Book picks similar to
Taji from Beyond the Rings by R. Cooper
sci-fi
m-m
romance
science-fiction
Where Willows Won't Grow
Lia Black - 2014
Six months of investigation have brought him to Willow House, a high class brothel on Omanai Station, as beautiful on the outside as it is corrupt on the inside. Sold into sexual slavery to infiltrate an illegal prostitution ring, Alex must find the evidence he needs to bring down the leader of a powerful criminal cartel—a man who may not even be human. Illythe, the manager of Willow House, is a long way from freedom. The jet-skinned beauty with the face of an angel walks the halls of Willow House with serenity and authority, but underneath his cold and beautiful facade, Illythe is as much a slave as any of the young men working in the brothel. In an undercover operation, falling in love is the worst thing an agent can do, but Illythe is a mystery that Alex can’t resist. It doesn’t take long for Alex to realize that Illythe is not in his role by choice. Yet Illythe holds the holds the information Alex needs. The more Alex learns, the clearer it becomes, that when the cartel falls, Illythe will be buried in the rubble. In the end, Alex must make a choice: save Illythe and forfeit the mission, or leave him behind in a place where willows won’t grow. Important Note to Readers: This work of fiction is for adults only. Please see content warnings in "story info" front matter before download. This story was written as part of the M/M Romance Group’s 2014 “Love's Landscapes” event.
Space Opera
Catherynne M. Valente - 2018
In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented-something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix - part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete.This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny - they must sing.A one-hit-wonder band of human musicians, dancers and roadies from London - Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes - have been chosen to represent Earth on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock.
Ingenious
Barrie Farris - 2019
Academically gifted with a brain like the ancestors, he's well on his way to figuring out how to kill the vines overtaking the land, earning him--a male--an unheard-of seat in the Assembly of Ruling Mothers. And with an inheritance and an impeccable pedigree, he's guaranteed his pick of virgins to marry after graduation from the academy. Instead, one moment changes everything. Caught in a compromising position with his loyal-to-a-fault friend Beau, a half-feral, his plans are derailed. Now Quiggs's life depends on the gorgeous soldier who saves him. Their forbidden attraction burns hotter than Quiggs's new fuel paste as political intrigue, danger, and the rules of society threaten their lives, and their budding romance. Now it's a battle to save the world as they know it . . . or create a new one.Adventure, science fiction, and scorching hot m/m romance come together in a slow burn that heats up with every unexpected twist and turn in this first book of the Ingenious series. Warning: For readers 18 and older. Contains emotionally-charged, explicit m/m love. Look elsewhere if you want horny heroes jumping into bed by the second chapter. If you want a plot with steamy sex only when a scene justifies it--this sci fi is written for you. But, yeah, there are plenty of totally justified, smoking hot scenes.
Fearless Leader
Tricia Owens - 2012
When the beautiful and sexy empath Calyx Starr is pulled from the streets and forced onto his team as part of the police captain's secret agenda, Black must deal not only with Starr's relentless seductions, but also a dangerous telepath with a deadly grudge who has targeted the empath and Black's team.Calyx Starr isn't used to being denied. Born on the streets and forced into a life of prostitution to fuel his Bliss habit, Calyx is street-wise and tough, and thinks he can use Black for his own secret plans. However the more Calyx learns about Black and his team, the more the empath begins to think Black may be more than a challenge...he may be the only man Calyx can trust with his life and his heart. Too bad Black is a man with dangerous secrets, and becoming involved with him means Calyx may wind up dead or psychically destroyed.
