Book picks similar to
The Mission by Shaun Messick


sci-fi
science-fiction
scifi
fiction

Birth of an Empire: The Beginning


Catrina Taylor - 2011
    Climbing to the rank of Fleet Commander, the compassionate Kala stirs controversy when she pushes for peace in the chaos of the great war.A skilled but reckless soldier from the opposing Dentonian fleet, Yatrell struggles to hone his unique talents. The skills and abilities that help him become the formidable leader are the same that may be the undoing of his entire planet. Brax left his clan when his psionic ability surfaced. A gentle giant, he has become an exceptional fighter whose only weakness is his desperation for acceptance. When the three are reunited, they become a dynamic force...and the key to peace.

Gabriel's Redemption


Steve Umstead - 2011
    He's spent the last five years hiding from his past, from those responsible for the failed mission, from those responsible for running him out of the Navy, and from those originally responsible for making him into who he was - a highly-trained, physically and mentally augmented Special Forces soldier. Two mysterious visitors appear unannounced at the door of Gabriel's seedy hotel room in the slums of Jamaica. His past has finally caught up with him. From the decaying Caribbean to politically-charged South America, from the back alleys of Mars to a tiny colony on a planet six hundred light years from Earth, Gabriel's Redemption is a near-future military science fiction story of a personal journey seen from the perspective of a soldier who has lost everything -- one who desperately needs to redeem himself not only in his government's eyes, but also his own. Interstellar action and political intrigue mix with one-on-one battles on the surface of a frozen planet in Book One of the science fiction-adventure trilogy.

Rhubarb


M.H. Van Keuren - 2012
    After all, as a traveling salesman, he’s spent more than enough hours on the road listening to late-night talk radio to know about these things. The odd thing is that these aliens are coming to tiny Brixton, Montana…to eat at the truck stop.Martin, too, has been coming to Brixton for years. It’s a convenient crossroads town, but the real draw is Cheryl, the housekeeper who sets out the breakfast at the local motel. Martin has just about worked up the courage to ask her out when she disappears.When Martin begins to ask questions, what he uncovers about Cheryl’s family and Brixton’s history is far weirder than anything he’s ever heard on the radio. Especially if it’s true that Cheryl’s salvation lies in discovering a long-lost secret recipe for rhubarb pie—which might just be the best, and the most dangerous, pie in the galaxy.

Wired


Douglas E. Richards - 2005
    But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania? David Desh left the special forces after his team was brutally butchered in Iran. Now he has been reactivated for one last mission: find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions. But when Desh learns that the bioterror plot is just the tip of the iceberg, he is thrust into a byzantine maze of deception and intrigue, and he becomes a key player in a deadly game he can't begin to understand. A game that is certain to have a dramatic impact on the future course of human history. . .

The Rapture of the Nerds


Cory Doctorow - 2012
    For the most part, they are happy with their lot, living in a preserve at the bottom of a gravity well. Those who are unhappy have emigrated, joining one or another of the swarming densethinker clades that fog the inner solar system with a dust of molecular machinery so thick that it obscures the sun.The splintery metaconsciousness of the solar-system has largely sworn off its pre-post-human cousins dirtside, but its minds sometimes wander...and when that happens, it casually spams Earth's networks with plans for cataclysmically disruptive technologies that emulsify whole industries, cultures, and spiritual systems. A sane species would ignore these get-evolved-quick schemes, but there's always someone who'll take a bite from the forbidden apple.So until the overminds bore of stirring Earth's anthill, there's Tech Jury Service: random humans, selected arbitrarily, charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Young Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury, a task he does his best to perform despite an itchy technovirus, the apathy of the proletariat, and a couple of truly awful moments on bathroom floors.

The Plantation Series: Books 1-3


Stella Fitzsimons - 2013
    and a spark.This collection includes the first three novels in the bestselling dystopian series THE PLANTATION.(BOOKS: The Plantation, The Dark Legion, The Shadow Empire.)

