Book picks similar to
Gaming the System by P.A. Wikoff
litrpg
giveaways
giveaway
main_tbr
Andromeda Rising
Jay Allan - 2019
An industrial hell. The foulest and most decrepit slum on Parsephon. A nest of human misery, where hope is word long forgotten, and the dead are carted away every day. It is the worst pit in the Confederation’s great industrial machine known as the Iron Belt. Among the millions born into misery, poverty, and despair under the dark and smoky haze that covers the planet, Andromeda Lafarge is unique. One lost soul among billions, she is tough, relentless, determined to get out, to escape, to blaze her own trail, and to make a name for herself across the stars. Andi will break the chains binding her to a life of destitution, leave the Gut and Parsephon behind forever, and plunge into the dark and deadly worlds of the lost empire, prospecting for imperial artifacts, the bits and pieces of old tech that can make her rich. She will find new friends—and enemies—on the frontier, and she will blaze a trail from the filthy, polluted Iron Belt world of her birth to the dead and haunted imperial planets of the Badlands. She will fight, endure hardships unimaginable, save comrades…and lose some, too. She will struggle to amass wealth, to do whatever is necessary to ensure she will never again be helpless, and she will bring back the technology of the ancients, scraps of mankind’s lost legacy, to do it. She will create a name for herself among the rough and tumble adventurers who ply the rogue trade in ancient tech. For some, she will become one to emulate, to follow. To others, her name will become the foulest of curses. She will make her way, blade and pistol in hand, from one dead and ancient world to another. She will become the scourge of the Badlands. The Andromeda Chronicles is a new series set in the Blood on the Stars universe. Book 1: Andromeda Rising Book 2: Wings of Pegasus Book 3: Into the Badlands The Blood on the Stars Series: Book 1 - Duel in the Dark Book 2 - Call to Arms Book 3 - Ruins of Empire Book 4 - Echoes of Glory Book 5 - Cauldron of Fire Book 6 - Dauntless Book 7 - The White Fleet Book 8 - Black Dawn Book 9 - Invasion Book 10 - Nightfall Book 11 - The Grand Alliance Book 12 - The Colossus (Coming) Book 13 – The Others (Coming) Book 14 – Enemy of My Enemy (Coming)
Obsolete Theorem
Stan C. Smith - 2020
A fight for survival. A bond between species.It wasn't possible, but then it happened…A Neanderthal's 47,000-year-old remains are found in Spain. That's not unusual, but positioned beside the woman's skeleton is something that shouldn't be there—a robotic drone. Lincoln Woodhouse has some explaining to do.When confronted with the evidence, Lincoln cannot deny that the drone is one of his own models. After all, he routinely jumps his drones into the past to collect environmental data. The problem is, this drone shouldn't even exist in Lincoln's universe. Everyone knows sending a drone into the past creates an alternate timeline.The implications of the discovery are staggering, and Lincoln is ordered to jump back in time to investigate, even though no human has ever done so before. Upon jumping, he and his team find themselves in a world of deadly creatures and savage beings.Amidst the primeval chaos, Lincoln encounters Skyra, a woman unlike anyone he has ever known. She is a skilled hunter and vicious fighter. She is not human, but she just might hold the key to humanity's future.
Reincarnation Trials: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Systems of Salvation Book 1)
Han Yang - 2021
Four hundred years later, the Salvation Fleet returns, desperate to unload their overcrowded decks. Darcy - the AI mastermind who controls the fleet - uses simulated competitions called the Reincarnation Trials to determine who becomes a council member and who earns the right to join the first colony.Theo achieves Citizen status after a decade of arduous training and is thrust into the Reincarnation Trials. Ready to help humanity survive, he enters the Snagglewood competition. The theme is a western, where he defends humanity against the monsters invading its shores. While he strives for first on the leaderboards, the real world calls for his help.After being gone for so long, Earth transitions into a very dangerous place filled with narocks who call the overgrown jungles and forests home. Hidden among the terrors, pockets of humanity cower under the surface, most of them in urgent need of rescue.Will Theo and the Salvation Fleet persevere or perish? Download now.
The Antiterrorist
Al Macy - 2015
Not exploding, not dropping out of the sky, just disappearing. When the Hubble Space Telescope vanishes, reluctant hero Jake Corby is dispatched to figure out who or what is responsible. He's used to solving problems for the FBI, but hunting down missing satellites? That's a new one. The mysterious force next cripples the International Space Station and destroys the only spacecraft that could rescue the astronauts. The race is on to avert the final death blow to the ISS and execute a risky plan to get the astronauts back home. Before it's too late. This short prequel to Contact Us is filled with the quirky surprises and humor that Al Macy's readers have come to expect. The Antiterrorist is a standalone book, with no cliffhanger or "to be continued" at the end. It may be read before or after other books in the series.
