Book picks similar to
Hero Born by Chris Fox


sci-fi
urban-fantasy
scifi
science-fiction

Ghost Hand


Ripley Patton - 2012
    Instead of a right hand made of flesh and blood, she was born with a hand made of ethereal energy.How does Olivia handle being the girl with the ghost hand? Well, she's a little bit morbid and a whole lot snarky. Her mother thinks her obsession with death, black clothing, and the local cemetery is a bid for attention. But when Marcus, the new guy in Olivia's calculus class, stares at her like she's a freak, Olivia doesn't like it. And when her hand goes rogue, doing things she never imagined possible, Olivia finds herself running for her life with Marcus from a group of men bent on taking the power of her hand for their own nefarious purposes.NEWLY DESIGNED COVER FOR 2015

Rivals


David Wellington - 2012
    It used to be fun. Until the day they found something... unearthly... and it changed them all forever. The thing that killed their father turned Brent and Maggie into something more than they had been. It made them stronger and faster. It made them superheroes... and celebrities.It made them rivals. Archenemies.The thing in the desert tore their world apart. And now nobody is safe...

Broken Symmetry


Dan Rix - 2013
    To her, a mirror feels like a film of honey. She can reach through it, grab things…even step inside.On the other side she lives every teenager’s fantasy: a universe all her own, zero consequences. She can kiss the hot guy, break into La Jolla mansions, steal things…even kill. When finished, she just steps back into reality and smashes the mirror—and in an instant erases every stupid thing she did. Gone. It never happened.But breaking symmetry is also dangerous. First there’s the drug-like rush she gets when passing through the glass, like a shot of adrenaline. She suspects it’s degrading her body, making a new copy of her each time. A reflection of a reflection, each one a little hazier. Then, of course, there’s the risk of getting cut off from reality.When she narrowly escapes a military quarantine zone with the San Diego Police Department hot on her heels only to discover her escape mirror littering the floor in shards, her worst fear is realized. Now, trapped in a broken reflection, she must flee through a mind-bending maze of mirrors, going deeper into the nightmare as she struggles to grasp a betrayal, uncover the chilling truth about her ability, and somehow find a way out of a dead-end universe that “never happened.”Somehow, she must find a way home.

The Legend of ZERO: The Scientist, the Rat, and the Assassin


Sara King - 2016
    It is a 85,000-word kinky romantic adventure from the Legend of ZERO series where Rat and Sam struggle to survive the Apocalypse (and each other) before they meet up with Prime Commander Joe Dobbs and the human genetic experiments that he's taken under his wing. One of a series of 8 novels and novellas created to fill the gaps between Books 3 and 4 of the ZERO series, if you're a lover of military sci-fi, space opera, first contact, apocalyptic adventure, or science fiction of any sort, sink your teeth into this one and enjoy!

Rex Rising


Chrystalla Thoma - 2011
    Pursued for a secret he does not possess and with the fleet at his heels, he has but one thought: to stay alive. His pursuers aren’t inclined to sit down and talk, although that’s not the end of Elei’s troubles. The two powerful parasites inhabiting his body, at a balance until now, choose this moment to bring him down, leaving Elei with no choice but to trust in people he hardly knows. It won’t be long before he realizes he must find out this deadly secret — a secret that might change the fate of his world and everything he has ever known — or die trying.

Infected


Scott Sigler - 2008
    Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected. The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.

Saving Mars


Cidney Swanson - 2012
    Earth-Mars relations couldn’t be worse, and her brother is captured during the raid. Breaking rules of secrecy and no contact, Jess finds an ally in Pavel, nephew to a government official, but their friendship only makes more agonizing the choice before her: Save her brother or save her planet?

Samantha's Talent


Darrell Bain - 2014
    The problem is that no one believes her. Her talent gets young Samantha in trouble time after time as she grows from a young girl into a teenager. After leading a runaway tiger back to the zoo, she becomes a celebrity. Some think she's a fake. Some worship her. Some hate her. And a rogue government agency wants to use her. Her talent can give the United States a huge jump over other nations, but first she has to stay alive, second she must solve a decades-old, other-worldly enigma and last she has to convince everyone she is truly capable of all the demands being made on her. A novel that adults, young adults and anyone else will find fascinating. Author's preferred edition.

Murder of Crows


Kevin Kauffmann - 2012
    Since interstellar travel was never developed, asteroids were towed into orbit around Earth and terraformed into smaller planets to deal with excess population. While most of the asteroids were designed for colonization, Eris was destined for constant commercial warfare. Most people just call it "War World" after their favorite show.In this new age of gladiatorial combat, the athletes are divided into teams and each person is cloned prior to the games. When they die, their consciousness and memories are transferred into new clones and the process begins all over again.What the rest of humanity doesn't realize is that each death and resurrection is incredibly painful and disorienting, let alone the monetary cost that is forced upon them.Rarely do any of them make it off the asteroid.Drawing on themes of grief, freedom and coping with an uncaring world, Murder of Crows tells the story of one of the best teams in the system, centering on the trauma these men and women experience as they die for public entertainment.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Author's note: As of June 14, 2016, Murder of Crows has been updated for a sixth time to deal with certain proofreading and editing missteps. It should be a much better read this time around.

The Amplified Trilogy: The Amplified Books 1-3


Lauren M. Flauding - 2017
    Includes The Amplified, The Dissenters, and The Restrainers.

