Past Kindle Book Deals but Still Must Read Books!
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128 past books matching First Contact
It fits readers who want science fiction grounded in discovery, speculation, and the uneasy wonder of meeting something truly unknown.
Gold Rush
Sci-Fi · First Contact · Hard Sci-Fi
Our take
What begins as a strange celestial event quickly becomes proof that humanity is not alone. In Gold Rush, astronaut Dice Newman heads toward Venus as two suspicious comets and an incoming alien craft force the world to confront first contact in real time. It fits readers who want science fiction grounded in discovery, speculation, and the uneasy wonder of meeting something truly unknown.
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About the book
Astronomers discover an interstellar comet on a collision course with Venus. Not since Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 struck Jupiter in 1994 has a collision captured the public's imagination, but all is not what it seems. Additional observations reveal a second comet also on a collision course with Venus, sparking speculation about the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement. NASA astronaut Dice Newman is already in space, heading to Venus to observe the impact, when confirmation comes of an alien spacecraft entering the solar system.
"Gold gave birth to cities and cemeteries alike.” —John David Borthwick, California (1854)
FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.
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An abandoned ship promises refuge, but the dead it carries are only the beginning of the danger.
Salvation Day
Sci-Fi · Horror · First Contact · Space Exploration
Our take
An abandoned ship promises refuge, but the dead it carries are only the beginning of the danger. Salvation Day follows a desperate mission to seize a long-lost exploration vessel, only to uncover a buried threat that turns survival into a race against infection, secrecy, and collapse. This is science-fiction horror built on isolation, contagion, and the suffocating tension of waking something that should have stayed dormant.
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About the book
A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller.
They thought the ship would be their salvation.
Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya—the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship.
But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship—a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead.
And then they woke it up.
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Markus is sent to an orbital research station expecting a routine assignment, only to find himself on the front line of a hidden war against an alien force…
Extinction Dream
Horror · Sci-Fi · First Contact
Our take
Markus is sent to an orbital research station expecting a routine assignment, only to find himself on the front line of a hidden war against an alien force that attacks through nightmares. As fear and paranoia take hold, his squad must endure psychological torment, mounting losses, and an enemy they cannot even see. This sci-fi horror centers on isolation, mental unraveling, and the terror of fighting something that turns the mind against itself.
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About the book
A dark, science fiction horror novel featuring a mysterious alien enemy, from bestseller Andrew Najberg.
They prey on our nightmares...
Deployed in orbit to what he first believed to be a simple research station, a soldier named Markus is a member of a squad defending Earth on the front line of a secret war against an alien enemy that attacks telepathically, using our nightmares as weapons. They don’t know what the enemy looks like or even why they are attacking.
What they do know is that Earth is losing.
As they sink further into their deepest terrors, they believe they may finally have the chance to take the fight to their enemy – if the hell they’re living in doesn’t cause them to tear each other apart first.
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A discovery on a remote moon outpost unleashes a shape-shifting alien that can wear human bodies and mimic its victims with terrifying precision.
Parasite
Horror · Sci-Fi · Alien Invasion · First Contact
Our take
A discovery on a remote moon outpost unleashes a shape-shifting alien that can wear human bodies and mimic its victims with terrifying precision. As communication collapses and stations across space are left exposed, a small group of survivors must face a threat that is already spreading faster than anyone can contain it. This sci-fi horror delivers isolation, paranoia, and a fast-moving extinction-level nightmare.
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About the book
When a guard discovers an unusual lifeform on her remote moon outpost, she disregards protocol to investigate―with catastrophic consequences. It soon becomes clear she's stuck in isolation with an alien capable of incredible depravity. The parasite wears its victims' skins and adopts their personalities. It mimics the way they talk, the way they look, the way they act. It's the perfect disguise.
And by the time humanity realizes it's facing extinction, it's already too late.
