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Some of My Best Friends Are Human by Liz J. Andersen In an underground orphan center on an overpopulated planet, Tajen Jesmuhr dreams of freedom in a distant wilderness under an open sky. So when offered an interplanetary ecology class with offworld field trips, Taje leaps at the chance. But Taje isn't the only misfit here, where everyone has a tragic past and hidden wounds, and she soon clashes with her teacher and her classmates, including:A boy with a frightening secret who lost his family to a terrorist plague. A crafty female human-alien chimera whose parents disappeared in a paraspace accident. And a boy with a hidden past and a dead father he still hates.All may have promising careers ahead of them, but only if they can learn to trust themselves and one another enough to survive an uncaring system and a deadly final exam.Andre Norton believed in this story, and anyone--young and old--who loves science fiction with interesting characters, alien animals, and interplanetary adventures without war will enjoy it too.About the AuthorLiz J. Andersen grew up in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, California), and wrote the first draft of this novel when she was about the same age as her main characters. Liz has red hair like Taje, but Liz is not Taje. The author just became tired of too many red-haired villains, and a scarcity of red-haired heroes.In real life, a serious lack of mentors undoubtedly led to this book, and a solution aimed at the author and other kids floundering on their own. However, once done, Liz realized she needed more science for an accurate SF novel.So she set her novel aside to earn a B.S. in Animal Physiology with Highest Honors at U.C. Davis, which required physics, chemistry, and calculus, as well as numerous physiology classes. It also allowed broad electives such as ecology, astronomy, and art. She proceeded from there immediately into veterinary school, and also earned her D.V.M. degree at U.C. Davis.During summer breaks Liz backpacked, primarily in the Sierra Nevada with her friend Carla Salido, where they enjoyed their own adventures. Liz has also defied death at least four times to bring you this novel, so it must be important.She now lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her husband, Brian, and has published several short stories about Dr. Tajen Jesmuhr in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. Find her at her website LizJAndersen.com, and her husband's music at labbwerk.bandcamp.com. |
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In the Orbit of Sirens by T.A. Bruno THE LAST FRAGMENTS OF THE HUMAN RACE ARE FORCED TO ADAPT TO A DANGEROUS NEW WORLD OR FACE EXTINCTION. When starship mechanic, Denton Castus, is caught in the destructive path of a devastating war, he abandons his home and seeks refuge on a distant planet. However, this new safe haven has undiscovered threats of its own. Eliana Veston, a scout preparing the planet for the refugees, struggles with a deadly pandemic that is killing off colonists. The hunt for a cure unleashes a new threat to humanity—the Sirens—mysterious beings with incredible powers and a deep hatred for invaders. |
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Mantivore Dreams by S.J. Higbee On a colony planet, in a hot, dusty village where no one wants to live, is someone who was exiled there a long time ago. Someone who stole something so precious, others are prepared to lie, kidnap and murder to get it back. Drawn into this web of deceit is Kyrillia, a teenager who dreams of running the village’s branch of the Node, the planetwide organic information system, but instead drudges for her mother… Seth, member of the disgraced Priest family who can read and write, but instead toils as a day labourer on the smelliest, most thankless jobs in the village, in exchange for scraps of food and temporary shelter… And Vrox, an ancient, sentient alien who lives only in Kyrillia’s imagination, or so she thinks... When Kyrillia sneaks into the Node and opens up a forbidden site, she triggers a chain of events that not only rips through her own life, but affects those living thousands of miles away in the capital. For when something so precious goes missing, others will stop at nothing to get it back. For fans who enjoy Lois McMaster Bujold |
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Escape From B-Movie Hell by M T McGuire If you asked Andi Turbot whether she had anything in common with Flash Gordon she'd say no, emphatically. Saving the world is for dynamic, go-ahead, leaders of men and while it would be nice to see a woman getting involved for a change, she believes she could be the least well-equipped being in her galaxy for the job. Then her best friend, Eric, reveals that he is an extraterrestrial. He's not just any ET either. He's Gamalian: seven-foot, lobster-shaped and covered in Marmite-scented goo. Just when Andi's getting used to that he tells her about the Apocalypse and really ruins her day. The human race will perish unless Eric's Gamalian superiors step in. Abducted and trapped on an alien ship, Andi must convince the Gamalians her world is worth saving. Or escape from their clutches and save it herself. |
