Book picks similar to
The Store of the Worlds by Robert Sheckley


sci-fi
all-shorts
apocalyptic
parallel-universes

RESET: Book 3 of the Obsolescence Trilogy


Chris Muhlenfeld - 2018
    While his friends go on a desperate search to find him, the planet continues to unravel. Will they find him before it’s too late?Humanity’s next great leap in evolution is starting to look like the trap that Alexa had always suspected it was.A frantic escalation of action drags the world unwillingly to a mind-bending climax that will have you on the edge of your seat. Will anyone survive obsolescence? Grab your copy now. RESET is the final book in The Obsolescence Trilogy. Plausible, near-future sci-fi that's full of rich, insightful characters and compelling ideas. Make time now because you’ll be hooked instantly once you start reading this thrilling page-turner. Get it now.

Void Blade (The Transcended #5)


Anthony James - 2019
     The enemy are down but they not defeated. The detonation of the galaxy bomb has brought something new into the fight. The Scions are not a natural living species and now their mysterious creator has taken an interest in the human Confederation. The Hyranus is coming and it has power beyond anything known. Left unchecked, it will not only rebuild the Scion fleet, but destroy humanity in the process. Keller and Nation are given a mission with incredible scope and if it succeeds, it will end the fight once and for all. Somehow, they must accomplish the impossible and subdue an alien god. This time, the Confederation does not stand alone. An ally from the distant past has once more taken an interest in the affairs of the universe. The Ghasts have returned and they have not been idle. Their spaceships are fitted with the only weapon capable of tipping the scales. Even the invulnerable Hyranus can be hurt by the void blade… Void Blade is a high-action science fiction adventure involving massive space battles, overwhelming odds and exciting technologies. It continues the Transcended series and picks up straight after book 4: Galaxy Bomb.

The Last Builder


Simeon Graves - 2017
    We've spread to other galaxies and continue to thrive as a vast civilization. But calamity looms on the horizon. Little do our people know that a long-gestating killer, called The Keresian Virus, will soon decimate 99.99% of our population.  One of the few people aware of the government cover-up is Cutler Copeland. Not only is he immune to the virus, he's also a scout who's spent his life finding inhospitable planets with just the right attributes to facilitate terraforming into living ecosystems. But now, with his ex-wife dead, Cutler must return to Earth to fetch his teenage daughter, Kit, and somehow remain undetected by the government conspirators hellbent on stealing the secrets that will soon come into Cutler's possession.Will he succeed in reconnecting with his daughter, and get away just before the slaughter, or will his enemies track him down and use him for their own nefarious plans?P.S. Visit SimeonGraves.com to get a free copy of the never-to-be-published prequel to The Last Builder. ​

Life as an Independent Space Hauler


Jason Hill - 2021
    Everything was taken from him and he was pressed into military service as a fighter pilot. A few years later, Jace has gotten out of military service and worked on a corporate freighter. He has grown to love space and plans to never return to earth. Dissatisfied with the corporate life, Jace finds the necessary backing to go independent. Thus, he begins the life of an independent freight hauler. This story is inspired by Nathan Lowell's Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series, Firefly, and some anime.

Agents of the Planetary Republic Books 1-10


Jaxon Reed - 2021
    Treaties are signed, trade is restored. But spies and diplomatic turmoil lead to a high-tech cold war of epic proportions. Ex Space Marine Gina Wilcox finds herself in a law enforcement career after the war, but life can be just as dangerous on the streets as the battlefield. Sleeper cells activate, assassinating government officials. Crime syndicates flourish. And a certain high-tech android has been stolen by the League, spirited off world for unknown purposes. Into this milieu a band of Marine outcasts join the fight. They spent more time in the brig than on the battlefield, yet racked up admirable wartime kill ratios. These renegades are quietly recruited by Republican Naval Intelligence to lead black ops against the League. Gina Wilcox will join their leader Commander Hamilton Wolf in a risky interstellar quest to retrieve an android who doesn’t even realize she’s not human. The fate of two civilizations hangs in the balance . . .

