Book picks similar to
Through the Gate by L.J. Dalton Jr.


sci-fi
science-fiction
sounds-bad
genre-sf

On The Rocks


Peter Rhodan - 2020
    First the routine destruction of some ancient automatic defence batteries became a disaster when his ship’s screens failed and he had no choice to abandon ship. Then he had to rescue two left behind crew people which meant he missed the main shuttle evacuation leaving him and his two companions in a shuttle on their own at the rear. Then the shuttle was hit by enemy fire just as they traversed the jump point, of course! This sent the shuttle through something to somewhere but not the safe system the rest of the crew had jumped to! The damage to the shuttle meant they would need a dockyard or failing that they would have to land on a planet to affect repairs which seemed likely as the system had no electronic signature, so space docks looked unlikely. The third planet was in fact inhabited, but by primitives armed with swords and spears, probably an old Imperial colony that had been cut off and regressed tech-wise. They should be able to land and repair their shuttle somewhere out of the way except of course the engines decided to fail halfway down! This led to a close encounter with the side of a mountain, followed by a crash landing into a lake. And then his day got really bad!

Lt. Reilly 2321:


Matthew O. Duncan - 2020
    Released on a medical discharge shortly after the end of the war with the Serkins, he went out into the galaxy looking for a job. Signing onto the Glacier Runner 17, an old and rundown cargo ship, Rielly finds himself working for a clueless captain, mixed-up in an intergalactic conspiracy, on the run from assassins, and involved with two women in relationships that he could only call "complicated". Fans of Matthew O. Duncan will recognize the universe as the same as from the New Terra Sagas, but this is not a sequel. This is a stand-alone spin-off with new characters, new worlds, and in a different format. Told in the first person from Reilly's perspective, this is a fast-moving, non-stop sci-fi adventure.

War INC: Ace Evans Series book 1


Toby Neighbors - 2020
    Getting into a mechanized battle suit isn’t easy, and controlling the powerful war machine shouldn’t be possible without Ahzco’s secret Implanted Neural Control (INC) chip, but Alex is about to do something no one on a hundred worlds has ever done. And his life is never going to be the same. In the future, mega corporations control entire star systems and are even more powerful than the government. Competition isn’t just big business — it’s war! Join Alex Evans as he gets fast-tracked into Ahzco’s Corporate Defense Force and the world of mechanized warfare. There are secrets that people will kill to keep, and dangers that can’t be avoided. The company opens the entire galaxy to a young man from a colony planet, but Alex must determine if he can trust that Ahzco has his best interests in mind. Or if he’s just another pawn in their corporate games. War INC is a fantastic coming of age story set in a classic sci-fi universe in the vein of Starship Troopers, the Frontline books, and Star Wars. Author Toby Neighbors is a master storyteller with over fifty published novels, who writes at a spellbinding pace. War INC is the first book in a new space opera series suitable for all ages.

The Final Dawn


T.W.M. Ashford - 2020
    Desperate to save his wife, he signs up for a dangerous wormhole experiment… but something goes catastrophically wrong, and Jack finds himself cast into the Stellar Abyss.Rescued by a ship of sentient automata on the run from a criminal warlord, Jack discovers a thriving intergalactic community on humanity’s doorstep. They have the technology to save Earth. The problem is, nobody’s ever heard of the place… and the androids are more interested in finding a mythical sanctuary than taking Jack home.Jack wanted to escape Earth. Now he has to find a way back there – before it’s too late.The Final Dawn is the first book in the Final Dawn series. If you like page-turning space operas, then you’ll love this epic science fiction adventure.

Harbinger


Olan Thorensen - 2020
    Nothing will ever be the same.Humanity lurches into an uncertain future, dismissive of warning signs. Only the most naïve believe humanity will step back from the brink. Yet, in a place that doesn’t exist, a riddle, puzzle, hope, fear, danger, salvation—all come together.Zach Marjek has faced death in the far corners of the Earth . . . and survived where others failed. He is about to be thrust into an unimagined situation. Jaded mercenaries, an Inuit wanderer, a murderous Yupik, a young mother, a video game designer, a retired general, a new president, a Chinese marine, mathematics prodigies: these and others whose lives and fates will come together to revolve around a mystery whose consequences could range from disaster to salvation.As the mystery unravels, a danger unbeknownst to the players lurks and prepares to take what cannot be taken. Lives and the future hang by the thinnest of threads.

Foothold For A Loner


Max Glebow - 2020
    Then one day the Empire discovers another human civilization millions of light-years away, but it lags behind technologically. This distant civilization is also in a war for its very existence. The Empire sees a chance for its salvation by joining with this potential ally. A portal consisting of a pair of hypergates on each side is needed, however. Meanwhile, the Empire's Brigadier General Dean has been exposed to deadly radiation in battle with the aliens, and he is preparing to meet his death. Unexpectedly, he is offered to take part in a top-secret experimental project -- to have his mind transferred into the brain of an incurably sick young man lying in a coma in that distant human civilization. Dean’s task in this new body is to find a cure for his disease, then make a military career, strive to a high position in their society and ultimately to ensure that a second hyper-portal gate is built so that it will connect the two civilizations.

