Book picks similar to
Starcaster by J.N. Chaney


science-fiction
sci-fi
fantasy
scifi

Weapons Free


Daniel Gibbs - 2021
    One vicious attack destroys it all.Reservist Lieutenant Justin Spencer loves every minute of flying fighters through space during his annual two-week tour with the Coalition Defense Force. The job back home isn’t nearly as thrilling as blowing up asteroids with the squadron under his command, but it keeps him close to his wife and daughter. After all, joining the CDF was only for the free education. Justin never expected a battle, much less a war.With one shot across his cockpit, peacetime fades into memory.An unexpected enemy emerges with overwhelming force designed to obliterate the Terran Coalition. The League of Sol has a different name, but it’s the same communist regime that chased away much of Earth’s population hundreds of years ago.Illusions of returning home are shattered in a single instant. Simulated battles become all too real, and it’s full-on engagement or permanent elimination. Death and destruction erupt across the Terran Coalition and leave Justin in a protracted war with only one truth remaining.The battlefield will leave no one unscathed.

REV


T.R. Harris - 2018
    He’d gone on more Runs and killed more aliens than any single Human alive. He’d been one of the early volunteers for the NT-4 Program, which used a powerful performance-enhancing drug to turn ordinary Marines into super killing machines. Affectionately called REV, the drug wasn’t for everyone. Few made it through the screening process, and fewer still into the Fleet.Zac was the most-senior REV alive, a miracle of science and a legend in the Corps. His job was to be the battering ram for the Marines, the first in while revved up on NT-4. During a Run he was a mindless killing machine, dangerous to both foe and friend alike. That’s why his fellow Marines gave him a wide berth until he could be put down by the Twilight drug. At that point he was somewhat manageable.But something was happening to Zac. Long after most other REVs were dead, burned out or ‘retired,’ he was growing stronger, more powerful.He was also doing something else unheard of for a REV on a Run. He was beginning to think.

Strange Company


Nick Cole - 2021
    Best to steer clear of the freaks in Voodoo, kid.”Surrounded and outgunned, a group of private military contractors known as “Strange Company” find themselves on a remote planet at the edge of known space, and on the losing end of a bad contract. Orbital D-beam strikes, dropships bristling with auto-guns, missiles, and troops - even Monarch space marines in state-of-the-art advanced battle rattle - will try to prevent the company from reaching the exfil LZ and getting off-world.For Strange, that means it’s time to hang tough and get it on with as much hyper-kinetic violence as they can muster to get clear of the whole mess. And what the Strange can’t get done by violent assault and crazy firefights, they’ll get done by the freaks of Voodoo Platoon - operators who have been changed by the Dark Labs into powerful and unnervingly unnatural asymmetrical weapons.This is the Strange Company. Because in the Strange, it’s always really Strange. Join them - and get ready for full auto combat at the furthest limits of human exploration.

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.

Survivors


Toby Neighbors - 2021
    Once a proud member of the Fleet Marine Corps’ elite Terrestrial Advance Combat teams, the battle on colony planet Luyten C left him broken and scarred. But after a year of surgeries and physical therapy, he’s ready to complete his enlistment as Master of Arms on the exploration vessel Rihla. It should be a simple, stress free assignment - but things rarely work out as they should.For decades humanity’s efforts to spread across the galaxy have been hampered by the violent Orrkasi, an intelligent, space faring race of which little is known. But Staff Sergeant Vanhorn is no stranger to the Orrkasi. He’s a veteran with eight combat engagements, a harden warrior, a man who knows how to improvise, adapt, and overcome. But he’s facing challenges he never expected before. His body is crippled and scarred, the TAC Team brotherhood he once thrived in see him as a pariah, and he’s haunted by the horrors of combat. Just getting through his first cruise after returning to active duty won’t be easy.When the explorer ship Rihla reaches the Leonis system after almost a month in hyperspace, they find a habitable planet with a rich atmosphere, liquid water, and the ideal climate. It’s a perfect world for human colonization, but they aren’t the first to arrive and the Orrkasi have a surprise waiting for them.Survivors is an exciting military science fiction novel by master storyteller Toby Neighbors for fans of Starship Troopers, First Blood, Battle Los Angeles, and Heartbreak Ridge. With a cinematic feel, and characters you’ll love, Survivors is a smashing first book in a series that you’re sure to want more of.

Odyssey One


Evan Currie - 2011
    Assigned the task of blazing man's first trail into that great unknown, Captain Eric Weston and the crew of the NAC Odyssey launch on a mission destined to make history.Past the bounds of comfort, they encounter horrors and wonders beyond their imagining, with people and monsters beyond reckoning.Odyssey One is the first voyage of the NAC Odyssey and its crew, and the beginnings of a Military Science Fiction Epic that combines both old school space opera, and modern storytelling in one great, exhilarating adventure.Odyssey One is a 150,000 word novel.

Zenith


James David Victor - 2017
    A missing crew. Only one marine can save them. Sergeant Andrea “Andy” Dolan leads a squad of fearless marines into the depths of space. After the Star Chaser receives a distress call from the star base Zenith, Andy’s squad is sent to investigate. When all heck breaks lose, there is only one person who can save the crew of the Zenith and her own squad. Zenith is the first book in the ESS Space Marines series. If you like fast paced space adventures with engaging, and quirky, characters, you will love Zenith. Buy Zenith and get started on your next space adventure!

