Book picks similar to
Independence by Alasdair C. Shaw
science-fiction
sci-fi
short-story
space-opera
The Synchronicity War Part 1
Dietmar Arthur Wehr - 2013
As the outgunned Space Force is driven back in battle after battle in what appears to be a war of extermination, one officer experiences precognitive visions that help him blunt the enemy onslaught but he can't control or predict when they occur.With the Senior Brass convinced that he's a tactical genius, he's given more and more responsibility and is terrified by the belief that Humanity's Fate rests on his shoulders. Can he solve the mystery of his precognitive visions before the Human Race plunges into the abyss of total extermination? This is Volume 1 of a military SF series about desperate space battles and the men, women and Artificial Intelligences, who fight and die in them.
The Sands of Osiris
Steven J. Shelley - 2015
Starving and locked in a war with hostile aliens, the Terran Empire needs fresh real estate or humanity will face extinction. Jaeger Orleans is sent by the mysterious Farseer Cartel to steal a blueprint for a sustainable human colony on the ice world Solitude. A chance for humans to leave a long history of mistakes behind and begin again. Sent to a brutal desert prison for withholding the information from the Terran Corps, Jaeger is in a race against time to find Solitude and lead humanity to a brighter future.
Fire Fight
Chris Ward - 2018
The only person capable of stopping him is Lianetta Jansen, a disgraced former Galactic Military Policewoman now turned smuggler, who is haunted by a terrible tragedy in her past. Along with her ragtag, wisecracking crew—the one-armed pilot Caladan, and the malfunctioning droid, Harlan5—Lia must confront her own demons, while trying to stop another.
The Forgotten Engineer
T.S. Paul - 2016
She was helping to build a secret space station. There was a war on and this new station was vital. When the engineering fleet was attacked and destroyed she was left lost and alone. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. She was going to have to Engineer her way home.
Quantum Tangle
Chris Reher - 2014
She implores him to help stop the abductions of her people, a newly evolved species emerging from sub-space. Their dangerous potential has caught the attention of rebel factions as well as the ruling Commonwealth. When contact with her kind turns pilots into casualties, the Governors fear an imminent invasion engineered by their rebel enemies.Pursued by Air Command for harboring the alien, Seth heads deep into rebel-controlled territory to recover the stolen entities and keep this deadly weapon from falling into the wrong hands. Things get personal when his alien visitor begins to transform his mind and his life, turning the rescue mission into a fight for survival for all of them.Quantum Tangle is part of Chris Reher's Targon Tales series but does not intersect the other stories. Sethran Kada previously appeared in The Catalyst and also in Rebel Alliances.
The Phoenix Conspiracy
Richard L. Sanders - 2011
But, as he chases his prey across the stars, he realizes they are both pawns in a shadowy chess game. One that threatens humankind everywhere. If he is to uncover the conspiracy he must confront--and embrace--the darkest elements of the galaxy. And throw himself, his career, and everyone he loves into the line of fire. The Phoenix Conspiracy is the first in a series of five books. It is available for free on almost every device including iTunes, Nook, and (usually) Kindle. If it is currently not free on Kindle, you may click "tell us about a lower price" and Amazon may choose to match their competitors' promotion for you.
Better World
Autumn Kalquist - 2015
Now they face extinction.For three hundred years, arks have carried the last remnants of humanity through dark space. The ships are old, failing, and every colonist must do their duty to ensure the fleet's survival.Maeve is a metalworker, toiling in the blistering sublevels of the London. She's lost friends and family to the hazardous work conditions and fears every job she's assigned could be her last. All she wants is a little control over her life, but the oppressive sublevel enforcers ensure that’s not an option.Now, after decades of traveling, the ships have finally reached their destination: Soren, a toxic planet that may have the resources they desperately need. But mining a planet comes at a price, and Maeve and the other workers will be expected to pay it with their lives.If a better world awaits, Maeve's sure to be dead long before the fleet finds it… unless she finds a way to control her destiny and change it.
Beyond
Maureen A. Miller - 2012
College beckons, as does her dream of becoming an engineer. On an early evening walk, her cocker spaniel charges into the woods on the other side of the pond. Aimee trails after him, and in the stillness of that forest the unthinkable happens. She becomes paralyzed and watches in horror as her hands vanish before her eyes. Waking to the sound of voices, Aimee realizes that she has been kidnapped. Little does she know how far away from home she is, though. In an attempt to flee her captors, she launches from their confines only to freeze at the view outside the window. The sky is black and filled with stars, and in the distance is a familiar blue globe. The planet Earth. A group of humans forced to flee their planet after an epidemic destroyed their civilization now travel the galaxies in search of an antidote. Retrieving samples of plant life from every solar system, on this occasion Aimee was accidentally seized instead. Aimee must learn to avoid the advances of an awkward young scientist who seems intent on dissecting her, as her own fascination turns to the exotic young warrior, Zak. Having fallen in love with Zak, she is now torn with the decision to return to Earth or live beyond the stars.
