Book picks similar to
The Voyage Home by D.J. Holmes


science-fiction
space-opera
sci-fi
abondoned

Fire At Will


Christian Kallias - 2018
    What could possibly go wrong? After saving the Arcadian Confederate from certain destruction, Kevin's consciousness is cast back to Earth. Victory is sweet, but life on Earth is boring. It doesn't take long for him to start missing his galaxy-trotting adventures. But you should be careful what you wish for: when a Kregan operative bent on revenge shows up to hunt Kevin down, everything starts to unravel. The galaxy's in grave danger, and it looks like Kevin's the only one who can save it. Not to worry! The Arcadians have sent their best engineer to help Kevin in his quest...who also happens to be a talking cat with a less than ideal attitude. If Kevin can't whip this motley crew into shape, the galaxy's doomed. Which means Earth is doomed...and as boring as it is, Kevin's starting to realize there's no place like home.

Selling Out


Zen DiPietro - 2017
    He gets to meet interesting people, enjoy all the comforts and safety of the PAC, and also do just a wee bit of shady dealing on the side. It's a nice life.Unfortunately, the alliance is falling apart. When he's tasked with a critical mission that only a trader can pull off, he has no choice but to accept, in order to preserve the PAC and maintain his cushy existence.He'll have to broker a deal with a reptilian species that is notoriously difficult to interact with. To accomplish that, he'll also need to resurrect some of the criminal skills he left behind over a decade ago.Worse, he needs the help of both his former best friend and his worst enemy, who is also his ex-wife.She's the reason he went legit. Well, mostly legit.Nagali is a ruthless, chaotic, pleasure-seeking pirate. As much as she likes lying and cheating, she likes torturing Cabot even more. She's also beautiful, brilliant, and hard to resist.There's a reason he hasn't seen her since his fortune-hunting privateer days. Enjoy a fun adventure with delightful characters, unique species, and lots of heart.Books in the Dragonfire Station universe in written order: Each series stands alone and need not be read in written order. Dragonfire Station Book 1: Translucid Dragonfire Station Book 2: Fragments Dragonfire Station Book 3: Coalescence (series complete) Intersections: Dragonfire Station Short Stories Mercenary Warfare Book 1: Selling Out Mercenary Warfare Book 2: Blood Money Mercenary Warfare Book 3: Hell to Pay Mercenary Warfare Book 4: Calculated Risk Mercenary Warfare Book 5: Going for Broke (series complete) Chains of Command Book 1: New Blood Chains of Command Book 2: Blood and Bone Chains of Command Book 3: Cut to the Bone Chains of Command Book 4: Out for Blood(series complete)

Effie


C.J. Williams - 2019
    But with Enforcers in hot pursuit, Special Agent EAFY584 can only escape by crashing her stolen starship out of hyperspace into an uncharted solar system. Fortunately for her, the planet called Earth has a human population. Unfortunately for them, standard Enforcer procedure is to sterilize any planet where a spy might be hiding. WHAT CAN YOU DO WHEN DISASTER IS COMING AND NOBODY CARES? To outward appearances, Effie is a typical human teenager. She claims it's part of her undercover work on another world. Whether that's true or not, the disguise works. When she tries to warn the government the world is in danger, no one takes her seriously. The only person who will listen is a lonely old cowboy and he’s already at death’s door. Maybe if she plays her cards just right, his help will be enough. HONESTY MAY NOT BE THE BEST POLICY Effie knows that the Enforcers will arrive sooner or later, so she does everything in her power to be up front with the government. She admits she's an alien, she admits she's from outer space, and tells everyone she wants to help. But who listens to a young woman about a potential alien invasion? JUST BECAUSE PEOPLE WON'T LISTEN DOESN'T MEAN THE THREAT ISN'T REAL. Effie has no choice, she must prepare for battle. She goes into the global marketplace and sells her technology, a little here, a little there. She'll get ready for the bad guys on her own. But that is just step one. Step two means taking the fight to the Enforcers' home system. After all, if you are going to stand up to a bully, you better be ready to finish the job. And if that means dragging Earth into an interplanetary war, they'll have to get used to it.

War from a Distant Sun


Anthony James - 2020
    The military’s high command has played it safe for too long and now defeat seems inevitable.Dealing with the consequences on the frontline, warship captain Carl Recker is a man with enemies on both sides.A routine mission takes him to a distant world upon which he finds technology from a war fought by an unknown species. The Daklan are interested in it too, and they have an annihilator class battleship at their disposal, while Recker is flying the smallest lightspeed capable warship in the human fleet.What follows will test Recker to his limits. Relentlessly pursued by the unstoppable battleship and seemingly forsaken by his superiors, he must hunt down answers from the past while fighting enemies from the present.Powerful relics of an ancient, terrible war are scattered on the fringes - finding them and unlocking their secrets may be the only hope for humanity.War from a Distant Sun is a traditional-style science-fiction action adventure. Expect space combat, ruthless aliens, mysterious tech and lots more.

