Book picks similar to
War To The Knife by Peter Grant


sci-fi
science-fiction
military-science-fiction
scifi

Supernova


Doug Dandridge - 2015
    Not all the action occurs on the main front. Space is too big for that kind of restriction. The Klassekians are a gifted race, with an ability which could help the Empire in its war against the Ca'cadasans. Just entering space, the species is still torn apart by religious and nationalistic schisms. They are on the verge of a nuclear war. And that is the least of their problems. For six light months from their star system is a blue giant, and the timer on its life is just about to hit zero. Exploration Command ships discover the civilization, and it is soon apparent that this is one that needs saving. But saving the six billion people on the planet is a daunting task, especially with a killing wave of radiation a year and a half away, six months after the blue giant explodes. And one of the main religious factions of the planet sees their destruction as a cause for celebration, the return of their God. Now the humans must not only battle time, but the politics and religious fanaticism of a fatalistic people who do not desire rescue, and are determined to stop those who do. Add to this the mysterious alien artifacts that rise from surface to above the atmosphere, and the mission becomes interesting in the most hazardous manner. And in the darkness, wait things that humanity thought they were well rid of, probing the human fleet, and threatening the great Empire base at Bolthole.

The War of Alien Aggression


A.D. Bloom - 2014
    Intelligent life reaches out to Humanity using particle beam weapons and masers. The pilots and crew of the privateer carrier Hardway are first to fight in the conflict that quickly escalates from a bloody first contact to a full-scale, interstellar war. KAMIKAZE - The privateer attack carrier Hardway invades Procyon to destroy an alien blockade gun meant to keep the human race confined. Hardway and her pilots meet their match in the Squidies' massive gun and the alien aces that protect it until they discover why the aliens are beating them. They must commit to paying for victory in war's only true currency.LANCER - Privateer Admiral Harry Cozen needs pilots for an experimental fighter squadron, so he offers the inmates of Bailey Prison a deal. Colt is serving 5-7 and he knows the deal is too good to be true, but he still takes it. He and the rest of the C-Block nuggets learn to fly the new F-151 and prepare to sortie against alien aces on a mission that's far more dangerous than anyone's telling them.TAIPAN - Hardway is drafted into a force group commanded by Harry Cozen's bitter rival from Staas Company. She stole his fighter program and his thousand new pilots. Now, she's determined to use them as cannon fodder. Hardway and the Lancers of the 133rd Fighter Test Squadron may be all that can keep her pilots alive in a knife-fight deep behind enemy lines.COZEN'S WAR - The Privateers and the UN fleet have brought the fight to the Squidies' home system. The massive, Earth invasion fleet faces off against every ship the Squidies can muster. Harry Cozen is in command and this is his greatest gambit, but alien propaganda threatens to reveal the war's most damaging secret on the day the bloodiest battle of the conflict unfolds.

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

Steel Walls and Dirt Drops


Alan Black - 2009
    She is a larger-than-life combat veteran and a bonafide war hero. She knows combat. She also knows that combat is one thing and that command is a warthog of a different and dubious color. Misha wonders if she has the necessary skills to turn this group of slackers, petty criminals and losers into an effective fighting unit in the short time she has left before being tossed out the back end of a spacecraft to fight in ground chewing warfare. APES are supposed to be an armored infantry fighting force. However, this unit’s last commander retired in the saddle leaving his unit to unravel and fend for themselves. Their assigned space forces transport captain is less than no help at all. The war with the Binders is heating up and there are secrets swirling around mixed with gossip about the last big battle against the aliens. Some secrets could mean life or death for the ground pounders who wear metal armor in dirt side warfare. Combat is on the horizon and even the veteran APES doubt they will be ready for what is coming. All Misha can do is crack a few heads, kick some backsides and see what happens. Her APES might live through the next battle if she is successful. If not…

The Fallen Race


Kal Spriggs - 2014
    The odds against their personal survival are slim. The time of humanity has come to a close. The great nations have all fallen, either to the encroaching alien threats or to internal fighting and civil war. The aliens who seek to supplant humanity, however, have not taken one thing into account: Lucius Giovanni. He and his crew will not give up – not while they still draw breath. If this is to be the fall of humanity, then the crew of the War Shrike will go down fighting...and in the heat of that fight, they may just light a new fire for humanity....

Crystal Soldier


Sharon Lee - 2005
    Believing that they had won, the citizens of the galaxy rebuilt. The Inner Worlds, which had escaped the worst of the war's ravages, became even more insular, while the Rim worlds adopted a free and easy way with law and order. Now, hundreds of years after their withdrawal, the Enemy is back - and this time they'll be satisfied with nothing less than the extinction of the galaxy.

Trading in Danger


Elizabeth Moon - 2003
    For Ky, it's no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can't hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It's adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family's misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.Expelled from the Academy in disgrace—and returning home to her humiliated family, a storm of high-profile media coverage, and the gaping void of her own future—Ky is ready to face the inevitable onslaught of anger, disappointment, even pity. But soon after opportunity's door slams shut, Ky finds herself with a ticket to ride—and a shot at redemption—as captain of a Vatta Transport ship.It's a simple assignment: escorting one of the Vatta fleet's oldest ships on its final voyage . . . to the scrapyard. But keeping it simple has never been Ky's style. And even though her father has provided a crew of seasoned veterans to baby-sit the fledgling captain on her maiden milk run, they can't stop Ky from turning the routine mission into a risky venture—in the name of turning a profit for Vatta Transport, of course.By snapping up a lucrative delivery contract defaulted on by a rival company, and using part of the proceeds to upgrade her condemned vehicle, Ky aims to prove she's got more going for her than just her family's famous name. But business will soon have to take a backseat to bravery, when Ky's change of plans sails her and the crew straight into the middle of a colonial war. For all her commercial savvy, it's her military training and born-soldier's instincts that Ky will need to call on in the face of deadly combat, dangerous mercenaries, and violent mutiny. . . .

