Book picks similar to
Into the Darkness by Jay Allan


science-fiction
sci-fi
scifi
space-opera

Star Nomad


Lindsay Buroker - 2016
    It should be a time for celebration, but not for fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko. After barely surviving a crash in the final battle for freedom, she's stranded on a dustball of a planet, billions of miles from her young daughter. She has no money or resources, and there are no transports heading to Perun, her former home and the last imperial stronghold.But she has a plan.Steal a dilapidated and malfunctioning freighter from a junkyard full of lawless savages. Slightly suicidal, but she believes she can do it. Her plan, however, does not account for the elite cyborg soldier squatting in the freighter, intending to use it for his own purposes. As an imperial soldier, he has no love for Alliance pilots. In fact, he's quite fond of killing them.Alisa has more problems than she can count, but she can't let cyborgs, savages, or ancient malfunctioning ships stand in her way. If she does, she’ll never see her daughter again.

Orphanage


Robert Buettner - 2004
    Original.

Freehold


Michael Z. Williamson - 2003
    Mistakes might be made, but they are never acknowledged, especially when billions of embezzled dollars earned from illegal weapons sales are at stake. But where does one run when all Earth and the planets are under the aegis of one government?

Into the Breach


Jonathan Yanez - 2018
    Soon these tales faded to legend.A secret task force. A wormhole portal discovered…Now, a former Marine and a spec ops crew find themselves across the galaxy in a WWE smackdown with the legions of a boss-level villain. From exploratory crew to the front lines, Frank will have to decide whether to play the part of a hero or to be the Marine needed to win the war.But the party’s just getting started.Ancient weapons will be found. A new alliance will be forged. And once again Light will do battle with Darkness.

Wholesale Slaughter


Rick Partlow - 2019
    But a mercenary can. Logan Conner is the son of a king, the heir to the largest of the five star-dominions, and the best mech pilot in the galaxy. His people are plagued by pirates and raiders, surrounded by enemies, and not even his father can fight them all. Logan gives up his position, his rank, even his name, and becomes Jonathan Slaughter, leader of a rough-and-ready band of mercenary mech-jocks, bent on taking the battle to the enemy on their own terms. They’re Wholesale Slaughter. Kicking ass is what they do. Get book one in this thrilling and unpredictable Military Sci-Fi Adventure Today! Also available on Audible, narrated by the award-winning Marc Vietor.

Fear the Sky


Stephen Moss - 2014
    Years before they enter orbit, their approach will be announced by the flare of a thousand flames in the sky, their ships’ huge engines burning hard to slow them from the vast speeds needed to cross interstellar space. These foreboding lights will shine in our night sky like new stars, getting ever brighter until they outshine even the sun, casting ominous shadows and banishing the night until they suddenly blink out. Their technology is vastly superior to ours, and they know they cannot possibly lose the coming conflict. But they, like us, have found no answer to the destructive force of the atom, and they have no intention of facing the onslaught of our primitive nuclear arsenal, or the devastation it would wreak on the planet they crave. So they have flung out an advanced party in front of them, hidden within one of the countless asteroids randomly roaming the void. They do not want us, they want our planet. Their Agents are arriving.

The Lost Prince


Saxon Andrew - 2013
    This new series takes place a thousand years in Earth’s future after mankind has moved out into the galaxy. With new Characters and powerful enemies, the series will hook you from the start.The worlds in the Orion Nebula had been planning rebellion against the Galactic Union for more than a hundred years. Now the rebellion has started with a sneak attack against the Royal Family on Euclid. The planetary defenses were temporarily suppressed and the attack on the Royal Palace killed everyone including half of the invaders. But one member of the Royal Family wasn’t in the palace when the invaders struck. The attackers were forced to flee as the Obelisk began defeating the suppression field and began to come back on line. The attacking transports fled the planet but not before two of them were vaporized. Before they left Euclid, they determined that the Prince was no longer on the planet.The Nebula knew that if the Prince was to return to Euclid, the main Obelisk would power all the other Obelisks on the worlds of the Union and the rebellion would be over before it began. Only a member of the Royal Family could power the Obelisks and the Nebula knew that the Prince must be found and eliminated. The Nebula chose their most powerful warrior to find him. There was little chance of the Prince escaping the Dark Officer. He was a High Genetic and possessed unique tracking skills. The only question was how many were going to die before he was successful.What the Nebula and Union didn’t know was that all of them were at risk of being destroyed and the Prince was the only one that could save them. Would they find out in time? The action is nonstop in Star Chase as the Prince runs to save himself and the UnionExcerpt from Star ChaseIan said, “They’ve brought in sixty more ships. We might as well determine where we stand in comparison; prepare to attack.”“Gary, you come in at the center; I’ll go left and Drey you go right. Hit them hard and stay on your edges. Ready…go.”Abby watched Gary fly the ship between two of the battleships and spin the wings. Two blaster beams shot out of the wing tips and the two ships were left burning and drifting in space. Gary yelled, “Thirty more ships have just jumped in; keep them in sight.”Ian flew between a four ship group, spinning the wings as he fired at all four. Two of them were left burning but the other two withstood the hits and turned to pursue. He left normal space for an instant and emerged directly behind the two, giving chase and fired a missile at their thrusters. The missiles hit and the ships blew up in giant explosions that Ian flew over just as eight ships emerged into normal space directly below his path. All eight immediately fired, but only three on the port side hit the fast flying warship. E attempted to drop out of normal space, but failed as two large holes were blown through his port wing.Abby yelled, “Ian’s been hit!”Gary whipped the ship around and went to a brief FTL run and was on the attackers under Ian in a heartbeat. The giant white ship spun and fired a red beam at the eight ships taking aim at E. All eight ships had holes burned through their hulls. Five were left burning and three exploded in massive blasts. “IAN, GET OUT OF HERE!”This review is from: Life Warrior (The Fight for Creation (Book One)) (Kindle Edition) These 13 books (so far) are the best SciFI I've read and my favorite Series.