Book picks similar to
Synthesis: Weave by Rexx Deane
science-fiction
sci-fi
spsfc
novels
The End of the World as We Know It
Iva-Marie Palmer - 2012
They just might get their wish….Meet the four most unlikely heroes ever:Teena McAuley: Queen Bee, first-class problem solver, resident heartbreaker.Leo Starnick: UFO conspirator, pizza delivery boy, all-around slacker.Evan Brighton: Baseball all-star, extreme virgin, Teena-worshipper.Sarabeth Lewis: Straight-A student, weekend hermit, enemy of the color pink.When Teena locks Leo, Evan, and Sarabeth in the basement during her biggest party of the year, she doesn’t plan on getting trapped in the Loser Dungeon herself. She can barely imagine a night with these dweebs—let alone a lifetime. But when an alien invasion destroys their entire Midwestern suburb, it looks like these unlikely friends are the last people on earth. Now, it’s up to them to save the world….
Outsystem
M.D. Cooper - 2012
Despite her soiled record, Tanis still one of the best military counter-insurgency officers in the Terran Space Force. And they need her to find the terrorists responsible for trying to destroy the GSS Intrepid, a massive interstellar colony ship in the final phases of construction at the Mars Outer Shipyards. It’ll be her ticket out of the Sol system, but Tanis discovers she is up against more than mercenaries and assassins. Major corporations and governments have a vested interest in ensuring the Intrepid never leaves Sol, ultimately pitting Tanis against factions inside her own military. With few friends left, Tanis will need to fight for her life to get outsystem.
Eleanor
Jason Gurley - 2014
The death of Eleanor's twin sister tears her family apart. Her father blames her mother for the accident. When Eleanor's mother looks at her, she sees only the daughter she lost. Their wounded family crumbles under the weight of their shared grief. 1993. Eleanor is fourteen years old when it happens for the first time... when she walks through an ordinary door at school and finds herself in another world. It happens again and again, but it's only a curiosity until that day at the cliffs. The day when Eleanor dives... and something rips her out of time itself. And on the other side, someone is waiting for her.
Adopted Son
Dominic Peloso - 2006
An invasion not from the stars but from within our wombs. All over the world children are being born.different. Their features are alien, their DNA isn't human, their loyalties are unknown. As scientists, spies, and regular citizens race to make sense of this new disease they find themselves asking the same question: Is this the first wave of an alien assault on Earth? Celebrated fiction author and bioterrorism expert Dominic Peloso weaves a complex tale of alien invasion, environmental catastrophe, and societal upheaval, in a world not too removed from our own. Adopted Son perfectly blends hard sci-fi with biting political and social commentary to create a truly modern literary masterpiece that transcends genres.
Echoes of Apollo
George Thompson - 2015
But when the retrofitted Atlantis fails high above Kennedy Space Center, Commander Jack Harden’s future is quickly derailed. As military satellites fall from the sky and America’s electronic infrastructure is threatened by a mysterious electromagnetic “storm,” a young president is suddenly forced to restart the covert rocket program he had cancelled not long after taking office. NASA may be grounded, but the reluctant ex-shuttle commander and his two unlikely copilots soon find themselves on a collision course with the moon, all in a last ditch attempt to destroy China’s secret weapon—the Assassin’s Mace.
Kithra
Dani Worth - 2011
When her second-in-command, Kol Frega, informs her they’ve been ordered to Kithra, she’s furious. A year on an uninhabitable planet? She’ll only be flying supply missions! But her ship—Kol’s design—is the only one that can withstand the planet’s gases…and Lux is one of the few pilots with the skill to navigate the debris fields resulting from the explosions that killed most of the planet’s Gwinarian race.Kol is the engineer who learned to manipulate the indestructible metal on Kithra, and he and a surviving Gwinarian will be her only company on planet. When they pick up Egan Lothbrun, Lux knows there will be trouble. She’s already attracted to Kol and she doesn’t need another man to arouse her either mentally or physically. Lux doesn’t want or need the complications that emotions bring. Yet, when she learns Kol and Egan share a painful past, she realizes getting Kithra livable won’t be her only challenge.Keeping her heart intact might be harder.
