Book picks similar to
Blue Shift by Jane O'Reilly
sci-fi
science-fiction
romance
space
The Continent
Keira Drake - 2018
It seems an unlikely destination for a holiday: a cold, desolate land where two nations remain perpetually locked in combat. Most citizens lucky enough to tour the Continent do so to observe the spectacle and violence of battle, a thing long vanished in the peaceful realm of the Spire. For Vaela, the war holds little interest. As a smart and talented apprentice cartographer and a descendent of the Continent herself, she sees the journey as a dream come true: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve upon the maps she’s drawn of this vast, frozen land.But Vaela’s dream all too quickly turns to nightmare as the journey brings her face-to-face with the brutal reality of a war she’s only read about. Observing from the safety of a heli-plane, Vaela is forever changed by the sight of the bloody battle being waged far beneath her. And when a tragic accident leaves her stranded on the Continent, Vaela finds herself much closer to danger than she’d ever imagined—and with an entirely new perspective as to what war truly means. Starving, alone, and lost in the middle of a war zone, Vaela must try to find a way home—but first, she must survive.
The 100
Kass Morgan - 2013
Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents—considered expendable by society—are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves—but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope.
Draekon Mate
Lee Savino - 2017
Prison planet. Snarling, lethal predators. Two big, hulking, bronzed aliens who turn into dragons. The best part? The dragons insist I’m their mate.The Zorahn wanted women for some kind of super-secret science experiment, and I volunteered. Dumb move, right? But they promised we’d be safe, and they offered a lot of money. Money I needed desperately.Of course, everything went wrong. Our spaceship has crashed on a prison planet, one where the Zorahn exile their most dangerous criminals. My friends are injured. I’m all alone on a jungle planet where everything is designed to kill me. Then I run into the Draekons. When they see me, they change into dragons and burn the predators threatening me to a crisp. They feed me and care for me, and they keep me safe. But there’s a catch. The Draekons insist that I’m their mate. And the only way they can shift into dragons again to save my friends? Both of them need to mate with me. At the same time.This isn't the space vacation I thought it would be.Draekon Mate is the first book in the new Dragons in Exile series. It’s a full-length, standalone science fiction dragon-shifter MFM menage romance story featuring a snarky human female, and two arrogant aliens that keep her warm, with or without dragon fire. (No M/M) Happily-ever-after guaranteed!
Project Hail Mary
Andy WeirAndy Weir - 2021
He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.Or does he?An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could imagine it, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
Docile
K.M. Szpara - 2020
To be a Docile is to forget, to disappear, to hide inside your body from the horrors of your service. To be a Docile is to sell yourself to pay your parents' debts and buy your children's future.Elisha Wilder’s family has been ruined by debt, handed down to them from previous generations. His mother never recovered from the Dociline she took during her term as a Docile, so when Elisha decides to try and erase the family’s debt himself, he swears he will never take the drug that took his mother from him. Too bad his contract has been purchased by Alexander Bishop III, whose ultra-rich family is the brains (and money) behind Dociline and the entire Office of Debt Resolution. When Elisha refuses Dociline, Alex refuses to believe that his family’s crowning achievement could have any negative side effects—and is determined to turn Elisha into the perfect Docile without it.
The Steerswoman
Rosemary Kirstein - 1989
Steerswomen, and a very few Steersmen, are members of an order dedicated to discovering and disseminating knowledge. Although they are foremost navigators of the high seas, Steerswomen are also explorers and cartographers upon land as well as sea. With one exception, they are pledged to always answer any question put to them with as truthful a response as is possible within their own limitations. However, they also require anyone of whom they ask questions to respond in the same manner, upon penalty of the Steerswomen's ban; those under the ban do not receive answers from the steerswomen.In this novel, Rowan is a Steerswoman who is interested in some strange jewels which have been found distributed in an unusual pattern. These jewels are made of strange materials bonded onto metal. Some think that such jewels are magically produced.
Parallel
Lauren Miller - 2013
The Plan. She'd go to Northwestern, major in journalism, and land a job at a national newspaper, all before she turned twenty-two. But one tiny choice—taking a drama class her senior year of high school—changed all that. Now, on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Abby is stuck on a Hollywood movie set, miles from where she wants to be, wishing she could rewind her life. The next morning, she's in a dorm room at Yale, with no memory of how she got there. Overnight, it's as if her past has been rewritten.With the help of Caitlin, her science-savvy BFF, Abby discovers that this new reality is the result of a cosmic collision of parallel universes that has Abby living an alternate version of her life. And not only that: Abby's life changes every time her parallel self makes a new choice. Meanwhile, her parallel is living out Abby's senior year of high school and falling for someone Abby's never even met.As she struggles to navigate her ever-shifting existence, forced to live out the consequences of a path she didn't choose, Abby must let go of the Plan and learn to focus on the present, without losing sight of who she is, the boy who might just be her soul mate, and the destiny that's finally within reach.
