Book picks similar to
Abort by C.D. Hulen


sci-fi
science-fiction
scifi
christian-fiction

A Larger Universe


James L. Gillaspy - 2010
    The kidnapping of Tommy (and his cat) begins an adventure among the stars, a coming of age story entangled with computers, faster-than-light travel, a dying civilization, and an ancient evil.On board the five-thousand-meter starship, he meets a crew of humans, descended from peasants, priests, and soldiers taken from Earth a thousand years before. He soon learns that all are slaves to the seldom-seen aliens inhabiting the upper third of the ship. His first months are spent in mindless work that he later learns is meant to domesticate his “feral” nature.Eventually, he is introduced to the reason for his kidnapping: Tommy is expected to replace the ancient and failing computers on the ship with computers taken from Earth, beginning with the long-dead missile controller, without which the ship is defenseless. After the new missile controller, with Tommy as its operator, successfully defends the ship against attack, his “benefactor,” one of the alien Nesu masters, directs him to replace the environmental and navigation computers. This work leads to revelations that the star drive is from still another alien group -- called the Guardians by the Nesu -- who, fifteen hundred years before, destroyed the Nesu home world and now block all scientific advancement in the local arm of the galaxy.Tommy’s determination to return to his family expands to include returning all the human slaves to Earth, using his control of the computers that now run the ship. With the help of a Nesu mathematician, will he also find a way to free the Nesu from their enthrallment by the Guardians and protect the Earth from the fate of the Nesu home world?

Exalted


Tara Elizabeth - 2012
    As an Exalted trainee, all Mena ever wanted was to be strong, to serve and to fearlessly protect the people of the United Republic of the Saved. All Exalted feel the same. In fact, that’s all they feel. Only when Ryker, an outsider, crashes into Mena’s life, does she learn that people are meant to feel much more.In this bleak future, set in what’s left of the southern United States, the trainees must compete in three Trials to earn their position amongst the strongest Exalted. In these Trials, female is pitted against female and male against male in demonstrations of weaponry, fighting and survival skills. The outcome: the United Ceremony, pairing trainees together for life based on how they place. The ultimate hope is to breed stronger Exalted and even better protectors.Upon learning from Ryker that the supplement she's taken her entire life is actually an emotion-blocking drug, her path takes an unexpected shift. Without the veil of “The Pump” blocking her emotions, Mena struggles with competing in the Trials and with her new, confusing love life. She’s experiencing new feelings with not one but two different guys, will Mena choose to leave with Ryker and be free or stay with her childhood friend, Ethan, and be United?http://www.amazon.com/EXALTED-An-Exal...

Worlds Unseen


Rachel Starr Thomson - 2007
    The Council for Exploration Into Worlds Unseen believed there was more to reality than the Empire had taught them—but when they came a little too close to the truth, tragedy ended their work, leaving the terrifying and beautiful world behind their own still hidden.Forty years later, one of the last Council members entrusts an ancient relic to the orphaned young woman Maggie Sheffield: a scroll that reveals the truth at last. Along with Nicolas Fisher, a Gypsy who hears things no one else can, Maggie sets out on a journey across the Seventh World to deliver the scroll to those who can use it.But the price of truth may be too high: for Maggie and Nicolas are tearing at the Veil between the seen and the unseen, between good and evil, between forgotten past and treacherous future. Monstrous forces are already on their trail.And when the Veil grows thin enough, it’s anyone’s guess what may come through.WORLDS UNSEEN is the first book in The Seventh World Trilogy, a Christian fantasy adventure with hints of steampunk and depths of spiritual truth. If you love page-turning action, memorable characters, and inspirational fiction that confronts darkness, reveals breathtaking beauty, and moves your heart to connect more deeply with God, this series is for you.Download WORLDS UNSEEN free now! Life-Changing, Inspirational Christian Fiction: From the Author Hey, my name is Rachel Starr Thomson. I love Jesus and believe wholeheartedly in the power of fiction to change our lives. While nonfiction may teach us something, fiction allows us to experience it. When we’re experiencing truth, beauty, struggle, and triumph, we find our lives enriched and deepened by what we read.That’s why I write. I want my readers to discover depths of truth about themselves, about the world, and about God that stretch and inspire them. My stories are always clean, but I don’t shy away from hard questions and honest characters.Whoever you are, I believe in you. I believe your life has immeasurable worth. I believe you were personally handcrafted by a loving Creator with a vision and purpose for your life. I believe your struggles, your dreams, and your hurts matter. I believe you walk a path no one else does, one that is intended to benefit the world.I hope you’ll enjoy what you read and come back for more. Most of all, I hope that through my stories, you’ll forge a new depth of connection with the God who truly loves you. Genre-Bending Christian Fiction: Biblical, Historical, Suspense, Fantasy, Paranormal, Visionary—Always Lyrical, Always Christian, Always Changing the Game Readers would be forgiven for asking what genre exactly Rachel Starr Thomson writes. Her work is described as spiritual, visionary, biblical, fantasy—and literary, poetic, and anchored in the real world. Always a clean read, her books are suitable for teens but have the depth, beauty, and characterization to keep adults riveted.They include:The Seventh World Trilogy (Worlds Unseen, Burning Light, Coming Day): Classic Christian fantasy in the style of C.S. Lewis. Great for teens & all readers of inspirational fiction.The Prophet Trilogy (Abaddon’s Eve, Comes the Dragon, Beloved): Best described as biblical historical fantasy. Set in a world based on ancient Israel, these books follow four believers in a time when judgment is coming.

