Book picks similar to
Icarus by Matt Verish


science-fiction
sci-fi
space-opera
scifi

The Pattern Ship


Tobias Roote - 2013
    All that remains are humans, who have yet to evolve sufficiently to bypass their own shortcomings and unify as a race to work toward a common goal.The alien, Zirkos, chooses to befriend a US Vet named Zeke Callaghan who possesses a rare component he needs to complete his spaceship's revival - an exotic meteor fragment currently buried in Zeke's head. A bond is forged between the two bringing with it remarkable technological advances in personal safety and an end to humanity's incessant demand for war. The breakthrough ultimately proves a catalyst to launch humanity into space.From there events quickly take on a life of their own as the duo battle to bring Earth to a state of readiness to defend them from the approaching threat of 'The Nubl'.

Ark Royal


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2014
    -Royal Navy Motto Seventy years ago, the interstellar supercarrier Ark Royal was the pride of the Royal Navy. But now, her weapons are outdated and her solid-state armour nothing more than a burden on her colossal hull. She floats in permanent orbit near Earth, a dumping ground for the officers and crew the Royal Navy wishes to keep out of the public eye. But when a deadly alien threat appears, the modern starships built by humanity are no match for the powerful alien weapons. Ark Royal and her mismatched crew must go on the offensive, buying time with their lives. And yet, with a drunkard for a Captain, an over-ambitious first officer and a crew composed of reservists and the dregs of the service, do they have even the faintest hope of surviving......and returning to an Earth which may no longer be there?

Generation


J.J. Green - 2016
    For the efficient if quick-tempered Jas, that hasn’t been too hard up till now. But the captain is drug-addled, and he’s hungry for the bonuses he gets from finding valuable resources on new worlds. When the captain won’t listen to Jas’ fears about a mysterious planet, he is compromised by contact with a strange life form. A life form that threatens to take over the entire ship and return to Earth, where it can spread its deadly infection.Now Jas is in a race against time, fighting to quarantine the alien infection and prevent the aliens from achieving their goal: Generation. She doesn't realize it yet, but as she fights to save her crew, the future of all humanity hangs in the balance.

Cosega Search


Brandt Legg - 2014
    What he finds is beyond imagining. It unleashes a mystery older than recorded time, rewrites human history, and promises to change the planet’s future. It must be suppressed.The most powerful forces in the world align against him, and a deadly competition for the artifact ensues. Capturing Gaines is not enough--everyone who has seen the artifact must be killed. His only hope is to stay alive long enough to decode the Cosega Sequence. Dig far enough into the past . . . you may just discover the future.

Star Shroud


Ken Lozito - 2016
    Now they need our help. A hacker makes one of the biggest discoveries that will forever change the world. A NASA pilot whose secret abilities may be the key to humanity’s survival. Kept secret for 60 years, the discovery of an alien signal forces an unlikely team to investigate a mysterious structure discovered in the furthest reaches of the solar system. Join the crew of the Athena, Earth’s most advanced space ship on the ultimate journey beyond our wildest imagining. Strap yourself in. The Star Shroud is the first book in this action-packed space opera series. Readers describe them as “a cross between David Weber and John Ringo.” If you like space opera adventure stories with clever heroes, impossible situations, and chilling discoveries, then you’re in for a fun nonstop thrill ride. Read it now! Find out why thousands of readers have fallen for Ken Lozito’s thrilling series! What readers are saying about the Ascension series: “Hard to put down!” - Amazon Reviewer “Buckle up and hang on tight. You’re in for a wild ride!"  - Ed Ramos ”Fantastic! One of the best SciFi books I have read in a long time."  - Harold Wilson ”Refreshing approach to sci-fi-fi. Fast paced and believable."  - T I Muller “Fantastic feel of classic sci-fi which grows into a modern space opera.” - Amazon Reviewer Scroll up and buy the series today!

Daisy's Run


Scott Baron - 2018
    They were still alive, after all, which was always a plus in her book. Now if only she could figure out who, or what, was endangering her return home, things would be just peachy. It had been one hell of a way to start the day––being rudely snapped from a deep cryo-sleep, and in the middle of a ship-wide crisis to boot––but Daisy was pleased to note that the ship had not decompressed, the crew hadn’t been blasted into space, and, most importantly, they hadn’t simply blown up. At least not yet. So, they had that going for them, but being stuck on a damaged ship in the inky depths of space as it limped toward Earth was not exactly the relaxing trip home she’d imagined. With the powerful AI supercomputer guiding the craft beginning to show some disconcerting quirks of its own, and its unsettling cyborg assistant nosing into her affairs, Daisy’s unease was rapidly growing. Add to the mix a crew of mechanically-enhanced humans, any one of whom she suspected might not be what they seemed, and Daisy found herself with a sense of pending dread tickling the periphery of her mind. Something was very much not right––she could feel it in her bones. The tricky part now was going to be figuring out what the threat was, before it could manifest from a mere sinking feeling in her gut into a potentially deadly reality.

Rookie Privateer


Jamie McFarlane - 2014
    When you are old enough to finally become an Earth Mars citizen, everything should be perfect. Right? Not for Liam Hoffen. He's stuck on a mining asteroid called Colony 40, helping his father work a claim that is never going to pay out. His best friend, Nick James is set for life in James' Rental business and Liam just discovered that the girl he's known forever thinks he's pretty great and now she's leaving for the Mars Naval Academy. Liam dreams of sailing the stars. Whenever he gets the chance, he jets into space and floats, wishing to be free of the asteroid that has claimed him. What he doesn't realize is that fate is about to change everything. Sometimes you have to lose parts of yourself to gain the stars, and Liam discovers that while it isn't easy to literally lose parts of yourself to the pirates who attacked your home, gaining the stars is worth everything. He and Nick are about to find out what the real world has to offer and they end up meeting exciting people along the way.

Frontier Justice


Arthur T. Bradley - 2013
    Governments have collapsed. Cities have become graveyards filled with unspeakable horror. People have resorted to scavenging from the dead, or taking from the living. The entire industrialized world has become a wasteland of abandoned cars, decaying bodies, and feral animals. To stay alive, U.S. Deputy Marshal Mason Raines must forage for food, water, and gasoline while outgunning those who seek to take advantage of the apocalyptic anarchy. Together with his giant Irish wolfhound, Bowie, he aligns with survivors of the town of Boone in a life and death struggle against a gang of violent criminals. With each deadly encounter, Mason is forced to accept his place as one of the nation's few remaining lawmen. In a world now populated by escaped convicts, paranoid mutants, and government hit squads, his only hope to save the townspeople is to enforce his own brand of frontier justice.

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.

Flagship


Isaac Hooke - 2016
    Or broken.

Peace Force


Simon Haynes - 2018
    She dislikes puzzles, has never read a detective mystery, and hates wearing uniforms. So why did the Peace Force pick her?Who cares? Harriet needs the money, and she's happy to go along with the training for as long as they keep paying her. She'd better dig out some of those detective mysteries though, because she's about to embark on her first real mission ...

The Legacy Human


Susan Kaye Quinn - 2014
    But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is. The Legacy Human is the first in a philosophical HopePunk sci-fi series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.

Earth Strike


Ian Douglas - 2010
    Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary—by total annihilation if necessary.To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe—along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray.There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict—and quite possibly its last.

Neptune Crossing


Jeffrey A. Carver - 1994
    Urged by the alien quarx now sharing his mind, he accepts an audacious mission—to steal a ship and hurtle across the solar system in a desperate bid for Earth's survival.

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.