Book picks similar to
Ben Archer by Rae Knightly


science-fiction
middle-grade
kids-books
epic-fantasy

The Starlight Watchmaker


Lauren James - 2019
    But he is one of the lucky ones. Many androids like him are jobless and homeless. Someone like Dorian could never understand their struggle - or so Hugo thinks when the pompous duke comes banging at his door. But when Dorian's broken time-travel watch leads them to discover a sinister scheme, the pair must reconcile their differences if they are to find the culprit in time.A wildly imaginative sci-fi adventure from YA star Lauren James, particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 13+

Samantha's Talent


Darrell Bain - 2014
    The problem is that no one believes her. Her talent gets young Samantha in trouble time after time as she grows from a young girl into a teenager. After leading a runaway tiger back to the zoo, she becomes a celebrity. Some think she's a fake. Some worship her. Some hate her. And a rogue government agency wants to use her. Her talent can give the United States a huge jump over other nations, but first she has to stay alive, second she must solve a decades-old, other-worldly enigma and last she has to convince everyone she is truly capable of all the demands being made on her. A novel that adults, young adults and anyone else will find fascinating. Author's preferred edition.

Berserk


Resa Nelson - 2019
    Now grown, he dedicates his life to finding the berserkers responsible but is stymied at every turn by magic, dragons, and dragonslayers. Benzel meets a monster that can help him, but at what cost?

Webley and The World Machine


Zachary Paul Chopchinski - 2019
    Let the war begin.Deep in the belly of a cave lies a door to a mechanical world that will change two lives forever.Webley and the steam-powered creations of the World Machine keep the Earth turning. But, when Adal and Arija unknowingly set the gears in motion on a fierce civil war, they could destroy billions of lies. Including their own.Adal and Arija have already lost so much, they can't lose each other too. But, when they're forced to fight a creature that couldn't possibly exist, they must adapt or they'll lose the only people they have left.

The Girl Who Called the Stars


Heather Hildenbrand - 2018
    Human. I can’t remember my life before Earth, but I’ve grown up hearing the stories of a planet ravaged by war and a people in need of a leader who will bring them out of the darkness. I’m supposed to be their light. My future terrifies me. But I’m done waiting to have a real life. If I ever want a chance to live free of the Shadows, I’ll need to fight for it because freedom is never free. No matter what galaxy you call home. (This is book 1 in The Starlight Duology. Previously published as Across the Galaxy, now revised & rewritten with brand new content. This is a full-length Upper YA Fantasy Romance.)

Middle Falls Time Travel Series, Books 1-3


Shawn Inmon - 2018
     What if you could do it all again? The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver Thomas Weaver, haunted by a teenage tragedy, lived a wasted life. He closed his eyes for what he believed was the last time in 2016, but opened them again in his teenage bedroom and body in 1976. Now a middle-aged man in his teenage body, he sets out to fix everything he did wrong in his first life. A budding serial killer in home room, a possible new romance, and high school algebra complicate his plans. The Redemption of Michael Hollister All Michael Hollister wanted was death. What he got was time travel. Convicted of murder, and with nothing left to live for, Michael commits suicide in his jail cell in 1977, then opens his eyes in 1966, in his eight year old body, all memories of his previous life intact. His first thoughts are of the dark intentions of his father. When the man who raised him once again tries to do the unthinkable, Michael has a chance to right his childhood's greatest wrong. But, can he do that without becoming a killer all over again? The Death and Life of Dominick Davidner How many lives would you spend to find your beloved? Dominick Davidner was murdered. Then things got worse. Instead of going on to the afterlife, Dominick found himself back in his nine year old body, all memories of his previous life intact. All he can think about is Emily, the love of his life, left behind when he died. Unfortunately, she is now thousands of miles away. How can Dominick find his way back to the woman he loves, and what will he say if he finds her? These are the first three novels in the Middle Falls Time Travel series. The fourth, "The Final Life or Nathaniel Moon" is available for preorder.