Days of Judgment


Rob McLean - 2015
    Enticed by an offer of $50 million each to come work for the clandestine outfit, without any details regarding the job they will be doing, they must make a choice that will change their lives forever. Join the group of eight - a lawyer, psychologist, priest, quantum physicist, rock star, sociologist, rogue special operative and industrial capitalist - as they descend into an abyss of mystery and subterfuge to discover that who they are may be mankind's last hope or its final undoing.The Fall of Man: Days of Judgment is a thought-provoking, fast-paced, keep-you-guessing ride through a world of quantum physics,virology, and moral philosophy where a chosen few must confront the question - has mankind gone too far?

Birthright


B.J. Keeton - 2013
    As a technomage of the Charonic Archive, Damien had the power to create entire universes. Then, five hundred years ago, he gave it all up. He suspended the nanites that made up his bloodstream and began to age—and eventually die—like anyone else. For centuries, Damien has lived among those who once worshipped him, his real identity fading into myth and legend. Hundreds of years later, when Ceril Bain finds Damien’s old sword buried in his grandfather's garden, he is put on the fast-track to follow in Vennar's footsteps. Over the next six years, Ceril trains as a technomage aboard the Inkwell Sigil, a ship with the ability to travel between dimensions. Just as Ceril is preparing to undergo his Rites and finish his training, the Inkwell Sigil loses power. Stranded in space with no way back home, Ceril and four of his classmates are given their final assignment: go into uncharted territory, find a way back home, and bring back the one person who can fix the ship—Damien Vennar himself.While away, Ceril and his team find themselves in a predicament when they confuse an attempt at first contact with an attack and kill two of the world’s winged inhabitants. They are shortly captured and imprisoned, and the only thing keeping them alive is their angel-like captors’ belief they may be the subjects of an ancient prophecy about a group of magic-wielding messiahs. But that’s impossible. Isn’t it?

Flying the Storm


C.S. Arnot - 2014
    Once the glorious flagship of the North Atlantic Union, it has become a hive of renegades and pirates, unchallenged in the skies over Eurasia. Like an angry god, it dominates wherever and whomever it chooses. Now it has chosen the Crimean Peninsula, the most lucrative trade hub on the Black Sea.In Sevastopol, two Gilgamesh marines are dead, and in seconds the merchant airman Aiden has become a wanted man. It doesn't matter that it was his pilot, Fredrick, who got them into the fight in the first place – Aiden finished it. Now they must run, taking their aircraft deep into the Caucasus Mountains to evade capture and execution. Through dogfights, shootouts and cock-ups the pair must make their escape, hounded by bounty hunters and slavers, driven to discover a secret that might – just might – change the balance of power forever… Flying the Storm is the debut novel from Scottish author C. S. Arnot. To follow the author, go to:facebook.com/csarnottwitter.com/csarnotcsarnot.wordpress.comsmashwords.com/profile/view/arnum91

Evensong


Krista Walsh - 2014
    He is within his own novel—summoned into the fictional world of Feldall’s Keep by a spell he didn't write. One the House enchantress hasn't figured out how to reverse.When the villain he's been struggling to write reveals himself, unleashing waves of terror and chaos, Jeff must use more than his imagination to save the characters he created—and the woman he loves.Trapped within a world of his own creation, he must step outside the bounds of his narrative to help his characters defeat an evil no one anticipated, even if he must sacrifice his greatest gift. In the end, he has to ask: are novels really fiction, or windows into other worlds?The Meratis Trilogy centres around author Jeff Powell, who wakes up in his sword-and-sorcery fantasy world. Initially an arrogant and close-minded character, Jeff has his eyes opened to a world of dragons, magic, and assassins. Faced with an evil he could never have imagined, Jeff is pushed to his limits and forced to rise to the most unusual challenges.

