Book picks similar to
Through Struggle, the Stars by John J. Lumpkin
science-fiction
sci-fi
scifi
fiction
Forbidden the Stars
Valmore Daniels - 2010
There is no trace of their young son, Alex Manez, or of the asteroid itself.On the outer edge of the solar system, the first manned mission to Pluto, led by the youngest female astronaut in NASA history, has led to an historic discovery: there is a marker left there by an alien race for humankind to find. We are not alone!While studying the alien marker, it begins to react and, four hours later, the missing asteroid appears in a Plutonian orbit, along with young Alex Manez, who has developed some alarming side-effects from his exposure to the kinetic element they call Kinemet. From the depths of a criminal empire based on Luna, an expatriate seizes the opportunity to wrest control of outer space, and takes swift action.The secret to faster-than-light speed is up for grabs, and the race for interstellar space begins! - The Interstellar Age -Book 1 - Forbidden The StarsBook 2 - Music of the SpheresBook 3 - Worlds Away
Trial by Ice
Casey Calouette - 2013
A man commands. Another finds his lost humanity. A fresh new military science fiction novel that’s more than just aliens and lasers. A brutal story. Gut wrenching. Visceral.When a catastrophic starship crash wipes out nearly 2000 troops, Midshipman William Grace finds himself commanding a handful of ravaged Soldiers and Marines. Pursued by the relentless cold, the survivors find treachery, betrayal, and war. Not only are their lives at stake but those of an entire planet.
Star Nomad
Lindsay Buroker - 2016
It should be a time for celebration, but not for fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko. After barely surviving a crash in the final battle for freedom, she's stranded on a dustball of a planet, billions of miles from her young daughter. She has no money or resources, and there are no transports heading to Perun, her former home and the last imperial stronghold.But she has a plan.Steal a dilapidated and malfunctioning freighter from a junkyard full of lawless savages. Slightly suicidal, but she believes she can do it. Her plan, however, does not account for the elite cyborg soldier squatting in the freighter, intending to use it for his own purposes. As an imperial soldier, he has no love for Alliance pilots. In fact, he's quite fond of killing them.Alisa has more problems than she can count, but she can't let cyborgs, savages, or ancient malfunctioning ships stand in her way. If she does, she’ll never see her daughter again.
Wolfhound
Kindal Debenham - 2011
As a newly commissioned officer in the Celostian Navy, his goal was to serve well until the day he could retire. Then disaster strikes on his first cruise aboard the CNS Wolfhound, and he will have to display all the courage, skill and determination he has in order to keep the remaining crew members out of danger. Because if he does not, the only ones to tell the tale will be prisoners of war—if there are any left at all.
Magnet
David Adams - 2012
I'm Mike Williams, but you can call me 'Magnet'. Everyone else does. It's short for 'Chick Magnet', which is good old-fashioned military humour at its finest. At age fifteen, my face picked a fight with the propeller of my family's boat, on a shoal near Broome, off Western Australia. It was an accident, but, needless to say, the propeller won.Twelve years later, I was a not-so-ruggedly-handsome fighter pilot assigned to the TFR Sydney. Not the Captain, or flight leader, or anything similarly exciting. Nobody special, just one mostly-unmemorable pilot among the many nameless, faceless masses.I'm Magnet. This is the beginning of my story.A 5500 word story in the Lacuna universe, set during the events of Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi but suitable to read as a stand-alone story. Parts of the Lacuna universe:MagnetImperfectFaithThe Lacuna series:Lacuna: Demons of the VoidLacuna: The Sands of Karathi (New Release!)Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion (Coming December, 2012!)
Starship Eternal
M.R. Forbes - 2015
A dire warning from futures past... A desperate search for salvation… Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters. After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning: They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed. Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship. Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane. They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
Conquerors' Pride
Timothy Zahn - 1994
. . measures that Lord Cavanaugh has no choice but to defy. He recruits Adam Quinn, who once flew with the elite Copperheads--fighter pilots whose minds are literally one with their machines--to rescue his son. Quinn assembles a crack force of Copperheads to steal out of the Commonwealth security zone and snatch Pheylan Cavanaugh from the conquerors. Depending on the outcome, Quinn and his men will retum home as heroes or as the galaxy's most despised traitors--if they come home at all.
Translight
Doug Farren - 2009
But before Earth can benefit from the advanced technologies offered by the other cultures, it must form a united world government. Old habits are hard to break and it doesn't take long before things begin to unravel.Jay Kauffman, mathematical genius and creator of the stardrive, believed his invention would free mankind. Instead, it has made war inevitable.Translight is the first book of the Galactic Alliance series. It is a hard military science fiction space opera that has been compared to E.E. 'Doc' Smith's famous Lensmen and Skylark series.
