Book picks similar to
Gladiator by Jonathan P. Brazee


sci-fi
science-fiction
read-sci-fi
military-science-fiction

Desperate Measures: The Issog


C.R. Daems - 2017
    Over the past several years of war they have encroached farther into COS space, and the consensus is for the Issog to defeat the Commonwealth within the next five years. To make matters worse, the Arrith nation, a lizard-like species, is building up its fleets to take on the winner—the bats or the monkeys as they refer to them—since the winner will have all but exhausted its navy. The Commonwealth's only hope is that a newly developed technology can help them defeat the Issog and retain sufficient resources afterward to force the Arrith to continue their twenty-year nonaggression treaty. But the technology is unproven and possibly beyond the humans' ability to adapt.

This Corner of the Universe


Britt Ringel - 2013
    Much to their surprise, Captain Garrett Heskan and his officers discover sabotaged navigation buoys and suspicious freighter activity that suggest a sinister presence in the system. Soon Anelace finds herself outnumbered and outgunned in a race against time to save the civilians operating Renard’s lone ore processing station from the threat that would drive the Republic from the valuable asteroid fields orbiting the Skathi star.

March or Die


Andrew Keith - 1992
    An alien race simultaneously slaughters Commonwealth diplomats and command officers while attacking a partially completed Fifth Foreign Legion fortress. The surviving troops try to reach the League's primary base, where they plan to consolidate and attack the aliens (in Book #2).

Flagship


Isaac Hooke - 2016
    Or broken.

Soldier of the Legion


Marshall S. Thomas - 2001
    Their mission is soon clear - victory or death. Failure means extinction for their species.

Steel Breach


Casey Calouette - 2015
    They have fought a war for 35 years against the insectoid Kadan that they have no intention of ending. It’s too essential to a society where the only social movement is via battle promotion. Then it all changes when the Kadan nearly annihilate the front lines. Vasilov Officer Colonel Cole Clarke has just returned home from service with the Sigg Military. Now that he has learned how the Sigg fight, he's bringing that knowledge to the Vasilov Military, plus an entire battalion of second hand Sigg Armor purchased on the scrap market. But instead of a fresh battalion of troops, he’s assigned a penal battalion filled with convicts. The Vasilov Military doesn't accept change easily, even when they need it. What would happen if an entirely new style of warfare came onto the battlefield? Could a strike force of second hand armor trump the defensive doctrines they’d used for thirty five years or would they be doomed to failure and death on the icy planet Lishun Delta? One squadron of armor. One Colonel. A thousand of the worst convicts in the Vasilov Military. Will they be up to the task?

Standing the Final Watch


William Alan Webb - 2016
     Lt. General Nick Angriff has spent his adult life protecting family and country from a world of terrorism spinning out of control. On the battlefield, off the grid, in clandestine special task forces and outright black ops, Angriff never wavers from duty. But when a terror attack on Lake Tahoe kills his family, he’s left with only the corrosive acid of revenge… that is, until a hated superior officer reveals the deepest of all secret operations. Against the day of national collapse, a heavily-armed military unit rests in cryogenic storage, to be awakened when needed, and Angriff is named its commander. Fifty years later he wakes to find the USA destroyed and predatory warlords roaming the ruins. Stalked by assassins bent on seizing his command for their own purposes, Angriff has to prepare for war while avoiding murder. Because the only wall still shielding survivors from slavery and death are the men and women of The Last Brigade.

Mako (The Mako Saga #1)


Ian J. Malone - 2013
    All of that changes, though, when Lee leads a team of old friends to virtual glory as the first-ever group to beat Mako Assault, a revolutionary new game that has emerged from nowhere to take the Internet by storm. As a reward for their achievement, the group is flown to meet the game’s mysterious designer and assist in developing the follow-on game Mako 2.0. But what they find when they get there is more than they’d expected…much more. Mako’s intent was never to entertain its players. It was to train them.An epic sci-fi thrill-ride of action, suspense, laughter, and romance, Mako is the story of five ordinary people who will have to rise to the challenge of extraordinary events, driven only by their faith in each other. If they can’t, the game will become very real to more than just themselves—the Earth itself may ultimately be at stake.