Lone Star Renegades


Mark Wayne McGinnis - 2015
    can't wait for the next one." From author, Mark Wayne McGinnis, who brought you the hit series, Scrapyard Ship and Tapped In, comes a new and exciting new science fiction saga and the rise of the most unlikely new hero. Seventeen-year-old Collin Frost, the kicker for the Lone Stars high school football team, was not enjoying the bus ride back to the school after a game that hadn’t gone so well. The ride was made worse for him when Bubba, the team’s defensive tackle, decided Collin should sit in the aisle instead of the seat next to him. That’s why when the bus pulled to a stop at a railway crossing in a small town in Middleton Texas, Collin didn’t actually see what the bus driver, the cheerleaders, and his teammates saw … a hovering, goliath-sized space ship. And here the journey of the Lone Star Renegades begins. Abducted into the belly of a sim rover collector ship, sent from a distant galaxy, the Lone Stars must find a way to survive long enough to escape their deathly confines. When that escape finally does come, the teenagers find themselves twenty-three light years from Earth and smack dap in the middle of an interstellar war. Young and irreverent, the Lone Stars must bargain with the Brotherhood forces for passage back to Earth—a bargain that would require them to complete a military basic training program and inevitably have them fight against Brotherhood's enemies for the duration of one year.

The Sagan Diary


John Scalzi - 2007
    Subterranean Press is proud to publish The Sagan Diary, a long novelette that for the first time looks at the worlds of the Hugo-nominated Old Man's War and its sequel The Ghost Brigades from the point of view of Lieutenant Jane Sagan, who in a series of diary entries gives her views on some of the events included in the series... and sheds new light into some previously unexplored corners. If you thought you knew Jane Sagan before, prepare to be surprised.

Sassinak


Anne McCaffrey - 1990
    That made her just the right age: old enough to be used, young enough to be broken. Or so the slavers thought. But Sassy turned out to be a little different from your typical slave girl. Maybe it was her unusual physical strength. Maybe it was her friendship with the captured Fleet crewman. Maybe it was her spirit. Whatever it was, it wouldn't let her resign herself to the life of a slave. She bided her time, watched for her moment. Finally it came, and she escaped.But that was only the beginning for Sassinak. Now she's a Fleet Captain with a pirate-chasing ship of her own, and only one regret in her life: not enough pirates.

Sun of Suns


Karl Schroeder - 2006
    The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and "towns" that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity.Young, fit, bitter, and friendless, Hayden Griffin is a very dangerous man. He's come to the city of Rush in the nation of Slipstream with one thing in mind: to take murderous revenge for the deaths of his parents six years ago. His target is Admiral Chaison Fanning, head of the fleet of Slipstream, which conquered Hayden's nation of Aerie years ago. And the fact that Hayden's spent his adolescence living with pirates doesn't bode well for Fanning's chances...

Renegade Star


J.N. ChaneyJ.N. Chaney - 2017
    Something to tell your children when you put them to sleep, the lost homeworld of humanity. Everyone knows it isn't real, though. It can't be.But when Captain Jace Hughes encounters a nun with a mysterious piece of cargo and a bold secret, he soon discovers that everything he thought he knew about Earth is wrong. So very, very wrong.Climb aboard The Renegade Star and assemble a crew, follow the clues, uncover the truth, and most importantly, try to stay alive.

Aurora: CV-01


Ryk Brown - 2011
    And this is only the beginning… "Aurora: CV-01" is 77,000 word novel, and is Episode 1 of The Frontiers Saga. Episode 2, "The Rings of Haven"is available now!

Last Stand of the Legion: Rift


Rod Carstens - 2014
     All that stands in their way are the men and women Colonel Dasan Daniel Sand's armored infantry and Fleet Admiral Usiche Raurk's sailors who must find a way to defeat the Xotoli with only the naval forces left after the overwhelming attack. They lead the likes of Private Ja Hu who just months out of training must face the most desperate battle humans have ever fought. Destroyer Captain Ririsa Grogen and her crew as they desperately try to fight back alien invasion fleet and save their ship. Petty Officer Zenus Lee a misfit who finds his purpose in the midst of battle. This is the story of the men and women who stand between the aliens and the rest of humanity. They include the crews aboard the Swift Boats, destroyers and battleships; Legion pilots; the Anjin assassin; Von Fleet Corporation's executives; and so many more. The Last Stand of the Legion is a story of intense combat and non-stop action that will change the course of history.

The First Casualty


Mike Moscoe - 1999
    Two career soldiers invested with the cause of the United Colonies. These four soldiers on opposing sides of battle are about to discover the true nature of this terrible war--a quest for profit--from the high command of both sides. What they will risk is nothing less than their lives. For although truth is the first casualty of war, it won't be the last.