The Second Ship


Richard Phillips - 2006
    Now, the American government is ready to share the Rho Project discoveries with the world. But as the world scrambles to adopt the alien technologies, three high schoolers make another shocking discovery: hidden inside a cave in the New Mexico wilderness lies another alien ship. As the friends explore the second ship, they begin to unravel a decades-long secret involving an extraterrestrial war, government cover-ups, and secret experimentation using alien technology on humans. A battle has begun, and the secrets of the second ship may be the key to humanity's last chance for survival.

Alive


Scott Sigler - 2015
    Total darkness. I hear my own breathing, but nothing else. I lift my head…it thumps against something solid and unmoving. There is a board right in front of my face. No, not a board…a lid.A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people…and no answers.She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust one another.Whatever the truth is, she is determined to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they survive. Maybe there's a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot comprehend lies just beyond the next turn.

The Paths Between Worlds


Paul Antony Jones - 2019
    Do not be afraid. After a devastating car crash leaves her addicted to pain pills and her best friend dead, Meredith Gale has finally been pushed beyond her breaking point. Ending her life seems like the only way out, and that choice has left her dangling by her fingertips from a bridge above the freezing water of the San Francisco Bay. But someone, or some thing, has other plans for Meredith. As her fingers slip from the cold steel of the bridge, a disembodied voice ask her a simple question: “Candidate 13: Do you wish to be saved?” Realizing her mistake too late, Meredith screams “Yes!” and instantly finds herself transported to a mysterious island, alongside hundreds of other Candidates like her, each pulled from human history with seemingly little in common. But when Meredith stumbles across a cryptic message meant only for her, she uncovers an even bigger mystery — a mystery that places the fate of humanity’s future firmly in her hands. With the help of her new companions, Meredith sets out on an impossible journey to find the one person who can solve the riddle of why they were brought to this strange, alien Earth… assuming they can survive the dangers that lurk within this new world and the dark forces massing against them. Don't miss the first book in the This Alien Earth Series, a futuristic adventure perfect for fans of Jeremy Robinson, Stephen King & Lost. Also available on Audible and Whispersync, narrated by the award-winning Kate Reading.

Mercs


Jay Allan - 2015
    While the people of Earth struggle to survive, out on the frontier, on a thousand worlds, mankind thrives and grows, building new civilizations and looking boldly to the future. But man has never been able to live in peace, and even Earth’s sad fate has failed to slow the call to war. Most of the colonies lack the industry and economic power to sustain their own armies and navies, and they look to the mercenaries of the Great Companies for aid in time of war. These futuristic condottiere contract themselves to the highest bidder, and the mightiest strike fear into the hearts of all who oppose them. Darius Cain is the leader of the Black Eagles, the most renowned of all the Companies. A military genius, he has led his undefeated warriors from victory to victory. The Eagles command the highest rates of any of the Companies, and leaders bankrupt worlds to pay their price. But amid the ruins of Earth and on planets all across occupied space there are signs of a greater darkness, a force working in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike, to launch a final war to reduce all mankind to slavery. As Cain slowly uncovers the truth, he must forge an alliance among old enemies, the other Companies his men have fought for years…and the twin brother he hasn’t seen in a decade. The Crimson Worlds are about to explode into a war that may be mankind’s last. Also By Jay Allan: The Crimson Worlds Series: Marines (Crimson Worlds I) The Cost of Victory (Crimson Worlds II) A Little Rebellion (Crimson Worlds III) The First Imperium (Crimson Worlds IV) The Line Must Hold (Crimson Worlds V) To Hell’s Heart (Crimson Worlds VI) The Shadow Legions (Crimson Worlds VII) Even Legends Die (Crimson Worlds VIII) The Fall (Crimson Worlds IX) War Stories (3 Crimson Worlds Prequels) Gehenna Dawn (Portal Wars I) The Ten Thousand (Portal Wars II) The Dragon's Banner (Pendragon Chronicles I) Now Available for Pre-Order: Into the Darkness (Crimson Worlds Refugees I) Release Date: Jun 23, 2015

Existence


David Brin - 2012
    Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an “alien artifact.” Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

