Book picks similar to
Kiran: The Warrior's Daughter: A Brave Woman's Struggle for Freedom by Ellen Stellar
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ya
rom-lite
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Bent Heavens
Daniel Kraus - 2020
Liv has long accepted that he's dead, though that doesn't mean she has given up their traditions. Every Sunday, she and her lifelong friend Doug Monk trudge through the woods to check the traps Lee left behind, traps he set to catch the aliens he so desperately believed were after him.But Liv is done with childhood fantasies. Done pretending she believes her father's absurd theories. Done going through the motions for Doug's sake. However, on the very day she chooses to destroy the traps, she discovers in one of them a creature so inhuman it can only be one thing. In that moment, she's faced with a painful realization: her dad was telling the truth. And no one believed him.Now, she and Doug have a choice to make. They can turn the alien over to the authorities...or they can take matters into their own hands.
Special Edition
Frost Kay - 2018
Bartol are raving about this new space fantasy from USA Today Bestselling Frost Kay! "I am hooked! What could be better in a great science fiction novel than a feisty female mixologist filled with southern charm and the grace of an eight legged cat? Ms. Kay has created a vibrant enchanting universe and cast of lovable, flirty characters. I want to crawl into this series and never leave!" ~ Goodreads Reviewer"Witty, funny, sassy and down right fun as hell!" ~ Goodreads ReviewerFact #257 - Allie Sai should have been named "Unlucky." It made complete sense that the girl terrified of flying and aliens would be drafted for colonization of an alien planet. Right? Right??In her mind, she had one choice. Desertion. But again... Unlucky. She should've known better. A failed escape attempt leaves her chained to an airship chair with nothing but her bag, a vial of her family's super moonshine, and her anxiety for company.Fact #372 - Sometimes moonshine is not the answer.Numbing her fear seemed like a brilliant idea - until pirates attack her ship looking for goods of the female variety. Looks like she'll have to save herself, but... unlucky strike three.Fact #401 - Pirates aren't princes. They're extortionists.It was just one sip... maybe two.
Writing on the Wall
Tracey Ward - 2013
Since Joss watched her parents die at the hands of a nightmare, a nightmare that stalks her even now, all these years later. That's the problem with the Risen - they refuse to die.But Joss is a survivor. A loner living in the post-apocalyptic streets of Seattle. It's a world dictated by Risen and the looming threat of the Colonists, a group of fellow survivors living comfortably in their compounds and patrolling the wild, looking to "save" the orphans of the end.Orphans like Joss.Like Ryan.As a member of an all male gang, Ryan is a threat as real as the Risen, a threat Joss avoids at all costs. Then one night their paths cross and Joss makes a choice that goes against all of her instincts. A choice that will threaten everything she has.Now a new outbreak is imminent and the Colonists are closing in. Joss' solitary, secret world will be blown wide open and the comfortable numbness she's lived in for the last six years will burn away leaving her aching and afraid.And awake.
Go, Mutants!
Larry Doyle - 2010
Soon to be a major motion picture from Universal Studios, Larry Doyle’s Go, Mutants! is the funniest, most original bit of genre-bending since Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. This story of alien high school rebels without a cause is sure to bring out the unabashed B-movie fan in everyone.
The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare
M.G. Buehrlen - 2014
Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.
Kestrel Class
Toby Neighbors - 2019
Living on the junk world of Torrent Four, Ben scours the vast fields of trash, wreckage, and derelict ships in search of anything of value while avoiding the Salvage Scalpers, a gang that takes whatever it wants and enslaves anyone with a knack for finding valuables in the endless mounds of trash. For many people in his position, life is unbearable, but Ben has a secret. Buried deep in the salvage fields, hidden by mounds of rubbish, lies a Kestrel class starship. And after a decade of tireless work, she’s almost ready to fly. The Royal Imperium rules the galaxy with an iron fist. Freedom is just a dream on the hundreds of worlds under their domain. But in space, a person with a fast ship, an able crew, and the right connections can enjoy the last vestiges of liberty, as long as they stay under the radar. Ben Griminski has a ship, but he’ll need a crew and plenty of Zexum to fuel her if they hope to escape their dreary lives on Torrent Four. It’s a challenge worth taking on, and if his luck holds, he might just discover what life is like among the stars. Kestrel Class is the first novel in a new science fiction saga by master storyteller Toby Neighbors. Drawing inspiration from Firefly, The A-Team, and even Star Wars, Kestrel Class is a fast-paced mix of action and character-driven drama. Take the pilot’s seat in the Modulus Echo, join the crew in a heist for fuel, and learn just how depraved the Imperium has become to ensure unquestioning obedience from the masses under their control. If you love space opera, or you’re just looking for the next story that will sweep you away from your ordinary existence, Kestrel Class is the book for you.