Darwin's World


Jack L. Knapp - 2014
    You’re on your own in a way that few have ever experienced. Would you really want the chance to face evolution? To survive if you’re fit, perish if you’re not?A select few have found themselves transplanted to a world where there are no native humans, where they have that ultimate freedom; now what?Surviving won’t be easy. There are predators, huge ones. They’re better adapted to Darwin’s World than humans are. Predators such as existed in Earth’s Pleistocene, saber-tooth cats, short-faced bears, and dire wolves. Plus the other predators that survived the Pleistocene extinction, lions, wolves, jaguars, things like that.And some of the predators are human…

Orphan Wars


J.N. Chaney - 2021
    Hank Murphy discovers an alien artifact on the Moon, corporate interests are quick to get involved.A discovery like this could change everything, but more importantly, someone stands to make a fortune.But Murphy just wants to understand what this thing is and how it works. After months of research, he finally manages to locate the power source.The gate is soon activated...And Murphy is pulled through.Moments later, he finds himself in a war-torn corner of the galaxy where strangers like him are called Orphans...and they are considered extremely dangerous.Somehow altered by the experience, the archeologist now has enhanced strength, speed, and agility. He is more than human. He is an Orphan. And he must survive a deadly new reality unlike anything he can imagine.Worse still, Murphy is not the only so-called Orphan in this region of the galaxy. There are many others.And not all of them are created equal.

The Bounty Hunter


Jasper T. Scott - 2020
    What he didn’t know was who he’d end up hunting.When it suited the Coalition, Cade was a Paladin, a member of their elite special forces. He did their dirty work and cleaned up their messes. Until his dark ops went public, and Cade was drummed out of the service with a dishonorable discharge. As if he’d ever been doing anything but following orders.Forced to the fringes of society by his service record, Cade broke the law just to survive. Then the Enforcers caught him, and he served his time. Sick of the hypocrisy in the supposedly utopian Coalition, he crossed over to the other side and made a life among his former enemies in the Free Systems Alliance. Now he hunts the galaxy’s worst lowlifes, for a fee, and the only orders he takes are his own.But when his past catches up with him, Cade is forced to fight for more than just credits…This time, he’s in it for revenge.

Forget the Alamo!


Drew McGunn - 2017
    Alive is good. Except he finds himself at the Alamo in 1836 in the body of another man doomed to die. If history repeats itself, Santa Anna is coming soon and the Alamo will fall, along with himself and 189 others. In a race against time itself, Will uses his knowledge of the future to change the past. He will use every means necessary, even if it means abandoning the fort. He is determined to forget the Alamo!

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium Book 1)


Travis Starnes - 2021
    

Survivor: World of Monsters


Michael Brightburn - 2019
    But when the biggest movie star of this generation wakes up in an unfamiliar jungle without his Range Rover or even a single one of his assistants, he'll have to draw on his childhood as a boy scout if he's to have any chance of surviving. There's just one problem: he was never actually a boy scout, he only played one on TV. This is a story about alien worlds and the end of the world, monster girls and straight-up monsters, and how by losing it all, one man can become something greater than he ever could have imagined.

Cast Adrift


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2021
    Over the years, humans have grown used to their position within the empire, serving as soldiers and spacers for alien masters as well as building a place in the universe for themselves. But now, in the aftermath of a violent interstellar war that shattered the power of the Alphans, humanity has rediscovered its pride. Humanity wants to be free.Facing a war they will lose even if they win, the Alphans give humanity its independence once again. Humanity stands alone in a hostile universe, facing alien threats that regard humans as nothing more than servants - or weaklings, easy meat for armed conquest. And if the human race cannot learn to stand on its own two feet, without its masters, it will rapidly discover that it has traded one set of masters for another ...... And if they lose the coming war, all hope of independence will die with it.

The Sun's Blood: A Progression Sci-Fi Adventure (Heirs of Sun and Storm Book 1)


Jeremy Bai - 2021
    The Counter-Cultivation division investigates, the elite Black Corpses are sent in for the kill. None are spared. Mercy does not exist.But did the cultivators really bring the War of Tribulation? Are they actually responsible for the Heavenly Curse? Are they truly the bloodthirsty psychopaths the government paints them to be?Wang Fan, a homicide detective, believes that officers like himself are tasked with championing the rights of the common citizens. But when a seemingly routine case goes awry, he finds himself dragged into the darkness of the cultivation world. By the time he realizes the Black Corpses have their sniper rifles aimed at the back of his head, Wang Fan has no choice.He has to fight the system to survive.

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.