Paradisi Escape: Paradisi Chronicles (Paradisi Exodus, #0.5)
Cheri Lasota - 2015
It is now included in Sideris Gate.In the last decades of the twenty-first century, ten families seeking to escape an increasingly devastated Earth focus their power and wealth on constructing spaceships that will allow a select few to leave Earth and colonize the world they call New Eden. Here, on their new home in the Paradisi System, these Founding Families hope to avoid the environmental and political disasters that were destroying Earth. But they find that the world they claim for their own is already inhabited, and the Ddaeran, although human in their appearance, possess abilities that the Founders and their descendants find both intriguing and frightening… In near future 2094, Earth is on the brink of nuclear winter. A secret evacuation is already underway, and Solomon Reach and his crew have guaranteed passage on the last starship to leave for colonization and exploration of a new planet in the Andromeda galaxy. When Solomon learns of a betrayal that will have catastrophic consequences, he is faced with an impossible choice: who will live and who will die?
Broken Ascension
Dave Walsh - 2020
This is the galaxy that Drake Rose and the crew of the freighter Trystero are stuck in. Together they traverse the Demilitarized Zone between Terran and Gra’al borders taking on any job they can find, big or small, legal or otherwise. Human or alien.A chance encounter with a derelict alien ship thrusts them into the center of a deadly conspiracy. When the Terran government refuses to get involved, the crew has no choice but to fend for themselves.A fragile peace hangs in the balance, thrust into the hands of Drake and the crew.They never wanted to be heroes. The only way to stop the ascension of a vicious warlord bent on the destruction of humanity is for them to survive.It’s Firefly meets Star Trek in this coming of age space opera tale.
It Ain't Over...
Robert M. Kerns - 2019
Buy a planet and disappear...That's all Cole wanted.He spent thirteen years hiding on the fringes of society, piloting freighters for criminals and building a stash to do just that.But life happens when you're busy making plans.When Cole chooses to save an ejected castaway and stumbles into a crew of his own, he starts down a path that will force him to choose.Will Cole protect those who have become his people? Or will he slip away quietly in the night?
The Backworlds
M. Pax - 2011
Competition is fierce and pickings are scant. Scant enough that Craze’s father decides to hoard his fortune by destroying his son. Cut off from family and friends, with little money, and even less knowledge of the worlds beyond his own, Craze heads into an uncertain future. Boarding the transport to Elstwhere, he vows to make his father regret this day.
Warship
Joshua Dalzelle - 2015
The advent of faster-than-light travel has opened up hundreds of habitable planets for colonization, and humans have exploited the virtually limitless space and resources for hundreds of years with impunity. So complacent have they become with the overabundance that armed conflict is a thing of the past, and their machines of war are obsolete and decrepit. What would happen if they were suddenly threatened by a terrifying new enemy? Would humanity fold and surrender, or would they return to their evolutionary roots and meet force with force? One ship—and one captain—will soon be faced with this very choice. Against incredible odds, Jackson Wolfe is determined to save humanity–and in the process, might end up saving himself.
Trading in Danger
Elizabeth Moon - 2003
For Ky, it's no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can't hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It's adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family's misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.Expelled from the Academy in disgrace—and returning home to her humiliated family, a storm of high-profile media coverage, and the gaping void of her own future—Ky is ready to face the inevitable onslaught of anger, disappointment, even pity. But soon after opportunity's door slams shut, Ky finds herself with a ticket to ride—and a shot at redemption—as captain of a Vatta Transport ship.It's a simple assignment: escorting one of the Vatta fleet's oldest ships on its final voyage . . . to the scrapyard. But keeping it simple has never been Ky's style. And even though her father has provided a crew of seasoned veterans to baby-sit the fledgling captain on her maiden milk run, they can't stop Ky from turning the routine mission into a risky venture—in the name of turning a profit for Vatta Transport, of course.By snapping up a lucrative delivery contract defaulted on by a rival company, and using part of the proceeds to upgrade her condemned vehicle, Ky aims to prove she's got more going for her than just her family's famous name. But business will soon have to take a backseat to bravery, when Ky's change of plans sails her and the crew straight into the middle of a colonial war. For all her commercial savvy, it's her military training and born-soldier's instincts that Ky will need to call on in the face of deadly combat, dangerous mercenaries, and violent mutiny. . . .
Last Pursuit
Piers Platt - 2014
But time is running short: the mark knows that he’s coming, and he’s not the only contractor on the job …