Voyage Across the Stars


David Drake - 2012
    In Cross the Stars a retired mercenary captain takes a Ulysses-like star voyage home where he must fight to regain his lover and his heritage. In Voyage, a young man comes of age as a galactic warrior in an epic “Jason and the Argonauts”-like journey to recover a powerful alien artifact.Two incandescent novels of journey and battle across the stars set in David Drake’s best-selling Hammer’s Slammers universe together for the first time in one mega-volume. In Cross the Stars, Captain Don Slade has resigned from active duty with the Slammers and headed home for what he hopes will be peaceful  retirement with his son and the woman he loves. But Slade’s road to his homeworld lies through a jungle of planets in the wildest and toughest quadrant of the galaxy. Slade has going for him the loyalty of a contingent of Slammers who have sworn to see him home. Most of all, he still possesses the wits and wily tactical ability that made him a legend among the Slammers in the first place. He’s going to need all of it, for even if he makes it through all dangers, he’ll discover Tethys is not exactly ready to welcome him home with open arms. The journey home is an Odyssey of epic proportions and Don Slade is just the Ulysses to undertake it. In Voyage, Ned Slade has a heck of a name to live up to:  that of his uncle Captain Don “Mad Dog” Slade of the legendary mercenary brigade, Hammer’s Slammers. But Ned’s life takes a turn to adventure when he crews for Lissea Doorman, a trade-ship captain who is sent by her conniving guild masters on what is supposed to be a suicide run. The crew of the good ship Swift is after an ancient alien artifact that could revolutionize star travel. The journey is long, and along the way Ned must first survive in a hard-knock universe full of forces—some very large and very-much armed-to-the-hilt—that would like nothing more than to blow him and the crew of the Swift to smithereens. And if he manages to pull through and, more importantly, if he manages to grow up and come of age as a man in the process, he may yet become the warrior and leader of warriors that is his inheritance. Jason and the Argonauts meets gritty science fiction adventure in what many argue is one of best-seller David Drake’s greatest and most compelling works.

Through Violet Eyes


Stephen Woodworth - 2004
    Because to every generation are born a select few souls with violet-colored eyes, and the ability to channel the dead. Both rare and precious—and rigidly controlled by a society that craves their services—these Violets perform a number of different duties. The most fortunate increase the world's cultural heritage by channeling the still-creative spirits of famous dead artists and musicians. The least fortunate aid the police and the law courts, catching criminals by interviewing the deceased victims of violent crime.But now the Violets themselves have become the target of a brutal serial murderer—a murderer who had learned how to mask his or her identity even from the victims. Can the FBI, aided by a Violet so scared of death that she is afraid to live, uncover the criminal in time? Or must more of her race be dispatched to the realm that has haunted them all since childhood?

The Atlantis Gene


A.G. Riddle - 2013
    They will set off a race to unravel the deepest secrets of human existence--and an event that could change humanity forever.

Alone, Untouched, Soulless


Robert J. Crane - 2014
    (Approx. 185,000 words total.)Books included:1. Alone2. Untouched3. SoullessAloneSienna Nealon was a 17 year-old girl who had been held prisoner in her own house by her mother for twelve years. Then one day her mother vanished, and Sienna woke up to find two strange men in her home. On the run, unsure of who to turn to and discovering she possesses mysterious powers, Sienna finds herself pursued by a shadowy agency known as the Directorate and hunted by a vicious, bloodthirsty psychopath named Wolfe, each of which is determined to capture her for their own purposes...UntouchedStill haunted by her last encounter with Wolfe and searching for her mother, Sienna Nealon must put aside her personal struggles when a new threat emerges – Aleksandr Gavrikov, a metahuman so powerful, he could destroy entire cities – and he's focused on bringing the Directorate to its knees.SoullessAfter six months of intense training with the Directorate, Sienna Nealon finds herself on her first assignment - tracking a dangerous meta across the upper midwest. With Scott Byerly and Kat Forrest at her side, she'll face new enemies and receive help from unlikely allies as she stumbles across the truth behind the shadowy organization known only as Omega.Additional books not included in set:

Rook


J.C. Andrijeski - 2011
    With their insanely strong psychic powers, seers have been used to wage wars, commit terrorism, expand organized crime, even take over governments.As a waitress and college dropout, Allie only sees seers at a distance, usually working in front of sex clubs, or on the leash of powerful businessmen… until Revik bursts into her life.Before long, Allie is thrown into a world behind the world, one most humans never dreamed existed, where she discovers she may not be all that human, after all.Worse, Revik tells her that the seers believe she will destroy the world.She will kill all the humans.She will be the one to finally free them from slavery.Psychic romance. Apocalyptic.The first chapter in an epic, soul-crushing, science fantasy romance.THE BRIDGE & SWORD SERIES is a dark, gritty psychic warfare romance, from a USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL bestselling author. Set in a gritty, alternate version of Earth, it stars Alyson Taylor and her partner, dark and dangerous infiltrator, Dehgoies Revik. For fans of romantic, character-driven science fiction and fantasy worlds, filled with twists and turns and backstabbing betrayals, with heroes and villains who are sometimes the same people. The Bridge & Sword books span continents and historical periods as Allie and Revik try to save the human and seer races from destroying one another, and keep their friends and loved ones alive in the process.The world is dying. Everyone feels it, and yet... no one knows.They said that when the end was near, a Bridge would come, and lead them out of the darkness of that dying world.My name is Allie Taylor, and I am that Bridge.