Firestar

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Robert J. Sawyer

"Robert J. Sawyer, the author of such "revelatory and thought-provoking"* novels as Triggers and The WWW Trilogy, presents a noir mystery expanded from his Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novella "Identity Theft" and his Aurora Award-winning short story "Biding Time," and set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper ... Alex Lomax is the one and only private eye working the mean streets of New Klondike, the Martian frontier town that sprang up forty years ago after Simon Weingarten and Denny O'Reilly discovered fossils on the Red Planet. Back on Earth, where anything can be synthesized, the remains of alien life are the most valuable of all collectibles, so shiploads of desperate treasure hunters stampeded to Mars in the Great Martian Fossil Rush. Trying to make an honest buck in a dishonest world, Lomax tracks down killers and kidnappers among the failed prospectors, corrupt cops, and a growing population of transfers--lucky stiffs who, after striking paleontological gold, upload their minds into immortal android bodies. But when he uncovers clues to solving the decades-old murders of Weingarten and O'Reilly, along with a journal that may lead to their legendary mother lode of Martian fossils, God only knows what he'll dig up ... "The Globe and Mail."

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Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels

As a small child, Jules Bashir underwent illegal genetic enhancements that forever altered the natural course of his life. As an adult, ever since the day he discovered what his parents had done, Dr. Julian Bashir has wondered what he might have become if "Jules" had been allowed to live, certain he would never know the answer. But when the lure of a strange alien artifact in the Gamma Quadrant inexplicably begins to reverse Bashir's enhancements, the person he had thought long dead is given a second chance at life. Ninety thousand light-years away, as the crew of Deep Space 9 ™ tries to comprehend a shocking tragedy, Ro Laren makes a fateful decision about her life aboard the station. And although political maneuverings and failing diplomacy have already extinguished all hope of a real, lasting peace between Bajor and Cardassia, one man's search for his true calling may lay a new foundation for the future.

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[by] Clifford D. Simak

Coming from the future, our children's children walked through holes in the air. The holes were time tunnels and down them were fleeing our after-generations, escaping from an invasion of intelligent yet murderously savage aliens.

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Victor Appleton II [pseudonym

A solution to the prohibitive cost of producing vehicles for further space explorations is Tom Swift Jr.'s new goal. But the success of the young scientist-inventor's project is threatened by the wily Li Ching, a renegade scientist. Banished from his native land because of rebellious acts, Li Ching is now the leader of a ruthless group intent on pirating scientific secrets. But Li Ching and his nefarious confederates are only partially responsible for Tom's troubles. Olin Whaley, an unscrupulous international criminal, proves to be a second formidable obstacle. Despite the ever-present threats of sabotage and piracy, Tom and his friend Bud Barclay are soon taking Tom's latest invention, the Space Kite -- a two-man craft for training future space pilots -- on its test flight. The experiment turns into a harrowing experience when the boys are nearly marooned in outer space. Undaunted by the failure of the Space Kite, Tom quickly discovers the defect and decides to build a larger craft, the Cosmic Sailer. Certain that he has found the key to economical space explorations, the young inventor still has to conquer the sinister forces working against him. How Tom and the Cosmic Astronauts meet this challenge will keep the reader taut with suspense.