Illusive
Emily Lloyd-Jones - 2014
A small percentage of the population developed superhero-like powers, and Americans suffering from these so-called adverse effects were given an ultimatum: Serve the country or be declared a traitor.Some people chose a third option: live a life of crime.Seventeen-year-old Ciere Giba has the handy ability to change her appearance at will. She's what's known as an illusionist. She's also a thief. After crossing a gang of mobsters, Ciere must team up with a group of fellow superpowered criminals on a job that most would have considered impossible: a hunt for the formula that gave them their abilities. It was supposedly destroyed years ago - but what if it wasn't?Government agents are hot on their trail, and the lines between good and bad, us and them, and freedom and entrapment are blurred as Ciere and the rest of her crew become embroiled in a deadly race that could cost them their lives.
Interest
Kevin Gaughen - 2015
It’s nothing that a stiff drink won’t cure. After all, bad news only hurts optimists.But when the mysterious leader of the rebels cherry-picks him to acquire certain information for her, Len is forced to go on an investigative mission where he uncovers millennia-old secrets and unwittingly triggers a chain of disturbing events that will determine the future of humankind.Author Kevin Gaughen’s dynamic debut novel, Interest, creates a seamless alternate reality behind real-world political tensions while keeping pace with its page-turning plot. Interest is as riveting as it is thought-provoking.Who really runs the world we live in? The further Len digs, the darker the answers appear to be…
A Wizard's Forge
A.M. Justice - 2016
Once she wished to explore the world settled by her spacefaring ancestors; now she thinks only of revenge.Prince Ashel’s carefree days are filled with music, revels, and dreams of a life with Vic. Those hopes die when the thrust of an assassin’s knife drives him to war.The target of Vic’s and Ashel’s wrath is Lornk Korng, a tyrant whose schemes stretch across a continent and a lifetime.A mysterious alien race holds the key to a legendary—and lethal—power. Whoever possesses this power will hold the world in their hands. Will they save it, or doom it?A gripping tale of empowerment and revenge plays out against a breathtaking backdrop of dark fantasy and science fiction.
Finalist, 2017 Next Generation Indie Book AwardsHonorable Mention, 2017 Reader's Favorite Book Awards
Wherever Seeds May Fall
Peter Cawdron - 2021
When the comet grazes the planet rather than plunging beneath the clouds, speculation is rife. With the comet now on course to collide with Jupiter, even the most skeptical scientists can no longer deny what's happening—an alien spacecraft has entered the solar system and is using the gas giants to slow its approach to Earth.
House of Darken
Jaymin Eve - 2018
While she finds this both weird and insulting, Emma has no actual intention of breaking these rules - until her guardians go missing. Now all bets are off. Only a single line separates her side of the street from the elites', and she's crossing it. Captured and held by Lexen and his brothers, she learns the rules are in place for a very good reason. There's a secret world hidden in this small town which goes far beyond the one she knows and understands. A world not for humans.
Neverworld Wake
Marisha Pessl - 2018
Then the shocking death of Jim - their creative genius and Beatrice's boyfriend - changed everything.One year after graduation, Beatrice is returning to Wincroft - the seaside estate where they spent so many nights sharing secrets, crushes, plans to change the world - hoping she'll get to the bottom of the dark questions gnawing at her about Jim's death.But as the night plays out in a haze of stilted jokes and unfathomable silence, Beatrice senses she's never going to know what really happened. Then a mysterious man knocks on the door. Blithely, he announces the impossible: time for them has become stuck, snagged on a splinter that can only be removed if the former friends make the harshest of decisions. Now Beatrice has one last shot at answers... and at life.And so begins the Neverworld Wake.
Bright Water, Dark Sky
Augusta Li - 2014
We guard our treasure well and the fun loving part notwithstanding we’ll fight to defend what’s ours. Amidst all this I’m trying to find my mate. He has to be somewhere.Photo Description: A digital painting of a very fit, moonlit man submerged to the waist in the ocean and with tentacles emerging around him.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love’s Landscapes" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.
The River of No Return
Bee Ridgway - 2013
The Guild, a secretive fraternity of time travellers, informs him that there is no return. But Nick yearns for the beautiful Julia Percy, who remains in 1815. As fate and the fraying fabric of time draw Nick and Julia together once again, the lovers must match wits and gamble their hearts against the rules of time itself. Rich in romance and historical detail, Bee Ridgway’s debut is a thrilling, fast-paced narrative evocative of Deborah Harkness’s time-bending bestsellers.
Beyond Cloud Nine
Greg Spry - 2014
When Brooke stumbles upon a conspiracy involving terrorists, aliens, and the highest levels of government, she finds their goals seductive but their methods abhorrent. With the moral core of human civilization hanging in the balance, she must risk her shot at history, her family, and her life to prevent the schemers from forcing their nefarious brand of salvation upon the solar system.