When You Had Power


Susan Kaye Quinn - 2020
    In sickness and in health. It’s a legal vow of care for families in 2050, a world beset by waves of climate-driven plagues.Power engineer Lucía Ramirez long ago lost her family to one—she’d give anything to take that vow. The Power Islands give humanity a fighting chance, but tending kelp farms and solar lilies is a lonely job. The housing AI found her a family match, saying she should fit right in with the Senegalese retraining expert who’s a force of nature, the ex-Pandemic Corps cook with his own cozy channel, and even the writer who insists everything is stories, all the way down. This family of literal and metaphorical refugees could be the shelter she’s seeking from her own personal storm.She needs this one to work.Then an unscheduled power outage and a missing turtle-bot crack open a mystery. Something isn’t right on Power Island One, but every step she takes to solve it, someone else gets there first—and they’re determined to make her unsee what she’s seen. Lucía is an engineer, not a detective, but fixing this problem might cost her the one thing she truly needs: a home.When You Had Power is the first of four tightly-connected novels in a new hopepunk series. It’s about our future, how society will shift and flex like a solar lily in the storms of our own making, and how breaks in the social fabric have to be expected, tended to, and healed. Because we’re in this together, now more than ever before.

Transient


Zachry Wheeler - 2016
    Medallion Honoree* Readers' Favorite® 5-Star SelectionIn a dark and distant future, death is obsolete.Jonas is a transient: a human spy living as an eternal. His mission is simple: always learn, never get caught.In the year 2578, an immortal regime controls the planet. Endless war has pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. Desperate to survive, the remaining factions deploy teenage spies, hoping to defeat the enemy from within.After years in the lion's den, Jonas has grown to admire the eternal civilization. He is learning to love what he blindly hated, blurring the mission and himself.But a reckoning is coming. The fates of billions hang in the balance. When the axe falls, Jonas must choose between his family and his species.

Forbidden the Stars


Valmore Daniels - 2010
    There is no trace of their young son, Alex Manez, or of the asteroid itself.On the outer edge of the solar system, the first manned mission to Pluto, led by the youngest female astronaut in NASA history, has led to an historic discovery: there is a marker left there by an alien race for humankind to find. We are not alone!While studying the alien marker, it begins to react and, four hours later, the missing asteroid appears in a Plutonian orbit, along with young Alex Manez, who has developed some alarming side-effects from his exposure to the kinetic element they call Kinemet. From the depths of a criminal empire based on Luna, an expatriate seizes the opportunity to wrest control of outer space, and takes swift action.The secret to faster-than-light speed is up for grabs, and the race for interstellar space begins! - The Interstellar Age -Book 1 - Forbidden The StarsBook 2 - Music of the SpheresBook 3 - Worlds Away

Day 115 on an Alien World


Jeannette Bedard - 2018
    Signing onto a colonizing mission heading to a new world promised a fresh start. Or at least that's what she'd thought. Strapped into a crashing colony ship, she realized how wrong she'd been.They hit the ground and the straight forward colonizing mission becomes a scramble for survival. Accidents keep happening—too many to blame on random bad luck. A trail of evidence leads Margo to a startling conclusion—one of her fellow colonists is a saboteur.Tomorrow is the colony's first communications window with Earth and their only chance to send a message home. Will Margo stop the saboteur before it’s too late? Find out now.

