Book picks similar to
Stowaway by Z.D. Dean


science-fiction
sci-fi
military
aliens

The Silver Ships


S.H. Jucha - 2015
    Recognizing a once in a lifetime opportunity to make first contact, Alex pulls off a daring maneuver to latch on to the derelict.Alex discovers the ship was attacked by an unknown craft, the first of its kind ever encountered. The mysterious silver ship's attack was both instant and deadly.What enfolds is a story of the descendants of two Earth colony ships, with very different histories, meeting 700 years after their founding and uniting to defend humanity from the silver ships.

Finders Keepers


Linnea Sinclair - 2002
    You might get it... Her ship's in shambles, her boyfriend's dumped her and she's frankly out of funds. Captain Trilby Elliot hopes her luck has changed when a high-tech fightercraft crash lands at her repair site. Finders keepers. She can sell the ship as salvage, pocket the profits. Except for one small problem: the pilot, Rhis, is still alive and intent on commandeering her ship. And another much larger problem: someone very powerful and very important wants Trilby Elliot dead.

Stasis


L.D.P. Samways - 2015
    The mercenary ship is commissioned to run missions on dangerous planets. To reap great rewards from unsuspecting alien races. To take minerals, precious metals and invaluable resources for Earths galactic expansion. They do the work that no other ship in Earths fleet would dare consider. Why? Because if they get found out, then Earth abandons them. Leaves them to rot in the middle of the universe, unaided and unheard of until the very end of time itself. For Captain Flynn, he never imagined that day would come. He and his crew were more than happy with the way things were going. That’s until one day they wake up from stasis not knowing how they got there. One minute they’re back on earth, relaxing after another hair-raising, highly-illegal mission, and the next, they’re waking up from a six-year slumber, in the middle of a galaxy they don’t recognise. But not all is as it seems. They are not alone. Aliens are aboard their ship. And unfortunately for Captain Flynn and his rag-tag group, they don’t come in peace. Earth has sold them down the river. Banished them from the blue planet with no return ticket home. Now the aliens have them. And they plan on using them against their enemies. They take them prisoner on their home planet. Shackled and bound, the crew fear that their fates are sealed. But unfortunately, it is just the beginning for them. The aliens that hold them captive have far greater plans for them than death. Plans that will undoubtedly shake earth to its molten core. Prepare yourself for a journey that leaps from star system, to star system, in a space opera filled to the brim with nail biting suspense throughout. Warning: This book contains some strong language and violence. Reader discretion is advised. Destroyer of Worlds, book two in the Alpha Ship One series releases February 2016.

The Lost Starship


Vaughn Heppner - 2014
    The vessel's dying crew set the AI on automatic to defend the smashed rubble of their planet. Legend has it the faithful ship continues to patrol the empty battlefield, obeying its last order throughout the lonely centuries. In the here and now, Earth needs a miracle. Out of the Beyond invade the New Men, stronger, faster and smarter than the old. Their superior warships and advanced technology destroy every fleet sent to stop them. Their spies have infiltrated the government and traitors plague Earth’s military. Captain Maddox of Star Watch Intelligence wonders if the ancient legend could be true. Would such an old starship be able to face the technology of the New Men? On the run from killers, Maddox searches for a group of talented misfits. He seeks Keith Maker, a drunken ex-strikefighter ace, Doctor Dana Rich the clone thief stuck on a prison planet and Lieutenant Valerie Noonan, the only person to have faced the New Men in battle and survived to tell about it. Maddox has to find a place hidden in the Beyond and bring back a ship no one can enter. If he fails, the New Men will replace the old. If he succeeds, humanity might just have a fighting chance…

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.

Galactic Search


Raymond L. Weil - 2015
    But it had tremendous costs. The Battleship Avenger and her fleets had vanished being drawn into a great white vortex at the moment of victory. For over four years, the mystery of what had happened to the Avenger had haunted the Federation. The last two survivors of the Special Five have built a powerful exploration cruiser to go off in search of the lost fleets. They are convinced that the fleets have survived and are trapped in another galaxy. What they find in their search will be a threat to the Federation far greater than the AIs and the Hocklyns had ever been. The fate of thousands of worlds will depend on the Distant Horizon finding those that were lost and stopping this new and dangerous menace.

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.

