The Coming Joe W. Haldeman, 2000

As Earth struggles to cope with the chaotic wake of a nuclear war, astronomy professor Aurora Bell receives a message from space that appears to announce the forthcoming arrival of an extraterrestrial.

Wildside Steven Gould, 1996

A teenager holds the key to a gateway that leads from an overpopulated, polluted Earth to a mysterious parallel planet untainted by humans.

Jed the Dead Alan Dean Foster, 1997

Forging an unlikely friendship with the three-eyed, six-limbed, alien corpse named Jed, Ross Ed Hager journeys with his new companion throughout the world, catching the attention of the government and landing on the Universe's Most Wanted list.

Phobos Ty Drago, 2003

In the wake of the political upheaval that followed his rescue of a Terran official from an extremist plot, Lieutenant Mike Brogue is sent to a small moon of Mars to help discover what has been killing people at the research station.

The Trigger Arthur Charles Clarke, 1999

Early in the 21st century, a group of brilliant, unconventional physicists at a private laboratory-cum-think-tank make a fundamental breakthrough in physics. They discover a wave that will disable or destroy any weapon based on nitrates - which includes virtually anything using modern explosives. The discovery's potential for good and evil is enormous.

Parable of the Sower Octavia Butler, 1993

In California in the year 2025, a small community is overrun by desperate scavengers, as an 18-year-old African American woman sets off on foot on a perilous journey northward.

The Postman David Brin, 1997

After a war destroys an entire nation, a wanderer, who trades stories for nourishment and a place to stay, borrows a jacket from a deceased postal worker and unwittingly is transformed into a symbol of hope that promises to transform a desperate world.

K-PAX Gene Brewer, 2001

When a new patient is brought to a hospital claiming to be an inhabitant of the planet K-PAX, a place of no wars and no crime, a hospital seems to be just the place for him. But how to explain his supernatural powers? Virtually everybody who meets this extraordinarily gentle and empathetic character is changed for the better. Is mad really mad?

Acts of Conscience William Barton, 1997

Space construction worker Gaetan du Cheyne tries to defend the native life forms of Green Heaven from the planet's human colonists, who hunt the creatures for sport or slavery.

Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury, 1990

Diabolical carnival wreaks havoc on the lives of the people of a small Illinois town.