Book picks similar to
Wildcatter by Dave Duncan


science-fiction
sci-fi
scifi
reviewed

When She Woke


Hillary Jordan - 2011
    Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder.

The Methuselah Treatment


T.C. Powell - 2015
    Not everyone can. Who decides? Desperate to save his daughter from a mysterious sickness, Daniel applies for the Methuselah Treatment. If she gets it, his daughter won’t just recover, she’ll live forever. But the drug is tightly controlled, and only the special, the talented, and the truly deserving ever receive it. There is nothing special about Daniel’s destitute ten- year-old girl—or is there?

Dark Space: The Original Trilogy


Jasper T. Scott - 2014
    This trilogy is standalone from the sequels. Dark Space I HUMANITY IS DEFEATED Ten years ago the Sythians invaded the galaxy with one goal: to wipe out the human race. THEY ARE HIDING Now the survivors are hiding in the last human sector of the galaxy: Dark Space--once a place of exile for criminals, now the last refuge of mankind. THEY ARE ISOLATED The once galaxy-spanning Imperium of Star Systems is left guarding the gate which is the only way in or out of Dark Space--but not everyone is satisfied with their governance. AND THEY ARE KILLING EACH OTHER Freelancer and ex-convict Ethan Ortane is on the run. He owes crime lord Alec Brondi 10,000 sols, and his ship is badly damaged. When Brondi catches up with him, he makes an offer Ethan can't refuse. Ethan must infiltrate and sabotage the Valiant, the Imperial Star Systems Fleet carrier which stands guarding the entrance of Dark Space, and then his debt will be cleared. While Ethan is still undecided about what he will do, he realizes that the Imperium has been lying and putting all of Dark Space at risk. Now Brondi's plan is starting to look like a necessary evil, but before Ethan can act on it, he discovers that the real plan was much more sinister than what he was told, and he will be lucky to escape the Valiant alive. . . . Dark Space II: The Invisible War THEIR SHIP IS DAMAGED Ethan Ortane has just met his long lost son, Atton, but the circumstances could have been better. After a devastating bio-attack and the ensuing battle, they've fled Dark Space aboard the Defiant to get away from the crime lord, Alec Brondi, who has just stolen the most powerful vessel left in the Imperial Star Systems' Fleet--the Valiant, a five-kilometer-long gladiator-class carrier. THEY ARE LOW ON FUEL They need reinforcements to face Brondi, but beyond Dark Space the comm relays are all down, meaning that they must cross Sythian Space to contact the rest of the fleet. Making matters worse, they are low on fuel. They'll have to travel on the space lanes to save fuel, but the lanes are controlled by Sythians, and they are fraught with entire fleets of cloaked alien ships. Dark Space III: Origin THE DEFIANT IS STRANDED Ethan and his son, Atton, have been arrested for high treason and conspiracy, crimes which will surely mean the death sentence, but it's beginning to look like theirs aren't the only lives in jeopardy--the Defiant is stranded in Sythian Space, and the vessel which Commander Caldin sent to get help has used all its fuel to get to Obsidian Station, only to find out that the station has been destroyed. Now the Defiant's last hope for a rescue is gone, and everyone on board is about to die a cold, dark death. HUMANITY IS STILL FIGHTING ITSELF Meanwhile, the notorious crime lord, Alec Brondi, is plotting to capture the remnants of Admiral Hoff's fleet, just as he captured the Valiant, but Hoff's men are on to him, and Brondi is about to get a lot more than he bargained for, forcing him to flee to the one place he knows will be safe--Dark Space. AND A NEW INVASION IS ABOUT TO BEGIN But Dark Space is only safe because the alien invaders don't know exactly where it is, and now they have a plan to find it which will threaten not only Dark Space, but the entire human race.

Exiles


Dan Worth - 2010
    Human and Arkari. Archaeologists with a story about an ancient derelict starship that few believe and a captain’s log that tells of an ancient genocidal war that no-one has ever heard of. But if no-one believes their story, then why are the authorities so keen to suppress it? Captain Michelle Chen of the Commonwealth Navy. Brave, cunning, merciless. Dangerous even. However she may be just the person her superiors have been looking for to start a war.Steven Harris. Secret agent with a conscience, who defied orders, ignored the chain of command and let his morals get in the way of his career.Quickchild. An AI of unknown origin and staggering power that does not know who it truly is.As the colonies of the human Commonwealth stand on the brink of war with the fanatic legions of the alien K’Soth Empire, these five individuals are drawn to the backward, arid planet of Maranos that stands between the two civilisations. As relations between human and alien deteriorate, Maranos is about to give up its ancient, terrifying secrets.

