Washoe County Library System

A young apprentice, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, an archivist, and others wrestle with profound questions after their evacuation ship, carrying the last humans on Earth, finally reaches its destination. Return to the sprawling universe of the Galactic Commons, as humans, artificial intelligence, aliens, and some beings yet undiscovered explore what it means to be a community in this exciting third adventure in the acclaimed and multi-award-nominated...

"Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yetlife is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost. Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology--and they've arrived from another world to help humanity's...

On the event of an annual carnival on Neapolis, a desert city on planet Bethel, the crew of Serenity arrives to guard a costly shipment but finds tragedy instead, when the cargo is stolen and Zoë and Book are kidnapped.

Six scientists accept an eccentric billionaire's offer of a lifetime of research on Mars, but the incredible opportunity includes their constant surveillance as a reality tv show broadcasts their every moment as tempers flare, affairs blossom and equipment fails.

"Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny. They must sing. A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented by the remnants of civilization. Something to cheer up everyone who was left. Something to celebrate having escaped total annihilation by the skin of one's teeth, if indeed one has skin. Or teeth. Something to...

Entreated by a gun-wielding woman to rescue her ten-year-old sister from a New Tigris abductor, former government agent Frank Compton turns the woman down only to be implicated in her subsequent murder, a situation that prompts his investigation into the sister's disappearance.

Severian, the Autarch of Urth, leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien Hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test, to become the legendary New Sun or die.

Follows the harrowing experiences of the crew of an Imperial prison barge that scavenges an abandoned Star Destroyer when their own ship breaks down, a mission that kills half of the team while the other half brings back a lethal infection.

The best and brightest minds on Earth are assembled to rendezvous with the massive alien spacecraft Rama II in the twenty-third century, and even though they are schooled in everything known about Raman technology and culture, they are still not prepared for the reality.

"Writing separately, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are responsible for a number of science fiction classics, such as the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ringworld, Debt of Honor, and The Integral Trees. Together they have written the critically acclaimed bestsellers Inferno, Footfall, and The Legacy of Heorot, among others. The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends...