The Pyramid Builders


Saxon Andrew - 2012
    Christopher Connor has discovered a way to view the past. His invention collects light and focuses it such that events that occurred on Earth years ago can be viewed. All one need do is travel one light year away and one can see what was happening on the planet a year earlier by capturing and focusing the reflected light that left Earth a year ago. There’s only one problem: no ship exists that can travel faster than the speed of light, so his device cannot be conclusively demonstrated to function as advertised. That’s fine with Christopher, who would much rather party and have a good time rather than defend his creation against critics and governmental bureaucrats. Besides, who would pay to view the past anyway?Jillian Gordon, an Egyptologist with a PhD in Quantum Physics, has discovered that the survival of Earth depends on viewing what happened at the building of the Great Pyramid of Khufu five thousand years in the past. Christopher’s device would allow her to do just that and she intends to draft him into the project. Christopher is about to discover that the organization Jillian works for has engineered a starship with a faster-than-light drive, which will now allow his device to be field tested. The stardrive for that ship was developed from diagrams carved on the back of an ancient stone tablet excavated at the site of the Great Pyramid.Life for Christopher is about to make a radical departure from his party, happy-go-lucky lifestyle. Getting Christopher to focus on what needs to be done is a problem Jillian hadn’t counted on in her quest to save humanity. The predicted destruction of Earth, which is carved on the front of the tablet, doesn’t leave her much time and Christopher isn’t cooperating.What neither of them know is that the answer to survival is more than sixty five million light years away in light that left Earth just before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

Firstborn


Brandon Sanderson - 2008
    And expected. And still expected, despite endless proof that young Dennison Crestmar has no talent whatsoever for war. But the life Dennison is forced to live will have its surprising lessons to impart.

Odyssey One


Evan Currie - 2011
    Assigned the task of blazing man's first trail into that great unknown, Captain Eric Weston and the crew of the NAC Odyssey launch on a mission destined to make history.Past the bounds of comfort, they encounter horrors and wonders beyond their imagining, with people and monsters beyond reckoning.Odyssey One is the first voyage of the NAC Odyssey and its crew, and the beginnings of a Military Science Fiction Epic that combines both old school space opera, and modern storytelling in one great, exhilarating adventure.Odyssey One is a 150,000 word novel.

Echo of Tomorrow: Book One


Rob Buckman - 2014
    They say that vengeance is a dish best served cold, but to the men and woman who went with him over the border to deliver that vengeance, it was dish served hot, and out of the barrel of a gun and cannon, and from the air. Yet in victory came defeat as he found three hundred years later in the world he woke up in. One far different from the one he'd left behind when he went into cold sleep. Now he had to find a place in this strange new world, one without the means to wage war against an alien race raping the planet of its young people. First, he had to build an army, navy and air force from scratch while fending off attacks from the aliens and the secret government that wanted to put him and his men back into cold sleep or the grave.

Admiral's Lady: Ashes for Ashes, Blood for Blood


Luke Sky Wachter - 2014
    For reference its about twice the size of the previous Admiral's Lady book. Product Description: While Jason was getting back and gearing up for his Revenge, Akantha wasn't just sitting quietly in the corner or out waving the flag on a PR tour. She was gearing up for some revenge of her own. Determined to punish those who planted the knife in the MSP and just as or even more importantly her own people's back, this is one Hold-Mistress who isn't about to let the events that took place at Omicron Station pass. As far as she's concerned her Protector was far too lenient, a mistake she's not about to repeat. You see she has a name for her pain and it is King James, the very man who sent the traitors that took their ship and killed their people. There will be ashes, there will be blood and while victory may not be possible one thing is certain... whether she goes home carrying her shield or carried upon it, they will suffer as she has suffered. Or her name is not Akantha of Messene!

The Mountains of Mourning


Lois McMaster Bujold - 1989
    [Publisher's Note: The Mountains of Mourning was originally published as a stand-alone novella in the May 1989 issue of Analog. It was then included as the first of three novellas that make up the novel Borders of Infinity (October 1989). For the novel, Ms. Bujold added a short "framing story" that tied the three novellas together by setting up each one as a flashback that Miles experiences while recovering from bone-replacement surgery. Fictionwise is publishing these novellas separately, but we decided to leave in Ms. Bujold's short framing story for those who may also wish to read the other two novellas (Labyrinth and The Borders of Infinity).] Locus Poll Award Nominee, Nebula Award Winner, Hugo Award Winner, SF Chronicle Poll Nominee

The Forever War


Joe Haldeman - 1974
    A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties without rancor and even rise up through military ranks. Pvt. Mandella is willing to do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries.

Terms of Enlistment


Marko Kloos - 2013
    For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements, where you're restricted to two thousand calories of badly flavored soy every day:You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world, or you can join the service.With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price…and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.

Sufficiently Advanced Technology (Inverse Shadows, #1)


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2013
    Their scouts encounter Darius, a lost colony world whose inhabitants have apparently discarded the technology that brought them to the planet, in order to adopt a virtually feudal culture.But the scouts are shocked when they discover that the controlling elite, in each of the major centres of population, exhibit abilities that defy the accepted laws of physics. Although the population appear to believe their leaders to be capable of performing sorcery, the Confederation concludes they must in fact be using a technology sufficiently advanced to seem like magic. Is it a technology left behind by long-gone Elders, or an indication of an advanced race trying to control the colony – perhaps one of a number of such races who are intent on meddling in human affairs?Either way, the need to understand and utilise such a technology leads the Confederation Security Council to launch an urgent mission to investigate Darius. Suitable specialists are swiftly enlisted to create a team, including both scientists and AIs, but all under military control. Protocol dictates that stealthy infiltration should precede initial contact, but the lack of sufficient prior observation and analysis will make it harder for the team to establish a credible cover story. Although their ship can remain in a hidden orbit, the research team will be on their own once they land, especially as Confederation technology seems to be unreliable or even inoperative on the planet’s surface. But they will soon discover that the people on Darius are not all the simple folk that they seem.This is the first book in the exciting new epic Inverse Shadows universe from best-selling science fiction author Christopher Nuttall.

The War of Alien Aggression


A.D. Bloom - 2014
    Intelligent life reaches out to Humanity using particle beam weapons and masers. The pilots and crew of the privateer carrier Hardway are first to fight in the conflict that quickly escalates from a bloody first contact to a full-scale, interstellar war. KAMIKAZE - The privateer attack carrier Hardway invades Procyon to destroy an alien blockade gun meant to keep the human race confined. Hardway and her pilots meet their match in the Squidies' massive gun and the alien aces that protect it until they discover why the aliens are beating them. They must commit to paying for victory in war's only true currency.LANCER - Privateer Admiral Harry Cozen needs pilots for an experimental fighter squadron, so he offers the inmates of Bailey Prison a deal. Colt is serving 5-7 and he knows the deal is too good to be true, but he still takes it. He and the rest of the C-Block nuggets learn to fly the new F-151 and prepare to sortie against alien aces on a mission that's far more dangerous than anyone's telling them.TAIPAN - Hardway is drafted into a force group commanded by Harry Cozen's bitter rival from Staas Company. She stole his fighter program and his thousand new pilots. Now, she's determined to use them as cannon fodder. Hardway and the Lancers of the 133rd Fighter Test Squadron may be all that can keep her pilots alive in a knife-fight deep behind enemy lines.COZEN'S WAR - The Privateers and the UN fleet have brought the fight to the Squidies' home system. The massive, Earth invasion fleet faces off against every ship the Squidies can muster. Harry Cozen is in command and this is his greatest gambit, but alien propaganda threatens to reveal the war's most damaging secret on the day the bloodiest battle of the conflict unfolds.

Earth Alone


Daniel Arenson - 2016
    They came to destroy us. Fifty years ago, bloodthirsty aliens devastated the Earth. Most of humanity perished. We fell into darkness. But now we rise from the ashes. Now we fight back. Marco Emery was born into the war. After his mother is killed, he joins the Human Defense Force, Earth's ragtag army. Emery must survive basic training, become a soldier, and finally face the aliens in battle. Against the alien onslaught, Earth stands alone. But we will fight. We will rise. We will win.

With the Lightnings


David Drake - 1998
    Adele Mundy is a scholar with no money and no prospects since her family was massacred for conspiring against the Government of Cinnabar. Kostroma is a wealthy planet which depends on diplomacy to stay independent in a galaxy whose two great powers, Cinnabar and the Alliance, battle for supremacy. In a few hours, diplomacy is going to fail Kostroma. Daniel, Adele, and the scratch crew they gather aren't much to stand in the way of a powerful invasion fleet, but just possibly they're enough.

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins


Randolph Lalonde - 2008
    He is employed by Freeground station as a port traffic controller, a job he took after completing a tour in the military. His only real joy in life is his participation in true-to-life military simulations with a cadre of friends who come together regularly to defeat challenges made to test the brightest military cadets and officers alike. These restricted scenarios stand as an addictive preoccupation that is so enticing that they ignore the potential repercussions of breaking in to participate. When someone betrays their identities to the Freeground Fleet Admiralty, Jonas and his friends are faced with a far greater challenge: to venture out into the more populated regions of the galaxy to acquire technology and knowledge. They are tasked with laying the groundwork for the Freeground Nation in their efforts to reconnect with the rest of humanity, and to secure the armaments they might need to defend themselves from encroaching enemies. Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins is a collected trilogy that chronicles the early adventures of an ambitious crew. Their leader, Jonas Valent, has the least to lose and everything to gain as he tells the tale of his first tour as Captain of a ship tasked with making allies and discovering new technologies for the good of his people. This simple mission becomes more complicated as the crew ventures further into the settled fringes of the galaxy. This trilogy spawned the best selling Spinward Fringe eBook series. This is where it all began, when one man was challenged to aspire for more than an idle life. A Space Opera Adventure enjoyed across the globe by all ages.

Duel in the Dark


Jay Allan - 2016
    Three generations of its warriors have gone off to war, held the line against the larger, more powerful enemy. Now the fourth conflict is imminent, and the Confederation’s navy is on alert, positioned behind the frontier, waiting for the attack it knows is coming. The battleship Dauntless has spent the past ten months patrolling the border, deployed far forward of the main fleet, a forlorn hope, an advance guard positioned to give the warning of invasion. But no attack has come. Her crew is exhausted, and the aging battleship needs maintenance. With the fleet mobilized and the forward bases overloaded beyond capacity, she is sent clear across the Confederation, to a planet along the quiet and peaceful far frontier. Her crew is looking forward to a rest, and Dauntless herself is scheduled for a long-overdue maintenance session. But the quiet frontier isn’t what it seems…and when a distress call is received from one of the mining colonies on the edge of Confederation space, it falls to Captain Tyler Barron to take Dauntless forward, to find out what is happening, and to put a stop to it. Barron and his crew have their ship—and each other—but they can expect no other help. Suspicion is strong that Union deceit is at play, that the attack is some sort of diversion, intended to draw Confederation forces from the disputed border. The orders are clear. No ships will be transferred from the prospective battle line. Stopping whatever is happening on the rim is Barron’s responsibility, and his alone. Barron is the grandson of the Confederation’s great hero, the father of the modern navy. His family name has always carried privilege with it, and crushing responsibility. And now he must prove that he has inherited more from his famous grandfather than name and privilege. He must face the enemy, and win the victory…before the Confederation is caught between two enemies and destroyed. Blood on the Stars Reading Order Book 1: Duel in the Dark Book 2: Call to Arms (January 2017, Available now for preorder)

Contact Front


Rick Partlow - 2020
    He has no family, no friends, no place in the world…nothing to lose. When his latest con results in the death of a cartel hitman, Cam opts to join the Marines and leave Earth to fight a vicious alien enemy. Drafted into the Marine Drop-Troopers, Cam discovers there’s one thing he’s even better at than running street-con games, and that’s killing the enemy. Wrapped in an armored battlesuit, Cam finds purpose amidst the horror and destruction of the war, and the opportunity for a new sort of friends and family…if he can break the habits of a life spent alone, trusting no one. And, if he can survive...Rick Partlow returns with another kickass Military Sci-Fi epic. It's perfect for fans of Jay Allan, Jasper T. Scott, and Scott Bartlett.