The riveting and deeply immersive first installment in a new military sci-fi series--pitting amortal humans against a mystifying alien intelligence in a galaxy-spanning conflict--from New York Times bestselling author Ian Douglas.
Centuries in the future, the Galactic Authority reigns over millions of advanced civilizations throughout the cosmos. From deep within the Galactic Core, the Authority's principal Mind has won the allegiance of myriad nations, offering security, connection, and access to a network of interstellar Gates in exchange for compliance.
While technological advancement has brought interstellar travel and life-extending procedures to Earth, humans are struggling to maintain their sovereignty and cultural identity. The Galactic Authority's presence and technological prowess looms large, eliciting both awe and apprehension from a human society that finds itself at a crossroads: yield to the allure of advanced alien technologies, or preserve their autonomy in an increasingly fractious cosmic landscape.
Naval captain Alexandra Morrigan has little trust for the Authority, and by all accounts, war is brewing. When the extrasolar colony at Sirius goes silent, suspicions arise that Galactic forces or their proxies are pressuring humankind into submission. To preserve any hope of Earth's future, Morrigan and the forces she commands will do the unthinkable: travel through the Abyss gate, and make one last stand against the Galactic forces, whose powers may defy comprehension.
Center of Gravity is the second book in the explosive Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas--and a breathtaking new high in military sf, the strongest of the science fiction subgenres. Battlestar Galactica fans will adore this saga of ultimate war in deep space, as humankind risks its very future, battling a vast alien evil empire in order to achieve transcendence and become a major power in the universe. Douglas's Center of Gravity belongs on every action-lover's sf bookshelf--right between Joe Haldeman's The Forever War and Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
In the vein of the hit television show Battlestar Galactica comes Earth Strike--the first book in the action-packed Star Carrier science fiction series by Ian Douglas, author of the popular Inheritance, Heritage, and Legacy Trilogies and one of the most adept writers of military sf working today. Earth Strike rockets readers into a vast and deadly intergalactic battle, as humankind attempts to bring down an evil empire and establish itself as the new major power. Fans of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, welcome aboard the Star Carrier!
With the planet's fighting men and women deployed across the galaxy--battling in the noble cause of enslaved humanity--the insidious Xul have reached across space to devastate the unsuspecting Earth with asteroid fire. Without warning, a once majestic world is reduced to near-rubble--and the very future of humankind is in dire jeopardy.
Interplanetary leaders are on the brink of abandoning Earth and its colonies to an overwhelming enemy. But Brigadier General Garroway of the Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Unit is unwilling to concede defeat--not as long as there's a single marine willing to give his or her life in defense of their embattled homeworld. The ultimate battle is about to be waged--with breathtaking new attack technology, an ancient code of courage, and the help of an ally race that once inhabited the Earth--in a war that will alter the universe forever . . .
The fourth book in the popular Star Carrier science fiction series, Deep Space by Ian Douglas is an action-packed tale of humankind's struggle to bring down an evil empire that spans the universe.
Twenty years after the fragile truce with the Sh'daar, Koenig is now President of the USNA, and Gray is skipper of the CVS America... soon to be promoted to commander of the entire battle group, Koenig's old position, and one which he might not be ready for. The truce with the alien Sh'daar is unraveling as many predicted, and Humankind still knows little about them, or what they are.
The Year is 2040.
The Marines have landed on Mars to guard the unearthed secrets of an ancient and dangerous alien race: Ourselves.
Scientists have discovered something astonishing in the subterranean ruins of a sprawling Martian city: startling evidence of an alternative history that threatens to split humanity into opposing factions and plunge the Earth into chaos and war. The USMC -- a branch of a military considered, until just recently, to be obsolete -- has dispatched the Marine Mars Expeditionary Force, a thirty-man weapons platoon, to the Red Planet to protect American civilians and interest with lethal force if necessary.
Because great powers are willing to devastate a world in order to keep an ancient secret buried. Because something that was hidden in the Martian dust for half a million years has just been unearthed . . . something that calls into question every belief that forms the delicate foundation of civilization . . . Something inexplicably human.
Planet by planet, galaxy by galaxy, the inhabited universe has fallen to the alien Xul.
Now only one obstacle stands between them and total domination: the warriors of a resilient race the world-devourers nearly annihilated centuries ago . . .
A power vast, ancient, and terrifying, the mighty Xul have lost track of the insignificant humans hundreds of years after devastating their home world--which has enabled the United Star Marines to operate unnoticed and unhindered. A near-autonomous intergalactic policing force, they battle in defense of an Earth they may not live to see again. Now, following the trail of a vanished twenty-fourth-century transport, they are journeying through an unexplored stargate to the edge of an unknown galaxy many light years from their sun. For the last, best, and only chance to defeat the tyrants of the universe may at long last be at hand . . .
War is forever
The people on Earth no longer remember how the human race was nearly obliterated centuries earlier during the terror visited upon them by the merciless Xul. But the Star Marines, thirty thousand light years from home, know all too well the horror that still lives.
In the year 2886, in the midst of the intergalactic war that has been raging nonstop for nearly a decade, the unthinkable has occurred. Intelligence has located the gargantuan hidden homeworld of humankind's dedicated foe, the brutal, unstoppable Xul. The time has come for the courageous men and women of the 1st Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Force to strike the killing blow. But misguided politics on an Earth that no longer supports their mission could prove the Marine's greatest enemy--as they plunge bravely into the maelstrom of conflict . . . and into the heart of a million-year-old mystery.