Dead Heroes (War's Edge)


Ryan W. Aslesen - 2020
     In the 35th Century, mankind has colonized vast reaches of space, yet war remains constant as galactic governments and interstellar corporations fight for control of resource-rich planets and lucrative interstellar trade routes. And if centuries of war has taught man one thing, it's that planets are valuable and lives are cheap. In a desperate attempt to escape his current life, Mark Rizer drops out of his prestigious university and enlists in the elite Marines of the United Systems Alliance defense forces. It's a decision that will take him across the galaxy, first to endure a sadistic boot camp designed to transform him into a ruthless killing machine, and then to join the ranks of the hardened Marines of Murder Company. Deployed to Verdant, a remote jungle moon at the edge of Alliance space, Mark finds himself fighting a ghostly enemy in an unending conflict where victories are measured in body counts and death is the only ticket home. The daily grind of combat patrols transforms good men into cold-blooded killers and weak ones into bitter memories. At the bleeding edge of space, Mark learns the true cost of war as he fights for his life, his platoon mates, and his humanity. In the 35th Century, war has evolved. Man hasn't.Warning: This book contains graphic violence, profanity, and sexual content. It is intended for a mature audience. Reader discretion is advised.

Rebel's Call: A Military Sci-Fi Series


Jamie McFarlane - 2021
    Fewer survive. Join the elite at Space Academy and fulfill your destiny today!Separated at birth, orphaned twins Peyton and Jai Foster’s lives couldn’t be more different. Raised by a billionaire, Peyton Foster has been taught that anything other than first place is failure. With her adoptive family’s name dangled like a carrot, she’ll need to not only get accepted to Space Academy but finish at the top of her class.Raised in a group shelter one step from the streets, Jai Foster has earned every meal he’s ever eaten. Discovering early that his penchant for technology gave him an undeniable advantage, Jai manages to earn a spot to the Academy with hopes of securing a future better than as some low-level corporate cog.When fellow cadets are callously murdered for failing training exercises, the orphaned twins discover that the corporations controlling the solar system are far more sinister than they could’ve ever imagined. When terrorist attacks leave millions dead, Academy’s cadets are drafted to fight the latest corporate war.But what happens when the twins discover that the terrorist enemy they’re fighting isn’t the real enemy? Will a pair of orphans follow the orders of an immoral corporation or will they find that fighting against tyranny is worth everything?Experience the start of an exciting new Military Sci-Fi series by Amazon Bestsellers Jamie McFarlane and Rachel Aukes. Join the fight today!

Earth Alone


Daniel Arenson - 2016
    They came to destroy us. Fifty years ago, bloodthirsty aliens devastated the Earth. Most of humanity perished. We fell into darkness. But now we rise from the ashes. Now we fight back. Marco Emery was born into the war. After his mother is killed, he joins the Human Defense Force, Earth's ragtag army. Emery must survive basic training, become a soldier, and finally face the aliens in battle. Against the alien onslaught, Earth stands alone. But we will fight. We will rise. We will win.

Dryker's Folly: Book 1 in Void Wraith Origins


Chris Fox - 2020
    Before the Eradication.One man had a chance to stop it all, and failed...Captain Dryker is a washed up vet mining on the fringes of the Kuiper belt. He loads rocks into the Folly’s railgun, and fires them back to his corporate overlords on Earth. Boring, just the way he likes it. Until one day it isn’t.An alien signal bursts from Pluto, which as it turns out is neither a planet, nor a planetoid body. It is an ancient defense satellite activated because it detected the return of the Vuka Spectra. The Void Wraith.Dryker is the closest ship on the scene, but not the only one vying for the prize. Hostile aliens have emerged from our sun using something called a Helios Gate. The savage Tigris have come not just for the satellite, but to conquer Earth.Dryker’s only hope is finding something, anything, within the installation to counter the alien’s superior technology and save mankind.The prequel to the Void Wraith Saga. Learn how it all began...

A Soldier's Duty


Jean Johnson - 2011
    To prevent this vision from coming true, Ia enlists in the Terran United Planets military with a plan to become a soldier who will inspire generations for the next three hundred years-a soldier history will call Bloody Mary.

Columbus Day


Craig Alanson - 2016
    And that was the good news. The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy, our allies are. I'd better start at the beginning....

Control


T.R. Cameron - 2020
    He can rise no higher.Or so he thought.His superior sees more in him and is sending him to a place that will change his life.Welcome to Azophi Academy.A different kind of second chance.Jackson learns fast - the academy believes in active participation – even if you die trying.Can Jackson cope with Cia, his new partner and pilot? She’s unlike him in every way and enjoys making sure he knows it.He’ll have to learn a lot - and fast - if he’s going to survive the Azophi experience. More importantly, humanity needs him to survive, because the aliens are training their best too.Who will have the greatest warriors?

Prominence


A.C. Hadfield - 2017
    Or way of life. They tried to send us into extinction. But we, the Coalition, fought them and won. That was a decade ago. We had assumed they were beaten for good. We were wrong. They’re known as the Host: a cabal of aliens seeking to dominate our sector of space. And they’re back—with help from a powerful new enemy. Against their wrath, we must stand. We’re outnumbered and unprepared. If we lose, we lose everything. But there is hope. An ancient race of long-dead but technologically advanced aliens called the Navigators have a ship called the Blackstar that could potentially turn the tide. That is if I, Kai Locke, a humble ship racer, can find it and learn how to harness its power in time. If I fail, the Coalition will fall, and the Host will consign us to a distant memory. I refuse to let that happen. I will fight to my last breath for the Coalition’s survival.