Six Seconds (Adrian Tarn)


E.R. Mason - 2020
    Adrian Tarn and R.J. Smith are persuaded to escort two scientists to a landing there to investigate. What they find has unexpected consequences for Earth and every person on it. Join Adrian Tarn, R.J. Smith, and Danica Donoro as they fight to close Pandora's box before Earth becomes a new asteroid belt.

Rogue


David Ryker - 2019
    The best of the best. And now he's gone Rogue... His entire life, all James 'Red' Maddox has known is war. He was born on a dust rock called Genesis-526, conscripted into the Federation military with thousands of other recruits, and somehow stumbled into the Mech Corps. It was a moment that changed his life. Mech Corps pilots are the best of the best. They sit in the cockpit of iron beasts that tower into the sky, fighting alongside men and women who have been bred for their task since birth. Perfect reaction times. An almost inhuman level of concentration. The courage to throw themselves into the fight day after day, year after year, knowing that their mechs are sent into the crucible of the fight, into the heart of danger—and expected not just to survive, but to win... But Red is getting real tired of putting down rebellions on colony planets he's never heard of. Of pulverizing alien planets before he ever even learns their name. Of losing friends, lovers, and brothers in the service of an empire that doesn't care whether he lives or dies. Every man has his breaking point. And Red just found his...

Star Bourne (Star Man #1)


I.G. Roberts - 2016
    When he wakes, he is in another place and, it seems, another time. Colin is a very long way from home, on the Ship FNS Destiny with no way to return. When he visits the devastated colony of Zafar, he becomes a changed man, a man with a new purpose in life. Pirates attacking planets and Star-Ships quickly show him the universe is not the friendly place he once thought it was. The idea that people who are as technologically advanced as these will be peaceful and benevolent is only partly true. These Aliens must still maintain a military to defend themselves against their enemies. After pirates attack the ship he is travelling on, the entire command structure is out of action, leaving only Colin to guide the repairs and help the crew steer the ship safely back to home port. Along the way he must rescue innocent civilians from the pirates and help the Federation of Sentient Peoples (FSP) to survive. He learns that the very actions he must take to save the ship and crew could also see him branded a pirate if he is successful. While the FSP is by no means a utopian society, its leaders are smart enough to know they are in trouble and who they should ask for help. Can Colin save the ship and her crew? If he does, will the Federation authorities put him in prison for doing so?

The Super Olympian: Bloodhound (Shapechanger Tales)


Laer Carroll - 2012
    And she has strange powers. What can feed her challenge-addiction now? Fighting crime? There is plenty of it.

The Freezer (A Genesis Endeavor Book)


David Kersten - 2015
    He hadn’t even gotten over the loss of his family and now his doctor was telling him his recent aches and pains were cancer. Going in for his first surgery, he was uncertain he could, or even should, face the challenges ahead. When he woke up to find over three hundred years had passed, an entirely new set of challenges lay before him. Discovering where he was, how he got here, and why he was here was just the beginning of a life he thought was all but over. Now he had to fight for the very survival of the human species, a fight that would be centered around “The Freezer”.

Savage Stars (Chaos Core Book 3)


Randolph Lalonde - 2018
    That means going to the Geist System, which is about to become the most prized looting target in the galaxy. Governments, raiders and corporations alike are ready to go to war over the advanced technology there, and Spin has to lead her people straight into the middle where she's unsure of what other obstacles the mad artificial intelligences have left for them.