As the alien's ruthless progress collapses communication networks, wipes out defenses, and leaves hundreds of stations to fend for themselves, a handful of remarkable individuals must find a way to battle the greatest threat the universe has ever encountered... or die trying.
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Finding a new planet to colonize is supposed to feel like humanity finally getting a win.
Dark Sands
Sci-Fi · First Contact · Space Exploration
Our take
Finding a new planet to colonize is supposed to feel like humanity finally getting a win. Then night falls and DARK SANDS makes it very clear that Cahros has other plans. What starts as a hopeful expedition into a seemingly lifeless desert turns into a fight for survival against whatever is hiding beneath all that orange sand. Tense, eerie, and full of creeping danger, this is sci-fi horror that knows barren planets are never actually empty.
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About the book
DARK SANDS is a finalist for the 2025 Aurealis Awards Best Science Fiction Novel - Australia's most prestigious speculative fiction literary award!
Humanity has spent years surveying the depths of space, searching for another planet like Earth.
In Cahros, they might have found one.
Among the first wave of specialists deployed to the planet is Tarlo, a young and optimistic biologist who has spent his life dreaming of adventure among the stars. For all his excitement, he feels a little out of his depth – everyone around him seems so much smarter, stronger, and better equipped to deal with whatever challenges may lie ahead.
The team finally sets down on Cahros, but is surprised to learn that the planet is home only to a barren, lifeless desert. All is quiet.
That is, until night falls.
A nightmarish series of events leave Tarlo and the remaining colonists struggling to survive in a world that is so much more than a benign sea of orange. Here on Cahros, nothing is as it seems, and deep within these endless deserts lie untold, deadly secrets.
There’s something out there… in the sands…
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Getting called back to space after your career already imploded is bad enough.
The Last Astronaut
Sci-Fi · First Contact · Hard Sci-Fi · Space Exploration
Our take
Getting called back to space after your career already imploded is bad enough. Finding out the alien object heading toward Earth has no interest in playing nice makes it so much worse. The Last Astronaut throws a disgraced former NASA commander into a tense first-contact mission that quickly turns into a fight for survival. Fast, eerie, and packed with dread, this is sci-fi horror with real momentum.
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About the book
Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2020!
"A terrifying tour de force." --James Rollins
"Readers will be riveted." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Sally Jansen was NASA's leading astronaut, until a mission to Mars ended in disaster. Haunted by her failure, she lives in quiet anonymity, convinced her days in space are over.
She's wrong.
A large alien object has entered the solar system on a straight course toward Earth. It has made no attempt to communicate. Out of time and out of options, NASA turns to Jansen.
But as the object reveals its secrets, Jansen and her crew find themselves in a desperate struggle for survival -- against the cold vacuum of space, and something far, far worse...
"Breathless, compulsive reading." --Christopher Golden
"A suspenseful, fast-paced story of first contact." --Kirkus
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Making first contact was supposed to mean discovery, not absolute disaster.
Xeno
Horror · Sci-Fi · Cosmic Horror · Creature Feature · Eldritch Horror · First Contact
Our take
Making first contact was supposed to mean discovery, not absolute disaster. Xeno traps a tiny crew aboard a colony ship with an ancient alien force that should have stayed lost in space, turning a routine journey into a full-blown nightmare. Dark, brutal, and built on rising dread, this is space horror that goes straight for the throat.
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About the book
A terrifying descent into space horror.
Sometimes in space you wake to a nightmare.
The huge spaceship the Xeno is en route to a new world light years from Earth, its payload of more than 50,000 cryogenically frozen colonists watched over by a supercomputer and a skeleton crew of only a dozen people.
When the ship comes into contact with a seemingly inert alien artefact drifting in space, the crew believes they've made a momentous discovery for all humankind. They’re unaware it’s the eve of true horror.
Soon it becomes clear the crew have unwittingly woken an evil so ancient and so powerful it threatens not only the ship and its slumbering passengers, but the future of the human race itself.
Recommended for mature readers due to graphic language, violence and sexual content.
