The Chaos Chronicles

When John Bandicut encounters an alien intelligence on Neptune’s moon Triton, his life changes irrevocably. Urged by the alien quarx now sharing his mind, he accepts an audacious mission—to steal a ship and hurtle across the solar system in a desperate bid for Earth’s survival. Book 1 of The Chaos Chronicles, by the Nebula-nominated author of Eternity’s End—with an Afterword by the author.

Appeared in print from Tor Books.  DRM-free ebook edition.

REVIEWS:

One of the best SF novels of the year — Science Fiction Chronicle

“Masterfully captures the joy of exploration.” — Publishers Weekly

“One of the very best things Carver has written, a traditional adventure filled with mystery and wonder and featuring a likable and believable protagonist thrust onto a stage for which he is ill prepared.” — Science Fiction Chronicle

“Jeff Carver is a hard sf writer who gets it right—his science and his people are equally convincing. Neptune Crossing combines his strengths, from a chilling look at alien machine intelligence, to cutting-edge chaos theory, to the pangs of finite humans in the face of the infinite. If you like intriguing ideas delivered in an exciting plot, this is your meat.” —Gregory Benford, author of the Galactic Center series

“A complex and believable protagonist—an ordinary man rising to extraordinary circumstances—and an alien presence that is at once convincingly strange and deeply real. I’m really glad to have read this one.” —Melissa Scott, author of Dreamships and Trouble and Her Friends

“A roaring, cross-the-solar-system adventure of the first water. The kind of stuff that made us all love science fiction.” —Jack McDevitt, author of Seeker and Chindi

“With works such as The Infinity Link... and his popular Star Rigger novels, Carver won acclaim as a master craftsman of compelling hard science fiction. This captivating opener to a new series incorporating the emerging science of chaos theory should keep that reputation flourishing... Carver has created yet another electrifying scenario as well as a winning combination in Bandicut and the sometimes vulnerable yet superintelligent quarx. First-rate entertainment.” — Booklist

For John Bandicut, Earth is but a memory. Stranded at the edge of the galaxy in a structure populated with beings from a thousand worlds, Bandicut finds unexpected friends—only to be caught up in a cascade of forces that threaten the Shipworld itself. Confronting an entity known as the boojum, Bandicut discovers greater peril than ever in his journey into the unknown.

Volume 2 of The Chaos Chronicles, from the Nebula-nominated author of Eternity’s End. Original print publication by Tor Books.

REVIEWS:

“A dazzling, thrilling, innovative space opera…probably Carver’s best effort to date.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An irresistibly readable story line reinforced by fascinating speculative science. Readers who come this far will be hooked for the series’ duration.” —Booklist

“Carver’s latest novel showcases his own fertile imagination and his talent for creating a host of engagingly sympathetic characters.” —Library Journal

“Carver is at his rousing best in this wild ride into the heart of an enigmatic world beyond the Milky Way. This is science fiction out at the frontier. Maybe beyond the frontier.” —Jack McDevitt

Flung to an alien ocean world, John Bandicut and his companions find themselves plunged into the deep-sea realm of the Neri. What will they find in the Neri’s failing undersea city, or in the terrifying object of the deep abyss? Book 3 of The Chaos Chronicles continues the hard-SF saga inspired by chaos theory–with an all-new Afterword by the Nebula-nominated author of Eternity’s End.

Print publication by Tor Books.

REVIEWS:

“Another splendid adventure, with intriguing puzzles, first-rate problem-solving, and an impressive array of alien characters, motives, and methods.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An absolutely terrific book. Carver is heir apparent to Larry Niven as the king of hard SF: his stories revolve around ideas that are every bit as big as Niven’s, and his aliens are every bit as fascinating. Chaos theory says outcomes are unpredictable, but here’s one that’s a sure thing: if you start reading The Infinite Sea, you won’t be able to put it down until the very last page.” —Robert J. Sawyer

Carver scores again. Gives us mystery, high adventure, and the sense of wonder in the grand old tradition. —Jack McDevitt, author of Seeker and Chindi

John Bandicut and his companions are summoned to a star-cloud called Starmaker, known to humans as the Orion Nebula, to discover what force threatens newborn stars—and possibly every world within a thousand light-years. Their journey takes them not just into the perils of a stellar nursery, but into confrontation with the Mindaru, a billion-year-old AI and adversary of life as they know it. The task is daunting. But with the aid of Deep and Dark, sentient clouds who are perhaps the strangest beings they have met yet in their exceedingly strange journey, there may be hope.

Back on Triton, Julie Stone—briefly Bandicut’s lover before he was transported away to a new life at the edge of the galaxy—encounters the enigmatic translator, the alien entity that first drew Bandicut into his extraordinary adventures. Julie must face her own life-or-death decision in defense of the Earth—while for Bandicut and company, whatever chance they have of stopping the terrifying Mindaru will be found only in the fiery heart of an intelligent sun.

