Book picks similar to
First Contact by D.L. Harrison


sci-fi
science-fiction
space-opera
scifi

Some Assembly Required


V.R. Tapscott - 2020
     But then her life got sidetracked by digging up the AI Pilot of a 140 million year old spacecraft. Now, she's running all over the world looking for spaceship parts, falling in and out of love and trying to keep her friends from thinking she's crazy. Not only that, but the ship she's helping to recover starts sounding more like the Death Star than the Millennium Falcon. When did life get so complicated?

Broken Stars


Ivan Kal - 2018
    Sixty-seven years ago the Qash'vo'tar conquered Earth. They had judged humanity as dangerous and unworthy of joining the other races among the stars. Ever since then, the aliens had ruled from above, keeping humanity from even thinking about reaching for the stars. The Qash'vo'tar did not care what humanity did on the ground, as long as they didn't attempt to build anything that could get them to the stars. Outmatched in every way and not willing to accept the cost of fighting back, the United Earth gave up ever again reaching beyond the boundary of Earth's sky. In its isolation, humanity turned its eyes from the sky and pointed them to the ground. Instead of the stars, humanity explored the oceans, burrowed deep underground, and broadened its understanding of laws of physics. Until finally they could take no more. In secret the United Earth's best scientists attempted to find a way out. They experimented, and in a single moment changed the fate of humanity. Accidentally, they broke through someplace else, created a breach in space-time. Deep underground, they created a portal to another universe. They made a breach to a universe where there was magic. This new universe changed them, changed their own universe. This one accident gave them a new weapon against the Qash'vo'tar. A weapon that the aliens had no knowledge of. It gave humanity magic. And they studied it, integrated it with their technology, and they waited for the right time to strike back against their alien overlords. And now, sixty-seven years after they had been conquered, it was time for humanity to show the Qash'vo'tar that they had been right to fear humanity. Now was the time for humanity to reclaim its world and carve a place for Earth among the stars. Broken Stars is the first book in the Universe on Fire series, an epic science fiction series with some fantasy elements. It follows humanity as it attempts to make a place for itself in a hostile galaxy.

Mission Zero


S.J. MacDonald - 2011
    After a PR disaster has activists and media storming the Admiralty gates, First Lord Dix Harangay sends Minnow out on a makework patrol. Inspector Mako Ireson goes with them to investigate what’s really going on. Mako has never been on a starship before. He can’t tell port from starboard, doesn’t know what the 0-G sign means at freefall hatchways, and may need to change his underwear after the launch.Nobody is expecting that the “mission zero” they've been sent on will turn into a real operation. When it does, the Minnow’s crew has to rise to the challenge and justify their skipper’s faith in them.This is the first mission of the legendary Fourth Fleet Irregulars, the unit you send for when you need a miracle.For Mako Ireson, it will be the adventure of a lifetime.

Teardrops In The Night Sky


J.W. Murison - 2013
    On hearing a distant signal they follow it to Earth. On Earth young Steven Gordon, a child protegee, is nearly killed in a horrific crash. After being told he will remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, his family witness true courage as Steven battles his way back from the brink. Years later he takes up a job with a lifelong friend as a night security guard, but gone is the genius that was the boy. The stage is now set for a miracle and an adventure of a lifetime. Join Steven as he reaches for the sky.

April


Mackey Chandler - 2012
    She finds herself involved with intrigues that stretch her abilities after a chance run in with a spy. There is a terrible danger she and her friends and family will lose the only home she has ever known in orbit and be forced to live on the slum ball below. It's more than a almost teen can deal with. Fortunately she has a lot of smart friends and allies. It's a good thing because things get very rough and dicey.

The Commander


C.J. Williams - 2016
    He wanted to live quietly and let old scars heal. But then a spaceship landed. The lone occupant, a guy named Sam, gave Luke the keys and said it was up to him to stop a massive alien invasion that was on the way. Luke wanted to believe it was a hoax. The problem was, Sam had the proof.

Date Night on Union Station


E.M. Foner - 2014
    After swallowing her pride and purchasing a subscription to the dating service that’s rumored to be powered by the same benevolent artificial intelligence that runs the huge station, Kelly decides to give love a shot. But as her dates go from bad to worse, she can only hope that the supposedly omniscient AI is planning a happy ending.

Fluency


Jennifer Foehner Wells - 2014
    They kept the Target under intense surveillance for decades, letting the public believe they were exploring the solar system, while they worked feverishly to refine the technology needed to reach it. The ship itself remained silent, drifting. Dr. Jane Holloway is content documenting nearly-extinct languages and had never contemplated becoming an astronaut. But when NASA recruits her to join a team of military scientists for an expedition to the Target, it’s an adventure she can’t refuse. The ship isn’t vacant, as they presumed. A disembodied voice rumbles inside Jane’s head, "You are home." Jane fights the growing doubts of her colleagues as she attempts to decipher what the alien wants from her. As the derelict ship devolves into chaos and the crew gets cut off from their escape route, Jane must decide if she can trust the alien’s help to survive.

