other, its greatest monster . . .In the eighth decade of the glorious reign of Her Majesty Tamra Lutui, the Queendom of Sol enjoys a peace and prosperity even gods might envy. In fact, two awesome technologies have given human beings all the powers--and caprices--of the gods they once worshiped. The first is wellstone, a form of programmable matter capable of emulating almost any substance: natural, artificial, even hypothetical. The second is collapsium, a deadly crystal, composed of miniature black holes, that allows the...