Survival Aptitude Test: Sound


Mike Sheriff - 2016
    . . For the denizens of Daqin Guojin, this horrific thought is a harsh reality. The Cycle of Extinctions has erased Earth’s food sources, and life 700 years later harbors little sympathy for the planet’s last species. But a doomed boy and girl offer humanity a seed of hope.Daoren and Heqet stand an even chance of celebrating their 20th birthdays. Like every 19-year-old prospect for denizenship, they must soon sit the Survival Aptitude Test. Only the smartest pass. The rest are harvested for grooll, the city-state’s sole food source and barter currency.If Daoren’s intellect can outpace his anxiety, he might earn the first perfect score in history and be named ruler. Heqet knows Daoren can’t do it without her—even if he’d be the last person to ask for help. But when tragedy strikes all-too-close to home, the pair make a shocking discovery that binds their fate and crushes all hope.A murky cabal has been manipulating S.A.T. scores for the dull-witted children of the ruling caste, amassing a fortune in grooll and triggering a severe food shortage. Worse, they plan to protect their wealth by ensuring Daoren’s test ends with his culling, not his coronation.Survival Aptitude Test: Sound is the first book in Mike Sheriff’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi series, The Extinction Odyssey. Fans of classic dystopian tales like Soylent Green and Logan’s Run should enjoy this modern twist on humanity’s last gasp. Grab Survival Aptitude Test: Sound and test your nerves today!

Salt


Colin F. Barnes - 2014
    A series of fatal climatic disasters struck, entirely drowning the planet. Now, just one hundred and twenty-five souls remain, surviving on a flotilla of damaged ships. But their survival isn’t guaranteed. Facing severe threats to their numbers by a fatal bacterium and increasingly warring factions, they discover a serial killer within their midst. When the murderer targets Eva Morgan’s friend, her investigations draw her into a deadly mystery and a race against time before the killer’s actions destroy the fragile existence on the flotilla. The further she digs, the more secrets she uncovers, and the truth becomes a pawn in a game for ultimate survival. With humankind on the brink of extinction, the story of SALT will take you on a thrill ride of intense emotions and incredible revelations.

Another World


Samuel Best - 2020
    Surviving the trip to a nearby spiral arm of our own galaxy is a journey like no other.Merritt Alder is done with Earth. The planet is polluted and overpopulated, and its people are hungry.Earth’s first colony, Galena, is a pioneer world 10,000 light years away. It has clean air, unpolluted water, and continents of arable land.For Merritt, the journey is only the beginning. Obstacles arise every step of the way, forcing compromise and sacrifice. And not everyone on the ship is pure of heart.The bonds he forges on the journey will be the key to surviving on another world — a world anyone has yet to fully explore.A world with secrets of its own.Another World is a bold new entry in the realm of planet colonization and pioneer science fiction, an odyssey across our own galaxy to start a new life on Earth’s first colony.

Bitterwood


James Maxey - 2007
    But he is getting old and the hate that he has carried in his heart since a group of dragon-soldiers killed his family is beginning to fade. When he kills the royal prince dragon, the king decides the only retribution is genocide of the human race. Bitterwood is forced to enter the Free City, the grand trap designed to eradicate mankind, with thousands of others. Can he lead from within, or can a select few dragons unite to stop the king's madness from becoming reality. Full of rich characters and drama, this is an amazingly astute vision of our own culture by way of a feudal kingdom where dragons rule, and humans are used as workers or pets.

The Bane


Keary Taylor - 2011
    It had the ability to grow new organs and limbs, to heal the world. Until it evolved out of control and spread like the common cold. The machine took over, the soul vanished, and the Bane were born. The Bane won't stop until every last person has been infected. With less than two percent of the human population left, mankind is on the brink of extinction.Eve knows the stories of the Evolution, the time before she wandered into the colony of Eden, unable to recall anything but her name. But she doesn't need memories to know this world is her reality. This is a world that is quickly losing its humanity, one Bane at a time.Fighting to keep one of the last remaining human colonies alive, Eve finds herself torn between her dedication to the colony, and the discovery of love. There is Avian and West – one a soldier, one a keeper of secrets. And in the end, Eve will make a choice that will change the future of mankind.The Bane is The Terminator meets The Walking Dead with a heart-twisting romance.Previously published as Eden, due to reader demand it has been revamped and rereleased as The Bane: book one in The Eden Trilogy.