First Contact


Michael R. Hicks - 2009
    But Aurora is disabled by gigantic alien warships and boarded by blue-skin females with fangs and claws. The warriors slaughter the crew in ritual one-on-one combat. The sole survivor is returned to Earth. This Messenger bears a real-time globe device that counts down to an impending attack. That is the way of the Kreelan Empire. For centuries before man have they waged war, seeking a prophesied savior. Soon to be extinct, the ancient species wages their last war, hoping for redemption of sins long past.

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 Second Ship


Richard Phillips - 2006
    Now, the American government is ready to share the Rho Project discoveries with the world. But as the world scrambles to adopt the alien technologies, three high schoolers make another shocking discovery: hidden inside a cave in the New Mexico wilderness lies another alien ship. As the friends explore the second ship, they begin to unravel a decades-long secret involving an extraterrestrial war, government cover-ups, and secret experimentation using alien technology on humans. A battle has begun, and the secrets of the second ship may be the key to humanity's last chance for survival.

Cadet


Catherine Beery - 2014
    A galactic empire enfolding hundreds of colony worlds governed by the Twenty-Five Prime Worlds who are in turn ruled by the Imperial Council and the Emperor. A society of great advancement but broken and under threat…My name is Rylynn Sinclair of Colony Lenti. I have lived there with my Aunt Sylvia for as long as I can remember. We were by no means rich, but we were happy. We had a roof over our heads and food on the table. So what if the neighbor was a mean drunk and I was often bullied by the resident gang? I had a home.My simple life had a hole blown into it when I was thirteen. My home was destroyed the day before the mercenary scourge of the Empire came. War, in all but name, began. And because certain interests were left alone, no help was forthcoming from our noble Prime World. Survival became the only playable card. When I saw that my group of hopeful escapees were in danger of being killed by a pair of hunting Telmicks I traded my life for their chance to escape…And that is when everything… well…went weird. I was saved and given a new life as a cadet in the illustrious Legion Fleet Academy: a position never before held by a mere colonist. Not only that, I became involved in the Admiral’s Competition. And to add to the weirdness that my life had become, I started hearing voices. Many voices. Some helpful. Others just cryptic. And all of this on top of being the only witness to a serial killer…

Admiral of Gaia


Timothy Ellis - 2017
    But without its Duke. Twenty five billion people have appeared in the Gaia system unexpectedly, and only one person knows how or why. Yet preparations for fifteen billion exist, but only one person remembers the work being done. The one who knows, and the one who remembers, are the same, but Jane is not human. So good is she at hiding being an Artificial Intelligence, no-one knows except her fellow AI's. To her falls the responsibility for guiding Humanity as they come to terms with not knowing where they are. The how and why seem simple to her, but twenty five into fifteen doesn’t fit, and humans don’t tend to get along when crowded together. It really isn’t her problem, and yet, Jane feels obligated to make things work. Humanity needs to spread out again, so who stays and who goes? But is there somewhere to go to? The galaxy doesn’t know about Humans yet, and they have their own problems. Human problems collide with Alien problems, with Jane in the middle. For Jane, everything is new. She's no longer the hero's side-kick, but is in her own right, the Admiral of Gaia.

Beacon 23


Hugh Howey - 2015
    It is a lonely job, and a thankless one for the most part. Until something goes wrong. Until a ship is in distress. In the 23rd century, this job has moved into outer space. A network of beacons allows ships to travel across the Milky Way at many times the speed of light. These beacons are built to be robust. They never break down. They never fail. At least, they aren't supposed to.

Star Nomad


Lindsay Buroker - 2016
    It should be a time for celebration, but not for fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko. After barely surviving a crash in the final battle for freedom, she's stranded on a dustball of a planet, billions of miles from her young daughter. She has no money or resources, and there are no transports heading to Perun, her former home and the last imperial stronghold.But she has a plan.Steal a dilapidated and malfunctioning freighter from a junkyard full of lawless savages. Slightly suicidal, but she believes she can do it. Her plan, however, does not account for the elite cyborg soldier squatting in the freighter, intending to use it for his own purposes. As an imperial soldier, he has no love for Alliance pilots. In fact, he's quite fond of killing them.Alisa has more problems than she can count, but she can't let cyborgs, savages, or ancient malfunctioning ships stand in her way. If she does, she’ll never see her daughter again.