Nor Iron Bars a Cage
Kaje Harper - 2013
Then I was a hermit. For so long—for years that seemed to go on forever—I couldn't bear to be touched. I put up not just walls but whole stone bunkers to keep everyone out, emotionally, and physically as well. I was protected from people, from ghosts, from specters real and imagined. Sure, I was alone. But I felt safe. Only, after a while, I wasn't sure any longer whether a totally "safe" empty life was really worth living.Then Tobin came along. Out of the blue, out of my past, with a summons from the king that he wouldn't let me ignore. I tried to cling to my isolation, but he wouldn't give up on me. Tobin never believed in walls.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love Has No Boundaries" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters
Aimee Ogden - 2021
Atuale, the daughter of a Sea-Clan lord, sparked a war by choosing her land-dwelling love and rejecting her place among her people. Now her husband and his clan are dying of an incurable plague, and Atuale’s sole hope for finding a cure is to travel off-planet. The one person she can turn to for help is the black-market mercenary known as the World Witch—and Atuale’s former lover. Time, politics, bureaucracy, and her own conflicted desires stand between Atuale and the hope for her adopted clan. Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters has all the wonder and romance of a classic sci-fi novel, with the timelessness of a beloved fairy tale.
Lover & Commander
Jez Morrow - 2008
So he cannot understand how he ended up under the command of barbarian Earthbreed Liam Grey.Ace fighter pilot Liam is the sort of untamed brute that Kuryeen females pretend to have no interest in — but they always look.Talon finds Liam's so-called boyish charm childish. Liam is brash, brazen, shameless — qualities not valued by the Kuryeen. To the warrior, pride is everything and Talon would choose death before shame. Talon is afraid of Liam and cannot say why. Friendly, cheerful Liam is no one his wingman should fear. So why does Talon's guard go up the first moment Liam brushes near him? Talon only knows that his commander presents a threat to him beyond his ability to resist.
A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine - 2019
But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.
Persistence of Memory
J.M. Snyder - 2007
In the process, they erased his memory, destroying his past, his dreams, everything but his name. Armed with that alone, Joah escapes from the facility in search of someone to help him recall the man he used to be. That person is Tobin, Joah's husband, who never gave up hope of finding him again. He refuses to believe that the strength of his love alone won't be enough to bring back Joah's memories of their shared lives, and he's determined to bring back the man beneath the soldier, the man he knows has to love him. But an alarm in the chip blocking Joah's memories was triggered at his escape, and if the chip isn't removed soon, it will shriek his life away. Removing it won't bring back his past, and may destroy the present that Tobin has tried so hard to build between them. Can the love they once shared possibly survive? [Genres: Gay / Science Fiction / Futuristic ]
Evenfall: Volume 2: Director's Cut
Ais - 2014
Their goals justify all means, even when it comes to their own agents.In the newly revised Director's Cut of Evenfall, the second volume follows Sin and Boyd through a long-term undercover mission in Mexico. They think the hardest part will be maintaining their covers and handling their attraction while living in close quarters, but that's only the beginning of their newest trials.When hard and fast decisions lead to catastrophic consequences, the two agents realize getting out of Mexico alive may be their biggest challenge yet.Warnings: Explicit violence, sex, physical and psychological abuse.120,000 words.
Freedom
Jay Kirkpatrick - 2013
His first solo assignment is treating John Doe 439, a man found outside the city, battered, traumatized, and apparently mute.Despite a strong taboo against Empaths forging romantic relationships, Patrick realizes he feels a strong attraction to his patient. Soon he learns the man is a high-level Psychic Talent named Jac. Then Jac reveals that there are abusive people hunting him for his gifts, and Patrick’s uncomplicated world explodes.Jac needs to meet up with his companions and flee the city before anyone else can find him—but it may be too late. Word of Jac’s talents has leaked to Central Government in Chicago. If Jac wants to retain his freedom, he needs to run—now. And if Patrick wants to explore a relationship his society tells him he can’t have, he’ll have to exchange the safe fetters of his job for the uncertainty of liberty.
