To Honor You Call Us


H. Paul Honsinger - 2012
    In 2315, the wily Max Robichaux is given command of the USS Cumberland, a destroyer with state-of-the-art capabilities but a combat record so bad, she’s known as the “Cumberland Gap.”Capt. Robichaux’s first mission: to take his warship to the Free Corridor, where the Krag have secretly been buying strategic materials, and to seize or destroy any ships carrying enemy cargo. Far from the fleet and under enforced radio silence, Max relies only on his determination and guile…and the support and friendship of his chief medical officer, the brilliant Dr. Sahin.Because even as he deals with the ship’s onboard problems and the stress of carrying out her risky assignment, Max and the doctor discover that the Cumberland and her misfit crew are all that stands in the way of a deadly Krag attack that threatens to end the war—and humanity—once and for all.A far-future story in the tradition of “ships of wood, men of iron” novels, To Honor You Call Us and the Man of War series combines the adventure of exploration, the excitement of war, and the dangers of the unknown through the eyes of a ship and her crew.

No Middle Ground


Caleb Wachter - 2014
    With twenty years of military service under his belt, it was time to settle down on a colony somewhere and start the next phase of his life. But without warning, the Empire of Man withdrew its support of the Confederated Spineward Sectors, taking the vast majority of high-value military assets - including capable officers - with it. The would-be retiring Lieutenant Commander was improbably given a field commission of Captain, and tasked with a simple 'wave the flag' operation by his even more improbable commanding officer, Admiral Jason Montagne. So Captain Middleton set out to patrol the adjacent Sectors, and carry out his orders to the best of his ability. But, as is so often the case, one thing leads to another and Middleton finds himself and his ancient warship, the Pride of Prometheus, caught in quandary after quandary as the shadows of a Sector-wide conspiracy loom wherever they turn. The further down the rabbit hole he goes, the less he likes what he finds and his simple patrol mission soon turns into something much, much larger. With a crew of rookies and society's unwanted - including a pair of teenagers from a world very different from his own - Captain Middleton will discover one simple, incontrovertible truth: In life, there is no middle ground.

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.

Genesis


Ken Lozito - 2017
    Innocent lives have been lost. Escaping wrongful imprisonment wasn’t something Connor had in mind, but being put into stasis aboard Earth’s first interstellar colony ship was something he couldn’t have prepared for. For three hundred thousand colonists, the new colony brings the promise of a fresh start…a second chance. Connor might be the wrong man for the colony, but he’s the right man to see that it survives what’s coming. A new world with new challenges, but the mission has changed. If you loved Old Man’s War and Ender’s Game, you’ll love Genesis - First Colony , a new military science fiction series. Take advantage of the special discount price for a limited time!

The Forever Life


Craig Robertson - 2016
    To live forever, love must die. Major Jon Ryan is a cocky fighter pilot turned astronaut. He volunteers for the most ambitious, desperate mission ever conceived. The planet Jupiter, thrown off orbit, will destroy Earth in less than a century. Project Ark is humanity's only hope for survival. Jon will search alone to find a suitable location for human resettlement. To be able to do this, he must first have his consciousness transferred into an experimental android host. He understands the implications of his mission all too well: He will not age and by the time he returns home all the people he knew will be dead. His only companion on his fifty year voyage is his ship's irritable AI. Jon not only pushes the extremes of human technology, but the limits of his psychological strength. As time goes by, all communications with Earth gradually cease, leaving him in an eerie silence with more questions than answers. Will he save our species from extinction or be the sole survivor, lost forever in space?

Terminus


Kevin Hardman - 2014
    Served up as a scapegoat and drummed out of the military, he has since lived a life of seclusion with only an adopted alien as a companion. Now the Vacra have returned. As the only person to have ever faced them and survived, Maker is reinstated in the Corps and given the onerous task of finding this enemy on a world located at the edge of known space. Assisting him is an unlikely band of military rejects, including a blind sharpshooter, an unstable psychic, and a genetically-engineered killing machine who refuses to fight. Given that the Vacra have superior weapons and technology, Maker recognizes that his team is at a distinct disadvantage. But Marines are nothing if not resourceful, and Maker has an audacious plan that just may level the playing field – if it doesn’t get them all killed.

Earth Strike


Ian Douglas - 2010
    Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary—by total annihilation if necessary.To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe—along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray.There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict—and quite possibly its last.