Qualify


Vera Nazarian - 2014
    You die, or you Qualify. The year is 2047. An extinction-level asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and the descendents of ancient Atlantis have returned from the stars in their silver ships to offer humanity help.But there’s a catch.They can only take a tiny percent of the Earth’s population back to the colony planet Atlantis. And in order to be chosen, you must be a teen, you must be bright, talented, and athletic, and you must Qualify.Sixteen-year-old Gwenevere Lark is determined not only to Qualify but to rescue her entire family.Because there’s a loophole.If you are good enough to Qualify, you are eligible to compete in the brutal games of the Atlantis Grail, which grants all winners the laurels, high tech luxuries, and full privileges of Atlantis Citizenship. And if you are in the Top Ten, then all your wildest wishes are granted… Such as curing your mother’s cancer.There is only one problem.Gwen Lark is known as a klutz and a nerd. While she’s a hotshot in classics, history, science, and languages, the closest she’s come to sports is a backyard pool and a skateboard.This time she is in over her head, and in for a fight of her life, against impossible odds and world-class competition—including Logan Sangre, the most amazing guy in her class, the one she’s been crushing on, and who doesn’t seem to know she exists.Because every other teen on Earth has the same idea. You Qualify or you die. * * *EXCERPT!Now you can read Chapter One in its entirety (click here)!* * *

The Theta Prophecy


Chris Dietzel - 2015
    JFK’s assassination. A tyrannous regime’s inner-workings. Welcome to The Theta Prophecy, where alternate history meets modern dystopian.Having survived a perilous journey into the distant past, a time traveler grapples with the crushing realization that his sacrifices were in vain. In a different era, the world suffers at the hands of an empire bent on instilling misery upon an entire population. But the course he unknowingly sets the world upon will change everything we think we know about history.Irreverent but insightful, The Theta Prophecy is an adventure spanning centuries. More than just another dystopian story, it offers a disturbing vision of the future that will leave you asking, what is reality and what is fiction? And most importantly, can the Tyranny be stopped?"A terrifying glimpse at a believable future." - Kirkus

Seeing Red


Patty Jansen - 2013
     Young diplomat Cory Wilson narrowly escapes death in the assassination of President Sirkonen. No one claims responsibility but there is no doubt that the attack is extraterrestrial. Cory was meant to start work as a representative to Gamra, the alien organisation that governs the FTL transport network, but now his new job may well be scrapped in anger. Worse, as Earth uses military force to stop any extraterrestrials coming or leaving, as 200,000 extraterrestrial humans are trapped on Earth, as the largest army in the galaxy prepares to free them by force, only Cory has the experience, language skills and contacts to solve the crime. But he's broke, out of a job and a long way from Earth.

Project Destiny


Justin Sloan - 2018
    This is only the beginning. Space Station Horus faces a conflict between supersoldiers and hackers. Alice was told that her husband was dead, a month after he went up to space. Now she's formed a team of technical assassins dedicated to taking down New Origins, the corporation in charge of the station, if she doesn't get answers. Someone has to hold them accountable--even if it means going up against an army of genetically engineered super soldiers. Stealth is an elite among elites. This Marine wanted to be on the front line of expansion into space, and now he is. Only the hacker organization known as The Looking Glass stands against them, trying to pull apart all of his team's progress, all they believe in. Neither will stop until they have justice. Jason Bourne meets Mr. Robot on a space station. Biotech Wars Series: Project Destiny Project Exodus Project Ascent This series has a spinoff series coming June 2018 - check out STAR FORGED. "One of the things that Justin excels at is writing his characters so well that they shine clearly through the (deliberate) murky situation on this space station. I find I’m not rooting for one side or the other, and I don’t feel any need to because I’m rooting for the characters. I’m about three-quarters of the way through the first book and I still have no idea how it will end. Recommended." -- Author Tim C. Taylor

Contract of Defiance


Tammy Salyer - 2012
    The question is: is it a better one? When a crew of arms smugglers botches their latest job, Corps-deserter and crewmember, Aly Erikson, is separated from her brother, the only person she can trust, and left behind to fight for her life. In the aftermath, as she tries to piece together what happened, a crew of roughneck settlers pressgang her into a dangerous mission in the heart of Corps territory. With her enemies closing in, time is running out to get back everything she's lost: her crew, her brother, and her options. But no one is taking her gun.