One Way


S.J. Morden - 2018
    But the company that's been contracted to construct a new Mars base, has made promises they can't fulfill and is desperate enough to cut corners. The first thing to go is the automation . . . the next thing they'll have to deal with is the eight astronauts they'll send to Mars, when there aren't supposed to be any at all.Frank - father, architect, murderer - is recruited for the mission to Mars with the promise of a better life, along with seven of his most notorious fellow inmates. But as his crew sets to work on the red wasteland of Mars, the accidents mount up, and Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all. As the list of suspect grows shorter, it's up to Frank to uncover the terrible truth before it's too late.Dr. S. J. Morden trained as a rocket scientist before becoming the author of razor-sharp, award-winning science fiction. Perfect for fans of Andy Weir's The Martian and Richard Morgan, One Way takes off like a rocket, pulling us along on a terrifying, epic ride with only one way out.

Bright of the Sky


Kay Kenyon - 2007
    In a land-locked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre and seductive mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire, called the bright. A land of wonders, the Entire is sustained by monumental storm walls and an exotic, never-ending river. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme. Into this rich milieu is thrust Titus Quinn, former star pilot, bereft of his beloved wife and daughter who are assumed dead by everyone on earth except Quinn. Believing them trapped in a parallel universe—one where he himself may have been imprisoned—he returns to the Entire without resources, language, or his memories of that former life. He is assisted by Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, a Chinese culture copied from our own universe and transformed by the kingdom of the bright. Learning of his daughter’s dreadful slavery, Quinn swears to free her. To do so, he must cross the unimaginable distances of the Entire in disguise, for the Tarig are lying in wait for him. As Quinn’s memories return, he discovers why. Quinn’s goal is to penetrate the exotic culture of the Entire—to the heart of Tarig power, the fabulous city of the Ascendancy, to steal the key to his family’s redemption. But will his daughter and wife welcome rescue? Ten years of brutality have forced compromises on everyone. What Quinn will learn to his dismay is what his own choices were, long ago, in the Universe Entire. He will also discover why a fearful multiverse destiny is converging on him and what he must sacrifice to oppose the coming storm. This is high-concept SF written on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld, Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles, and Dan Dimmons’s Hyperion.

Gone


Christine Kersey - 2013
    Not only is her family missing, but another family is living in her house and claims to have lived there for weeks. As Morgan desperately works to figure out what has happened, she finds society has become obsessed with weight in a way she has never seen before. The more she searches for answers, the more she begins to wonder if she has somehow ended up in another world—a world she doesn't want to be a part of. Can she survive in this world until she can get home?Gone does not contain any profanity or sexual content and is appropriate for all ages.

Arkship Obsidian


Niel Bushnell - 2017
    Now, almost two hundred years after the Fracture, all that remains of the sun is the enigmatic Infinite - a string of stellar material that shines at the heart of the Cluster. The last survivors of humanity live on vast arkships doing what they can to survive in this hostile ever-changing environment. When the arkship Obsidian is attacked, Wynn awakes in a lifeboat in the middle of a huge space battle, unable to remember who he is. Hunted by a killer robot, the forces of a rival arkship and the Church of the Infinite, Wynn must find new allies if he is to survive long enough to discover who is behind the attack and take his revenge.

Blackthorn


Nate Johnson - 2017
     Petty Officer Logan is tasked with escorting Kaylee Williams through the rough streets of Montlake. Little did he know a simple assignment would morph into a race across the galaxy. If he wants to get her to safety, Miller must avoid pirates, the Imperial Navy, and the hazards of deep space. All while keeping a decrepit starship from blowing up along the way. Kaylee Williams desperately needs to get to Taurus. The future of the Empire rests with the secret information she carries. But can she trust this strange man to help her? But, if she can’t trust a man who repeatedly risks his life for her. Then who can she trust.