T-Rexes & Tax Law


Rachel Ford - 2019
    A strange lab. A mysterious button.He shouldn’t have pushed the button. But Alfred Favero, senior analyst with the IRS, pushed the button. And now he’s 67 million years in the past, stranded out of time with a coworker who hates him and a bunch of tax cheats.Oh, and then there’s the other inhabitants of his prehistoric home: the dinosaurs that want to make a meal of him. Things couldn’t get worse. Until a mysterious visitor from an uncertain future shows up with murder on his mind…

Revenger


Alastair Reynolds - 2016
    Planets have shattered and been remade. Amongst the ruins of alien civilizations, building our own from the rubble, humanity still thrives. And there are vast fortunes to be made, if you know where to find them.Captain Rackamore and his crew do. It's their business to find the tiny, enigmatic worlds which have been hidden away, booby-trapped, surrounded by layers of protection—and to crack them open for the ancient relics and barely-remembered technologies inside. But while they ply their risky trade with integrity, not everyone is so scrupulous. Adrana and Fura Ness are the newest members of Rackamore's crew, signed on to save their family from bankruptcy. Only Rackamore has enemies, and there might be more waiting for them in space than adventure and fortune: the fabled and feared Bosa Sennen in particular. Revenger is a science fiction adventure story set in the rubble of our solar system in the dark, distant future—a tale of space pirates, buried treasure, and phantom weapons, of unspeakable hazards and single-minded heroism and of vengeance...

Alive


Scott Sigler - 2015
    Total darkness. I hear my own breathing, but nothing else. I lift my head…it thumps against something solid and unmoving. There is a board right in front of my face. No, not a board…a lid.A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people…and no answers.She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust one another.Whatever the truth is, she is determined to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they survive. Maybe there's a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot comprehend lies just beyond the next turn.

The Earthling (Soldiers of Earthrise Book 1)


Daniel Arenson - 2019
     Jon Taylor is an Earthling. He doesn't care much about space. At least until his brother dies on Bahay, a war-torn planet many light-years away. After the funeral, Jon joins the army. He learns to kill. And he flies to Bahay, sworn to avenge his brother. Centuries ago, Filipino colonists arrived on Bahay to build a utopia. But this world has become a nightmare. Jon finds himself in a dizzying dreamscape, a world of dark jungles and neon slums, of ruthless guerrillas and intoxicating bargirls, of blood-soaked battlefields and glittering brothels. Here on Bahay, a man can lose his life in the jungle, lose his sanity in the gleaming drug dens, or lose his heart to a local girl with a sweet smile and knife behind her back. On Bahay, nothing is as it seems. In this place of strange dreams and secrets, Jon hunts the man who killed his brother. But he learns that revenge always comes with a price... If you loved Ender's Game, Starship Troopers, and Battlestar Galactica, you'll love The Earthling, a new tale in the bestselling Earthrise universe.

Drake's Rift


Nate Johnson - 2017
    The vicious rat-faced bastards will stop at nothing until all humanity is either dead or enslaved. The only thing that can save the people of Intrepid are the Imperial Marines. The only thing that can save the galaxy itself, is the Imperial Navy. Never before in human history has so much depended upon so few. Admiral McKenzie is very aware that the continuation of the human race rests on his shoulders. Through grit, determination, skill, and deception he will use whatever or whoever he must to win. His fleet of starships and their crews are the best ever. But will they be enough to defeat this new threat? Sergeant Dex Carter finds himself and a few fellow Marines behind enemy lines. He is tasked with holding the small village of Drake’s Rift, the key crossroads that might very well determine the outcome of the war. Alicia Miller wanted adventure, but having aliens invade her home was not on her list. She and the people of Drake’s Rift neve expected to become the center of an inter-galactic war. While providence may have thrust her into this role. Toughness and determination will see her through it.

Capital Falling


Lance Winkless - 2019
    While a viral epidemic hammers London, Andy finds himself trapped in the epicenter, forced to protect his family. Together with his young daughter, he leads a small group of survivors toward latent refuge, all the while searching for his missing son and infantryman; this is the ultimate game of survival. With those infected displaying brutal, inhuman behavior and caught up in a climate of martial law, no one can be trusted. Old connections may help to unravel this mystery virus, but the resultant hellscape means Andy and his group meet danger at every turn. Stakes are high, and failing means a fate worse than death... ------------------------ The perfect tale for troubled times, Capital Falling delivers dark thrills and surprising sentiment—twisted, cerebral fun. You’ll race to the end like your life depends on it...

Start


Odette C. Bell - 2014
    So imagine her surprise when she is detailed for a mission to the dark and mysterious planet Remus 12. Strange things are afoot on Remus 12, a dust-bowl which according to legend bursts to life once every five thousand years – with deadly consequences for the galaxy. So join Nida as she deals, using all her accustomed style and flair, with the presence of a strange and uninvited guest in her own head, a commander who is convinced she’s the Coalition’s worst recruit in one thousand years, and an uncomfortably handsome Lieutenant Carson Blake.