Archangel Down


C. Gockel - 2015
    They’re wrong.Commander Noa Sato plans a peaceful leave on her home planet Luddeccea ... but winds up interrogated and imprisoned for her involvement in the Archangel Project. A project she knows nothing about.Professor James Sinclair wakes in the snow, not remembering the past twenty four hours, or knowing why he is being pursued. The only thing he knows is that he has to find Commander Sato, a woman he’s never met.A military officer from the colonies and a civilian from Old Earth, they couldn’t have less in common. But they have to work together to save the lives of millions—and their own.Every step of the way they are haunted by the final words of a secret transmission:The archangel is down.

Broken Ascension


Dave Walsh - 2020
    This is the galaxy that Drake Rose and the crew of the freighter Trystero are stuck in. Together they traverse the Demilitarized Zone between Terran and Gra’al borders taking on any job they can find, big or small, legal or otherwise. Human or alien.A chance encounter with a derelict alien ship thrusts them into the center of a deadly conspiracy. When the Terran government refuses to get involved, the crew has no choice but to fend for themselves.A fragile peace hangs in the balance, thrust into the hands of Drake and the crew.They never wanted to be heroes. The only way to stop the ascension of a vicious warlord bent on the destruction of humanity is for them to survive.It’s Firefly meets Star Trek in this coming of age space opera tale.

Chaos Awakens


Megg Jensen - 2017
    It shatters in an instant with the botched assassination of a human priest in the orc capital. Hell bent on revenge, the humans take up arms as the orc monarchy crumbles from outside interference. Now Tace, the unlucky assassin, is on the run. It's soon clear, however, that her mistake hasn't only precipitated a war. It's unleashed ancient powers, the stuff of legends and fireside tales—and not the cozy kind. Tace has always worked solo, but to save Doros, she'll need to assemble the unlikeliest allies. Together, they'll unravel the mysteries of the orcs' cult of death, and in the process, Tace will come to question everything she's ever believed. Only one thing is certain: a great destiny awaits her—if she can live long enough to meet it. Chaos Awakens is an epic fantasy spanning multiple continents where orcs, humans, elves, fauns, dwarves, and dragons fight for dominance.

Icarus


Matt Verish - 2016
    When a high-profile delivery is compromised aboard a state-of-the-art cargo vessel, the newly appointed captain finds himself embroiled in an assignment far above his pay grade. Blackmail, terrorists, a malfunctioning prototype A.I. pilot, and a sinister terraforming corporation with deep criminal ties await him. Who knew delivering cargo to the deep recesses of space could be so dangerous? Armed only with his cunning and past military experience, Cole is one against many. But this unorthodox interstellar cargo pilot won’t go down without a fight—even after he is faced with a choice that will alter the course of his life forever.

Wanderer's Odyssey: Books 1-3


Simon Goodson - 2018
    A young slave on his way to death just became its captain… Jess has been a prisoner his entire life. He’s watched his fellow slaves visit boobytrapped ships for weeks. None of them ever came back alive. When Jess gets orders to clear the ship next, he knows he’s about to die a prisoner…After the mothballed ship comes alive at his touch, Jess discovers the Wanderer has its own consciousness and that he’s the one in control. As he and the ship hightail it out of the imperial stronghold, freedom comes at a cost. Now he’s the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy, and ruthless pirates, desperate miners, and a complicated beauty might not think twice before turning him in…One wrong move could put Jess and the Wanderer back in shackles, but if they can survive their freedom, they may just have the power to liberate the galaxy…Wanderer’s Escape is the first installment in a series of rollicking space opera novels. If you like epic space battles, sentient spacecraft, and heartfelt tales of a boy and his ship, then you’ll love Simon Goodson’s amazing tale. Buy this collection of the first three books in the Wanderer's Odyssey series to blast off into an action-packed adventure today!

First Contact


Michael R. Hicks - 2009
    But Aurora is disabled by gigantic alien warships and boarded by blue-skin females with fangs and claws. The warriors slaughter the crew in ritual one-on-one combat. The sole survivor is returned to Earth. This Messenger bears a real-time globe device that counts down to an impending attack. That is the way of the Kreelan Empire. For centuries before man have they waged war, seeking a prophesied savior. Soon to be extinct, the ancient species wages their last war, hoping for redemption of sins long past.