Book picks similar to
Gunboat Diplomacy by Jason Córdova


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Dark Operator


Doc Spears - 2020
    Tasked with performing covert missions, its kill teams are filled with the best warriors from within the ranks of the Legion.Kel Turner is one of the youngest legionnaires ever to be selected to its ranks. After many battles and trials, he is faced with the greatest challenge of his life - operating by himself on a remote planet at the galaxy’s edge, a foot soldier for the policies of the duplicitous House of Reason, tasked with solving a crisis that would take ten kill teams to resolve.Diplomats, spies, shadowy terrorist groups, and an enigmatic general work with and against Kel as he fights to save a society from itself. What can one operator do alone, separated from his kill team, fighting a war that has no name?This lone operator doesn’t know what it will take to win. He only knows he’s not going to lose.

The Void War


D.J. Holmes - 2015
    So began the First Interstellar Expansion Era, catapulting humanity into a deadly race for the limited resources of navigable space. Now tensions between the human nations are threatening to boil over into open hostility. Into this maelstrom steps the exiled Commander James Somerville of the Royal Space Navy. Banished from London to the survey ship HMS Drake he is about to make a discovery that may change his fortunes and throw Britain into a deadly war with its closest rival. The Void War is a military science fiction novel and first book by new author D. J. Holmes

Excalibur's Quest (Swordships Odyssey)


Dietmar Arthur Wehr - 2018
    Humanity is now at their mercy, but not all Space Force warships have been defeated. Wolfe Koenig’s light cruiser, Excalibur, is on a mission to acquire technology that just might enable the ragged remnants of the Fleet to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat—if he can find an alien race with that technology, if he can convince them to trade for it and if the technology can be exploited fast enough. Excalibur’s Quest is the story of that mission and the challenges, both alien and human, that Koenig faces. This is the second book in the action-packed military SF Swordships Odyssey series. Genre categories: space fleet, military SF, space opera, galactic empire, alien invasion, first contact, space exploration.

Hide the Lightning (The Coalition Book 1)


Kevin Steverson - 2019
    Humans and aliens working together would seem novel…but then again, outside of Earth and the Sol System, humans are aliens, too. Having salvaged, repaired, and rebuilt a number of warships, the Salvage Fleet is a presence to be reckoned with. The Ground Force, including its specialty unit, the Bolts, has also continued to grow, and they spend their time training with the weapons of war—mechs, tanks, artillery, and battle armor—and anything else they can get their hands and paws on that will give them an edge in battle. When the Nazrooth System calls, they are once again compelled to right a wrong. It won’t be easy…but then again, it never is. Just don’t tell Harmon the odds—he doesn’t want to know them. Despite a staggering imbalance in forces, Harmon boards his flagship, Salvage Title, and leads the majority of his fleet to free Nazrooth. Only a small, defensive fleet is left behind, full of trainees and reservists. Both Salvage Fleet and the home forces are ready to face the odds, but what if this time they’re insurmountable?

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.

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.

Starship's Mage: Omnibus


Glynn Stewart - 2014
    With no family or connections to find a ship, he is forced to service on an interstellar freighter known to be hunted by pirates. When he takes drastic action to save the "Blue Jay" from their pursuers, he sets in motion a sequence of events beyond his control - and attracts enemies on both sides of the law! Starship's Mage was originally released as five separate episodes.

The X-Ship


Vaughn Heppner - 2020
    The ship never reached its port, while the soldier woke up a thousand years later on an operating table.The Old Federation was gone, most planets hurled back into the Stone Age. A devastated Earth used spies instead of spaceships to compete against the tougher richer worlds.The Director of Earth had doctors suppress the super-soldier’s memories, giving him an undercover identity and mission: grab advanced technology from a prohibited planet before anyone else could and bring it back to Earth.The soldier turned spy felt desperately lost, alone and out of place. There were no familiar faces. But an intense sense of duty drove him headlong into danger. And yet…and yet…there was something more, something missing that he increasingly wanted to know.So began The Soldier’s odyssey in a future time that would change the destiny of the universe.

