Best of
Space-Opera

2022

Admiral's Oath


Glynn Stewart - 2022
    Under a cloud of suspicion, he has been assigned to a quiet sector far from the front of the Terran Commonwealth’s war with the Castle Federation and its allies.But when the Federation’s Operation Medusa cripples his nation’s communications and plummets an interstellar empire into silence, Admiral Tecumseh finds himself thrust into command of an entire fleet—and responsible for the safety of billions of innocent souls.Enemies internal and external alike challenge the nation he is sworn to serve. Duty and honor call him to action to protect the innocent, and the Admiral and his new fleet are called to war once more.But the darkest treason lurks where no one expects it…

Hunt the Stars


Jessie Mihalik - 2022
    When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can’t refuse—no matter how much she’d like to.With so much money on the line, Torran and his crew insist on joining the hunt. Tavi reluctantly agrees because while the handsome, stoic leader pushes all of her buttons—for both anger and desire—she’s endured worse, and the massive bonus payment he’s promised for a completed job is reason enough to shut up and deal.But when they uncover a deeper plot that threatens the delicate peace between humans and Valoffs, Tavi suspects that Torran has been using her as the impetus for a new war. With the fate of her crew balanced on a knife’s edge, Tavi must decide where her loyalties lie—with the quiet Valoff who’s been lying to her, or with the human leaders who left her squad to die on the battlefield. And this time, she’s put her heart on the line.

Alien Warrior Unleashed


Ava Ross - 2022
    He brought me to the chamber, where he held others he’d also taken. Through the years, me and my new brothers were twisted into hardened beasts, each with a unique ability that shouldn’t exist outside of myth. We’re monsters. Any female who gazes upon us will run.Now we’ve been entered into the Galaxy Games. Each landscape contains a series of deadly pitfalls, shifting goalposts, and an elusive final destination. It’s my chance to break free.But I’m paired with a delectable Earth female who makes me see color for the very first time, proving she’s my fated mate.I’ll finish this Game. I’ll free my brothers. And I’ll claim the Earthling female as my prize.Alien Warrior Unleashed is book 1 of the Galaxy Games Series. Each book features a different, tortured alien hero who’s desperate to find—and protect—his fated mate.

Memory's Legion


James S.A. Corey - 2022
    A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series is available in this collection* — includes a brand new novella. Now a major television series.Contents:Drive (2012)The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011)The Churn (2014)Gods of Risk (2012)The Vital Abyss (2015)Strange Dogs (2017)Auberon (2019)Memory’s Legion (2022)*does not include The Last Flight of the Cassandra

Haven 6: Reclaimed


Sandra R. Neeley - 2022
    He has always been quietly stoic, considering it an honor to carry the mantle of duty and leadership, while overseeing all the engineering aspects of Command Warship 1. But don’t let his stoic nature fool you, he is as lethal as any warrior among his people. Sent by his Commander and Sire to Earth to aid in the recovery of a fellow warrior’s kidnapped female, he himself is taken hostage. Heavily sedated, beaten, starved and tortured relentlessly, he has forgotten who he is and where he comes from. He’s now a violent, animalistic creature, living only for the chance to kill everyone and everything in his path. Even the infuriating female that keeps telling him she’s his mate is just one more body to add to the pile.Elisha was more than a little overwhelmed when Ba Re’ declared she was his Ehlealah, his life mate. She thought it meant the end of all her dreams of becoming an interstellar translator and computer analyst. Whisked away to live with him onboard Command Warship 1, she finds she does love the stubborn male, more than she ever thought she could. But his determination to make her his mate, versus her determination to continue to be her own person, creates a stalemate neither can seem to overcome. Throwing their hands up, they walk away, accepting the fact they’ll both live out their lives with broken hearts.But now, Ba Re’ is missing and the Cruestaci have had no success in locating him despite continuing raids on Earth. But that’s okay, because Elisha is on her way back to Earth. There is nothing, NOTHING, she’s not willing to do to bring him back to his people, and hopefully into her arms. Even if he hates her for eternity, she can live with that, because he’ll be alive to hate her. Come hell or high water, she’s bringing him home. She knows who's holding him hostage, and she's leading the Cruestaci right to them.Warning: This story is intended for mature readers. It contains violence both real and suggested, and intimacy. If you find these subjects disturbing please do not buy this book.

Pale Blue Dot(s)


Erin Mallon - 2022
    When a surprise set of "everyday citizens" tags along for the ride, all protocol flies right out the proverbial...airlock.After a lifetime of being kept down on the ground, what happens when these women finally rise up and see their lives - and their planet - from high above it all?