Starship Scorpion
Tripp Ellis - 2016
But with no sign of the enemy for 25 years, the Joint Planetary Operations Command decides to decommission the old destroyers. But when Slade senses an impending attack, she defies orders to return to base, and JPOC sends a lone assassin to terminate her wayward command.But the Verge have returned, more powerful than ever. Their technology is more advanced. Their armor is indestructible. And they are determined to exterminate all human life.A rogue captain, a misfit crew, and a decrepit destroyer are mankind’s only hope of survival. If JPOC’s assassin succeeds, humanity will perish.
Star Soldiers
Andre Norton - 2001
Dominant aliens allow humans to the stars only as mercenaries. Swordsman Kana and his comrades, betrayed by Central Command, march across hostile planet Fronn. Star Rangers 1953, The Last Planet 1955. 4K years later, telepath Kartr and Patrollers crash on a beautiful unknown yet familiar world and seek the source of a beacon to safety.
Stars & Empire
Jay AllanDietmar Arthur Wehr - 2014
Not on Earth. Not in space. Not on other worlds. Join first colonizers, space marines and rebel forces as they battle for domination against separate factions, alien nations and, sometimes, themselves across the galaxies. 10 of the most recognizable names in space opera today bring you a value-packed bundle like no other, containing everything from full-length novels to tantalizing episode starts to popular serials. The same works you see right on Amazon's bestseller lists. About 2200 pages of rocket-fueled adventure! BONUS: Most of the authors have provided special content — from deleted scenes to complete short stories — you won't find anywhere else! This LIMITED-EDITION bundle includes: MARINES (Crimson Worlds 1) - Jay Allan PENNSYLVANIA: Book 1 - Michael Bunker OMEGA RISING (Omega Force 1) - Joshua Dalzelle FOREVER GATE: Part 1 - Isaac Hooke THE EMPIRE'S CORPS - Christopher G. Nuttall REBEL - Edward W. Robertson DARK SPACE: Book 1 - Jasper T. Scott THE TERRAN GAMBIT (Episode #1: The Pax Humana Saga) - Endi Webb THE SYNCHRONICITY WAR: Part I - Dietmar Arthur Wehr GALACTIC EMPIRE WARS: Destruction - Raymond L. Weil
The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story
Stephen R. Donaldson - 1990
Donaldson returns with this exciting and long-awaited new series that takes us into a stunningly imagined future to tell a timeless story of adventure and the implacable conflict of good and evil within each of us.Angus Thermopyle was an ore pirate and a murderer; even the most disreputable asteroid pilots of Delta Sector stayed locked out of his way. Those who didn't ended up in the lockup--or dead. But when Thermopyle arrived at Mallory's Bar & Sleep with a gorgeous woman by his side the regulars had to take notice. Her name was Morn Hyland, and she had been a police officer--until she met up with Thermopyle.But one person in Mallory's Bar wasn't intimidated. Nick Succorso had his own reputation as a bold pirate and he had a sleek frigate fitted for deep space. Everyone knew that Thermopyle and Succorso were on a collision course. What nobody expected was how quickly it would be over--or how devastating victory would be. It was common enough example of rivalry and revenge--or so everyone thought. The REAL story was something entirely different.In The Real Story, Stephen R. Donaldson takes us to a remarkably detailed world of faster-than-light travel, politics, betrayal, and a shadowy presence just outside our view to tell the fiercest, most profound story he has ever written.
Berserker
Fred Saberhagen - 1967
The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battlecraft carved a swath of death through the galaxy--until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man.These are the stories of the frail creatures who must meet this monstrous and implacable enemy--and who, by fighting it to a standstill, become the saviors of all living things.
The Fringe Worlds
T.R. Harris - 2011
Would you start kicking some ass? Of course you would!This is the story of Human superiority in the galaxy, a gritty, realistic profile of a young Navy SEAL who doesn't like aliens very much -- and he makes them pay for disrupting his happy life back on Earth!
The Peace War
Vernor Vinge - 1984
The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon--the "bobble," a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent. But they've never caught Paul Hoehler, the maverick who invented the technology, and who has been working quietly for decades to develop a way to defeat the Authority. With the help of an underground network of determined, independent scientists and a teenager who may be the apprentice genius he's needed for so long, he will shake the world, in the fast-paced hard-science thriller that garnered Vinge the first of his four Hugo nominations for best novel.