Book picks similar to
Mission Veritas by John Murphy


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Destroyer of Worlds


Dennis Sharpe - 2013
    Even the seemingly most insignificant of lives can have an enormous impact on the world, and every living creature on it. Death isn't always the end, and to some even an apocalypse can be little more than a means to an end.

Sugar Scars


Travis Norwood - 2015
    The virus killed all but 1 in 10,000. The few remaining people are left in a world of virtually unlimited resources. Grocery stores overflowing with food and drink. Thousands of empty houses to pick from. But one survivor, a nineteen-year-old girl, requires more than simple food, water and shelter. As a type 1 diabetic her body desperately needs insulin to stay alive. With civilization gone, no one manufactures it anymore. She hoards all the insulin she can find, but every day marches toward the end of her stash of vials. She has a choice. Accept her fate and death, or tackle the almost insurmountable task of extracting and refining the insulin herself. Brilliant scientists struggled to make the first insulin. What hope does a high school dropout have?

A Shadow in the Flames


Michael G. Munz - 2007
    Decaying, violent, and corrupt, it is a common enough city in 2051, yet soon, discoveries beneath the Moon's surface will mark the city with their first distant echoes.New arrival Michael Flynn is jobless and down to his last few dollars, but he still dreams of making a positive difference of his own. He has no family, no friends--save for the freelancer known only as Diomedes--and tonight the apartment they share will burn to the ground.When Diomedes becomes his mentor in a search for the arsonist responsible, Michael will get the chance to realize his dreams. Joining them is Felix, a wise-cracking "information bounty hunter" who claims that neither the arsonist nor the man Michael idolizes are quite what they appear.Will Michael find the courage to pass through the flames unscathed, or will the violence that surrounds him incinerate all that he is? Those who search the Moon will be watching...Booktrope edition, released December 2014. Original publication date: November 2007.

Life After the Undead


Pembroke Sinclair - 2011
    The one advantage humans have is that the zombies hate humid environments, so they’re migrating west to escape its deteriorating effects. The survivors plan to construct a wall at North Platte to keep the undead out, and Krista has come to Nebraska to start a new life.Zombies aren’t the only creatures she has to be cautious of—the other survivors have a dark side. Krista must fight not only to live but also to defend everything she holds dear—her country, her freedom, and ultimately, those she loves.Join Krista in her quest to survive in this thrilling apocalyptic novel by Pembroke Sinclair.

Paradise Rot


Larry Weiner - 2013
    A new resort in the Caribbean is looking for an art director. Kyle soon finds himself on the Isle of St. Agrippina working alongside a beautiful copywriter with an icy handshake. Questions arise: Why does the resort management team sport spray-on tans in the Bahamas? How can the resort offer such cheap vacation packages? What does one do with vats of Astroglide? To get the answers, Kyle must first navigate a series of wildly unpredictable events with a cast of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including a seductress jungle assassin, her partially paralyzed talking Chihuahua, an Ivy League Rastafarian seaplane captain, Kyle’s ex-psych ward roommate, a former Haliburton mercenary, and a French tavern owner with a fondness for goats, all set to the greatest hits of the 70’s. Pablo Cruise never felt so right.

The Reaper's Daughter


K.M. Randall - 2015
    except for my strange relationship with death. You could say I like to court it. Whether I’m soaring through the air as a flyer for Specter University’s cheer squad, or speeding down the steepest mountain with only grace and balance keeping me from an icy end, I’ve always needed to feel a rush. But now Death is courting me―in more ways than one. First, there’s Rishi, a rogue death deity who has a penchant for annoying me nearly to my grave and whose intense gaze has the power to see right through me. Then there’s Hades, who I’d rather had stayed just a myth. Now that he knows I exist, he’s not going to leave me alone until I meet the same end as my mother.Oh yeah, did I forget to mention her? I spent my whole life thinking she had died when I was a baby, but now I’ve found out she’s much more than dead. Fifty years ago, Hades banished my mother from the underworld and took away her ability to cross over souls―souls that have wandered lost through the world ever since. Now she wants me to clean up the mess. You may have​ heard of her before ... They call her the Grim Reaper.

