Book picks similar to
Dark Matters by Michael Dow
science-fiction
sci-fi
fiction
thriller
Time Salvager
Wesley Chu - 2015
In his time, Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humans have fled into the outer solar system to survive, eking out a fragile, doomed existence among the other planets and their moons. Those responsible for delaying humanity’s demise believe time travel holds the key, and they have identified James, troubled though he is, as one of a select and expendable few ideally suited for the most dangerous job in history. James is a chronman, undertaking missions into Earth's past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. The laws governing use of time travel are absolute; break any one of them and, one way or another, your life is over. Most chronmen never reach old age; the stress of each jump through time, compounded by the risk to themselves and to the future, means that many chronmen rapidly reach their breaking point, and James Griffin-Mars is nearing his.On a final mission that is to secure his retirement, James meets Elise Kim, an intriguing scientist from a previous century, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig. Against his training and his common sense, and in violation of the chronmen’s highest law, James brings Elise back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, somehow finding allies, and perhaps discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity's home world.
Interest
Kevin Gaughen - 2015
It’s nothing that a stiff drink won’t cure. After all, bad news only hurts optimists.But when the mysterious leader of the rebels cherry-picks him to acquire certain information for her, Len is forced to go on an investigative mission where he uncovers millennia-old secrets and unwittingly triggers a chain of disturbing events that will determine the future of humankind.Author Kevin Gaughen’s dynamic debut novel, Interest, creates a seamless alternate reality behind real-world political tensions while keeping pace with its page-turning plot. Interest is as riveting as it is thought-provoking.Who really runs the world we live in? The further Len digs, the darker the answers appear to be…
Providence
Max Barry - 2020
Confined to the ship for years, each of them holding their own secrets, they are about to learn there are threats beyond the reach of human ingenuity--and that the true nature of reality might be the universe's greatest mystery.In this near future, our world is at war with another, and humanity is haunted by its one catastrophic loss--a nightmarish engagement that left a handful of survivors drifting home through space, wracked with PTSD. Public support for the war plummeted, and the military-industrial complex set its sights on a new goal: zero-casualty warfare, made possible by gleaming new ships called Providences, powered by AI.But when the latest-launched Providence suffers a surprising attack and contact with home is severed, Gilly, Talia, Anders, and Jackson must confront the truth of the war they're fighting, the ship that brought them there, and the cosmos beyond.
All Rights Reserved
Gregory Scott Katsoulis - 2017
The moment she turns fifteen, Speth must pay for every word she speaks, for every nod, for every scream and even every gesture of affection. She’s been raised to know the consequences of falling into debt, and can’t begin to imagine the pain of having her eyes shocked for speaking words that she’s unable to afford.But when Speth’s friend Beecher commits suicide rather than work off his family’s crippling debt, she can’t express her shock and dismay without breaking her Last Day contract and sending her family into Collection. Rather than read her speech—rather than say anything at all—she closes her mouth and vows never to speak again, sparking a movement that threatens to destroy her, her family and the entire city around them.
Escaping Conflict
Grace Hamilton - 2020
She hopes her diligent efforts will finally earn her father’s respect and keep visitors safe and comfortable.But all her hopes for the future are dashed with the EMP attack.Broadcasts offer only a brief warning before missile strikes wipe out all power and communications across North America. The idyllic setting on the private island quickly sours as food and water to sustain the Pasqualees and their guests grow scarce and life becomes a fight for survival. A fight further complicated when they are cut off from the mainland – and an unexpected assailant threatens their lives.Someone is stalking one of the guests, hiding out on the island and sabotaging Elna’s desperate efforts to sustain their source of fresh water. When her father goes missing and another guest is gravely injured, remaining on the island isn’t an option.But even if they reach the mainland, there are no longer guarantees of safety in a world where science and reason have descended into post-apocalyptic anarchy.And survival of the fittest reigns supreme.
They Came with the Snow
Christopher Coleman - 2017
When a mysterious blast goes off in a small college town, triggering a blizzard, the few survivors must decide whether to stay or leave and face the monsters who came with the snow.
The Last City of America
Matthew Tysz - 2013
The United States became the Seven Cities of America.Chicago, cut off from the other cities, ruled in darkness, is home to the scientist who created the virus. Hateful of humanity, hateful of himself, the dying scientist passes his knowledge on to his apprentice, who he believes will use it to damn all life to everlasting misery.The apprentice, Harold, his own past stained with unforgivable acts, does not share his master's hatred. But he wants this knowledge, and would shamelessly kill innocents to get it. But to what end, he struggles to realize--- all the while wondering if humanity, worthless as it seems, deserves compassion more than he deserves omniscience.As Harold struggles with his future and his identity, Chicago's ruler, the host, learns of the knowledge he has. Harold is has to flee his home.The host, Grakus, is on a journey of his own--- to prove that humanity should never have existed, to guide it to its destiny of self-destruction. He will not allow the apprentice to thwart his delicate plan to do so.But the apprentice will not allow the host to steal his decision before he's had the chance to make it.The Last City of America is a character-driven epic touching every corner of America, exposing every level of its beauty. The individual emulates humanity, and humanity's faults are written in the individual. The two walk with one another into the final decision. Cities fall one-by-one to man's ignorance. The world is ending. This time forever. Two hands reach out to save it: good and evil.This is the story of how we will be remembered.