Cold Trap


Jon Waskan - 2014
    Inexplicably, the explorer vanishes, and the object along with him. Nearby, the gears spin on a secret device, setting in motion a chain reaction that could avert a civilization-ending cataclysm. Known only to a select few, the machine must be protected.But watching from the shadows, a brilliant sociopath has plans of his own. . .____________________________________________AboutInspired by Crichton, Asimov, and Brown, “Cold Trap” has intense action, political intrigue, a deep central mystery, and a backdrop of science and high-tech gadgetry, a combination that is sure to resonate with fans of contemporary science fiction and techno-thrillers.____________________________________________ReviewsMelinda Hills for Readers' Favorite (5 Stars)"I really enjoyed the story! ... a well written tale of scientific discovery and political/economic maneuvering for world dominance ... Tremendous creativity and an in-depth look at exo-geology - the study of rocks and deposits on the surface of the moon and other 'space rocks' - create a realistic background for action involving the basic human emotions of love, greed, the desire for knowledge and the hunger for power."

Times What They Are


D.L. Barnhart - 2015
    Panicked millions gridlock roads as Ray Bramlett escapes New York, barely ahead of a radioactive cloud. A thousand miles west, Karla Becker stares in horror at the televised images—sure the aftermath will bring worse. While Karla hunkers down at home, trusting her preparations, Ray seeks safety among his Tennessee friends. Each of their strategies buys time, but as social order collapses around them, both plans go awry. Now, survival means confronting a world teeming with sudden death and learning that no sanctuary remains safe forever.

Good Morning Vendemiatrix


H. Paul Honsinger - 2020
    In these labors, there is one friend that they can count on, day in and day out . . . he’s a constant companion in their headsets with the Smack and Crack, Sno Bro, and other music they love, as well offering a seemingly endless stream of friendship and encouragement: the morning DJ on Company Radio Channel D, Robin Whitlake. But, Robin is more than a warm human voice in the endless night, he is a man with a heroic, yet deadly and dangerous secret past that could condemn him to death at any time. Disfigured and aging rapidly, he must work harder and harder to project the youth and vitality that he brings to his broadcasts, all the while wondering when and if his past will catch up with him. On 14 January 2314, it did. A disaster in the mining colony brings the heroic and deadly elements of Robin’s past into sudden collision. Not only must he decide whether to subject himself to possible execution, Robin has to call upon all his professionalism as a broadcaster, the skills he spent decades honing in his former life, and the Morse code abilities of a red-headed, pig-tailed Space Scout named Elaine, in a desperate “Hail Mary” improvisation with thousands of innocent lives hanging in the balance. Good Morning Vendemiatrix is an 8800 word stand-alone novelette set in the “Man of War” universe. Fans of Honsinger’s other work will recognize the setting and be treated to a cameo appearance by a familiar character, while new readers will not find themselves “lost in space.” It is a humorous and exciting piece of shorter fiction written to be enjoyed by all Science Fiction readers.

The Belt: Complete Trilogy


Gerald M. Kilby - 2018
    The ship contains an experimental quantum device, lost while en route to a research colony on Europa. On Earth, powerful corporate forces are moving to resume unrestricted, inter-AI communications, their objective being to gain complete dominion over the colonized solar system. But the outer worlds are mobilizing to prevent them from achieving their objective, a fight back which is being led by Solomon, a sentient quantum intelligence (QI), also on Europa. However, once word of the crew’s discovery gets out, they soon realize that ownership of this technology could fundamentally change the balance of power within the solar system, and they now find themselves at the very nexus of a system-wide conflict. Their fight for survival plays out across the solar system, from the mining outposts of the asteroid belt to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and from the great Martian city of Jezero to the irradiated wastelands on Earth. This is an epic tale of humanity’s struggle for survival and meaning in a time when artificial intelligence has finally out-paced our own ability to control it. About The Belt: The story is set a century or so into the future where humanity has colonized most of the inner solar system. The asteroid belt (The Belt) is now a hive of mining activity and ships ply the trade routes to Earth and Mars. The technology depicted, for the most part, is what I consider to be technically plausible, although I do stretch it a little with quantum entanglement. That said, you won’t need a calculator or a slide-rule to enjoy the story.