Best of
Space-Opera

2010

The Dragon Variation


Sharon Lee - 2010
    Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk both his honor and reputation--not to mention the lives of loved ones."Scout's Progress"--Aelliana Caylon is a brilliant mathematician, revered by pilots for the life-saving revisions she brought to the ven'Tura Piloting Tables. Despite this, her home life is terrifying, as the target of her elder brother's spite and her mother's indifference. Convinced that she has no recourse, Aelliana endures, until, on a dare, she plays a game of chance and wins a spaceship. Suddenly she has a way to escape her drab life - if she can qualify as a pilot, and survive her brother's abuse."Conflict of Honors"--Declared legally dead by a High Priestess of the Goddess and abandoned by her mother, Priscilla Delacroix has roamed the galaxy for ten years, surviving and becoming a woman of extraordinary skills. Now, she's been betrayed and abandoned once again, left on a distant planet by the Liaden starship on which she had been an important officer. But she's not alone: starship captain Shan yos'Galan has his own score to settle with the same enemy and is about to offer her an alliance.

Zones of Thought: A Fire Upon the Deep / A Deepness in the Sky


Vernor Vinge - 2010
    Earth remains in the "Slowness" zone, where nothing can travel faster than light and minds are fairly limited. The action of the book is in the "Beyond", where translight travel and other marvels exist, and humans are one of many intelligent species. One human colony has been experimenting to find a path to the "Transcend", where intelligence and power are so great as to seem godlike. Instead they release the Blight, an evil power, from a billion-year captivity.' Publisher's WeeklyIn DEEPNESS, 'the story has the same sense of epic vastness despite happening mostly in one isolated solar system. Here there's a world of intelligent spider creatures who traditionally hibernate through the "Deepest Darkness" of their strange variable sun's long "off" periods, when even the atmosphere freezes. Now, science offers them an alternative. Meanwhile, attracted by spider radio transmissions, two human starfleets come exploring--merchants hoping for customers and tyrants who want slaves. Their inevitable clash leaves both fleets crippled, with the power in the wrong hands, which leads to a long wait in space until the spiders develop exploitable technology. Over the years Vinge builds palpable tension through multiple storylines and characters.' Dave Langford

Live Free or Die


John Ringo - 2010
    But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief. Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Since then, they've held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With their control of the orbitals, there's no way to win and earth's governments have accepted the status quo. Live Free or Die. To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. A hero unwilling to back down to alien or human governments, unwilling to live in slavery and with enough hubris, if not stature, to think he can win. Fortunately, there's Tyler Vernon. And he has bigger plans than just getting rid of the Horvath.

The Night's Dawn Trilogy: The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God


Peter F. Hamilton - 2010
    Multiple worlds, alien races, two types of future humanity, and uncountable forms of fascinating future technology make up the universe created by Peter F. Hamilton. The "reality dysfunction" is a break in the fabric of reality that allows the dead to return to our world, where they possess living bodies. Gradually, it becomes horrifyingly clear that all of humanity is at risk of being taken over by the minds of those long dead. More and more of the dead are stealing the bodies of those still living, grouping together into powerful consortiums led by leaders from history.Opposing this development is an increasingly desperate Confederation Navy. Joshua Calvert is assigned to chase after Alkad Mzu, who is trying to recover the "doomsday weapon" that might possibly blast the dead back into oblivion. Mzu is hunted not only by Joshua, but also by various intelligence agencies and the possessed themselves, all of whom are desperate to lay hands on the weapon.In *The Naked God,* the Confederation starts to collapse economically and politically as more star systems fall to the possessed. On Earth, Quinn Dexter plots to bring about the Final Night for the human race. Opposing him is Louise Kavanagh, who unknowingly teams up with the universe's most powerful and secretive policeman. In the midst of all this chaos, Joshua Calvert and Syrinx take their ships in search of an alien god which may hold the solution to the current crisis. Unfortunately, it was lost in space ten thousand years ago on the other side of the Orion Nebula, and the Tyrathca, the only ones who might know where it is, aren't telling.

Freddy Anderson's Home


John Ricks - 2010
    Freddy Anderson used that ability working to save the world from a world ending disaster. However, the human race is now at war. Aliens have attacked and captured many of our top people including Freddy Anderson and are headed back to their home world. They are trying to extract from his mind information that will help them understand how the humans destroyed their greatest ship and how to annihilate the entire human race.