Sunborn continues the harrowing journey through the tumultuous worlds of The Chaos Chronicles, from the Nebula-nominated author of Eternity’s End.

REVIEWS:

“Leaps quite madly from pot to kettle to frying pan to fire. The pace never lets up...[a] remarkably expansive vision.” —Analog

“Carver gives us the ultimate cosmic aliens while juggling stars and supernovas. Dazzling.” —Jack McDevitt, author of Seeker and Chindi

“Carver’s latest addition to The Chaos Chronicles... ensures his place among the most inventive of contemporary authors of hard sf and speculative theory. Filled with startling ideas and ingenious plot twists, this sf adventure (along with its series predecessors) belongs in most sf collections. —Library Journal

 “Carver does his usual outstanding job of juggling multiple viewpoints and plot threads while casting his protagonists’ adventures against a sweeping, intergalactic backdrop. Yet Bandicut’s story is ultimately a very human one about determination, seat-of-the-pants ingenuity, and courage in the face of overwhelming danger.” —Booklist

But beauty turns deadly when an ancient AI bent on destruction

uses it to travel uptime, to humanity's future.

The Mindaru are dead. Or so exiled-Earthman John Bandicut and his alien companions believe, when they return to Shipworld after saving the Orion Nebula and countless inhabited worlds. But now another horde from this ancient and malicious AI colony is swarming toward the present from its birthplace deep in the past. Their opening: a temporal disturbance in the starstream, a hyperspatial thoroughfare used by myriad civilizations. The disturbance emanates from the planetary defenses of nearby Karellia, whose people know nothing of the starstream or the galaxy-threatening Mindaru.

Only Bandicut and his friends have the knowledge and experience to act. But several of Bandicut’s company have gone missing. Bandicut and Li-Jared must team with the pandimensional Ruall and her gokat—the oddest aliens Bandicut has met since the shadow-people—and journey to Karellia to find a way to cut off the timestream.

Separated from the others, Ik meets another human of Earth—a former lover of Bandicut’s!—and embarks with her on a perilous mission far back into deep time, seeking a way to stop the Mindaru at their source. They must thread a maze of impossible decisions. Can they tap the wisdom of the alien yaantel, known to the humans as the translator, to help them through?

The Chaos Chronicles returns at last in The Reefs of Time, part one of a heartstopping, two-part adventure. Concluded in Crucible of Time—coming in September!

The story begun in The Reefs of Time continues. The time-tides caused by Karellia’s defenses have brought the malicious Mindaru AI out of the deep past into the present, threatening Bandicut and Li-Jared, who have arrived at the backwater planet—Li-Jared’s homeworld—to find it on the brink of interplanetary war. Somehow they must forge a peace between Karellia and its neighboring world if the Mindaru threat is to be broken.

Back on Shipworld, Ik and Julie Stone risk their lives a second time to stop the Mindaru at their source: a planet near the galactic core, a billion years in the past. Can Antares, the beautiful humanoid who also loves Bandicut, help them? What of Bria the gokat? And Amaduse, the most influential librarian in Shipworld?

And in the deep time of the galaxy’s early history, by the light of a million suns, the Mindaru do hideous things to an innocent species. The Mindaru plan for the altered creatures bears momentous possibilities even the deadly AI cannot predict.

Time is critical. Time is elastic. And time is running out.

Conclusion of the unmissable two-part “Out of Time” sequence begun in The Reefs of Time, from Jeffrey A. Carver, Nebula-nominated author of Eternity's End.

PRAISE FOR THE REEFS OF TIME / CRUCIBLE OF TIME:

“Classic science fiction with engaging characters and richly imagined worlds!” —Greg Bear; author of The Unfinished Land and The War Dogs Trilogy

“Jeffrey A. Carver’s remarkable long-awaited duology The Reefs of Time / Crucible of Time is a welcome addition to The Chaos Chronicles, certifying his continuing mastery of action and adventure at the boundaries of space opera and hard SF.” —Steve Miller, co-author of The Liaden Universe

PRAISE FOR THE CHAOS CHRONICLES:

“Carver does his usual outstanding job of juggling multiple viewpoints and plot threads while casting his protagonists’ adventures against a sweeping, intergalactic backdrop. Yet Bandicut’s story is ultimately a very human one about determination, seat-of-the-pants ingenuity, and courage in the face of overwhelming danger.” —Booklist

“Another splendid adventure, with intriguing puzzles, first-rate problem-solving, and an impressive array of alien characters, motives, and methods.” — Kirkus (starred review)

“Reveals an alien encounter brushing hard against a soul, and takes us from there to the far reaches of the cosmos, all with the sure touch of a writer who knows his science. Jeff Carver has done it again!” —David Brin

“Remarkably expansive vision.” —Analog

“A dazzling, thrilling, innovative space opera.” —Kirkus

“Fertile imagination and... a host of engagingly sympathetic characters.” —Library Journal