Aurora’s End: The Aurora Cycle

The first modern tale of alien invasion, H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds remains one of the most influential science fiction novels ever published.

The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first, naïve locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag - only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear. The War of the Worlds has been the subject of countless adaptations, including an Orson Welles radio drama which caused mass panic when it was broadcast, with listeners confusing it for a news broadcast heralding alien invasion; a musical version by Jeff Wayne; and, most recently, Steven Spielberg's 2005 film version, starring Tom Cruise.

This Penguin Classics edition includes a full biographical essay on Wells, a further reading list and detailed notes. The introduction, by Brian Aldiss, considers the novel's view of religion and society.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Silence of the Lambs meets Interstellar. The terrifying, thrilling and ingenious science-fiction thriller from Tom Sweterlitsch. Film rights bought by Twentieth Century Fox with Neil Blomkamp ( District 9 , Elysium ) to direct. 'Thrilling . . . [a] dark, page-turning thriller' The Guardian A murdered family. A missing girl. Time is running out... 1997. Shannon Moss of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate the soldier's missing teenage daughter. When Moss discovers that the SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra - a ship assumed lost to the darkest currents of Deep Time - she comes to believe that the SEAL's experience with the future is somehow related to this violence. Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection to her own past, Moss must travel forward in time to seek evidence that will uncover the truth. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work; for what she witnesses is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself. 'Edge-of-your-seat crime fiction that bends both time and mind. Think True Detective meets 12 Monkeys . Throw in the end of the world and you can begin to imagine where this gut-twisting tale will take you. This is cross-genre fiction at its best' Sylvain Neuvel, author of Sleeping Giants

A PERFECT LIFE, IN A PERFECT CITY

For Shion, an elite student in the technologically sophisticated city No. 6, life is carefully choreographed. School, study, and the occasional visit with his friend and classmate Safu. One fateful day, however, he takes a misstep, sheltering an injured boy his age from a typhoon. Known only as Rat, this boy is a VC – a fugitive living outside the computerized tapestry of city control – and helping him will throw Shion’s life into chaos and start him down a path to discovering the appalling secrets behind the superficial perfection of No. 6.