Book picks similar to
The Derelict Duty: A Space Adventure by James Haddock
science-fiction
sci-fi
action
sf
Stowaway
Z.D. Dean - 2019
A chance encounter, on his last mission, sends him hurtling through space on the Unity exploration ship XES01. Surrounded by aliens, Zade must quickly learn to interact with the non-soldiers on the crew. As he tries to earn his place amongst the ship, Zade’s combat prowess quickly earns him a spot as the security officer of the ship. A seat left vacant because of a fatal exchange between the former security officer and the wildlife of a far planet. As Zade begins living the adrenaline filled life of a space explorer, he has to ask himself some very important questions. How does he get back to earth? Does he even want to? Disclaimer: The main character is a combat veteran, so there is some rough language throughout the book.
April
Mackey Chandler - 2012
She finds herself involved with intrigues that stretch her abilities after a chance run in with a spy. There is a terrible danger she and her friends and family will lose the only home she has ever known in orbit and be forced to live on the slum ball below. It's more than a almost teen can deal with. Fortunately she has a lot of smart friends and allies. It's a good thing because things get very rough and dicey.
Some Assembly Required
V.R. Tapscott - 2020
But then her life got sidetracked by digging up the AI Pilot of a 140 million year old spacecraft. Now, she's running all over the world looking for spaceship parts, falling in and out of love and trying to keep her friends from thinking she's crazy. Not only that, but the ship she's helping to recover starts sounding more like the Death Star than the Millennium Falcon. When did life get so complicated?
Aftershocks
Marko Kloos - 2019
Amid an uneasy alliance to maintain economies, resources, and populations, Aden Robertson reemerges. After devoting twelve years of his life to the reviled losing side, with the blood of half a million casualties on his hands, Aden is looking for a way to move on. He’s not the only one.A naval officer has borne witness to inconceivable attacks on a salvaged fleet. A sergeant with the occupation forces is treading increasingly hostile ground. And a young woman, thrust into responsibility as vice president of her family’s raw materials empire, faces a threat she never anticipated.Now, on the cusp of an explosive and wide-reaching insurrection, Aden plunges once again into the brutal life he longed to forget. He’s been on the wrong side of war before. But this time, the new enemy has yet to reveal themselves…or their dangerous endgame.
Quarter Share
Nathan Lowell - 2007
With credits running low, and prospects limited, he has just one hope...to enlist for two years with a deep space commercial freighter. Ishmael, who only rarely visited the Neris Orbital, and has never been off-planet alone before, finds himself part of an eclectic crew sailing a deep space leviathan between the stars. Join the crew of the SC Lois McKendrick, a Manchester built clipper as she sets solar sails in search of profit for her company and a crew each entitled to a share equal to their rating.
Relics of Eternity
Glynn Stewart - 2020
Here, she hopes to begin a legend for herself that stands apart from her stepmother the Duchess.A chance encounter introduces her to the xeno-archeologist Rin Dunst—and to the strange mystery cult that tried to silence him. There are darker secrets in these stars than the A!Tol and their human allies ever guessed…and if they can’t find answers, the Precursor’s mistakes might yet destroy the galaxy.....Again.Read by Hillary Huber.
Pandora's Star
Peter F. Hamilton - 2004
The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport "tunnels" known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star... vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him.Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship's mission for its own ends.Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth... and humanity itself. Could it be that Johansson was right?
The Lost Starship
Vaughn Heppner - 2014
The vessel's dying crew set the AI on automatic to defend the smashed rubble of their planet. Legend has it the faithful ship continues to patrol the empty battlefield, obeying its last order throughout the lonely centuries. In the here and now, Earth needs a miracle. Out of the Beyond invade the New Men, stronger, faster and smarter than the old. Their superior warships and advanced technology destroy every fleet sent to stop them. Their spies have infiltrated the government and traitors plague Earth’s military. Captain Maddox of Star Watch Intelligence wonders if the ancient legend could be true. Would such an old starship be able to face the technology of the New Men? On the run from killers, Maddox searches for a group of talented misfits. He seeks Keith Maker, a drunken ex-strikefighter ace, Doctor Dana Rich the clone thief stuck on a prison planet and Lieutenant Valerie Noonan, the only person to have faced the New Men in battle and survived to tell about it. Maddox has to find a place hidden in the Beyond and bring back a ship no one can enter. If he fails, the New Men will replace the old. If he succeeds, humanity might just have a fighting chance…
Dropship
Jonathan Yanez - 2019
They’ll try and kill him. Daniel Hunt is the deadliest mercenary in the galaxy if he can just remember. Five years before he woke up with nothing more than his name. Now his present is on a violent collision with his past and the future of the galaxy. The Earth is dead. Humanity has taken to the moon and Mars to have a chance. On what’s left of Earth primal gangs war for dominance. A rebel force will discover a weapon of unimaginable strength, the wealthy in the galaxy will do anything to possess. As Daniel unravels the origin of his past he’ll realize he’s not the same weapon he once was. But does redemption exist for someone like him? For fans of Jason Bourne and the Weapon X program, this one’s for you. Grab your hand cannon and start reading now!