Space Assassins 1 & 2: A Space Assassin Bundle


Scott Baron - 2020
    But even the most powerful killers sometimes faced the unexpected, and with it their own possible demise. But with a legendary blade in hand and an unlikely band of allies united, whoever had foolishly attacked the order would pay the ultimate price.

Infinity Lost


S. Harrison - 2015
    Blackstone has the impunity to destroy—or create—as it sees fit.Infinity “Finn” Blackstone is the seventeen-year-old daughter of Blackstone’s reclusive CEO—but she’s never even met him. When disturbing dreams about a past she doesn’t remember begin to torment her, Finn knows there’s only one person who can provide answers: her father.After Finn and an elite group of peers are invited to Blackstone’s top-secret HQ, Finn realizes she may have a chance to confront her father. But when a highly sophisticated company AI morphs into a killing machine, the trip descends into chaos. Trapped inside shape-shifting walls, Finn and her friends are at the mercy of an all-seeing intelligence that will destroy everything to get to her.With no hope of help, Finn’s dream-memories may be the only chance of survival. But will she remember in time to save her own life and the lives of those around her?

Goddess in the Machine


Lora Beth Johnson - 2020
    When Andra went into a cryonic sleep for a trip across the galaxy, she expected to wake up in a hundred years, not a thousand. Worst of all, the rest of the colonists—including her family and friends—are dead. They died centuries ago, and for some reason, their descendants think Andra's a deity. She knows she's nothing special, but she'll play along if it means she can figure out why she was left in stasis and how to get back to Earth.Zhade, the exiled bastard prince of Eerensed, has other plans. Four years ago, the sleeping Goddess's glass coffin disappeared from the palace, and Zhade devoted himself to finding it. Now he's hoping the Goddess will be the key to taking his rightful place on the throne—if he can get her to play her part, that is. Because if his people realize she doesn't actually have the power to save their dying planet, they'll kill her.With a vicious monarch on the throne and a city tearing apart at the seams, Zhade and Andra might never be able to unlock the mystery of her fate, let alone find a way to unseat the king, especially since Zhade hasn't exactly been forthcoming with Andra. And a thousand years from home, is there any way of knowing that Earth is better than the planet she's woken to?

Golden Age


James Maxwell - 2016
    In order to gain entrance to heaven, Solon is building a tomb—a pyramid clad in gold—and has scoured his own empire for gold until there’s no more to be found.Now Solon’s gaze turns to Chloe’s homeland, Phalesia, and its famous sacred ark, made of solid gold. The legends say it must never be opened, but Solon has no fear of foreigners’ legends or even their armies. And he isn’t afraid of the eldren, an ancient race of shape-shifters, long ago driven into the Wilds.For when he gets the gold, Solon knows he will live forever.

Minimum Wage Magic


Rachel Aaron - 2018
    In a lawless city where gods are real, dragons are traffic hazards, and buildings move around on their own, it can feel downright impossible.Good thing freelance mage Opal Yong-ae has never let little things like impossibility stop her. She’s found a way to put her overpriced magical art history degree to use as a Cleaner: a contract municipal employee who empties out abandoned apartments and resells the unusual treasures she finds inside for a profit. It’s not a pretty job, or a safe one--there’s a reason she wears bite-proof gloves--but when you’re neck-deep in debt to a very magical, very nasty individual, you can’t be picky about where the money comes from.But even Opal’s low standards are put to the test when the only thing of value in her latest apartment is the body of the previous tenant. Dealing with the dead isn’t technically part of her job, but this mage died hiding a secret that could be worth a lot of money, and Opal’s the only one who knows. With debts she can’t pay due at the end of the week, this could be the big break she’s been waiting for, but in a city of runaway magic where getting in over your head generally means losing it, the cost of chasing this opportunity might be more than Opal can survive.AUTHOR’S NOTE:This is the first in a new series set in the same universe as my Heartstrikers books, but you don’t need to have read those stories to enjoy this one. MINIMUM WAGE MAGIC was written to stand by itself, so if you haven’t read the others, don’t worry! I wrote this book with you in mind. Thank you so much for reading!

