by Gregory Benford (1986)
The discovery of a mysterious artifact in an ancient Greek tomb--an object concealing both the secret of Atlantis and an unimaginable power--leads Americans John and Claire into confrontation with Greek revolutionaries and the U.S. Secret Service.
Joanna Metzger
Selected for "The Space Program," ten-year-old Roger Webb is whisked away to a planet intended as a model society, where members of diverse alien cultures live together in harmony and peace, but he unwittingly becomes a pawn in a plot to overthrow the king.
Jack McDevitt
"In the year 2204, tragedy and terror forced a scientific team to prematurely evacuate the rare, life-supporting planet of Maleiva III. Nineteen years later, it is hurtling through space and the opportunity to study it is about to be obliterated. With less than three weeks left before disaster, superluminal pilot Priscilla 'Hutch' Hutchins - the only even remotely qualified professional within light years of the ill-fated planet - must lead a small scientific team to the surface to glean whatever they can about its life forms ad lost civilizations before time runs out. But catastrophe awaits when they are stranded on the strange and complex world of puzzles and impossibilities. And now Hutch and her people must somehow survive a hostile world going rapidly mad, as the clock ticks toward apocalypse for a doomed enigma now called Deepsix."--Back cover.
Peter F. Hamilton
Lawrence Newton always dreamed of adventure amongst the stars. Now the ultimate prize is within his grasp, but what will he risk to get it? Lawrence is the sergeant of a washed-out platoon, taking part in the bungled invasion of yet another human colony world. The giant corporations call such campaigns 'asset realisation', but in practice it's simple piracy.
Piers Anthony
Arlo is the son of Aton, conqueror and victim of a dreaded Minionette. Arlo has known no world but the cavern-world. When war comes to the caverns he is a confused spectator. Men, women, and other creatures bearing exotic weapons invade. The women fascinate Arlo—they seem disturbingly familiar to him. Well they might. For these beautiful, identical, fiery-haired and smokey-eyed savage warriors are minionettes—figures of terror and dread on all civilized worlds. And they are his kin. Arlo's fate is to battle them and the superintelligence of Chthon at once, to work out a destiny shaped by a god more ancient than mankind—the destiny of the galaxy as well as his own.