Book picks similar to
The Black Gate by Michael R. Hicks


science-fiction
michael-r-hicks
horror
historical-fantasy

The Divide


Robert Charles Wilson - 1989
    Imagine. . . and you will understand the feelings of John Shaw.

Feed


Michael Bray - 2017
    Sick of his life and plagued by alcoholism, he makes the decision to divorce his wife, sell everything he owns and travel the world to try and find focus and rid himself of his addiction. Eventually arriving on the sun drenched shores of Australia and still plagued by his demons, he has spent all his savings and is facing the prospect of having to return to his old life. It is here that he meets two men with an outlandish story about a horde of sunken drug money in an area known as the Devil’s Triangle – Australia’s answer to its Bermuda namesake and said to be the lair of a terrifying monster of the deep. Offered a share of the fortune if he helps retrieve it, Tyler agrees to go with the men to the location, sceptical and thinking only of prolonging his journey of self discovery. He will learn, however, that this particular urban legend is real, and they encounter a giant of the seas, the previously thought to be extinct Megalodon which makes its home within the area of the Devil’s triangle. Barely escaping with their lives, the three men wash up on an isolated island – no more than a rocky outcrop with no vegetation, fresh water of food sources. As desperation to survive intensifies, horrifying decisions will be made that will illustrate how man is sometimes the most violent predator on earth and when left with no option will do anything, even the unthinkable, in order to survive.

House of Malice


Scott Mariani - 2013
    . .But instead she opened the door to HellRomantic novelist Mandy Freeman thinks all her dreams have come true when she becomes the new owner of Summer Cottage, the former home of her idol, bestselling author Ellen Grace. With her new life starting and love on the horizon, Mandy's future is looking bright.But as Mandy begins to learn, all is not as it seems at Summer Cottage. As a series of increasingly disturbing and sinister events forces her to delve into the mysterious past of its former owner Ellen Grace, Mandy finds herself caught up in a horrifying nightmare that threatens to destroy her sanity . . . and perhaps claim her life.

Enter The Dark


Chris Thomas - 2017
    When the lights go up, viewers bid, criminals are punished, and the Brotherhood of the Righteous broadcasts a show like no other.The room has remained hidden until now, when a video arrives in the inbox of the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit. But outclassed, outplayed, and torn apart by corruption, is there anything Detective Pete Harris andhis team can do except watch?Their only lead may be the room’s latest bidder, Joe Henderson. Because when Joe found the Red Room, it found him too, and now the Brotherhood are watching through the wires, willing to do wrong for a righteous cause. As they pull Joe deeper into the dark web, will he find any mercy or a way out? And could he be the Red Room’s next volunteer?

Death and the Senator


Arthur C. Clarke - 1961
    His only hope for a cure is to accept a innovative treatment which he campaigned against funding, a decision for which he will be branded a hypocrite. The decision has placed him in the crucible of his life.

Predator: Stalking Shadows


James A. Moore - 2020
    Predator: Stalking Shadows is the bridge between Predator 2 and the current day continuity. U.S. Marine Scott Devlin takes on a new assignment that begins with the clean-up of a Los Angeles combat scene revealing what appears to be alien weapons and tech. His next mission, to an equatorial jungle, seems like an assault on a drug cartel until his team finds human bodies, skinned and suspended from the trees. Justifiably freaked out, Devlin digs deeper and discovers hidden truths, clandestine agencies, savage opponents... and an unexpected ally.

Z-WORLD


B.V. Larson - 2010
    Bizarre monsters of blended flesh shamble in the streets. The world has shifted. Guns don't always work anymore, and the dead don't always die. Corpses lie everywhere--and many of them are still dangerous...Gannon is one of the last living humans in Redmoor. Most of the other residents have shifted into something else. "They are coming, Gannon. The flying ones."Do you want to have nightmares? Z-WORLD is a novel of Fantasy and Horror by bestselling author B. V. Larson.

Orphan Wars


J.N. Chaney - 2021
    Hank Murphy discovers an alien artifact on the Moon, corporate interests are quick to get involved.A discovery like this could change everything, but more importantly, someone stands to make a fortune.But Murphy just wants to understand what this thing is and how it works. After months of research, he finally manages to locate the power source.The gate is soon activated...And Murphy is pulled through.Moments later, he finds himself in a war-torn corner of the galaxy where strangers like him are called Orphans...and they are considered extremely dangerous.Somehow altered by the experience, the archeologist now has enhanced strength, speed, and agility. He is more than human. He is an Orphan. And he must survive a deadly new reality unlike anything he can imagine.Worse still, Murphy is not the only so-called Orphan in this region of the galaxy. There are many others.And not all of them are created equal.

Bitter Glory


Jay Allan - 2013
    He leads massive fleets in great battles, but once he was a new captain leading his tiny attack ship on it first mission.The young Garret was driven by ambition and the quest for glory. But war in space is brutal, and the consequences of command decisions can haunt even the strongest commanders. Garret will win his glory, but will he be prepared to pay its cost?Bitter Glory is not a full length novel - it is a prequel novella set in the Crimson Worlds universe.

The First Formic War (Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens)


Orson Scott Card - 2017
    A pulse-pounding tale of first contact gone horribly wrong. Ender’s Game opens in the last desperate days of Earth’s war against the implacable insectoid aliens. We are told early on that the Battle School is training generals for the Third Formic War — the war that will end the war; will save the Earth; will finally defeat the Buggers. This is the story of the First Formic Wars, back when humans thought they were alone in the galaxy. Humanity was slowly making their way out from Earth to the planets and asteroids of the Solar System, exploring and mining and founding colonies. Then a ship’s telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it's hard to know what to make of it. It's massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.Earth Unaware — When mining ship El Cavador's telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it's hard to know what to make of it. It's massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. But the ship has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems…not important.Earth Afire — Victor Delgado beat the alien ship to Earth, but not soon enough to convince skeptical governments that there was a threat. That is, until space stations and ships and colonies went up in sudden flame. And when that happened, only Mazer Rackham and the Mobile Operations Police could organize in time to meet the threat. Earth Awakens — Politics slowed the response on Earth, and on Luna, corporate power struggles seemed more urgent than distant deaths. It's up to Mazer Rackham's squad in China, who have developed a method to destroy the alien landers one by one; and Lem Jukes and his crew on the Moon, who may have the key to destroying the Formic mother ship in orbit. Books by Orson Scott Card The Ender UniverseEnder Quintet#1 Ender’s Game#2 Ender in Exile#3 Speaker for the Dead#4 Xenodice#5 Children of the Mind Ender’s Shadow Quintet #1 Ender’s Shadow#2 Shadow of the Hegemon#3 Shadow Puppets#4 Shadow of the Giant#5 Shadows in Flight The Second Formic War (With Aaron Johnston) #1 The SwarmOther Books in the Ender UniverseChildren of the Fleet A War of Gifts (novella) First Meetings (novella)Other SeriesHomecomingThe MithermagesThe Tales of Alvin MakerAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Iona Portal


Robert David MacNeil - 2011
    Evil is winning.Since ancient times, our planet has been visited by super-intelligent aliens who shift between parallel worlds as easily as we move from sunlight to shadow. Described in our myths as angels, gods, and demons, these trans-dimensional beings often walk among us unnoticed, but they’re locked in a battle older than time, with our future hanging in the balance.The Archons' goal is to destroy the human race and seize our world for their own. Standing against them are the Irin, a benevolent race of winged aliens with great power but limited numbers. As our planet sinks rapidly toward apocalyptic doom, our only hope lies in the Synaxis, a group of ordinary men and women conscripted by the Irin and given supernormal powers.But it’s a race against time. And as the Synaxis members trek across the Scottish highlands to open the ancient dimensional portal on Iona, they must overcome heavily-armed psychopaths, flying bat-winged demons, and the awakening of a long-dormant volcano. Most of all, they must learn how to use their fantastic new powers to drive back the Archons and rescue the world from destruction.

The Complete Independence Day Omnibus


Stephen Molstad - 2016
    All satellite communications are interrupted, as fear grips the cities of the world. When the skies return to normal, it becomes clear that a force of incredible magnitude has arrived on Earth. Its mission: to eliminate all human life on the planet.SILENT ZONECREATED BY DEAN DEVLIN & ROLAND EMMERICH NOVEL BY STEPHEN MOLSTADIn the official prequel to Independence Day, Dr Brackish Okun, head scientist of Area 51, begins to suspect that a massive government cover-up has successfully buried all evidence of alien visitation throughout the years—a cover-up in which Okun is now an unwilling participant.WAR IN THE DESERTCREATED BY DEAN DEVLIN & ROLAND EMMERICHNOVEL BY STEPHEN MOLSTADIt is the fourth of July. Reeling from the enemy onslaught, a few surviving military pilots gather in the Saudi Arabian desert. Two of the best fliers discover that their recent “victory” was an illusion—part of a secret ambush that will open the planet to unimaginable horror, unless several Middle Eastern nations can overcome long-standing hatreds and unite against the aliens in the fiercest hand-to-hand combat of the war.

Declination


David Derrico - 2002
    Now, the Confederation's crises are spawned from within, and one brave woman struggles against all odds to keep mankind united amidst a hailstorm of rebellion, war, and moral declination.* * * * *The Lucani Ibron have yet to return, but all is not well within the Alpha Sector. Internal strife, terrorism, and ever-escalating conflicts with several neighboring species have spread the Confederation's resources dangerously thin. Captain Anastasia Mason, together with an eclectic group of humanity's most decorated heroes, struggles to hold the Confederation together against powerful forces that threaten to rip it apart at its very core. Then, at what appears to be mankind’s most desperate hour, an old enemy returns from a ten-year hiatus, casting humanity to the brink of civil war... and outright annihilation.

Abomination


Gary Whitta - 2015
    But when he is called back into service to combat a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, he meets a fate worse than death and is condemned to a life of anguish, solitude, and remorse.She is a fierce young warrior, raised among an elite order of knights. Driven by a dark secret from her past, she defies her controlling father and sets out on a dangerous quest to do what none before her ever have—hunt down and kill an abomination, alone.When a chance encounter sets these two against one another, an incredible twist of fate will lead them toward a salvation they never thought possible—and prove that the power of love, mercy, and forgiveness can shine a hopeful light even in history’s darkest age.

Eerie


Blake Crouch - 2012
    Grant is now a detective with the Seattle Police Department and long estranged from his sister. But his investigation into the bloody past of a high-class prostitute has led right to Paige's door, and what awaits inside is beyond his wildest imagining.OVER ANYONE WHO ENTERSHis only hope of survival and saving his sister will be to confront the terror that inhabits its walls, but he is completely unprepared to face the truth of what haunts his sister's brownstone.