Star Trek: Picard: No Man's Land: An Original Audio Drama


Kirsten Beyer - 2022
    While Raffi and Seven of Nine are enjoying some much-needed R&R in Raffi’s remote hideaway, their downtime is interrupted by an urgent cry for help: a distant, beleaguered planet has enlisted the Fenris Rangers to save an embattled evacuation effort. As Raffi and Seven team up to rescue a mysteriously ageless professor whose infinity-shaped talisman has placed him in the deadly sights of a vicious Romulan warlord, they take tentative steps to explore the attraction depicted in the final moments of Picard season one.Star Trek: No Man’s Land is a rich, fully dramatized Star Trek: Picard adventure as Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan pick up their respective characters once more. Written for audio by Kirsten Beyer, a cocreator, writer, and producer on the hit Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, and Mike Johnson, a veteran contributor to the Star Trek comic books publishing program, this audio original offers consummate Star Trek storytelling brilliantly reimagined for the audio medium. In addition to riveting performances from Hurd and Ryan exploring new layers of Raffi and Seven’s relationship, Star Trek: No Man’s Land features a full cast of actors playing all-new characters in the Star Trek: Picard universe, including Fred Tatasciore, Jack Cutmore-Scott, John Kassir, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Lisa Flanagan, Gibson Frazier, Lameece Issaq, Natalie Naudus, Xe Sands, and Emily Woo Zeller, and is presented in a soundscape crackling with exclusive Star Trek sound effects. Drawing listeners into a dramatic, immersive narrative experience that is at once both instantly familiar and spectacularly new, Star Trek: No Man’s Land goes boldly where no audio has gone before as fans new and old clamor to discover what happens next.

In Good Company (Alysha Forrest Book 6)


M.C.A. Hogarth - 2022
    

Portal


Kristen Painter - 2022
    The side where the ruin and devastation left behind by the war makes everyday life harder than it’s ever been. More than anything, he wants to win a ticket for passage through the portal. He’s running out of chances, but he’s not going to let that stop him.He needs that ticket. It’s the only way to save the one person he truly cares about. There’s just one problem. That person is actually an android. And androids aren’t allowed through the portal.Doesn’t matter. He’ll figure it out. Because life on the other side of the portal is perfect and easy, and she’ll be safe there. At least, that’s what he’s been led to believe…

Space Academy Dropouts


C.T. Phipps - 2022
    Unfortunately, his actions result in him getting press-ganged into an expendable crew of misfits recruited by a legendary starship captain. Their mission? To recover a collection of lost sun-destroying missiles that could restart a galactic war. Unfortunately, Vance is smart enough to know something is wrong with this picture. After all, no sane person would recruit this crew to save the universe.SPACE ACADEMY DROPOUTS is an all-new series from C.T. Phipps (Supervillainy Saga, Agent G) and Michael Suttkus (I Was a Teenage Weredeer, Lucifer's Star) that lampoons the space opera as well as military science fiction genres.

Sword and Planet


Christopher RuocchioSusan R. Matthews - 2022
    Cyborg knights battle extraterrestrial demons to rescue a peaceful village. A young girl unlocks an ancient power to protect her world from offworld colonists. Here are stories not where magic is science, but with magic and science. Not knights and castles, but knights and starships. Wizards and ray guns. Swords and planets. In D.J. Butler’s “Power and Prestige,” a pair of two-bit mercenaries are hired to solve a murder in a labyrinth beneath a crumbling city at the end of time. A young knight must face down an alien menace and awaken the power within in R.R. Virdi’s “A Knight Luminary,” and in “Saving the Emperor” Simon R. Green takes us deep into the Imperial City of Virimonde . . . and offers a glimpse at how the Deathstalker clan rose to power and fame.  Plus tales from Tim Akers, Jessica Cluess, Hinkley Correia, L.J. Hachmeister, Susan R. Matthews, T.C. McCarthy, Jody Lynn Nye, Tom Toner . . plus a new world from Warhammer 40,000 author Peter Fehervari, and a new chapter in the Sun Eater saga from Christopher Ruocchio. Contributors: Tim Akers D.J. Butler Jessica Cluess Hinkley Correia Peter Fehervari Simon R. Green L.J. Hachmeister Susan R. Matthews T.C. McCarthy Jody Lynn Nye Christopher Ruocchio Tom Toner R.R. Virdi

So I Accidentally became an Alien Outlaw's Mate: A Sci-fi Alien Romantic Comedy


Sophia Sebell - 2022
    

Bluebird


Ciel Pierlot - 2022
    Rig, a gunslinging, thieving, rebel with a cause, doesn’t give a damn about them and she hasn’t looked back since abandoning her faction three years ago. That is, until her former faction sends her a message: return what she stole from them, or they’ll kill her twin sister. Rig embarks on a journey across the galaxy to save her sister – but for once she’s not alone. She has help from her network of resistance contacts, her taser-wielding librarian girlfriend, and a mysterious bounty hunter. If Rig fails and her former faction finds what she stole from them, trillions of lives will be lost--including her sister's. But if she succeeds, she might just pull the whole damn faction system down around their ears. Either way, she’s going to do it with panache and pizzazz.

The Deep Man


Michael Mersault - 2022
     Stubbornly clinging to the Honor Code, Family prodigy Saef Sinclair-Maru finds himself in command of an outmoded, under-equipped frigate of the Imperial Fleet. With spies and assassins on every side, trusting only in his considerable skill and the bizarre competence of his companion, Inga, Saef must complete his mission, restore the greatness of his Family, and uncover the chilling plot meant to extinguish humanity’s light from the galaxy.