Fluency


Jennifer Foehner Wells - 2014
    They kept the Target under intense surveillance for decades, letting the public believe they were exploring the solar system, while they worked feverishly to refine the technology needed to reach it. The ship itself remained silent, drifting. Dr. Jane Holloway is content documenting nearly-extinct languages and had never contemplated becoming an astronaut. But when NASA recruits her to join a team of military scientists for an expedition to the Target, it’s an adventure she can’t refuse. The ship isn’t vacant, as they presumed. A disembodied voice rumbles inside Jane’s head, "You are home." Jane fights the growing doubts of her colleagues as she attempts to decipher what the alien wants from her. As the derelict ship devolves into chaos and the crew gets cut off from their escape route, Jane must decide if she can trust the alien’s help to survive.

Odyssey One


Evan Currie - 2011
    Assigned the task of blazing man's first trail into that great unknown, Captain Eric Weston and the crew of the NAC Odyssey launch on a mission destined to make history.Past the bounds of comfort, they encounter horrors and wonders beyond their imagining, with people and monsters beyond reckoning.Odyssey One is the first voyage of the NAC Odyssey and its crew, and the beginnings of a Military Science Fiction Epic that combines both old school space opera, and modern storytelling in one great, exhilarating adventure.Odyssey One is a 150,000 word novel.

Among the Kicking Birds


Mike Shepherd - 2017
    She commands a fleet and an industrial base, and the humans manning the ships and working the factories would like some vacation time. They'd also like a stake in the Alwa they are defending. So Kris finds herself approaching natives for land. Her Native American heritage balks at the thought of her trading a few beads for land. She will handle these negotiations herself. Of course, nothing ever goes down easy for a Longknife. She'll face beasties, angry natives and an assassin before she's done, but hey, she's a Longknife. That's what she does. This story was originally part of Kris Longknife - Unrelenting but these 7600 words had to be cut because the novel was too long. Now you can read the full story that was covered in one short paragraph in Unrelenting.

Columbus Day


Craig Alanson - 2016
    And that was the good news. The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy, our allies are. I'd better start at the beginning....

Star Force: Prologue (SF0)


Aer-ki Jyr - 2012
    Take your first step into a much larger world with this prologue and begin your journey to save Humanity from an overpowering enemy. Enlist in Star Force today and see why the series has over 50,000 sales to date.

Black Sheep


Rachel Aukes - 2020
    Stolen colonists. All Throttle wanted was a vacation...Fifteen years into a twenty-year voyage, war veteran Captain Throttle Reyne is looking forward to taking a break from dealing with malfunctions, glitches, and the hassles of monitoring a thousand colonists in cryo-sleep. But when her colony ship breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Throttle and her crew must leave the colonists behind to search for help. They find a ship that's not only missing a crew… it's clearly not from their star system. It's the discovery of a lifetime. All they need to do is tow the mysterious vessel back to their colony ship for further study and Throttle won't ever have to work again. One problem. While they're away, the colony ship is stolen—with the colonists still on board. Throttle gives chase to a lawless star system on the outer rim. To get their colonists back, they must take on the pirates and ganglords who will do anything—and sell anyone—to make a buck. They play dirty. But Throttle and her crew play dirtier.Strap on your restraints and experience the start of this new space opera thrill ride. It's perfect for fans of Jay Allan, Jennifer Foehner Wells, and Star Wars.

Omega Rising


Joshua Dalzelle - 2013
    But when he investigates the crash, what he finds will yank him out of his self-imposed exile and thrust him into a world he could have never imagined.He suddenly finds himself trapped on a damaged alien spacecraft and plunged into a universe of interstellar crime lords and government conspiracies, along the way meeting strange new friends… and enemies. As he struggles to find his way back home he is inexorably drawn deeper into a world where one misstep could mean his death. Or worse. He desperately wants to get back to Earth, but it may be the end for him. … or is it just the beginning?

Lost Mission


Joshua James - 2019
     Two decades of bitter war between Earth and her furthest colonies is finally at an end. Captain Lee Saito's massive new starship is sent to seal the uneasy truce. But a series of terrorist attacks on Earth and the mysterious acts of a strange cult threaten to derail the fragile peace. When the mission goes awry, Saito must try to salvage what he can in deep space while his estranged son must navigate a conspiracy back on Earth that could implicate the highest levels of government. But conspiracies go both ways and no one is as innocent as they might seem. As it all spirals out of control, the future of humanity hangs in the balance. Lost Mission, the first book in the Oblivion series, is a high-octane, action-packed blast that will leave military science fiction fans hungry for more!