Mako (The Mako Saga #1)


Ian J. Malone - 2013
    All of that changes, though, when Lee leads a team of old friends to virtual glory as the first-ever group to beat Mako Assault, a revolutionary new game that has emerged from nowhere to take the Internet by storm. As a reward for their achievement, the group is flown to meet the game’s mysterious designer and assist in developing the follow-on game Mako 2.0. But what they find when they get there is more than they’d expected…much more. Mako’s intent was never to entertain its players. It was to train them.An epic sci-fi thrill-ride of action, suspense, laughter, and romance, Mako is the story of five ordinary people who will have to rise to the challenge of extraordinary events, driven only by their faith in each other. If they can’t, the game will become very real to more than just themselves—the Earth itself may ultimately be at stake.

A Loop in Time (Time Loop Book 1)


Clark Graham - 2015
    “I’m still here,” the pilot insisted. “We’re losing--” the voice cut out and then there was silence. “Control, do you read me? Control?” the pilot was panicking. There was no answer. Suddenly flames burst out all around him. The last thing he remembered was reaching for the eject switch, before his thoughts devolved into an inky black void. The mysterious pilot was brought into the military hospital unconscious. The base didn’t know who he was. Some thought he was an alien, some thought he was a Russian spy all because of the unknown, yet highly advanced airplane he was flying at the time of his crash. When the pilot awakes, he has amnesia. He gradually gets his memory back only to find that he is not only in the wrong place, he is also in the wrong time.

Ure Infectus


Caleb Wachter - 2014
    A network of wormholes connects the far-flung segments of humanity, allowing virtually instantaneous travel between Star Systems connected by this vast, invaluable network. But what happens when one of those wormholes collapses and an entire Sector of relatively poor worlds is left to fend for itself without support, without guidance, and without the vast infrastructure of the Imperium available to its citizens? What might such a society look like after two centuries of independence, having been left to devise their own culture, values, and government? Welcome to the Chimera Sector. The citizens of this seemingly-forgotten splinter of the Imperium hold one belief above all others: Only when the leaders fear the voters as much as the voters fear the leaders can harmony be achieved. To achieve this harmony, a special type of guild was created called the Timent Electorum. The operatives of this guild -- called 'Adjusters' -- work at the behest of the voting public, and exclusively punish political corruption, tyranny, and treason with the ultimate sanction: assassination. This is the story of one such Adjuster, Jericho, who forges an unlikely alliance with an urban detective, Masozi, whose steadfast adherence to the Sector's core principles have placed her in harm's way. Acting together in a tenuous alliance, they will follow a trail of corruption across the Virgin Star System and witness the birth of a conflict which will forever change them -- along with the entire Chimera Sector.

The Empire at War Box Set


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2016
    Nuttall. Aliens take control of Britain’s cities and force the remainder of the British military to go on the run. With the government destroyed, the population must choose between fighting and collaborating with the alien overlords. . Discovery of the Saiph by P.P. Corcoran.The Marco Polo leads mankind to Proxima Centauri outside Earth's Solar System where the ship's scientists detect power readings they are artificial, alien and emanate from Planet III... a wasteland that suffered a devastating nuclear bombardment many thousands of years before. Archaeologists discover an alien library deep underground and are astonished to unlock its secrets with human DNA. C.R.O.W. by Phillip Richards.Andy Moralee knew that life with his new company of Dropship Infantry would be hard, but nothing could prepare him for life in one of the toughest units in the Union army. New arrivals, nicknamed ‘Crow’ by their platoons, are the lowest form of life in his Company, and he finds himself at the mercy of unforgiving commanders and bullies, all the time knowing that the real enemy are waiting for him at the end of his journey through the void. The enemy know that the Union are coming, they have dug in and fortified, and they are ready Marine Cadet by Tim C. Taylor.2565 A.D. When seventeen-year old Marine Cadet, Arun McEwan, forges an unlikely friendship with an alien scribe, he crashes into a world of treachery and conspiracy. How can he possibly survive three more years until graduation when every day brings a new deadly threat? But survive he must because his new alien allies show him glimpses of his destiny — a vision of a better future that only he can forge.A dream called the Human Legion The Exclusive Short Stories- Haven One-Eight by P.P. Corcoran. A relentless foe seeks to murder the Faithful in their haven, but who are these unstoppable servants of Satan? The answer will shock you. The President’s Son by Tim C. Taylor. The characters in the Human Legion series have been isolated from the rest of humanity for centuries, but their distant ancestors were taken as children from Earth. In The President’s Son, a short story exclusive to this collection, we hear the story of that first group of slave children. Fallen Witness artwork by Andy Bigwood and words by Tim C. Taylor.The third short story in the collection is special.