Girl One: Murder
Molly Black - 2021
She’s one of BAU’s rising stars and the go-to agent for hard-to-crack serial cases. When she receives a handwritten postcard promising to release 12 kidnapped women if she will solve 12 cold cases, she assumes it’s a hoax.Until the note mentions that, among the captives, is her missing sister.Maya, shaken, is forced to take it seriously. The cases she’s up against are some of the most difficult the FBI has ever seen. But the terms of his game are simple: If Maya solves a case, he will release one of the girls.And if she fails, he will end a life.Maya embarks with an urgency unlike any she’s ever felt. In a race against time, and with her sister’s life hanging in the balance, she must unravel the link between the 12 captives and end the killer’s dark game once and for all. Is this killer toying with her? Does he truly have her sister? Will he ever give her back?Or will Maya end up sucked too deep into this killer’s twisted cat-and-mouse game to notice that she, herself, is the prey?
Dark Wizard's Case
Kirill Klevanski - 2019
At first, everyone thought it was just a new game, however... Alexander Dumsky, or Alex Doom, was a dark wizard. At the age of seventeen, he was convicted of a litany of crimes so long that even the seasoned investigators, judges, and prosecutors involved in the case could only shudder. Not a single attorney could be found to defend him in court. But four years later, Alex was released from prison to become the Professor of Dark Magic. They'd thrown him into the deepest hole they could find, one built for the sole purpose of holding wizards, and then they let him back out again... Why him? Why then?
Flight To Mars
V.A. Jeffrey - 2014
Lately his days have been stressful, to say the least. Butting heads with upper management has put his career on life support. A surprising change in circumstance has Bob going on a business mission to the moon city, Langrenus. On the way, he meets one of the delegates on board the Starbird, a desperate man with a dark past and a very dangerous secret. Through a mysterious series of events Bob finds himself in the middle of an interplanetary crises that no one knows about. These secrets could change - or destroy - all human life on Earth. The key to the answer of the crises is on the Red Planet, Mars. It's up to Bob, the burnt-out Q. A. agent to rise to the occasion and stem the dangerous tide coming from beyond the solar system.
The Monster Spawn
Deckhard Davis - 2017
He’s more than a little perturbed to discover that he is dead, but it’s not the end of the world. Due to him being in the army, he gets a 2nd chance at existence in a fantasy VR game called Adonis Rebirth. There, Nathan will get to live another life, one filled with heroic quests and epic adventures. A land packed with legend and glory, where anyone can be a hero. But there’s a problem with his transition into the game. His consciousness isn’t loaded into a player character, but instead is transplanted into a beast who lives in the bowels of a mountain. Even worse, he finds out he is the end monster in a new limited-edition quest, where the 1st to complete it wins a unique prize. Soon, hero players are going to come and kill him. He needs to find a way to survive the hero onslaught, all the while trying to discover how to reverse what happened to him. He needs allies, but it’s hard to make them when you look like Nosferatu's ugly brother. Nathan will have to master his skills and learn how to play as the monster - his 2nd life depends on it.
Antioch (The Sword of Agrippa #1)
Gregory Ness - 2014
Join a controversial scientist in exile on a journey through a near future ruled by cyber mobs and a violent ancient past he confronts when he closes in on dark energy discovery. 400 pp. debut multi-genre dystopian sci-fi mixed with historical fiction and elements of alchemy and mysticism that trace back to ancient Egypt.Book Viral, Feb 27, 2017"Antioch is, in every sense of the word, a masterpiece and epic beginning to what will undoubtedly be an epic series and one you must certainly add to your reading shelf. It is recommended without reservation."First Goodreads review of 2nd edition:"Antioch, by Gregory Ness is a masterful piece of writing. I had the opportunity to read an earlier version of this book published in 2014. I considered it a good book at that reading, but now, having just read the 2016 edition, I rate this book as excellent! Without spoiling this beautifully done story, it takes us back and forth between the present, which is some years ahead of contemporary times, and thousands of years into the past, and then rolls us back and forth in an ever-consuming tale between now and then. The detail and imagery laced into the text about ancient Rome and Egypt, as well as Persia and Turkey, and their cultures and people, animates them, as if the reader is walking the stony streets of Alexandria. There is a beautiful love story which transcends time, depiction of brutal wars and great power struggles between Rome, Egypt and others – and the perspective of how Julius Caesar was, as a man, and a leader, makes the history books seem shallow in design. But what really makes this story shine is the way the author draws us into the world of our memories, of past lives we have lived, and the scientific dialogues and intrigue which are unfolding in the now, and how, all of this ties into the grand story which we are reliving thousands of years before when Pharaohs were the most powerful rulers on Earth, when Caesar and his armies marched into Egypt and when the infamous Cleopatra had the two most powerful nations of that time, in the palm of her hands. Antioch makes you think about the nature of who we really are, about the veracity of having lived countless past lives, about the scientific import of a tiny organ in our brain – a portal which not only allows us to interact with the world around us, but quite possibly, is also the very link to our immensely distant past. An entertaining, gripping, beautifully written and highly insightful piece of work."
