Book picks similar to
Collected Stories by Marta Randall


science-fiction
short-stories
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sci-fi

Battlestar


T. Jackson King - 2016
    That puts Ensign Jacob Renselaer on the spot. Can he find out why the aliens killed his ship’s officers? Can he take command of the Battlestar? Does he want to be the leader of ten heavily armed starships that never expected to encounter aliens? Deep in the Kepler 22 star system, mutual misunderstanding between two peoples who cannot speak to each other leads to multiple space battles. Somehow Jacob becomes the leader he never wanted to be. His close friend Daisy the pilot helps him, as do other friends on the Battlestar. On the alien side, Hunter One is determined to kill the invaders who threaten his new colony world. His people the Swarm have never been defeated. Now, he faces Soft Skins who do not flee at the loss of their leaders. In a distant star system, people human and alien die, scheme, and fight for survival. None of them have ever faced combat before. But now, both sides learn what it is like to have someone seek your death and the death of your friends!

The Deep Black Space Opera Boxed Set


James David Victor - 2021
    Only pirates and Rangers. And sometimes you can hardly tell the difference.Bayne of ExistenceCaptain Drummond Bayne is a Navy Ranger tasked with bringing order to the lawless reaches of space. When a simple mission turns deadly, they find themselves navigating space more dangerous than they can imagine. Can they save themselves and uncover a conspiracy that could tear the galaxy apart?The Deep Black Boxed Set contains the entire Deep Black space opera series. If you like fast paced space adventure, rogue pirates, and stories more complex than good vs. evil, you are going to love your visit to the Deep Black.Stories Included:- Parallax- Captain Bayne- Ranger Bayne- Pirate Bayne- The Black Hole- The Void- The Syndicate- Deep Shallows- Bayne of ExistenceDownload The Deep Black Boxed Set and get started on your next space adventure today!Always FREE on Kindle Unlimited

Alliance


Jonathan P. Brazee - 2017
    Humanity is involved in a limited war with the alien Klethos, where gladitorial combat decides the fate of worlds, but that doesn’t affect the common Marine or sailor. His career has been training hard but never seeing actual combat. All of that changes when a new enemy invades the galaxy, one that threatens both humanity and Klethos. Mankind hasn’t fought an all-out war in centuries, but they’re about to. McKeever is assigned to a special task force with the mission to find out what makes this new enemy tick, and, if possible, stop them in their tracks before humanity is eliminated like so much insignificant vermin.

Wreckers


George Ellis - 2021
    And jokes.At 19 years old, Denver is the youngest wrecker in the verse. His only companion, other than his one-eyed cat Pirate, is an AI navigator named Gary based on classic 21st century sitcom personalities.That all changes when Denver meets Batista, a mechanic who claims to know what happened to Denver’s missing father and brother.Following her information, Denver is drawn into trouble with the various forces in the galaxy — bandits, feds and rival wreckers. As complications mount and he’s forced into helping different sides chase the hottest technology in the verse, Denver, once a lone wolf, collects the small crew he never knew he needed. But can he keep them alive?

Victory's Wake


Daniel Gibbs - 2021
    The war is over. Or is it?In the wake of the bitter galactic conflict, a cauldron of desperate refugees is rife with rival cartels and flooded with drugs and weapons. In this pocket of lawlessness, old enemies are fighting a new war by proxy. Captain Jackson Adams of the Coalition Defense Force is tasked with gathering a ragtag crew for a black ops mission—infiltrate the cartels and discover the enemy’s ultimate scheme. But what they uncover is more horrifying than anyone ever anticipated.

Relics of Dawn: A Story Carved in Time


A.W. Davidson - 2021
    Cities crumble to dust.As Kaia’s world dies, who should she trust?Part hard sci-fi, part epic mystery, Relics of Dawn is a time-twisting tale of audacity, conspiracy, and survival at all costs.On a blistering day in 2296, the Council unveiled the Dawn Project. Artificial volcanic eruptions and precision meteor impacts flashed on the viewscreens in every home. In that instant, everyone understood there was no safe way out of this mess. To save the planet, they must first leave it behind. And so, a civilization on the brink began its exodus to the heavens.Biologist Kaia Badra and her small team of scientists are keeping an eye on phase one from orbit. She is dreaming about life after the project when her friend discovers an anomaly in the data stream. The updated simulation shows their daring act of creation could tip toward apocalyptic destruction, but why?A controversial theory from a geologist named Alan Pearce may be the answer. His peers called the backup plan insane because he claims it came from buried clues in Earth’s ancient ruins. Separated by time and bound by courage, Kaia and Alan work to combine long-lost knowledge with cutting-edge science in a desperate attempt to rewrite the past and save their future.“Relics of Dawn is such a nice mix of believable science fiction and character development. It sucked me in - which doesn't happen very often - and kept me hooked until the end. All in all, a lot of fun!”“Without being preachy, this ambitious epic tale weaves anthropology, climate science, physics, politics, and science fiction into a truly deep time saga. It makes critical connections from our past roots to our future potential, whether that be salvation or ruin. Amazing!”The complete trilogy includes:• Prologue• Act 1: Eruption• Act 2: Impact• Act 3: Revelation• Epilogue• Afterword• Research notes from the authorThird Edition updated based on reader input, with corrections, improved pacing, and the latest science.