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Earth’s leading scientists travel to Xica, an alien world with an advanced civilization, where their discoveries reveal wonders that could threaten humanity’s survival, with a 3.9-star average from…
Life Form
Sci-Fi · Alien Invasion · First Contact · Space Exploration
Our take
Earth’s leading scientists travel to Xica, an alien world with an advanced civilization, where their discoveries reveal wonders that could threaten humanity’s survival, with a 3.9-star average from more than 30 Goodreads ratings. Ideal for science fiction readers interested in alien civilizations, planetary exploration, and dangerous first contact.
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About the book
Humanity makes first—and possibly last—contact with an alien species in this sci-fi adventure from the New York Times–bestselling author of the Humanx Commonwealth series.
Earth's most elite team of scientists has made an astonishing discovery. Far from our solar system is the life-sustaining planet Xica, home of an advanced intelligent species who have created a human-like civilization.
Invited to visit, the scientists explore a world of miraculous wonders that defies the very laws of nature as they know it. But Xica's secrets may threaten not only their lives but the lives of everyone on Earth . . .
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This fits sci-fi readers who want big ideas, layered worldbuilding, alien politics, and the kind of space opera that refuses to think small.
The Uplift Storm Trilogy
Sci-Fi · First Contact · Hard Sci-Fi
Our take
A hidden refuge planet. A fugitive Earthship crewed by humans and dolphins. Multiple alien races one disaster away from total collapse. The Uplift Storm Trilogy throws together exile, pursuit, prophecy, and interstellar conflict on a scale that feels gloriously old-school and wildly ambitious. Across Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, and Heaven’s Reach, David Brin builds a sprawling saga about survival, uneasy alliances, and secrets big enough to put the whole universe in play. This fits sci-fi readers who want big ideas, layered worldbuilding, alien politics, and the kind of space opera that refuses to think small.
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About the book
The Hugo and Nebula award-winning author's complete second Uplift Saga trilogy, featuring a refugee planet, a fugitive Earth ship, and her dolphin/human crew.
New York Times–Bestselling Author
Brightness Reef: Six outcast races hunker down on the off-limits planet Jijo when a mysterious starship lands. However, it doesn't bring the "law" they feared, but something worse—a dark secret the invaders will do anything to keep . . .
Infinity's Shore: Earthship Streaker, with its dolphin and human crew, has been on the run for three years after discovering a derelict armada whose mere existence seems to drive the Five Galaxies mad. With Earth under siege and nowhere to turn, Streaker has come to far-off, isolated Jijo in search of sanctuary amid its population of secret refugees. Unfortunately, they've been followed . . .
Heaven's Reach: With the arrival of deadly enemies, the peaceful isolation of Jijo's six exile races has ended. While the races join forces to fight invaders, the Earthship Streaker must lure other foes into weird layers of the unknown. Meanwhile, a dire prophecy may put the entire universe at risk . . .
Praise for the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Uplift Saga
"An extraordinary achievement." —SFWA Grand Master Poul Anderson on Startide Rising
"An exhilarating read that encompasses everything from breathless action to finely drawn moments of quiet intimacy." —Locus on The Uplift War
"A timely, science fictional contemplation of the refugee experience."—Santa Fe Reporter on Brightness Reef
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Ideal for readers looking for large-scale space opera with alien civilizations, mysterious origins, and an immense starship at its center.
Marrow
Sci-Fi · First Contact · Hard Sci-Fi · Space Exploration · Space Opera
Our take
Called “an exhilarating ride” by The New York Times Book Review, Marrow follows the near-immortal crew of an enormous starship as they discover a hidden planet at its center and send their best captains to investigate. Trapped on Marrow, the team must build a new civilization and seek a way back, with a 4.3-star rating from more than 400 Amazon reviewers. Ideal for readers looking for large-scale space opera with alien civilizations, mysterious origins, and an immense starship at its center.