Rise
Brian Guthrie - 2016
These fragments are the Shells: fragile wastelands of desert and rock, protected from the cold of space by a water shield. In the struggle for survival, its people have depended on ancient technology, controlled by the omnipresent Network, to sustain the entire population. But the Network is breaking down, water is sparse, and a complete societal collapse is imminent. As the stakes become clear, the inhabitants of the Shells begin to turn on each other, and appear headed for all-out civil war. Now the paths of several strangers will converge at the opportune moment. From a woman who seeks to protect her family as it's ripped apart to a prison warden hiding from his past, this unlikely group has little in common--but together, they may hold the key to saving humanity from its worst enemy: itself.
Good Morning Vendemiatrix
H. Paul Honsinger - 2020
In these labors, there is one friend that they can count on, day in and day out . . . he’s a constant companion in their headsets with the Smack and Crack, Sno Bro, and other music they love, as well offering a seemingly endless stream of friendship and encouragement: the morning DJ on Company Radio Channel D, Robin Whitlake. But, Robin is more than a warm human voice in the endless night, he is a man with a heroic, yet deadly and dangerous secret past that could condemn him to death at any time. Disfigured and aging rapidly, he must work harder and harder to project the youth and vitality that he brings to his broadcasts, all the while wondering when and if his past will catch up with him. On 14 January 2314, it did. A disaster in the mining colony brings the heroic and deadly elements of Robin’s past into sudden collision. Not only must he decide whether to subject himself to possible execution, Robin has to call upon all his professionalism as a broadcaster, the skills he spent decades honing in his former life, and the Morse code abilities of a red-headed, pig-tailed Space Scout named Elaine, in a desperate “Hail Mary” improvisation with thousands of innocent lives hanging in the balance. Good Morning Vendemiatrix is an 8800 word stand-alone novelette set in the “Man of War” universe. Fans of Honsinger’s other work will recognize the setting and be treated to a cameo appearance by a familiar character, while new readers will not find themselves “lost in space.” It is a humorous and exciting piece of shorter fiction written to be enjoyed by all Science Fiction readers.
Children of the Origin Project
Asa S. Rubin - 2020
But after they find a crashed spaceship in the forest with a dying giant inside, they are faced with a choice that will decide their destinies forever.In his last moments, the giant transfers his knowledge and secrets to them. A war is being fought among the stars, and they have been tasked with completing his final mission to save his people. But it’s not an easy decision whether to stay or go. Joining the war means going up against a murderous regime and its demon-like supersoldiers. But if they do nothing, not only will they be condemning a civilization of trillions, they will be risking an invasion of Earth itself.
Master Sergeant
Mel Odom - 2015
Larson, and Marko Kloos—will be sucked into Mel Odom’s military science fiction series, the Markaum War, starting with Master Sergeant.They call it The Green Hell. A maze of tangled jungle, the planet Makaum is one of the most dangerous places in the universe. And for Terran Military Master Sergeant Frank Sage, it is now home.The war between the Terrans and the Phrenorians rages, and both sides have their sights set on Makaum. If the planet's rich resources fall into enemy hands it could mean devastation for the Terran Army. To ensure that doesn't happen, Sage is sent to assess the Makaum troops and bring them in line with Terran Military standards. But soon after arriving at his post, he realizes the Phrenorians are not the only threat. Heading up a small but fearless unit, Sage must stop a brewing civil war with the power to unleash a galactic cataclysm unlike anything ever seen.
Beginning
V.A. Brandon - 2013
Their concern turns to horror once they turn on the news and see a live coverage of people eating dead bodies. When the chaos spreads to their street, they and a few neighbors barricade themselves in Justin’s apartment. They are trapped inside, tempers are rising, and food is running out. To survive, they must venture outside. But not all will make it.
The Fringe Series: Books 1-5
Rachel Aukes - 2018
Too far away to be governed under Earth law, the Collective was formed. Several hundred years later, the Collective has expanded to a system of six worlds. Power struggles and unequal rights have made interplanetary war all but inevitable. With rebellions arising across the Collective, three captains launch near-suicidal missions to free the oppressed fringe and reset equality across the stars. A galactic war is coming, and only an old mail runner, a space pirate, and their ragtag crews can prevent it.