Steel World


B.V. Larson - 2013
    Unfortunately, someone noticed. The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn’t the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers…someone had to do their dirty work for them, their fighting and dying. I, James McGill, was born in 2099 on the fringe of the galaxy. When Hegemony Financial denied my loan applications, I was kicked out of the university and I turned to the stars. My first campaign involved the invasion of a mineral-rich planet called Cancri-9, better known as Steel World. The attack didn’t go well, and now Earth has entered a grim struggle for survival. Humanity’s mercenary legions go to war in STEEL WORLD, bestselling author B. V. Larson’s latest science fiction novel.

Into the Dark


J.A. Sutherland - 2014
    Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded spaceship with no other women.

Ark Royal


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2014
    -Royal Navy Motto Seventy years ago, the interstellar supercarrier Ark Royal was the pride of the Royal Navy. But now, her weapons are outdated and her solid-state armour nothing more than a burden on her colossal hull. She floats in permanent orbit near Earth, a dumping ground for the officers and crew the Royal Navy wishes to keep out of the public eye. But when a deadly alien threat appears, the modern starships built by humanity are no match for the powerful alien weapons. Ark Royal and her mismatched crew must go on the offensive, buying time with their lives. And yet, with a drunkard for a Captain, an over-ambitious first officer and a crew composed of reservists and the dregs of the service, do they have even the faintest hope of surviving......and returning to an Earth which may no longer be there?

Off Armageddon Reef


David Weber - 2007
    But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they've built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever.800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This "rebirth" was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, "Nimue" - or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban - is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, "Nimue" takes a new gender and a new name, "Merlin." His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he'll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that's just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new era of invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Church...and, inevitably, lead to war.

Flagship


Isaac Hooke - 2016
    Or broken.

Hard Duty


Mark E. Cooper - 2012
    Two hundred years later, the Alliance is cautiously exploring beyond its borders again, but the survey corp is considered a mere gesture by some. General Burgton of the 501st Infantry Regiment believes a lack of expansion is leading the Alliance into stagnation. So when one small ship discovers a new alien race, it should be an easy decision to make contact, but what if the aliens are like the Merkiaari?Captain Jeff Colgan of the survey ship ASN Canada is at the tip of the spear. His ship made the discovery, his crew's lives are on the line, and his decisions will decide the outcome. Will the Alliance make new friends or will he be responsible for another sixteen billion deaths? When the aliens discover his ship and begin hunting him through their system, his mission changes from one of study to one of survival.

Odyssey One


Evan Currie - 2011
    Assigned the task of blazing man's first trail into that great unknown, Captain Eric Weston and the crew of the NAC Odyssey launch on a mission destined to make history.Past the bounds of comfort, they encounter horrors and wonders beyond their imagining, with people and monsters beyond reckoning.Odyssey One is the first voyage of the NAC Odyssey and its crew, and the beginnings of a Military Science Fiction Epic that combines both old school space opera, and modern storytelling in one great, exhilarating adventure.Odyssey One is a 150,000 word novel.

Duel in the Dark


Jay Allan - 2016
    Three generations of its warriors have gone off to war, held the line against the larger, more powerful enemy. Now the fourth conflict is imminent, and the Confederation’s navy is on alert, positioned behind the frontier, waiting for the attack it knows is coming. The battleship Dauntless has spent the past ten months patrolling the border, deployed far forward of the main fleet, a forlorn hope, an advance guard positioned to give the warning of invasion. But no attack has come. Her crew is exhausted, and the aging battleship needs maintenance. With the fleet mobilized and the forward bases overloaded beyond capacity, she is sent clear across the Confederation, to a planet along the quiet and peaceful far frontier. Her crew is looking forward to a rest, and Dauntless herself is scheduled for a long-overdue maintenance session. But the quiet frontier isn’t what it seems…and when a distress call is received from one of the mining colonies on the edge of Confederation space, it falls to Captain Tyler Barron to take Dauntless forward, to find out what is happening, and to put a stop to it. Barron and his crew have their ship—and each other—but they can expect no other help. Suspicion is strong that Union deceit is at play, that the attack is some sort of diversion, intended to draw Confederation forces from the disputed border. The orders are clear. No ships will be transferred from the prospective battle line. Stopping whatever is happening on the rim is Barron’s responsibility, and his alone. Barron is the grandson of the Confederation’s great hero, the father of the modern navy. His family name has always carried privilege with it, and crushing responsibility. And now he must prove that he has inherited more from his famous grandfather than name and privilege. He must face the enemy, and win the victory…before the Confederation is caught between two enemies and destroyed. Blood on the Stars Reading Order Book 1: Duel in the Dark Book 2: Call to Arms (January 2017, Available now for preorder)