Pushing Ice
Alastair Reynolds - 2005
Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclearpowered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. But when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny-for Janus has many surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome...
It Came From the Sky
Chelsea Sedoti - 2020
There were sightings of UFOs, close encounters, and even abductions. There were believers, Truth Seekers, and, above all, people who looked to the sky and hoped for more.Only...there were no aliens.Gideon Hofstadt knows what really happened. When one of his science experiments went wrong, he and his older brother blamed the resulting explosion on extraterrestrial activity. And their lie was not only believed by their town―it was embraced. As the brothers go to increasingly greater lengths to keep up the ruse and avoid getting caught, the hoax flourishes. But Gideon's obsession with their tale threatened his whole world. Can he find a way to banish the aliens before Lansburg, and his life, are changed forever?Told in a report format and comprised of interviews, blog posts, text conversations, found documents, and so much more, It Came from the Sky is a hysterical and resonant novel about what it means to be human in the face of the unknown.
Alien Abduction
Irving Belateche - 2016
Captivating and entertaining. If Breaking Bad were a science fiction novel, it would be Alien Abduction... A fresh and original science fiction story. (An) irresistible mix of smart plotting, great characters, and compelling twists." -- Must Read Novels Review Eddie Hart couldn't have lost his job at a worse time. His family has been hit with a medical emergency and his son's and daughter's college tuition is looming over him. He's broke, too old to start over, and desperate--until he discovers an unexpected solution to his troubles. An extraterrestrial solution.
Salvation Day
Kali Wallace - 2019
Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya—the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship. But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship—a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead. And then they woke it up.
Qualify
Vera Nazarian - 2014
You die, or you Qualify.
The year is 2047. An extinction-level asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and the descendents of ancient Atlantis have returned from the stars in their silver ships to offer humanity help.But there’s a catch.They can only take a tiny percent of the Earth’s population back to the colony planet Atlantis. And in order to be chosen, you must be a teen, you must be bright, talented, and athletic, and you must Qualify.Sixteen-year-old Gwenevere Lark is determined not only to Qualify but to rescue her entire family.Because there’s a loophole.If you are good enough to Qualify, you are eligible to compete in the brutal games of the Atlantis Grail, which grants all winners the laurels, high tech luxuries, and full privileges of Atlantis Citizenship. And if you are in the Top Ten, then all your wildest wishes are granted… Such as curing your mother’s cancer.There is only one problem.Gwen Lark is known as a klutz and a nerd. While she’s a hotshot in classics, history, science, and languages, the closest she’s come to sports is a backyard pool and a skateboard.This time she is in over her head, and in for a fight of her life, against impossible odds and world-class competition—including Logan Sangre, the most amazing guy in her class, the one she’s been crushing on, and who doesn’t seem to know she exists.Because every other teen on Earth has the same idea.
You Qualify or you die.
* * *EXCERPT!Now you can read
Chapter One
in its entirety (click here)!* * *
The Almost Girl
Amalie Howard - 2013
As a Legion General, she is the right hand of Prince Cale, the young Prince of Neospes. In her world, she's had everything: rank, responsibility, and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to rescue his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.Armed with the mindset of a soldier and racing against time to bring Caden home, Riven must learn how to blend in as a girl in a realm that is the opposite of all she's ever known. Will she be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?
The Rings of Hesaurun
Peter Harrett - 2021
Responding to the crash, the primitive earthlings discover the ship's commander Valerie Dunne is a 5,000-year-old woman from the future, forced to escape her nemesis, the Boecki, by hiding in the past. Soon they learn the fate of the future world now rests on this strange woman's ability to harness five Hesaurun rings - rings with the power to destroy, heal, and manipulate time - and somehow, to find a way to alter her own destiny.An epic Sci-Fi tale of good and evil, rescue and survival, betrayal and love, and a threat to mankind unlike anything the human race has ever faced, The Rings of Hesaurun: Book One burns with the scope and imagination of the greatest Fantasy novels of the golden age. Weaving in a huge cast of humans and aliens, Peter Harrett has crafted a galaxy for readers of the 21st century to believe in...immense, ancient, and mind-bending.
Existence
David Brin - 2012
Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an “alien artifact.” Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.