Slave


Laura Frances - 2016
    There is no moon. There is only gray—the smog belched from coal-fueled factories. The Workers silently shuffle to their assigned posts. The Outcasts watch from the alley walls. On every corner, a Watcher stands stone-faced, a rifle in hand. This is the only life that exists. Beyond the mountains is a dream. But dreams are foolish in a place like this. Hannah has spent nineteen years dodging Watchers and doing as she is told. Do not look Watchers in the eye. Don't give them a reason to notice you. But when she wakes to the valley exploding in revolution, Hannah is forced onto a dangerous path, where nothing is what she believed. Suddenly freedom is in her grasp, and the way there requires working with the men she fears most.

Waking Romeo


Kathryn Barker - 2022
    Location: London. Mission: Wake Romeo.It’s the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forward. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the “now,” living off of the scraps left behind.Among them are eighteen-year-old Juliet and the love of her life, Romeo. But things are far from rosy for Jules. Romeo lies in a coma and Jules is estranged from her friends and family, dealing with the very real fallout of their wild romance.Then a mysterious time traveler, Ellis, impossibly arrives from the future with a mission that makes Juliet question everything she knows about life and love.Can Jules wake Romeo—and rewrite her future?

White Shores


Jay Swanson - 2011
    Peace has reigned tentatively until the Witch, thought to be the last of the Magi, sought to strike back at the human race and bring them to their knees.Caught in the middle of the strife, young Ardin Vitalis' family is murdered by his own nation's army. Striking out for revenge, he finds himself thrust unwillingly into events that will change his world forever. For reasons unknown to himself, he is driven to save the Witch's beautiful daughter from the nations, Magi, and King of the Shades who would seek to destroy her, and must wrestle with the mysterious, dark powers that he has been given. Ardin must choose to sacrifice his own freedom and flee enemies that are not his own, or allow events to unfold to the detriment of the planet. Little does he know the part he will play in saving mankind from certain destruction.

Followers


Megan Angelo - 2020
    Then Orla meets Floss ― a striving wannabe A-lister ― who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss's methods are a little shady and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can't be wrong.Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity ― twelve million loyal followers ― Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.

The Story Peddler


Lindsay A. Franklin - 2018
    But the only way to escape the control of her cruel mentor and claw her way from poverty is to set her sights on something grander: becoming Royal Storyteller to the king.During her final story peddling tour, a tale of treason spills from her hands, threatening the king himself. Tanwen goes from peddler to prey as the king’s guard hunts her down . . . and they’re not known for their mercy. As Tanwen flees for her life, she unearths long-buried secrets and discovers she’s not the only outlaw in the empire. There’s a rebel group of weavers . . . and they’re after her too.

Wolves of the Northern Rift


Jon Messenger - 2015
    It spread from the Rift, a great chasm hundreds of miles long that nearly split the southern continent in two. The Rift was a portal, a gateway between their world of science and the mythological world of magic.On the northern continent of Ocker, King Godwin declared that no magical monstrosity would be allowed within their borders. The Royal Inquisitors were formed to investigate reports of mystical occurrences and, should they be found, to destroy them.Inquisitor Simon Whitlock knows his responsibilities all too well. Along with the apothecary, Luthor Strong, they’ve spent two years inquiring into such reports of magical abominations, though they’ve discovered far more charlatans than true magical creatures. When assigned to investigate Haversham and its reports of werewolves, Simon remains unconvinced that the rumors are true. What he discovers in the frozen little hamlet is that the werewolves are far more real than he believed; yet they’re hardly the most dangerous monster in the city.

Moth


Daniel Arenson - 2013
    They say that night would follow day in an endless dance. They say that dawn rose, dusk fell, and we worshiped both sun and stars. That was a long time ago. The dance has died. The world has fallen still. We float through the heavens, one half always in light, one half always in shadow. Like the moth of our forests, one wing white and the other black, we are torn. My people are the fortunate. We live in daylight, blessed in the warmth of the sun. Yet across the line, the others lurk in eternal night, afraid... and alone in the dark. I was born in the light. I was sent into darkness. This is my story.