Firebreak
Nicole Kornher-Stace - 2021
As a child, she lost her parents, her home, and her entire building in an airstrike. As an adult, she lives in a cramped hotel room with eight other people, all of them working multiple jobs to try to afford water and make ends meet. And the job she’s best at is streaming a popular VR war game. The best part of the game isn’t killing enemy combatants, though—it’s catching in-game glimpses of SpecOps operatives, celebrity supersoldiers grown and owned by Stellaxis, the corporation that runs the America she lives in.Until a chance encounter with a SpecOps operative in the game leads Mal to a horrifying discovery: the real-life operatives weren’t created by Stellaxis. They were kids, just like her, who lost everything in the war, and were stolen and augmented and tortured into becoming supersoldiers. The world worships them, but the world believes a lie.The company controls every part of their lives, and defying them puts everything at risk—her water ration, her livelihood, her connectivity, her friends, her life—but she can’t just sit on the knowledge. She has to do something—even if doing something will bring the wrath of the most powerful company in the world down upon her.
Echoes of Starlight
Eric Michael Craig - 2019
No bodies. No evidence of an attack. Just gone. On what should have been a routine cargo run to the far edge of the Coalition, Captain Ethan Walker is carrying a payload of medical technology and two passengers returning home to Starlight Colony. When they arrive, they discover that everyone on the planet is missing. The company he works for wants him to leave immediately, but he’s obligated to report to FleetCom that the entire population has vanished. Captain MacKenna of the Magellan, tells him stay put until they can arrive to begin an official investigation. Caught between his legal responsibilities and the need to know what happened, Walker has to resist increasing pressure to defy orders. Unfortunately, his passengers make a decision that forces him into doing the one thing he can’t do. Captain Walker must risk his ship and crew to return to the surface even though it may ultimately cost him everything. Get the exciting opening book to the new Wings of Earth series.
The Paradox Hotel
Rob HartRob Hart - 2022
A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake.January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents” that start stalking their bidders.There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.
The First Sister
Linden A. Lewis - 2020
As a priestess of the Sisterhood, she travels the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars—the same ones who own the rights to her body and soul. When her former captain abandons her, First Sister’s hopes for freedom are dashed when she is forced to stay on her ship with no friends, no power, and a new captain—Saito Ren—whom she knows nothing about. She is commanded to spy on Captain Ren by the Sisterhood, but soon discovers that working for the war effort is so much harder to do when you’re falling in love.Lito val Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus, but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But when he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.
Machinehood
S.B. DivyaS.B. Divya - 2021
It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process. All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week. Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight. Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want? A thought-provoking novel that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?
The Strange Life of Brandon Chambers
Scott Spotson - 2016
Army, is implicated in a tragic explosion on the army base while spearheading a top-secret weapons project. During the aftermath, both his parents are labeled as traitors, and he’s haunted by visions he can’t understand.Brandon struggles through adolescence and college, still troubled by hallucinations that are also witnessed by others, leading him to believe that someone—or something—is deliberately laying clues in his path. Doggedly pursuing one clue at a time, Brandon seeks the answers.
Betrayal
Pippa DaCosta - 2015
Rated: R. Restricted. Contains space battles, killer AI, intergalactic ass-kicking. Read at own risk.She is programmed to kill.He’ll do anything to survive. Ex-con Captain Caleb Shepperd believes being good is overrated. All he wants is to smuggle illegal cargo through the nine systems and live a prosperous (likely short) life on the wrong side of the law.But there's a problem with that plan. The priceless synthetic stowaway on his ship is a distraction he doesn't need.Torn between selling her and tossing her out the airlock, Shepperd fails to realize the synth is a killer, and he's the one locked in her sights.In a world where only one thousand synthetics were built, synthetic number One Thousand and One should not exist. She is no ordinary synth. Memories locked inside her code could bring Shepperd—and the entire nine systems—to its knees.Captain Shepperd and the oppressive corporations are about to learn that you can't hide from the sins of your past, especially when that past has orders to kill.WARNING: 18+ only. Contains adult content, including sex, drug use, violence, and swearing.Older cover editions of this ASIN can be found here & here.
Gameboard of the Gods
Richelle Mead - 2013
But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills.When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.Gameboard of the Gods, the first installment of Richelle Mead’s Age of X series, will have all the elements that have made her YA Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series such megasuccesses: sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; and relentless action and suspense.