The Lost Starship


Vaughn Heppner - 2014
    The vessel's dying crew set the AI on automatic to defend the smashed rubble of their planet. Legend has it the faithful ship continues to patrol the empty battlefield, obeying its last order throughout the lonely centuries. In the here and now, Earth needs a miracle. Out of the Beyond invade the New Men, stronger, faster and smarter than the old. Their superior warships and advanced technology destroy every fleet sent to stop them. Their spies have infiltrated the government and traitors plague Earth’s military. Captain Maddox of Star Watch Intelligence wonders if the ancient legend could be true. Would such an old starship be able to face the technology of the New Men? On the run from killers, Maddox searches for a group of talented misfits. He seeks Keith Maker, a drunken ex-strikefighter ace, Doctor Dana Rich the clone thief stuck on a prison planet and Lieutenant Valerie Noonan, the only person to have faced the New Men in battle and survived to tell about it. Maddox has to find a place hidden in the Beyond and bring back a ship no one can enter. If he fails, the New Men will replace the old. If he succeeds, humanity might just have a fighting chance…

Cold Welcome


Elizabeth Moon - 2017
    But instead she is thrown into danger unlike any other she has faced and finds herself isolated, unable to communicate with the outside world, commanding a motley group of unfamiliar troops, and struggling day by day to survive in a deadly environment with sabotaged gear. Only her undeniable talent for command can give her ragtag band a fighting chance.Yet even as Ky leads her team from one crisis to another, her family and friends refuse to give up hope, endeavoring to mount a rescue from halfway around the planet—a task that is complicated as Ky and her supporters find secrets others will kill to protect: a conspiracy infecting both government and military that threatens not only her own group’s survival but her entire home planet.

The Interstellar Age: The Complete Trilogy


Valmore Daniels - 2014
    There is no trace of their young son, Alex Manez, or of the asteroid itself. On the outer edge of the solar system, the first manned mission to Pluto, led by the youngest female astronaut in NASA history, has led to an historic discovery: there is a marker left there by an alien race for humankind to find. We are not alone! While studying the alien marker, it begins to react. Four hours later, the missing asteroid appears in a Plutonian orbit, along with young Alex Manez, who has developed some alarming side-effects from his exposure to the kinetic element they call Kinemet. From the depths of a criminal empire based on Luna, an expatriate seizes the opportunity to wrest control of outer space, and takes swift action. The secret to faster-than-light speed is up for grabs, and the race for interstellar space begins! Music of the Spheres The technology for interstellar flight exists through the power of Kinemet, but the key to unlocking its code lies in a thousand-year-old scroll left on Earth by an alien species. When the ancient manual is stolen before a full translation is completed, Alex, Michael and Justine scramble to recover it. Along the way, they stumble on an interplanetary conspiracy and uncover a secret that shatters their view of life and shakes the very foundations of our existence. Worlds Away For a thousand years the Kulsat Armada has ravaged the galaxy searching for the lost legacy of an extinct race of technologically advanced beings. They destroy anyone who gets in their way. Now they have turned their attention to Earth and are gathering their forces for an invasion. Justine, Michael and Alex each hold a key to stopping the enemy, but they are worlds away from each other, and they are running out of time...

Nanomech


R. David King - 2011
    He leads an uncertain life, until one day, the Zenzani Protectorate invades his home and destroys everything he has ever known. Aiben soon learns that the molecule-sized machines, which augment his body and mind, have a centuries-old plan for him involving nanotechnology, genetic manipulation, and hyperspatial thought. Now, along with his companions, an old soldier and a sentient mechanoid, he takes his journey to a world of fabricated prophecies. There he navigates the treacheries of war and espionage to find an ancient weapon and a long-forgotten people that will bring his past crashing into his future and seal his destiny forever.

The Last Voyage


T.S. Snow - 2016
    She's far from it.Together, they’re Earth's last hope... they just don’t know it yet.Sinbad sh'en Singh had everything. A thriving smuggling career, his hologram on wanted posters on eleven planets, and plenty of women. Then she walked into his life.Andrea Talltrees, member of a backwards cult not believing in space travel or anything else invented after the Twentieth Century.She wants him to find her husband, a fugitive accused of being an Albegensian spy, the planet currently at war with Earth.He doesn’t want anything to do with an Earther, but a massive culture clash and a heavy dose of instant attraction get in the way, sending good sense flying out the viewport.They'll brave some very unsavory characters, maybe even prevent a second interplanetary war...if they can stop arguing.

Behind the Lines


Chris Fox - 2017
    Attacked without warning, enemy unknown. Their last transmission originated from a world on the edge of known space. Alpha Company is dispatched to investigate. They’re the best of the best. Hardcore warriors piloting battle-tested mechs, they’ve never lost an engagement. Until they arrive on Ganog 7. Now, shattered and stuck behind enemy lines, the remnants of Alpha Company struggle to survive. Between them and escape stand three Planetstriders, thousand meter monstrosities capable of destroying an orbiting capital ship. In order to survive, they must disable these titanic war machines, an impossible task made even more difficult by the discovery of a terrible secret – one that must reach fleet command, no matter the cost.