Democracy's Right


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2013
    The grand dreams of the founders are a joke. The Thousand Families, the rulers of the Empire, care nothing for anything, save their own power. From the undercity of Earth to the new colonies at the Rim, discontent, anger and rebellion seethe, but there is no hope of breaking the power of the Empire and freeing the trillions of enslaved humans and aliens.The Rebel – Commander Colin Walker believed in the Empire, until a treacherous superior officer betrayed him, forcing him to see the true nature of the force he served and his complacency in terrible crimes. Now, Colin has a plan; he and his followers in the Imperial Navy will seize their ships and rebel against the Thousand Families, uniting the thousands of rebel factions under his leadership. Their war will set the galaxy on fire ...

Constitution


Nick Webb - 2015
    Without warning. Without mercy. We were not prepared. Hundreds of millions perished. Dozens of cities burned. We nearly lost everything. Then, the aliens abruptly left. We rebuilt. We armed ourselves. We swore: never again. But the aliens never came back. Until now. With overwhelming force the aliens have returned, striking deep into our territory, sending Earth into a panic. Our new technology is useless. Our new ships burn like straw. All our careful preparations are wasted. Now, only one man, one crew, and the oldest starship in the fleet stand between the Earth and certain destruction: ISS CONSTITUTION

Stowaway


Z.D. Dean - 2019
    A chance encounter, on his last mission, sends him hurtling through space on the Unity exploration ship XES01. Surrounded by aliens, Zade must quickly learn to interact with the non-soldiers on the crew. As he tries to earn his place amongst the ship, Zade’s combat prowess quickly earns him a spot as the security officer of the ship. A seat left vacant because of a fatal exchange between the former security officer and the wildlife of a far planet. As Zade begins living the adrenaline filled life of a space explorer, he has to ask himself some very important questions. How does he get back to earth? Does he even want to? Disclaimer: The main character is a combat veteran, so there is some rough language throughout the book.

Starship's Mage: Omnibus


Glynn Stewart - 2014
    With no family or connections to find a ship, he is forced to service on an interstellar freighter known to be hunted by pirates. When he takes drastic action to save the "Blue Jay" from their pursuers, he sets in motion a sequence of events beyond his control - and attracts enemies on both sides of the law! Starship's Mage was originally released as five separate episodes.

A Fiery Sunset


Chris Kennedy - 2018
     The plot by the Galactic Union’s Mercenary Guild against the Four Horsemen has culminated in an invasion of Earth. Faced with an overwhelming force, the Human mercs had no choice. They’ve fled, leaving Sansar Enkh to go to the Mercenary Guild headquarters on Capital Planet to stand trial for humanity. On the run, Jim Cartwright and Nigel Shirazi have travelled to the Winged Hussars’ secret base of New Warsaw, in an effort to convince Alexis Cromwell to join the fight, while the other mercenaries who escaped the fall of Earth have gone to the perceived safe haven of Karma. Alexis Cromwell is reluctant to commit to an unwinnable fight, though, and there is no safety to be found in Karma. When the Mercenary Guild Tribunal is revealed to be a sham, the Horsemen are forced to choose—is it better to hide and protect the Human race, or is it time to fight for what they believe in? All is not as it seems, though, and the galaxy stands poised on the brink of a second Great Galactic War. Vastly outnumbered, the Four Horsemen had better come up with a stellar plan, or for them, it might well be A Fiery Sunset.

Spartan Company


Toby Neighbors - 2018
    forever. Orion Porter is in trouble. He’s about to be shuffled into a judicial system that few ever escape. His options in life have suddenly been reduced to just two choices: take his chances with a public defender, fighting criminal charges he’s not likely to win — or join the Space Marines. Both choices are filled with danger, but only one will get him out of the system designed to keep him down. Apex Venandi is a goldilocks world with vibrant indigenous life. The isolated planet is home to five intelligent species, whose culture revolves around tribal warfare. Restricted from human intervention, the world was little more than a footnote in the Galactic Space Fleet’s expansion across the galaxy until a rare and important resource is discovered there. For the first time, humanity will encounter another species whose proclivity for violence is greater than their own. Follow Orion as he makes his way through Space Marine Basic Training and is thrown to the wolves in the vaunted Recon Challenge. Spartan Company is a sci-fi military adventure set in a creative vision of the future. With echoes of Starship Troopers, Predator, and Firefly, Spartan Company is certain to pull you in to a fantastic new world of adventure you’ll want to visit again and again. Written by prolific author Toby Neighbors, Spartan Company is an epic coming-of-age story with engaging characters you can’t help but fall in love with. If you’re looking for your next book obsession, the search is over.

Price of Admiralty


Richard Tongue - 2013
    When he makes an unexpected discovery, the stakes just keep on rising; with enemies on space and ground, can Marshall save his ship – and a world?