The Explorer


James Smythe - 2012
    They mourn, and Cormac sends a beautifully written eulogy back to Earth. The word from ground control is unequivocal: no matter what happens, the mission must continue.But as the body count begins to rise, Cormac finds himself alone and spiralling towards his own inevitable death … unless he can do something to stop it.

Bugs in the Arroyo


Steven Gould - 2009
    When Kimball comes upon twelve-year-old Thayet, she's been stuck on a rock in a river of bugs for two days, no food, no water, and no way back.This is an excerpt from 7th Sigma.

Horizons


Mary Rosenblum - 2006
    As a class 9 empath with advanced biogenetic augmentations, she has complete mental and physical control of her body, and can read other people's intentions before they can even think them. Ahni soon finds though, that there are deceptions behind deceptions, and in the middle of it lies the fate of her brother. Earth is in the midst of a political struggle between the World Council, which governs humankind, and the Platforms, which orbit high above Earth. On the Platform New York Up, "upsider" life is different. They have their own culture, values, and ambitions--and now they want their independence from Earth. One upsider leader, Dane Nilson, is determined to accomplish this goal, but he has a secret, one that could condemn him to death. When Ahni stumbles upon Dane during her quest for vengeance, her fate becomes inextricably linked to his. Together they must delve beyond the intrigue and manipulative schemes to get to the core of truth; a truth that will shape the future of the Platforms and shatter any preconceived notions of what defines the human race.

Charisma


Steven Barnes - 2002
    And not just succeed, but overcome the odds and become wildly successful. They chose as their model a man who had done it all - Alexander Marcus; a black man who raised himself up from poverty to become one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in America. The imprinting is effective. The children are focused, driven. They are inventive, intelligent, and love learning. But there is a mysterious darkness to them - a ruthlessness that is surprising. Renny Sand first met the children as a journalist covering the sensational trial of a preschool operator. There were terrible charges of sex abuse, but the thing that stayed with Renny was the strange poise and power of a group of eight year old children. That, and the face of the mother of one of them, Vivian Emory.Now the children are thirteen years old, and one of them has been killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident. Renny Sands sees the possibility of big story, a human interest story, a story that might jump-start his flagging career. He'll do a follow-up on the preschool scandal; and he might get a chance to restart his love life as well - Vivian Emory has divorced her husband in the five years since he met her.

Annihilation


Jeff VanderMeer - 2014
    Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

Planet Urth


Jennifer Martucci - 2013
    The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen. Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task.Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind. But are they truly alone?Find out in this raw and rousing first installment of the Planet Urth series.

Into the Forest


Jean Hegland - 1996
    No single event precedes society's fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other.Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America.

To Open The Sky


Robert Silverberg - 1967
    It was a time of Decision.The bureaucrats of Earth, the stark pioneers of "terraformed" Mars, and the proud gill-altered rulers of Venus were torn between two techno-religions - one offering the certainty of eternal life; and the other, a far-flung destiny among the stars.

Sapience: A Collection of Science Fiction Short Stories


Alexis Lantgen - 2019
     In the near future, humanity builds a colony on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. They tunnel into the ice to explore the dark oceans beneath the moon's surface, searching for signs of extraterrestrial life. What they find will change them forever, setting humanity on a path to the stars. But the old conflicts and hatreds of Earth are not so easily escaped. Will human colonists on distant planets and moons create a paradise or a horrifying dystopia?

15 Minutes


Jill Cooper - 2013
    When Lara takes a bullet meant for her mother, her future changes forever. A new house, new friends and a new boyfriend turns Lara’s life upside down. She thinks if she can save her father from prison, reunite him with her mother, everything will be fine.15 Minutes is an edgy high octane YA thriller where the people Lara trusts change in an instant. She is in a timeline she doesn't understand, and is about to make one fatal mistake as she faces an enemy so familiar, he’s family.

The Third Eagle


R.A. MacAvoy - 1989
    There are some hints that it is set in the same galaxy as the Anthony Villers stories (By Alexei Panshin). Although the tone and the sensibilities of the heroes are very different.