Book picks similar to
Star Raider by Jake Elwood


science-fiction
abondoned
syfi
fantasy-scifi

Valor's Child


Kal Spriggs - 2017
    Jiden wants more for herself and she is ready to step into a bright future, one which may lead her far from the frontier world of her birth. She has no dreams of following in the footsteps of her military family's heritage, no desire to live a life of hardship.She's just got one obstacle in the path to her dreams: five months of military school. She'll be away from her friends, subjected to long hours and a crushing work load. She'll learn to shoot, to fight... and how to kill.Jiden will need every skill she's learned, because her family's enemies have put her in their sights. She's going to have to rise to the challenges in order to survive. She soon learns that her dreams might not be as good as she imagined. With her life on the line, Jiden will need to fall back on the skills she learned and prove that she's a child of valor.

Inadvertent Adventures


Loren K. Jones - 2016
    Shanghaied after he thought his luck had changed for the better, Sterling Stevenson was finding his luck changing in totally unexpected ways. Now called Silver Garand, the navigator of the small trade vessel Jolly Jane, his luck was leading him from one inadvertent adventure to another.

The Omniverse The Unearthing


Steve Karmazenuk - 2011
    RevolutionSF.com Rating: 8/10http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.p...BOOK ONE OF THE OMNIVERSEEDITED BY VICTORIA CLEMENSWhen an immense alien spacecraft is discovered buried in the desert outside Laguna, New Mexico, the world is plunged into chaos.World leaders scramble to secure and study the Ship; the heads of the world's major religions meet in Rome to discuss the implications of the Ship's presence; terrorists and religious fundamentalists seek to use or destroy the Ship for their own ends, and ordinary men and women struggle to assimilate it all, as events unfold live and unfiltered across online news channels.When a survey team is sent in to examine and explore the Ship, they discover that not only is it still operational, but it is conscious and has been waiting for tens of millions of years.

We Dare


Eric Thomson - 2019
    The Marines of Ghost Squadron are humanity’s foremost black ops specialists who strike without warning and vanish without a trace.  They will do whatever is necessary to protect humanity anywhere in the known galaxy.  With the Commonwealth increasingly unstable thanks to venal politicians, greedy financiers, and power-hungry revolutionaries, they don’t lack for missions.When an undercover Constabulary officer vanishes after uncovering a massive cartel-run human trafficking operation, the Commonwealth’s interstellar police force calls for help from Naval Intelligence.  Because the cartel’s operations could upend the delicate political balance between the older core worlds and the more recently colonized outer star systems, Ghost Squadron gets the job.  Its mission: find the missing Constabulary officer and choke off the growing slave trade bedeviling humanity’s perilous galactic frontier.Ghost Squadron’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Thomas Decker, spent the last ten years as a Naval Intelligence agent.  His job was thwarting plots and terminating the Commonwealth’s internal enemies alongside his partner, a trained assassin.  Now, with several hundred of the deadliest Marines ever fielded at his back, Zack Decker will change the course of history and usher in a new era. Humanity's interstellar empire ended in "Ashes of Empire."  Witness its birth a thousand years earlier in Eric Thomson's new series "Ghost Squadron."

The Acheron: A Military Sci-Fi Series


Rick Partlow - 2020
    He signed up to escape the grinding poverty of the Housing Blocks. And the unlikely friends envisioned boring, peacetime careers as shuttle pilots. The Tahni Imperium had other ideas... Caught in the desperate fury of the Battle for Mars, the two young pilots wind up the last defense against an alien armada, but their war is just beginning. Recruited to fly the Fleet's newest weapon in this new war, they take the fight deep into the heart of the Imperium and battle not just against the enemy but against incompetent leadership and ineffectual tactics. Can the unconventional strategies of a pair of hotshot young pilots change the course of the war? And when the time comes that a choice has to be made between duty to command and loyalty to a friend, which of the two will be willing to make one last flight alone... From the author of the bestselling Drop Trooper Military Sci-Fi Series comes another tale of war against an alien menace known as the Tahni. Perfect for fans of Jay Allan, Jasper T. Scott, and Scott Bartlett. (less)

Exodus


John Walker - 2021
    A mindless alien race has swept across the colonies, consuming structures and people along the way. As humanity stands on the brink of destruction, we have one hope to preserve what’s left of our culture and very lives. The Passage.One of the greatest scientific achievements of humanity, a gateway that will hyper-accelerate our faster than light drives so we can cover an unimaginable distance. A new home waits beyond, one far from our aggressors. But can we escape the desolation of our old empire before it’s too late?

Across the Galactic Pond


Christian Kallias - 2018
    His first mission: save a gazillion lives. When young Kevin has a chance encounter with a dying alien, he discovers not only that humans aren't alone in the universe, but that this encounter propels him into the middle of an intergalactic war. Now at the frontlines of a massive, far far away war, he’s sent to the last remaining ship of the losing side. The crew of the ship? All dead. His mission is simple: he must save the good guys from certain doom. From College reject to War Master, Kevin learns he must adapt quickly or billions will die.