Grand Central Arena


Ryk E. Spoor - 2010
    But when the Sandrisson Drive activated, every automated system crashed, the nuclear reactor itself shut down, and only the reflexes and training of a racing pilot saved the test vessel Holy Grail from crashing into the impossible wall that had appeared before them, a wall which is just part of a monstrous enclosure surrounding a space twenty thousand kilometers across. With all artificial intelligences inert and their reactor dead, they had to find some other source of power to reactivate the Sandrisson Drive and—hopefully—take them home.            And that was only the beginning. As Ariane, Dr. Simon Sandrisson, darkly enigmatic power engineer Marc C. DuQuesne, and the rest of the Holy Grail's crew explore the immense artifact, they discover that they are not alone; they have entered a place the alien inhabitants call “The Arena,” and there is no way out without joining one of the alien factions . . . or winning recognition as a faction in their own right, playing by the Arena's rules – and by the Arena's rules, one failed challenge could mean death or worse – perhaps for the entire human race.            Surrounded by alien factions, each with its own secret plans and motivations, some wielding powers so strange as to be magical, Ariane sets out to beat the Arena at its own game. With DuQuesne's strategies, Sandrisson's genius, and her own unyielding determination, she's going to bring the Holy Grail home – even if she has to beat every faction in the Arena to do it!

Battlecry


Chris Bunch - 2010
    Vulcan breeds just two types of native - complacent or tough. Sten is tough.When his family is killed in a mysterious accident, Sten rebels, harassing the Company from the metal world's endless mazelike warrens. It's a fool's errand, of course - no man can stand against the might of the Company and expect to live. But Sten isn't just any man.From the corrupt and brutal factories of Vulcan to the plots and intrigues of the Imperial Court, the galaxy is about to come face-to-face with the ultimate warrior. Sten's already learned how to survive - now he wants more; he wants control of his own destiny. And he'll do whatever it takes to get it.No compromise, no retreat, no surrender. Only Sten.This omnibus edition contains: STEN, THE WOLF WORLDS and THE COURT OF A THOUSAND SUNS.

Spacetrawler: The Human Seat


Christopher Baldwin - 2010
    Legally labeled as "less than sentient," they have no hope for liberation except for by the hands and face tentacles of Interplanet Amity, a galactic watchdog group who are about to make their biggest mistake yet--asking for help from the human race.

Drive: A Hero Rises


Dave Kellett - 2010
    But their mission ripples out in ways neither they nor the Emperor could imagine, to impact the fate of both warring races.This first DRIVE book collects the first year of the sci-fi strip...along with memos, letters, and historical reports from across the empire. There are even tidbits not seen online!

The Lancaster Rule - The Lancaster Trilogy Vol. 1


T.K. Toppin - 2010
    The world loathes Josie Bettencourt’s kind—pod-survivors from the past. When she awakens three hundred years later, she discovers what falling into hell is like. Stalked by uncertainty and death, her new life pitches from one extreme to the next. She is soon arrested and taken straight to the Citadel, the heart of the Lancaster regime where they have ruled tyrannically for over half a century. Now young John Lancaster is in power, hoping to make a change, to erase the wars, oppression and unimaginable terror. When Josie meets the frighteningly powerful John, she wonders if he really is the so-called tyrants’ spawn? But like a plague from the past, her presence in the future draws dangerous forces together. Josie soon discovers who the true tyrants are by unraveling a terrifying plot to take over the world. And she realises that her life in this new future are indelibly linked to the one she left behind.

Deck of Cards


Rebecca Lickiss - 2010
    Valor must balance his public persona of a royal dandy with his privately shrewd nature, managing to survive interplanetary politics, his psychotic father, and his arranged marriage.

Jump Gate Twist


Mark L. Van Name - 2010
    “Van Name has created a hero worth at least a dozen more novels . . . I want this to be a series. I want to read a new one every year.” —Orson Scott Card      Jon Moore: A nanotech-enhanced warrior who wants nothing more than a quiet life and a way back to his strange home world. Lobo: An AI-enhanced Predator-Class Assault Vehicle, a mobile fortress equipped for any environment from the seabed to interstellar space. TWO WOLVES IN A GALAXY OF LARGER PREDATORS!       For the first time in a Jon & Lobo book, “My Sister, My Self,” the short story which introduced Jon Moore.      One Jump Ahead: Jon Moore wanted only to relax on the pristine planet of Macken--but Macken was the secret battleground of two megacorporations, both determined to control the local jump gate and the riches of an undeveloped world. Finding allies and enemies among terrorist groups and elite mercenaries, gun-runners and the only kind of government possible on a frontier short on rules and long on riches, Jon and Lobo fight to a climax with a corporate army that can't afford to leave any witnesses. Exotic settings, fast action, real tech, mechanically-enhanced animals—and a beautiful woman who's as deadly as a cobra! Slanted Jack: The job looked simple enough:  Jon agreed to help a con man, a friend from a part of his past he’d rather forget, protect a very special young boy.  But the deal didn’t stay simple, as each move Jon and Lobo made resulted in more danger and more enemies. The best con man Jon’s ever known, a ruthless gang boss, a heavily armed group of religious fanatics, a beautiful woman with a mysterious agenda, and an interstellar government out to clean up a dangerous frontier world rush together toward an explosive climax—and Jon and Lobo are caught in the middle. Plus new introductions by the author, making this a package that every Jon & Lobo fan will want to buy.