Catch a Falling Star


John Brunner - 1968
    if he can arouse everyone to the danger, there might be time enough to save the world.But the Earth had become a strange and kaleidoscopic place in that distant era. Too many empires had risen and fallen—humans has become too apathetic, too self-centered to pay attention to the new alarm. Creohan would have to save the world by himself.The story of his efforts is a brilliant blend of science-fiction and fantasy, and one of John Brunner's most colorful concepts.

I Am Mech


Jonathan Yanez - 2020
    Instead, they get Jack.This ace mech pilot contends with legendary prophecies, ancient powers, and fickle companions as he sets out on an epic task to save his planet from a baddie hellbent on destruction.Has his positive self-talk got him in too deep or will he actually pull through to do some good this time?I Am Mech is a nonstop, rollercoaster ride of an adventure full of snarky humor and more than a few spit-out-your-drink moments.

Alive


Andreas Christensen - 2013
    When Ed Walker learns that others have been preparing for the disaster for years, he realize finding them may be his only shot at survival. But time is running out...In a dying world one man makes a choice to keep going, hoping against hope there might be a future after all.Alive is a 10.000 word story loosely based on events in Exodus by Andreas Christensen, but can also  just as easily be read as a stand alone.Notice: this novella is also available for FREE on the author's website.

The Magitech Chronicles Quadrilogy: Books 1 - 4 of the Magitech Chronicles


Chris Fox - 2019
    Their worlds burn. The Godswar has come again. Tech Mage (book 1) Aran awakens in chains with no memory. He’s conscripted into the Confederate Marines as a Tech Mage, given a spellrifle, then hurled into the war with the draconic Krox and their Void Wyrm masters. Desperate to escape, Aran struggles to master his abilities while surviving the Krox onslaught. Fighting alongside him are a Major who will do anything to win, a Captain who will stop at nothing to see him dead, and a woman whose past is as blank as his own. Caught between survival and loyalty Aran must choose. If he flees he will live, but the Krox will burn the galaxy. Stopping them requires a price Aran may be unable to pay: Learning to trust the very people who enslaved him. Void Wyrm (book 2) A Suicidal Quest Into the Umbral Depths Major Voria stands ready to accept the cost for her actions at Marid. Stripped of command and resources, Voria must find a ship and rally a crew. Somewhere within the Umbral Depths lays a hidden world, a world that the dead god Marid intended her to find. Aran faces a choice. Halt his war mage training, and in the process give up clues to his past, or abandon Voria. Aran sacrifices everything to follow Voria on a suicidal quest into the one place where even gods fear to tread. On a bleak world in the deepest darkness lays an object of enormous power, one that could turn the tide of the war against Krox. But Voria isn't the only one seeking the weapon. Spellship (book 3) Voria, Aran, and Nara survived their trip into the Umbral Depths. They retrieved the Talon, and are now searching for the First Spellship, the key to victory in their war against the Krox. Their search leads them to Virkonna, the home of the Last Dragonflight, a world where Dragons still rule. The world where Aran was born. War Mage (book 4) The Krox have finally reached their end game, and the sector will never be the same. Their relentless fleet darkens the skies of New Texas, home of the fabled Ternus shipyards. Their only hope lies with their sworn allies, the Shayans. But the Shayans refuse to help. Only Aran and his company can keep their leadership alive long enough for Voria to bring reinforcements and the fabled Spellship. If they fail, the entire world burns, and Ternus morale will collapse with it. The Magitech Chronicles is already five books deep, and book six will be released soon. Our pen and paper roleplaying game is in development, so if you enjoy Dungeons & Dragons, Spelljammer, Starfinder, or any other roleplaying game, then you are going to love this series. You can find artwork, character sheets, lore, maps and more at Magitechchronicles dot com. “If you grew up playing D&D, Rifts, Spelljammer, or Starcraft, and want to see magic in space done right, then get ready to lose the next forty hours of your life.” — The Author’s Totally Biased Friend

Everflame


Dylan Lee Peters - 2012
    Over time, humans lost their connection with a world they had been created to protect, they forgot the ways of their ancient creators, and accepted the Tyrant’s lies as truths from the mouth of a god.  Now, deep in the forests that surround Gray Mountain, two bears find a small child that is abandoned and left for dead. The bears name him Evercloud, raise him as a member of their kingdom, and teach the boy of the Ancients, all underneath the light of the Everflame, the flame that burns atop Gray Mountain as a monument to the integrity and spirit of the bears.  As Evercloud grows, rumors reach the bear kingdom of the Ancients’ return, and now the young man must leave his home to find them and help save the world he holds dear.  Will Evercloud lose himself in the darkness of the Great Tyrant’s lies, or will he have the courage to judge his own heart, the strength to master the darkness, and the faith to follow his purpose until it burns within his heart like the Everflame?

Witch World


Andre Norton - 1963
    None are more memorable than her Witch World novels. Simon Tregarth, a man from our own world, escapes his doom through the gates to the Witch World. There he aids the witch Jaelithe's escape from the hounds of Alizon, only to find himself embroiled in a deeper war against an even deadlier foe: the Kolder.

Shield of Drani


Melonie Purcell - 2016
    Two psychic talents are required to mine it. Three species seeking control. Taymar is telekinetic, violent and deadly. She is also the first of her kind to be telepathic as well, making her an intolerable threat to the ruling species of her home planet. They want to control her. To tame her. She just wants to be free. A cruel twist of fate has Nevvis tasked with managing Taymar when he is supposed to be managing a planet on the verge of war. But, she is hard to ignore and impossible to forget. When the Shreet invaders attack, Taymar jumps at the chance to escape. Nevvis would love nothing better than to let her go, but he can’t. If he is to save their home from the Shreet, he must twist her into a weapon and somehow convince her to help save a planet that has only ever tried to destroy her.