Fluency
Jennifer Foehner Wells - 2014
They kept the Target under intense surveillance for decades, letting the public believe they were exploring the solar system, while they worked feverishly to refine the technology needed to reach it. The ship itself remained silent, drifting. Dr. Jane Holloway is content documenting nearly-extinct languages and had never contemplated becoming an astronaut. But when NASA recruits her to join a team of military scientists for an expedition to the Target, it’s an adventure she can’t refuse. The ship isn’t vacant, as they presumed. A disembodied voice rumbles inside Jane’s head, "You are home." Jane fights the growing doubts of her colleagues as she attempts to decipher what the alien wants from her. As the derelict ship devolves into chaos and the crew gets cut off from their escape route, Jane must decide if she can trust the alien’s help to survive.
Wolfhound
Kindal Debenham - 2011
As a newly commissioned officer in the Celostian Navy, his goal was to serve well until the day he could retire. Then disaster strikes on his first cruise aboard the CNS Wolfhound, and he will have to display all the courage, skill and determination he has in order to keep the remaining crew members out of danger. Because if he does not, the only ones to tell the tale will be prisoners of war—if there are any left at all.
Tech Mage
D.L. Harrison - 2019
Weak in comparison to other mages, but he has a special way with technology. But what good was rebuilding a car with magic, or hacking a computer, when an elemental mage threatens him with death?At least he was weak, until the government recruits him to advance their understanding of alien technology, of a ship that crash landed on Earth over seventy years ago.His life is about to change in a major way, and the surprises will keep coming, not all of them pleasant. Author’s note: This is primarily a space opera. The fantasy elements of the book are tangential at best, and I don’t believe that will change through the rest of the series. Oh, there’s mages, shifters, witches, and vampires in these pages, but that’s really not the focus.
Iron Prince
Bryce O'Connor - 2020
Reidon was born weak, sickly and small. Afflicted with a painful disease and abandoned by his parents because of it, he has had to fight tooth and nail for every minor advantage life has allowed him.His perseverance has not gone unnoticed, however, and when the most powerful artificial intelligence in human history takes an interest in him, things began to change quickly. Granted a CAD—a Combat Assistance Device—with awful specs but an infinite potential for growth, Reidon finds himself at the bottom of his class at the Galens Institute, one of the top military academies in the Collective. Along with his best friend, Viviana Arada, Reidon will have to start his long climb through the school rankings, and on to the combat tournament circuits that have become humanity's greatest source of excitement and entertainment.So begins the rise of a god. So begins the ascent of the Stormweaver.
Star Warrior
Isaac Hooke - 2017
Tane, a hydroponics farmer with some mad cereal crop gene-splicing skills, decides to get chipped. The operation gives him full control over his autonomic nervous and endocrine systems, plus the ability to install custom memories. All seems well until a couple of days later aliens come knocking at his door. And they aren't the friendly type. Soon Tane finds himself on a frenzied flight across the galaxy with a woman who can warp the very fabric of spacetime, her bodyguard--who’d just as soon kill Tane than protect him--and a starship that calls him snarky pet names. He's on the run not simply from the aliens but the whole damn human space navy. He only wished he knew why. Unfortunately for Tane, the answer might just destroy him. Not to mention the entire known universe.
Lt. Reilly 2321:
Matthew O. Duncan - 2020
Released on a medical discharge shortly after the end of the war with the Serkins, he went out into the galaxy looking for a job. Signing onto the Glacier Runner 17, an old and rundown cargo ship, Rielly finds himself working for a clueless captain, mixed-up in an intergalactic conspiracy, on the run from assassins, and involved with two women in relationships that he could only call "complicated". Fans of Matthew O. Duncan will recognize the universe as the same as from the New Terra Sagas, but this is not a sequel. This is a stand-alone spin-off with new characters, new worlds, and in a different format. Told in the first person from Reilly's perspective, this is a fast-moving, non-stop sci-fi adventure.