Time


Stephen Baxter - 1999
    More than a century of ecological damage, industrial and technological expansion, and unchecked population growth has left the Earth on the brink of devastation. As the world’s governments turn inward, one man dares to envision a bolder, brighter future. That man, Reid Malenfant, has a very different solution to the problems plaguing the planet: the exploration and colonization of space. Now Malenfant gambles the very existence of time on a single desperate throw of the dice. Battling national sabotage and international outcry, as apocalyptic riots sweep the globe, he builds a spacecraft and launches it into deep space. The odds are a trillion to one against him. Or are they?

Chosen


Jolea M. Harrison - 2011
     Dynan Telaerin finds himself on a corpse-strewn hillside, uncertain if he's dead or alive, charged with saving his ancestor, the most powerful telepath to ever exist. Dynan has telepathic powers of his own, only he doesn't know how to use them. With monsters and minions hunting him down, the demon's lair isn't the place to learn anything - except how to run and how to hide. But when they take his brother, Dynan will do anything to get him back. Will courage alone be enough to face the greatest evil to exist? Will he lose his soul to save everyone else? The running starts, and doesn't stop to the end of this action-packed adventure of a young man coming to terms with his life while he's barely a spirit, through horrors he thought existed only in dreams. Chosen is the first book of the series, The Guardians of the Word. Suitable for mature young adults. The Chronicles are Chosen, Myth, Telepath, Legend, Union, Seer, Adept, and King.

Schismatrix Plus


Bruce Sterling - 1996
    For the first time in one volume: every word Bruce Sterling has ever written on the Shapers-Mechanists Universe.In the last decade, Sterling has emerged a pioneer of crucial, cutting-edge science fiction. Now Ace Books is proud to offer Sterling's stunning world of the Schismatrix--where Shaper revolutionaries struggle against aristocratic Mechanists for ultimate control of man's destiny. This volume includes the classic full-length novel, Schismatrix, plus thousands of words of mind-bending short fiction.

The Shadow Constant


A.J. Scudiere - 2013
    Should it ever have been built? The lure of the find behind the loose hearthstone at Hazleton House was too great. The schematic excited Evan, Reenie and Ivy for different reasons but it is Kayla who actually begins building it. Her ability to focus to the exclusion of all else is just one of the effects of her Asperger's. The scribbled initials E.W. were merely a curiosity until it's discovered they belong to Eli Whitney. But strange footprints and disturbing visitors let Evan know that the theft of his sister's prize schematic isn't just a coincidence. It becomes obvious that the generator has no apparent power source. And Eli Whitney was only the first to die because of the machine. Soon they realize their enemies are much bigger than they had imagined and the threat the device poses could topple an empire. The secret now threatens those at Hazleton House. Who is trying to stop them? Winner: Booky Award for BEST Thriller & Suspense Book 2013 Winner: Booky Award for top 12 books of 2013 Finalist: Beverly Hills Book Awards for New Fiction and Suspense 2014 Finalist: Eric Hoffer Best Book Award 2014 Silver Medal: Indie Excellence Award for Mystery/Suspense 2014

Rumors of Glory


Dietmar Arthur Wehr - 2015
    This series is now complete with the publication of the 3rd book, Rumors of Salvation. All three books in this series are now available in a single ebook entitled The System States Rebellion. Humanity has colonized over 500 planets under the not always benevolent administration of the Federation of Planetary States via the FED Army and Navy. Long standing grievances over economic exploitation by Earth-based companies has grown into a full scale rebellion and attempted secession by many of the more successful colonies. The Rebels believe a peaceful separation is possible. The FEDs believe an easy and swift military resolution is available. Both dreams of glory are shattered by the reality of a civil war that is rapidly escalating in scope and violence. You'll see Grand Strategy planned at the highest levels plus the execution of those plans by the men and women who will do the fighting and dying. The 2nd book in the series, Rumors of Honor, is now available too. Categories: space opera,space fleets, space marines, galactic empires, colonization, action and adventure, war