The Dreaming City


Michael Moorcock - 1972
    At his side was a five-foot broadsword that was said to have belonged to the human hero. Aubec. Resting on the deck was the great round war-board, his shield, bearing the sign of the swooping dragon. A black helm crowned him, with a dragon's head on the peak and dragon's wings flaring backward, a dragon's tail curling down. All about him was black, but for the white shadow within the helm, from which glared two crimson orbs. Wisps of milk-white hair strayed from beneath the helm, and in the scant light the fine, handsome features of the albino emperor suddenly stood out. He listened for the first sound of the approaching battle.....(This book was later reprinted under the title of Elric of Melibone)

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.

The Last Walk Out: A Tribal Space Opera


David Helton - 2014
     The catastrophic Abunga virus has wiped out everyone on Earth except for a few scattered souls with natural immunity. Other humans escaped this Apocalypse by fleeing to other parts of the Solar System, populating and exploiting its moons and planets. A thousand years on, those now living on these distant outposts still can't return but secretly confine and observe the survivors as a combination of social experiment and nostalgic entertainment. Their former home is now a ‘holopark’, a new Eden, a Heaven on Earth. It’s a chance for the human race to start all over again. There, Gibbous Moon, a 70-year-old tribal story-teller and seer, is leaving his settlement on a solitary Last Walk Out. Except that he is not alone. Reluctantly he has to accept animal company in the shape of a determined dog he names Yellow. And then his daughter-in-law Paintbrush and her baby Skyman suddenly appear after their clan is brutally massacred by rivals on the reservation. Could it be possible that this small renegade band could now form an unlikely alliance, the basis of a real New Beginning? Praise for David Helton: "The Last Walk Out is a story that satisfies on many levels – compelling and adventurous, with engaging characters including strong and individualistic women, it investigates the wisdom and contradictions mankind has confronted across history." - Amazon Review David Helton was born in San Francisco, graduated from the University of Texas and has spent most of his working mainly as a freelance journalist and documentary scriptwriter. He has won or been nominated for several international awards and has written one other novel, King Jude. He now lives in England.

A Princess of Mars


Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1912
    It's the beginning of an incredible odyssey in which John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia and a Civil War veteran, unexpectedly finds himself on to the red planet, scene of continuing combat among rival tribes. Captured by a band of six-limbed, green-skinned savage giants called Tharks, Carter soon is accorded all the honor of a chieftain after it's discovered that his muscles, accustomed to Earth's greater gravity, now give him a decided advantage in strength. And when his captors take as prisoner Dejah Thoris, the lovely human-looking princess of the city of Helium, Carter must call upon every ounce of strength, courage, and ingenuity to rescue her-before Dejah becomes the slave of the depraved Thark leader, Tal Hajus!Excerpt:Her oval face was beautiful in the extreme, her every feature finely chisled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Similar in face and figure to women of Earth, she was nevertheless a true Martian--and prisoner of the fierce green giants who held me captive, as well!

A Haven in Ash


Robert J. Crane - 2017
    A horde of beasts known only as the scourge has ravaged the land, leaving only the village of Terreas to survive. Hemmed in on all sides by the scourge, the denizens of Terreas eke out a lonely existence, trying to survive in a land that is all but dead. Jasen Rabinn is a teenage boy trapped in Terreas but with a mind rooted outside the boundaries of his village. He longs for adventure, and when the mysterious Baraghosa – a sorcerer of a sort not native to Luukessia – comes to Terreas, a chain of events is set in motion that will carry Jasen beyond his simple town. To adventure. To danger. To his destiny.

SNAFU: Future Warfare


Geoff BrownSteve Lewis - 2016
    See far-flung worlds, they said. Meet interesting creatures, and kill them all. Soldiers fighting aliens in unforgiving landscapes, where every breath could be their last. Featuring stories by Weston Ochse, Mike Resnick, and others. From near-future to far-future, featuring some of the best writers working in the field today.

The Grendel's Shadow


Andrew Mayne - 2011
    Westwood: distinguished professor of biology and the galaxy's greatest hunter is in for the biggest challenge of his career. When an unknown animal starts killing off settlers on a backwater planet run on coal and steam power, he's the only person who can help stop the slaughter. Rocks and spears or shotguns and canons, he'll use whatever is allowed to get the job done.In a post-singularity future where the human race has spread to millions of worlds, sometimes the native animal population isn’t exactly compatible with our expanding civilization. Taking advantage of a mind as sharp as his aim, Westwood is the only man you call if local wildlife gets out of control and starts devouring your local population. The Grendel's Shadow is 35,000 word novella mixing elements of post singularity science fiction, steampunk, horror and western.

Three Feet of Sky


Stephen Ayres - 2012
    with a peculiar talent.After years of destitution, Adam Eden's life is finally on the up. But, whilst out celebrating his recent good fortune, Adam unwittingly chooses death over embarrassment.Awaking in a future of leisure, luxury, and immortality, Adam suffers serious shrinkage and is branded an 'undesirable'. Shunned by family and neighbours for his first-life sins, can he find respect and redemption in this tightly controlled world? Facing a grim eternity, Adam wants out.A randomly chosen day trip changes everything.Though cruel and heartless, they always let you choose your weapon.