Earthrise


M.C.A. Hogarth - 2013
    So when a mysterious benefactor from her past shows up demanding she rescue a man from slavers, her first reaction is to run for the hills. Unfortunately, she did promise to repay the loan. But she didn't think it would involve tangling with pirates over a space elf prince...Book 1 of the Her Instruments trilogy is a rollicking adventure set in the expansive Pelted universe, and kicks off an epic space opera series where the fate of worlds hangs in the balance. Fans who enjoyed Firefly or Andromeda will like this series. Rating: PG-13 for violenceTags: found family, woman protagonist, minority/POC protagonist, adventure, space opera, romance, furries, space elves

The Word Reclaimed


Steve Rzasa - 2009
    Tolerance now rules the five colonies. Thanks to the secret police, no one has been bothered by so much as a hymn in two generations-much less a Torah, Koran, or that most dangerous of books, a Bible. Baden is a teenager with an attitude. He spends his spare time salvaging wrecks in deep space, claiming for himself whatever the pirates leave behind. One day, Baden finds a book. A strange and very old book, preserved carefully against the ravages of deep space. Thinking he'll become rich if only for the value of the paper, he takes it. He counts himself lucky beyond all imagining. Until it begins talking to him. Amidst an interstellar war that threatens to overthrow the monarchy and drive great families to oblivion, Baden must evade the secret police and their attempts to get that book. Baden never had much use for religion. But it seems one has use of him. *** Steve Rzasa was born and raised in South Jersey, and fell in love with books-especially science fi cti on novels and historical volumes-at an early age. He and his wife, Carrie, have two boys and live in Buff alo, Wyoming. Steve's short story, "Rescued," which is set in the universe of The World Reclaimed, won the 2009 G.K. Chesterton Award in the Athanatos Christi an Ministries Writi ng Contest.

Mission Zero


S.J. MacDonald - 2011
    After a PR disaster has activists and media storming the Admiralty gates, First Lord Dix Harangay sends Minnow out on a makework patrol. Inspector Mako Ireson goes with them to investigate what’s really going on. Mako has never been on a starship before. He can’t tell port from starboard, doesn’t know what the 0-G sign means at freefall hatchways, and may need to change his underwear after the launch.Nobody is expecting that the “mission zero” they've been sent on will turn into a real operation. When it does, the Minnow’s crew has to rise to the challenge and justify their skipper’s faith in them.This is the first mission of the legendary Fourth Fleet Irregulars, the unit you send for when you need a miracle.For Mako Ireson, it will be the adventure of a lifetime.

The Lazarus Protocol


David Bruns - 2018
    Monster hurricanes … freak sandstorms … roasting wildfires. Species disappear every day. Is humanity next?Though some believe our future lies among the stars, the American President funds the Lazarus Protocol—a last-ditch attempt to reverse Earth’s climate crisis through geoengineering. But the New Earth Order—a mysterious league of reactionary activists with sleeper agents around the world—pursues another outcome: the subjugation of mankind to nature itself.A brilliant billionaire who wants to save the world. A lunar engineer called home to bury her father. A disgraced veteran haunted by yesterday's mistakes. A US Army colonel, desperate to save as many people as possible.Four lives. One planet. And one last chance to save it…

The Inventor's Secret


Andrea Cremer - 2014
    Though they live by the skin of their teeth they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape from the coastal cities or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks.The Inventor’s Secret is the first book of a YA steampunk series set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery.

Starship Relic


Darcy Troy Paulin - 2020
    Secret histories. And squids. In space.Max is completing a survey in the barren, frozen north of planet Grailliyn, when he makes a startling discovery. There's a high-tech pod buried beneath the ice, and inside the pod is a young woman. She speaks his language, but with a strange accent.The two are barely past awkward introductions when they are attacked. Max and his new friend are forced to flee. The worst part? They don't even know who is trying to kill them, or why.Now, with assassins on their tail, the duo must find a way off the planet without blowing their cover. And then, if they can do that without getting eaten by space monsters, they might just find out the truth about their world.Starship Relic is book one of the Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy, a sci-fi space opera adventure with spaceships, alien contact, deep conspiracies, wise-cracking characters, and lots of pew-pew (space battle action).Content rating: All ages, teen and up. Minimal language.

Off Armageddon Reef


David Weber - 2007
    But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they've built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever.800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This "rebirth" was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, "Nimue" - or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban - is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, "Nimue" takes a new gender and a new name, "Merlin." His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he'll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that's just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new era of invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Church...and, inevitably, lead to war.

A Girl from Nowhere


James Maxwell - 2020
    No one knows it better than Taimin. Crippled, and with only his indomitable aunt to protect him, Taimin must learn to survive in a world scorched by two suns and frequented by raiders.But when Taimin discovers his homestead ransacked and his aunt killed, he sets off with one mission: to seek revenge against those who stole everything. With nowhere to call home, his hunt soon takes a turn when he meets a mystic, Selena, who convinces him to join her search for the fabled white city. Taimin and Selena both need refuge, and the white city is a place where Taimin may find someone to heal his childhood injury.As they avoid relentless danger, Taimin and Selena attempt to reach the one place that promises salvation. And they can only hope that the city is the haven they need it to be…