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About the book
The Ship has traveled the universe for longer than any of the near-immortal crew can recall, its true purpose and origins unknown. It is larger than many planets, housing thousands of alien races and just as many secrets.
Now one of those secrets has been discovered: at the center of the Ship is . . . a planet. Marrow. But when a team of the Ship's best and brightest are sent down to investigate, will they return with the origins of the Ship--or will they bring doom to everyone on board?
Robert Reed, whose fantastic stories have been filling all the major SF magazines for the past several years, spins a captivating tale of adventure and wonder on an incredible scale in this novel based on his acclaimed novella.
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When humanity vanishes overnight, those left behind must build meaning from silence.
A Choice of Gods
Dystopian · First Contact
Our take
When humanity vanishes overnight, those left behind must build meaning from silence. In A Choice of Gods, a small group of humans and their devoted robots evolve into a tranquil, near-immortal society on an abandoned Earth. But the sudden return of a long-lost explorer brings revelations about where everyone went and whether the fragile peace of this pastoral future can survive their possible return.
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About the book
A handful of humans and a multitude of robots create a new society on an abandoned Earth in this novel by the Nebula Award–winning author of Way Station.
What if you woke up one morning on Earth . . . and no one else was there?
That is the reality that greeted a handful of humans, including Jason Whitney, his wife Martha, and the remnants of a tribe of Native Americans in the year 2135. Their inexplicable abandonment had unexpected benefits: the eventual development of mental telepathy and other extrasensory powers, inner peace, and best of all, near-immortality.
Now, five thousand years later, most of the remaining humans live a tranquil, pastoral life, leaving technological and religious exploration to the masses of robot servants who no longer have humans to serve. But the unexpected reappearance of Jason's brother, who had teleported to the stars many years before, threatens to change everything yet again—for John Whitney is the bearer of startling information about where Earth's population went and why—and the most disturbing news of all: They may finally be coming home again.
Nominated for the Hugo Award when it was originally published, Clifford D. Simak's brilliant and thought-provoking A Choice of Gods has lost nothing of its power to astonish and intrigue. A masterwork of speculative fiction, intelligent and ingenious, it is classic Simak, standing tall among the very best science fiction that has ever been written.
The third author to be honored as a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), Clifford D. Simak also received three Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, an International Fantasy Award, and a Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award.
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An object waits beyond the edge of the solar system, silent and deliberate.
Artifact
Sci-Fi · First Contact · Military Sci-Fi
Our take
An object waits beyond the edge of the solar system, silent and deliberate. The newly commissioned S.D.F. Jericho receives orders to retrieve the mysterious artifact drifting past Saturn, venturing farther than any fleet ship before it. As Captain Zeke Darius and his battle-hardened crew confront the unknown, Artifact launches a military science fiction series driven by first contact tension and high-stakes discovery.
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About the book
There’s something out there. We’ve known about it for a long time. No one knows where it came from or who sent it. But one thing is certain: it wants us to find it.
The S.D.F. Jericho is a new ship, built from a new design, with a single purpose — to retrieve the artifact. She’s still in the early stages of shakedown cruise when the call comes in. The artifact is at the far end of the solar system beyond Saturn’s orbit. Only one ship has ever been built to travel that far, and once they pass Jupiter, they will be completely on their own.
Like every Fleet vessel, the Jericho has a platoon of Space Marines. They are all combat veterans, special forces, and Black Ops commandos. The Senior NCO, Master Sergeant Steel, is fresh from winning the Medal of Honor, but nothing in their training or experience has prepared them for what’s to come.
Join the crew of the Jericho, led by Captain Zeke Darius, as they go on a mission that will change the course of human history forever. Artifact is the first book in a new military sci-fi series by master storyteller Toby Neighbors. Told from the point of view of the characters on the ship and full of action, Artifact will take your imagination to a place it has never gone before. Prepare yourself for an epic series that will instantly become one of your favorites. Artifact (Starship Jericho Book 1) is an all-out thrill ride that will keep you turning pages and leave you anxious for more.
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