The Starborn Heir


D.J. Bodden - 2021
    A legacy betrayed. A path to the stars.Zack was bred and raised to be the heir to a planet, but he's decided he's not the chosen one. He wants to get offworld, see the galaxy, and track down a piece of lost technology from his family's past.He'll need to steal a shuttle, get past the orbital defenses, and rendezvous with a smuggler on the star system's outskirts. But he can't do it alone—he's going to need a crew. Gathering a band of misfits from the colony's underworld, Zack strikes out toward the desert. The government is close on his heels, but Zack is willing to fight the gangs, make deals with aliens, and use illegal technology in wildly unsanctioned ways to blast his way to the stars. And if he can do a little good along the way, so much the better.Zack and his crew have a whole planet after them. The only way out is up.From D.J. Bodden, bestselling author of Viridian Gate Online: The Illusionist and the Black Year Series, comes a brand new science fiction adventure series set in the massive and ever-expanding FiveFold Universe.

Mask of the Fallen: A Cultivation/Progression Fantasy Series: (War Priest Book One)


Harmon Cooper - 2021
    

Abducted - Escape From Kraile


J.R. Cleveland - 2016
    Scared out of his wits, he soon discovers that the aliens, Simon and Leonidas, aren’t planning to probe him… huge relief. Instead, after injecting Luke with nano-translators so he can understand them, they tell him that his parents, both astronauts who were pronounced dead during a failed mission to Mars, are still alive... and they need his help to rescue them from an evil spider-alien dictator named Drac Moor. There’s just one itsy bitsy catch. Luke will first need to be “reconditioned” so that he can withstand the harsh alien atmospheres that he’ll be subjected to. Oh… and it’s probably going to hurt a little. Follow along as Luke stumbles through one disaster after another, in an attempt to pull off a daring prison break and free his parents before it’s too late.

Among Wolves


R.A. Hakok - 2015
    It’s the last place you should be. Gabriel doesn't know how it began. Nobody does, not even Kane, and he was President. Gabriel was on a tour of the White House with Mags and the rest of Miss Kimble’s first-graders when it happened. They fled in helicopters to a long-abandoned mountain bunker, even as the first of the missiles found their targets.Ten years have passed, and Gabriel still lives deep inside the mountain, waiting for the world to thaw. But outside the ash-storms continue to rage, and supplies are running low. The President says it will be okay, but Gabriel isn’t so sure. He’s their scavenger; he’s seen what it’s like out there.Then one day Gabriel finds a bloodstained map. The blood’s not a problem, nor are the frozen remains of the person it once belonged to. Gabriel’s used to seeing dead bodies; there's far worse to be found in any Walmart or Piggly Wiggly you care to wander into. Except this one he recognizes, and it shouldn’t be here. Now all Gabriel can think is how he's going to make it back to the bunker to let the President know what he's found.But the map Gabriel has found is the key to a secret, one that has been buried for a decade. Gabriel's about to learn that inside the mountain things are not as they seem. And to get Mags and the others out he will need to face the thing that terrifies him most.

Forbidden the Stars


Valmore Daniels - 2010
    There is no trace of their young son, Alex Manez, or of the asteroid itself.On the outer edge of the solar system, the first manned mission to Pluto, led by the youngest female astronaut in NASA history, has led to an historic discovery: there is a marker left there by an alien race for humankind to find. We are not alone!While studying the alien marker, it begins to react and, four hours later, the missing asteroid appears in a Plutonian orbit, along with young Alex Manez, who has developed some alarming side-effects from his exposure to the kinetic element they call Kinemet. From the depths of a criminal empire based on Luna, an expatriate seizes the opportunity to wrest control of outer space, and takes swift action.The secret to faster-than-light speed is up for grabs, and the race for interstellar space begins! - The Interstellar Age -Book 1 - Forbidden The StarsBook 2 - Music of the SpheresBook 3 - Worlds Away