Brothers in Exile


Joe Vasicek - 2014
     Deep in the Far Outworlds, a derelict space station holds the bones of a long-dead people—and a beautiful young woman locked in cryofreeze. When the star-wandering brothers Isaac and Aaron Deltana find the sleeping girl, they soon realize that they are her only hope for rescue. If they don't take her, then slavers certainly will. With no way to revive her, they set a course for the New Pleiades in hopes of finding someone who can help. But a storm is brewing over that region of space. After a series of brutal civil wars, the Gaian Empire has turned its sights outward. A frontier war is on the verge of breaking out, and the brothers are about to be caught in the middle of it. They both harbor a secret, though. Somewhere else in the Outworlds is another derelict station—one that they used to call home. That secret will either bind them together or draw them apart in SONS OF THE STARFARERS BOOK I: BROTHERS IN EXILE

The Keepers of Limbo


Yuri Ulengov - 2020
    Today he is a prisoner who chose exile to Rhapsody instead of death. This planet, the Range, knows no mercy. Here, thousands of prisoners fight each other for a place under the strange, cold sun. Here, the leftover alien biomechanisms and out-of-control Terran war machines roam in the ruins, and human life is measured in virtual experience that can be exchanged for armor and implants.Surviving in the Limbo slaughterhouse, upgrading to the tenth level and getting into the Green Zone is all any dead man can hope for. Except not everyone succeeds. Altai will have to make a lot of effort just to take a breather, and remaining high in the audience’s favor is something worth striving for. After all, the Range, among other things, is the most popular reality show, one of the few where everything is real, and death...death only raises the ratings.

The Crimson Deathbringer


Sean Robins - 2020
    This is just the beginning of Jim's woes, because soon after, his life is thrown into a galactic conflict that threatens the very existence of the human race. Can our heroes save humanity from the wrath of a galaxy-conquering alien fleet? The Crimson Deathbringer seamlessly blends breathtaking action sequences with mischievous humor. If you enjoy a well-written space opera saga, or if you are a Star Wars, Star Trek, or Stargate fan, this book, with its nerve-wracking space battles, memorable characters, formidable antagonist, and Game of Thrones-style shocking twists, is written especially for you. Pick it up and see for yourself!

The Last Archide: Complete Series


Chad R. Odom - 2019
    Government titans use sports heroes known as Centauri for political influence. Meanwhile, warriors from another time known as Archides are backed into a corner. The man who brought down their galaxy-spanning empire, is taking advantage of the turmoil and threatens to conquer this world as he did their ancient home. Oryan Jeckstadt is born a slave. His father, a disgraced general raises him alone in the prison he doomed his son to. With the promise of securing his father’s freedom, he is ripped from the Quarter and forced into the Centauri Games. Eleysa Celeste has been orphaned. Loving grandparents do their best but her anger is only flamed by cruelty of the children around her. A local Centauri training facility owner takes her under his wing. She and Oryan are on a crash course that could decide the fate of billions. Desperate for victory, the Archides try to recruit Oryan to their cause yet his only desire is to protect the woman he loves and their young son.

Mech Warrior: Born of Steel


James David Victor - 2020
    Fortunately, that suit is one of the most powerful weapons ever created.A military sci-fi adventure from Amazon All-Star author James David VictorDane Williams barely survived the Exin attack and is faced with a life of pain and torment. With the help of experimental drugs and a robotic suit, he has a chance for a semi-normal life. And as a new Marine in the Mechanized Infantry Division, he has a chance to strike back at the enemy that has caused so much pain and destruction. Can Dane and his fellow Marines fight back and save humanity or is Earth heading for an extinction level event?Mech Warrior: Born of Steel is the first book in the Mechanized Infantry Division series. If you like fast-paced space adventures with engaging characters and exciting battles, you will definitely want to see how the Mech Warriors save mankind, or if they can.

The Ship


Jack L. Knapp - 2015
    But what if there was a better way? A true electronic space drive, reliable, safe, and cheap to operate? But the drive system is only part of the problem; it takes money, management, and engineering to build a working spaceship. Lots of it. And even if you DO manage to build a working spaceship, what will you do with it? How can you recoup the initial investment and finance more ships? Threatened industries will try to shut the company down. Governments will try to take it over. How is a small, threatened company, barely a step from bankruptcy, to succeed despite such terrible odds? Eccentric genius Morton Sneyd and his grandson Chuck invent an interplanetary space drive, based on an idea from a long-lost Nikola Tesla notebook. From a new industrial revolution to the brink of global war, restless humanity presses onward, eventually to the first contact with an alien species. There will be changes...