Hard Landing


Algis Budrys - 1993
    The story Budrys goes on to tell is a tale ripped from the pages of a supermarket tabloid. A starship crash lands in a New Jersey swamp, its passengers, human in appearance, scatter, each forced to find their own way in an alien world, living the rest of their lives among the human race. Like much of Budys' best work of the 1960s, Hard Landing expounds on the nature of identity, following its chief protagonist, Jack Mullica, through a series of adventures after his initial crash landing. Hard Landing is a welcome addition to Budrys' small but impressive collection of work. Hopefully Budrys, who has never been the most prolific of writers, will not go another fifteen years before releasing his next.

Awakening


Samantha Long - 2013
    But when a demon attacks her study group at the library, she has no choice but to reveal her abilities to warn the others.She learns the attacks won't stop until she's dead. To stay alive she joins forces with the other students and a secret society that has battled the demons for centuries. The last thing she wants to do is be a pawn in the war of good and evil. When her visions start showing events from a past life, she can't ignore the connections it shows. She has no choice but to acknowledge the bonds that tie her to the other students, even if some of them refuse, to have the strength to defeat the demon that hunts them down.Will she survive long enough to stop the demons from destroying everything and everyone she loves?

Yesterday's Kin


Nancy Kress - 2014
    A deadly cloud of spores has already infected and killed the inhabitants of two worlds. Now that plague is heading for Earth, and threatens humans and aliens alike. Can either species be trusted to find the cure?Geneticist Marianne Jenner is immersed in the desperate race to save humanity, yet her family is tearing itself apart. Siblings Elizabeth and Ryan are strident isolationists who agree only that an alien conspiracy is in play. Marianne’s youngest, Noah, is a loner addicted to a drug that constantly changes his identity. But between the four Jenners, the course of human history will be forever altered. Earth’s most elite scientists have ten months to prevent human extinction—and not everyone is willing to wait.

Swallow the Sky: A Space Opera


Chris Mead - 2014
    Professionally edited and proofed..Swallow the Sky embodies the essence of classic science fiction: real science, adventure, high spirits, and above all, a sense of wonder.Galactic culture is still reverberating from the nanotech disaster that destroyed Earth. But this is ancient history to Carson, an inter-stellar mailman and a collector of antique technology, until he learns of the secret location of Earth’s lost treasures. Carson is not alone in his discovery and becomes embroiled with a wealthy megalomaniac determined to capture the bounty for himself. As their race across the galaxy accelerates it becomes chillingly clear that far more is at stake than ancient artifacts, leading to the protagonists’ final confrontation in the ruined kingdom of Sol."Somewhere, EE Smith, Gene Roddenberry, and Iain Banks are sitting around wishing they'd written a Space Opera as entertaining as Swallow the Sky. Intelligent world-building, strong characterization, and settings that are just rip-roaring good fun! It tells a tale the old-fashioned way - brilliantly!"Chris Garcia, Hugo award-winning editor“This book is fun, filled with machines who have sassy personalities, leviathans who enjoy a good-natured game of hide-and-seek, and sentient insects who trust that someday, humans will evolve... Carson really is a unique antique himself, and an adorable good-guy to spend time with as a reader.”Yvette Keller, Science Fiction in San Francisco Magazine

Drake's Rift


Nate Johnson - 2017
    The vicious rat-faced bastards will stop at nothing until all humanity is either dead or enslaved. The only thing that can save the people of Intrepid are the Imperial Marines. The only thing that can save the galaxy itself, is the Imperial Navy. Never before in human history has so much depended upon so few. Admiral McKenzie is very aware that the continuation of the human race rests on his shoulders. Through grit, determination, skill, and deception he will use whatever or whoever he must to win. His fleet of starships and their crews are the best ever. But will they be enough to defeat this new threat? Sergeant Dex Carter finds himself and a few fellow Marines behind enemy lines. He is tasked with holding the small village of Drake’s Rift, the key crossroads that might very well determine the outcome of the war. Alicia Miller wanted adventure, but having aliens invade her home was not on her list. She and the people of Drake’s Rift neve expected to become the center of an inter-galactic war. While providence may have thrust her into this role. Toughness and determination will see her through it.