Gaming the System


P.A. Wikoff - 2019
    In this MMORPG penal colony, inmates PVP to gain EXP, loot, and most of all...survive. Seph has been sentenced to play in one of these virtual correctional facilities. Sounds fun right? Maybe for some, but there is no worse punishment for Seph, mostly because he isn't a gamer. Will he be able to complete his sentence with all the trials and objectives thrown at him? Trapped in a virtual world he cannot escape, Seph now has to step outside of his comfort zone and align himself with the very thing he's been rebelling against his whole life--the system. Game designer and avid gamer, P.A. Wikoff wrote this story as a love letter to a lifetime of gaming.

Violent Graduation


John Hindmarsh - 2021
    The risk to his friends at the academy is the hidden price. His challenge is how to balance the risks.The final stage of his training is a shakedown cruise on an old minesweeper, barely able to achieve FTL entry and exit.Midway through their cruise, the minesweeper collides with an ancient alien wreck, ripping the sides off the starship. Jack’s team of bots help seal the combined wreck to prevent air loss. Ghost, a nanolife form from the alien wreck, provides assistance.Jack and his girlfriend, Sofia, are the only survivors, and air, food, and supplies are critical.The countdown of days to survive is ticking.No wonder the Royal Family are angry.And there’s still a price on Jack’s head.

Frozen Soul


Stuart Grosse - 2017
    Because of Sol System being at a strategic juncture of warp gates, if one could conquer the system, they would gain a great advantage over the other powers in this arm of the galaxy. Unfortunately for the Rithenalese, humankind was not so powerless as one might expect. Previous invasions had left their mark, even if the general public didn't know about them. The explosion of a Krax Imperial warship over Siberia in 1908 gave humankind mutant abilities, while the capture of a Ross'Ell science vessel in 1947 greatly advanced our technology. While governments fell to the surprise attack, a resistance was formed. One member of the Resistance was feared above all others by the Rithenalese. An assassin who conjured mists that no living thing emerged from, they began calling him the Mistwalker. To the humans, they knew him as a thief and assassin called Iceblade. This is his story. ----------------------------------------------------- The setting is a world of superheroes and sci-fi, and our main character who may not be the most powerful out there, but is willing to do whatever it takes to win. No matter the cost. He is not a hero. He is not an anti-hero. He is not a vigilante. He is a villain, and knows what he is. He is amoral but ethical. Rated R: Definite language, violence, gore, sex, and all the horrible things that can happen in the world. If you have triggers, consider this your warning.

Cyberpunk City Book One: The Machine Killer


D.L. Young - 2020
    He couldn't be more wrong.Forced by a powerful executive to steal a priceless dataset, Maddox uncovers the shocking truth of a secret war between AIs, raging inside the digital universe known as virtual space. Plunged headlong into the deadly conflict, he’ll have to use every trick he’s ever learned—and a few he’s never tried before—if he wants to survive.Sprawling megacities, rogue AIs, black market tech, modded mercenaries, and a pulse-pounding story filled with unexpected twists. If you love gritty, hardcore cyberpunk, you won’t want to miss this series!

The Omniverse The Unearthing


Steve Karmazenuk - 2011
    RevolutionSF.com Rating: 8/10http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.p...BOOK ONE OF THE OMNIVERSEEDITED BY VICTORIA CLEMENSWhen an immense alien spacecraft is discovered buried in the desert outside Laguna, New Mexico, the world is plunged into chaos.World leaders scramble to secure and study the Ship; the heads of the world's major religions meet in Rome to discuss the implications of the Ship's presence; terrorists and religious fundamentalists seek to use or destroy the Ship for their own ends, and ordinary men and women struggle to assimilate it all, as events unfold live and unfiltered across online news channels.When a survey team is sent in to examine and explore the Ship, they discover that not only is it still operational, but it is conscious and has been waiting for tens of millions of years.

The Last Voyage


T.S. Snow - 2016
    She's far from it.Together, they’re Earth's last hope... they just don’t know it yet.Sinbad sh'en Singh had everything. A thriving smuggling career, his hologram on wanted posters on eleven planets, and plenty of women. Then she walked into his life.Andrea Talltrees, member of a backwards cult not believing in space travel or anything else invented after the Twentieth Century.She wants him to find her husband, a fugitive accused of being an Albegensian spy, the planet currently at war with Earth.He doesn’t want anything to do with an Earther, but a massive culture clash and a heavy dose of instant attraction get in the way, sending good sense flying out the viewport.They'll brave some very unsavory characters, maybe even prevent a second interplanetary war...if they can stop arguing.

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”.

Anomaly


Hugo Navikov - 2018
     An Above-Top-Secret project brings military brass, elite commandos, ice-drilling experts, and abducted scientists to investigate a 100-mile-long 'gravitational anomaly' half a mile under the West Antarctic Ice Shelf. Their target: a spaceship buried for millions of years, home to a menagerie of alien and prehistoric horrors that could be unleashed on Earth and end every life on it.

The Pawn in the Portal


Nick Cole - 2016
    Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.