The Facility


Eliza Green - 2016
    With her life in tatters, she can’t shake the image of her parents’ murder by rebels who also wanted her dead.The facility needs to prepare Anya for the dangers beyond its gun-lined walls. Nine gruelling levels of tests await her before she can escape its hold. Success might mean freedom... but failure could kill her.A street-smart stranger with dubious underground connections tells Anya not to trust the facility. Still numb with grief, she ignores his warnings until two teenagers take their lives in front of her. Thrust into action, Anya pushes deeper into the game that pits teenagers against each other. To survive, she must choose a side. But she’s not sure who her enemy is.The right choice will guarantee Anya’s freedom. The wrong one will kill her...The Facility is the first book in the gritty science-fiction suspense series. If you like broken heroes, page-turning action, and intriguing twists you won't see coming, then you’ll love Eliza Green's fast-paced novel.Buy The Facility to join the game today!Note: The Facility used to be published as Feeder. The story is the same, just a different title.

The Final Six


Alexandra Monir - 2018
    After erratic climate change has made Earth a dangerous place to live, the fate of the population rests on the shoulders of the final six who will be scouting a new planet. Intense training, global scrutiny, and cutthroat opponents are only a few of the hurdles the contestants must endure in this competition.For Leo, the prospect of traveling to Europa—Jupiter’s moon—to help resettle humankind is just the sense of purpose he’s been yearning for since losing his entire family in the flooding of Rome. Naomi, after learning of a similar space mission that mysteriously failed, suspects the ISTC isn’t being up front with them about what’s at risk.As the race to the final six advances, the tests get more challenging—even deadly. With pressure mounting, Naomi finds an unexpected friend in Leo, and the two grow closer with each mind-boggling experience they encounter. But it’s only when the finalists become fewer and their destinies grow nearer that the two can fathom the full weight of everything at stake: the world, the stars, and their lives.

Sunreach


Brandon Sanderson - 2021
    Read FM's story between Starsight and Cytonic.When a planet-destroying Delver suddenly appears in the sky of Detritus and vanishes just as suddenly, FM knows that the last free human society got lucky. Her Skyward Flight companion, Spensa, figured out how to draw this Delver away, but it won’t be so easy next time.The forces of the Galactic Superiority will be back—and if the Defiant Defense Force can’t figure out a way to escape the planet, humanity’s destruction is only a matter of time. Spensa’s mission to infiltrate the Superiority unveiled the secret to their hyperdrives—a cytonic slug species called the Taynix. Now FM’s flightleader, Jorgen, has found a large group of Taynix hiding in the caverns far below Detritus’s surface.FM and Jorgen must work together with the engineer Rig to awaken the mysterious alien Alanik and unlock the powers of the Taynix, or humanity will be trapped. With Spensa’s friend Minister Cuna of the Superiority stranded at the outpost of Sunreach, they need to figure out how to rescue her—or the Superiority government will be in the sole clutches of those who want to wipe out Detritus once and for all.

A Larger Universe


James L. Gillaspy - 2010
    The kidnapping of Tommy (and his cat) begins an adventure among the stars, a coming of age story entangled with computers, faster-than-light travel, a dying civilization, and an ancient evil.On board the five-thousand-meter starship, he meets a crew of humans, descended from peasants, priests, and soldiers taken from Earth a thousand years before. He soon learns that all are slaves to the seldom-seen aliens inhabiting the upper third of the ship. His first months are spent in mindless work that he later learns is meant to domesticate his “feral” nature.Eventually, he is introduced to the reason for his kidnapping: Tommy is expected to replace the ancient and failing computers on the ship with computers taken from Earth, beginning with the long-dead missile controller, without which the ship is defenseless. After the new missile controller, with Tommy as its operator, successfully defends the ship against attack, his “benefactor,” one of the alien Nesu masters, directs him to replace the environmental and navigation computers. This work leads to revelations that the star drive is from still another alien group -- called the Guardians by the Nesu -- who, fifteen hundred years before, destroyed the Nesu home world and now block all scientific advancement in the local arm of the galaxy.Tommy’s determination to return to his family expands to include returning all the human slaves to Earth, using his control of the computers that now run the ship. With the help of a Nesu mathematician, will he also find a way to free the Nesu from their enthrallment by the Guardians and protect the Earth from the fate of the Nesu home world?