Resolute Command


James Prosser - 2013
    Humanity has been enslaved or scattered to the galaxy, hiding out in lonely systems far from home. A cry for help from an enemy ship prompts action from an unlikely group of refugees and a lone fighter pilot. This begins an epic adventure that will unite the remains of the human race and take them into the depths of the darkest soul.The battle for survival is underway and the War for Terra has finally begun.

Pete, Popeye and Olive (Privateer Tales Shorts Book 2)


Jamie McFarlane - 2016
    When an opportunity to join the Mechanized Infantry presents itself, Pete is first in line. He knows that he's going to get shot at one way or another, but the idea of sitting in a warm and more importantly, dry mechanized suit appeals to him almost beyond reason. While still training in the jungle, Pete's squad is called out to intervene in a skirmish in a nearby village. Of course, the Marines haven't seen fit to certify his squad with ordnance. The fact that they'll be up against a platoon of squishies doesn't convince him that's it's any better of an idea and things turn quickly to crap when they discover the squishies are protected by grav-tanks. Pete, Popeye and Olive is a fast paced, short-story with plenty of action.

Scout Force


Rodney L. Smith - 2011
    His redemption comes as he is recruited into the elite and secretive Scout Force. Follow Kelly’s adventures as an officer in the Galactic Republic Fleet’s Scout Force, protecting humanity’s frontiers from human treachery and an onslaught by the expansive, hostile K’rang Empire.

Space Scout


S.A. Pavli - 2015
    Resigned to spending the rest of his days as a latter day Robinson Crusoe, the Captain is shocked to find the remains of uninhabited alien exploration base on the planet. This soon becomes a desperate fight for survival for the Captain, but also an exhilarating journey, full of adventure and new discoveries.

erinyes


Scott McElhaney - 2012
    One of these crewmembers, Donovan Rost, had just been presented with an honorary commission as an Ensign in the Universal Command. The only thing, it seems, that he did to earn such a commission was the fact that he had survived a long time in cryostasis… a very, very long time. Donovan came from a 21st century Earth - an Earth that used to be dominated by humanity. Now, man is a minority and all that he knew of his civilization is buried and almost completely forgotten. He’s about to learn why he and five others were revived and why they were now searching the Large Magellanic Cloud for a technological race that the crew is certain exists somewhere in that galaxy. Scott McElhaney is the award winning author of the Mystic Saga, consisting of the books Indentured, Legacy, Violation, Judgment, and Convergence. Over 125,000 of his books have been downloaded in 2012 alone!

Violent Graduation


John Hindmarsh - 2021
    The risk to his friends at the academy is the hidden price. His challenge is how to balance the risks.The final stage of his training is a shakedown cruise on an old minesweeper, barely able to achieve FTL entry and exit.Midway through their cruise, the minesweeper collides with an ancient alien wreck, ripping the sides off the starship. Jack’s team of bots help seal the combined wreck to prevent air loss. Ghost, a nanolife form from the alien wreck, provides assistance.Jack and his girlfriend, Sofia, are the only survivors, and air, food, and supplies are critical.The countdown of days to survive is ticking.No wonder the Royal Family are angry.And there’s still a price on Jack’s head.

Expanse series #1-6


James S.A. Corey
    a. corey includes titles:- Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate, Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, Babylon's Ashes. Description:- Leviathan Wakes Humanity has colonised the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.Jim Holden is an officer on an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. Caliban's War While Earth and Mars have stopped shooting each other, the core alliance is shattered. The outer planets and the Belt are uncertain in their new - possibly temporary - autonomy. Abaddon's Gate For generations, the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt - was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artefact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark. Cibola Burn: Book 4 of the Expanse The gates have opened the way to a thousand new worlds and the rush to colonise has begun. Settlers looking for a new life stream out from humanity's home planets. Illus, the first human colony on this vast new frontier, is being born in blood and fire. Nemesis Games: Book 5 of the Expanse A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land-rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.Ships are disappearing without a trace. Babylon's Ashes: Book Six of the Expanse The Free Navy - a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships - has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets. The colony ships heading for the thousand new worlds on the far side of the alien ring gates are easy prey, and no single navy remains strong enough to protect them.

Star Quest: The Journey Begins


Patricia Lee Macomber - 2019
    Now, with the war over and the aliens defeated, she's teaching other pilots to fly the alien ships that turned the tide. Until the government approaches her about joining a super secret mission, that is. Steve Hunter is the product of alien DNA. He was created in a lab, designed to destroy the aliens in a ground war that was never fought. Now, they're finally putting him to use as the leader of this new mission. Together with the scientist who created Steve and the genius who invented the ship, Cara and her captain set off on a final adventure. The U.S.S. Endeavor goes in search of allies among the stars. What they find is more than they ever bargained for. If their mission is to be a success, they will have to solve a mystery and escape destruction at the hands of an all new foe. All in a day's work for the Endeavor crew.