We Have Always Been Here
Lena Nguyen - 2021
or risk succumbing to it herself.Misanthropic psychologist Dr. Grace Park is placed on the Deucalion, a survey ship headed to an icy planet in an unexplored galaxy. Her purpose is to observe the thirteen human crew members aboard the ship—all specialists in their own fields—as they assess the colonization potential of the planet, Eos. But frictions develop as Park befriends the androids of the ship, preferring their company over the baffling complexity of humans, while the rest of the crew treats them with suspicion and even outright hostility.Shortly after landing, the crew finds themselves trapped on the ship by a radiation storm, with no means of communication or escape until it passes—and that's when things begin to fall apart. Park's patients are falling prey to waking nightmares of helpless, tongueless insanity. The androids are behaving strangely. There are no windows aboard the ship. Paranoia is closing in, and soon Park is forced to confront the fact that nothing—neither her crew, nor their mission, nor the mysterious Eos itself—is as it seems.
The Tethered Mage
Melissa Caruso - 2017
Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage-mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire empire.Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations. But fate has bound the heir and the mage. War looms on the horizon. A single spark could turn their city into a pyre.The Tethered Mage is the first novel in a spellbinding new fantasy series.
Slave
Cheryl Brooks - 2008
Even filthy, chained, and beaten, he gives off an aura of power and virility and his feline gene gives him a special aura.Jacinth is an intergalactic trader on a rescue mission and she needs a man she can trust with her life.She has spent years pursuing her kidnapped sister from planet to planet. Now her quest leads her to a place where all the women are slaves. "Jack" needs a slave of her own-one who can masquerade as her master.Enmeshed in a tangle of deception, lust, and love, they must elude a race of violent killers and together forge a bond stronger than any chains. The first book in wildly popular Cat Star Chronicles, a paranormal romance series featuring heroes with a feline gene that gives them remarkable sexual powers.The Cat Star Chronicles: Slave (Book 1)Warrior (Book 2)Rogue (Book 3)Outcast (Book 4)Fugitive (Book 5)Hero (Book 6)Virgin (Book 7)Stud (Book 8)Wildcat (Book 9)Rebel (Book 10)
Behind the Mask: A Superhero Anthology
Tricia ReeksPatrick Flanagan - 2017
Ranging from laugh-out-loud funny to deliciously dark, these stories are about the ordinary day-to-day challenges facing these extraordinary individuals growing up, growing old, relationships, parenting, coping with that age-old desire to fit in when, let s face it, they don't.“Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut” by Cat Rambo, copyright © 2009 by Cat Rambo, originally published in Strange Horizons (October 26, 2009); “Destroy the City with Me Tonight” by Kate Marshall, copyright © 2017 by Kate Marshall; “Fool” by Keith Frady, copyright © 2017 by Keith Frady; “Pedestal” by Seanan McGuire, copyright © 2017 by Seanan McGuire; “As I Fall Asleep” by Aimee Ogden, copyright © 2017 by Aimee Ogden; “Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning” by Jennifer Pullen, copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Pullen; “Inheritance” by Michael Milne, copyright © 2017 by Michael Milne; “Heroes” by Lavie Tidhar, copyright © 2016 by Lavie Tidhar, originally published in Strange Horizons (September 19, 2016); “Madjack” by Nathan Crowder, copyright © 2017 by Nathan Crowder; “Quintessential Justice” by Patrick Flanagan, copyright © 2017 by Patrick Flanagan; “The Fall of the Jade Sword” by Stephanie Lai, copyright © 2017 by Stephanie Lai; “Origin Story” by Carrie Vaughn, copyright © 2016 by Carrie Vaughn, LLC, originally published in Lightspeed Magazine (April 2016); “Eggshells” by Ziggy Schutz, copyright © 2017 by Ziggy Schutz; “Salt City Blue” by Chris Large, copyright © 2017 by Chris Large; “Birthright” by Stuart Suffel, copyright © 2017 by Stuart Suffel; “The Smoke Means It’s Working” by Sarah Pinsker, copyright © 2017 by Sarah Pinsker; “Torch Songs” by Keith Rosson, copyright © 2017 by Keith Rosson; “The Beard of Truth” by Matt Mikalatos, copyright © 2017 by Matt Mikalatos; “Over an Embattled City” by Adam R. Shannon, copyright © 2017 by Adam R. Shannon; “Origin Story” by Kelly Link, copyright © 2006 by Kelly Link, originally published in A Public Space (Winter 2006) and reprinted in Kelly Link’s Get in Trouble (Random House; 2015)
Hush
Dylan Farrow - 2020
Who will break the hush?
Seventeen-year-old Shae has led a seemingly quiet life, joking with her best friend Fiona, and chatting with Mads, the neighborhood boy who always knows how to make her smile. All while secretly keeping her fears at bay… Of the disease that took her brother’s life. Of how her dreams seem to bleed into reality around her. Of a group of justice seekers called the Bards who claim to use the magic of Telling to keep her community safe.When her mother is murdered, she can no longer pretend.Not knowing who to trust, Shae journeys to unlock the truth, instead finding a new enemy keen to destroy her, a brooding boy with dark secrets, and an untold power she never thought possible.