The revelations on Mars -- a half-million year-old legacy of the vanished star-traveling Builders -- have fed the flames of catastrophic war. A beleaguered United States and its Russian and Japanese allies struggle to hold their own against the indomitable forces of the enemy United Nations. The bloody conflict that has swept over the home planet now rages across the blackness of space -- with the U.S. Marine Corps in the vanguard, leading the charge as always.
But Mars is not the sole repository of alien wonders. The Earth's moon hides unsettling mysteries of its own-and dangerous secrets pointing toward an unstoppable threat advancing from somewhere beyond the solar system. And as scientists on both sides ract to utilize technology they have only barely begun to comprehend, the UN makes the opening move in a gambit that could end the hostilities quickly and decisively by bringing about the death of millions...without the aid of alien-inspired weaponry.
A bad situation worsens by the nanosecond. And that means it's time to call in the Marines -- to make a life or death stand on the gray shores of Luna.
When called to do battle many light years from home, the 1st Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Unit rose to the challenge -- and now thousands of enslaved humans have been freed from the alien yoke. But Earth is twenty-one years older than the home planet they originally left, and the Marines need time to retrain and readjust -- time they do not have, due to the bizzare disappearance of a detachment of their brothers- and sisters-in-arms. It is a mystery, but there is a starting point: an ancient wormhole threading through the Sirius system. Whatever waits on the other side must be confronted, with stealth, with force, and without fear -- be it an ancient enemy or a devastating new threat.
The Marines are heading into the perilous unknown . . . and what transpires there could reshape the universe for millennia to come.
In the future,
earth's warriors have
conquered the heavens.
But on a distant world,
Humanity is in chains ...
Many millennia ago, the human race was enslaved by the An -- a fearsome alien people whose cruel empire once spanned the galaxies, until they were defeated and consigned to oblivion. But a research mission to the planet Ishtar has made a terrifying -- and fatal -- discovery: the Ahanu, ancestors of the former masters, live on, far from the reach of Earth -- born weapons and technology ... and tens of thousands of captive human souls still bow to their iron will. Now Earth's Interstellar Marine Expeditionary Unit must undertake a rescue operation as improbable as it is essential to humankind's future, embarking on a ten-year voyage to a hostile world to face an entrenched enemy driven by dreams of past glory and intent once more on domination. For those who, for countless generations, have known nothing but toil and subjugation must be granted, at all costs, the precious gift entitled to all of their star-traveling kind: freedom!
An enemy might just have to become an ally . . . in order to save humankind
The United States of North America is now engaged in a civil war with the Earth Confederation, which wants to yield to the demands of the alien Sh'daar, limit human technology, and become a part of the Sh'daar Galactic Collective. USNA President Koenig believes that surrendering to the Sh'daar will ultimately doom humankind.
But when highly advanced, seemingly godlike aliens appear through an artificial wormhole in the Omega Centauri Cluster 16,000 light years from Earth, President Koenig is faced with a tremendous choice: continue fighting the Sh'daar . . . or ally with them against the newcomers in a final war that will settle the fate of more than one universe.
The last installment in the Star Carrier series, where first contact, space opera, and military adventure combine, from New York Times bestselling author Ian Douglas
Will this be the end?
Or a new beginning...
Having battled aliens to prove humanity's worth as a star-faring species, Admiral Trevor Gray has a new mission: follow the directives of the super-AI Konstantin and lead the star carrier America on a mission through time and space to determine if humanity can truly transcend into Singularity... and avoid the pitfalls that have plagued so many of the aliens Earth has encountered since it gained faster-than-light travel.
But there are those out there who don't want an answer, who wish to maintain their own power with the status quo. Beyond the dangers of star travel, Gray must contend with politicians looking to end the influence of artificial intelligence on human decisions, a secret fleet out to destroy him, hostile aliens, and the vast, uncharted space full of clues but short on answers.
A species must evolve to survive into the future. But that species must have a vision of the future. Gray hopes to find that vision for humanity...800,000 years in the past.
Twisting and turning its way through great cities and towns is the eternal navigation: a network of canals that fed the industrial growth of our country.
Nowadays we might consider our waterways a place to find peace and relaxation, but under that tranquil surface hides a turbulent past.
Storyteller and narrowboat dweller Ian Douglas has salvaged a wealth of stories from the depths. Murder and mystery, heroes and love, devils and oatcakes are all wrapped up in this wonderful book - but beware ... you will never see the towpath in the same way again!
Scotland of Clan Douglas explores the architectural heritage of the Douglases, the castles and religious sites that are part of the clan's history.
So take a journey through the buildings the Douglases left behind. Castles and other buildings are physical evidence of the past and can help to bring the past to life. As one of the greatest dynasties in medieval Scotland, the Douglases had many castles and supported many religious sites. Visiting them is an adventure and pleasure for anyone interested in Douglas or medieval Scottish history.
The current book incorporates and greatly extends the material in Part 2 of the author's book, Clan Douglas from Warriors to Dukes. It is extensively illustrated with colour photos and aerial images, showing the buildings in their environment and in context.