In Service
Mima - 2008
As a sexual companion that sustains Luo troops with human energy, she's eager for her first assignment. Fresh out of training, she's assigned to a hell of a team in a hellish situation and promptly falls for all four of them. Three of them accept her immediately, bound to her in the searing sexual circumstances of her arrival.But Shon is her hard case. He accepts her body and her energy just fine, but holds his heart back. The team leader doesn't trust his gift of berzerker rage, and his own team doesn't trust him either. She's happy to prove them wrong by taking all of him in his darkest moment...only to find the team doesn't see it as the confirmation she does. When her men disagree despite the proof she presents, Malla sees she's not really the equal partner she thought she was. If her team won't trust her judgment, then she can't trust them with her heart.When a lonely warrior who has never fully let himself go because of his "gift" of berzerker rage meets a woman who actually expects him to do so, he's shockingly tempted. In the fight of his life, Shon's team is saved because of Malla's open spirit and dazzling sexuality. But the thrill of success after the mission is ripped away when he discovers she has faced his berzerker state...alone.She trusted him to be more human than he is, and he tragically, horrifically proved her wrong. There's no way he deserves her heart, he no longer deserves her body, and he can't possibly continue with his team, facing their knowledge of what he's capable of. No one should ever face his Fury again. Broken, the team scatters, the defeat of their enemy small comfort to the shattering of their family. War takes its toll on all of them, until Shon finally sees the truth of what it means to have someone believe in him.Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, domination, dubious consent, exhibitionism, male/male sexual practices, masturbation, Ménage (m/m/m/f), spanking, violence, voyeurism.
Brothers of the Wild North Sea
Harper Fox - 2013
He loves his life of learning as a monk in the far-flung stronghold of Fara, but the hot warrior blood of his chieftain father flows in his veins. Heat soothed only in the arms of his sweet-natured friend and lover, Leof.When Leof is killed during a Viking raid, Cai’s grieving heart thirsts for vengeance—and he has his chance with Fenrir, a wounded young Viking warrior left for dead. But instead of reaching for a weapon, Cai finds himself defying his abbot’s orders and using his healing skills to save Fen’s life.At first, Fen repays Cai’s kindness by attacking every Christian within reach. But as time passes, Cai’s persistent goodness touches his heart. And Cai, who had thought he would never love again, feels the stirring of a profound new attraction.Yet old loyalties call Fen back to his tribe and a relentless quest to find the ancient secret of Fara—a powerful talisman that could render the Vikings indestructible, and tear the two lovers’ bonds beyond healing. Warning: contains battles, bloodshed, explicit M/M sex, and the proper Latin term for what lies beneath those cassocks.
Artifice
Alex Woolfson - 2013
Not only did he let one of the targets live, he attacked the team sent to retrieve him. Now the Corporation wants answers and they bring in the brilliant robopsychologist Dr. Clarice Maven to get them—giving her the power to make sure Deacon never fails the Corporation ever again.As Deacon tries to keep his secrets and the doctor cuts through his defenses, a cunning game of cat-and-mouse begins. The question is: will Deacon be able to resist Dr. Maven’s power and protect the only thing that has ever truly mattered to him?With full-color art by Winona Nelson, Artifice deals with the classic sci-fi question: What does it really mean to be a "person"? And what would an Artificial Intelligence designed to be the perfect soldier ultimately choose: love... or honor? Artifice has got action, romance and even some moments of comedy. And you can read it for free right now over at artificecomic.com.
To Be Taught, If Fortunate
Becky Chambers - 2019
Ariadne is one such explorer. As an astronaut on an extrasolar research vessel, she and her fellow crewmates sleep between worlds and wake up each time with different features. Her experience is one of fluid body and stable mind and of a unique perspective on the passage of time. Back on Earth, society changes dramatically from decade to decade, as it always does.Ariadne may awaken to find that support for space exploration back home has waned, or that her country of birth no longer exists, or that a cult has arisen around their cosmic findings, only to dissolve once more by the next waking. But the moods of Earth have little bearing on their mission: to explore, to study, and to send their learnings home. Carrying all the trademarks of her other beloved works, including brilliant writing, fantastic world-building and exceptional, diverse characters, Becky's first audiobook outside of the Wayfarers series is sure to capture the imagination of listeners all over the world.