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The 5th Gender by Gail Carriger A species that has no word for murder has a murderer aboard their spaceship! New York Times bestselling romantic comedy author Gail Carriger (writing as G.L. Carriger) brings you a light-hearted science fiction mystery featuring an adorable lavender alien and his human crush. ALIEN Tristol lives in exile. But he’s built a life for himself aboard a massive space station. He’s even begun to understand the complex nuances of human courting rituals. Detective Hastion is finally flirting back! MURDER Except that Tristol’s beloved adopted home is unexpectedly contacted by the galoi – a xenophobic species with five genders, purple skin, and serious attitude. They need the help of a detective because there’s a murderer aboard their spaceship. Murder is so rare, the galoi don’t even have a word for it. Tristol knows this because he is galoi. ROMANCE Which means that he and Detective Hastion are on the case… together. "This is a fun, funny, sexy book, and I’m so happy it exists. It hits you in the feels, makes you laugh and cry, and makes you think about matters of family, kin, and the heart." ~ Bookriot |
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A woman isolated in the Mojave desert…an alien invasion…and a primal obsession. For Gillian Hall running her diner in the desert is the good life, until a man calling himself Gabriel arrives as her enigmatic and unpredictable new short-order cook. On the same day fiery explosions streak across the sky. Everyone in town assumes their presence must be part of a military operation from the nearby base. What do the blasts really signal? Gillian’s quiet world shifts into an unknown reality when seven starbreakers—alien ships—enter Earth’s atmosphere. One of them is destroyed, scattering valuable and dangerous technology into the desert in its wake. Five ships depart. The last starbreaker, the Menocai, stays to retrieve the lost debris before the military can find it, but its self-absorbed commander, Malakai, has an additional need. He wants Gillian as well. He has sent his brother Inac, in the guise of Gabriel, to retrieve her. |
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Spacefarer: Fanatic's Bane by Edmund de Wight When Free Agent Malbane of the Interstellar Trade Commonwealth is summoned to the galaxy's largest space station to quell racial strife she encounters sinister forces willing to destroy civilization to fight forces they believe to be from Hell itself. Whether dealing with terrorists, a homicidal priest, race riots, or invading aliens, it's just another day in the life of a Free Agent. The Human and Narath races have been at peace for over 300 years but horrific killings could spark a new race war. If Malbane can't defuse the situation it could mean the end of the Commonwealth. But life is never simple - even for a Free Agent. Standing in her way are bureaucrats, terrorists, corrupt cops, religious zealots, a former lover and the vanguard of an alien invasion. It's high action space opera with the gritty feel of a spy thriller. Climb aboard and meet the new face of action-adventure in outer space. Perfect for fans of the fast-paced danger of the Aliens franchise, Jason Bourne, or the military space adventures of Honor Harrington. |
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PIERCING THE CELESTIAL OCEAN by Kip Koelsch AN EPIC TALE, A CLASH OF TWO UNIVERSES Disgraced scientist, Captain Anton Ekels, seizes the opportunity for redemption he recognizes in the Endeavor’s near-collision with an alien stasis pod. Expelled from the mouth of a remote wormhole, the capsule—once taken onboard the deep space research vessel--reveals clues that the captain believes may link its female humanoid occupant to an alternate reality. A student of Earth’s space exploration history, Ekels quickly recognizes a plaque similar to that attached to the twentieth century’s Pioneer space probes--but the universe described is potentially unlike anything ever encountered by the Intragalactic Science Consortium. SIX-HUNDRED YEARS EARLIER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORMHOLE Grand Master G’lea and her assistant, Master T’reau, aim their innovative celestiscope skyward and make a heretical discovery. Suppressed and warped by influential P’nesian Clerics, this startling revelation further secures the dominance of the Grand Conclave, enhances the mystery of the Heavenly Visitors and seals the fate of G’lea and T’reau. Despite the best efforts of the Grand Conclave the legend of the Grand Master and her assistant lives on in hand-copied, forbidden books, the furtive whisperings of radical academics and the tall tales of drunken sailors on the island of Lolus. Hundreds of years later, on this oft-denigrated island, unique circumstances unite a sea captain raised on those whispered tall tales with the estranged son of the powerful P’nesian Archcleric. Aboard the Vagus, A’zra and G’regor begin an adventure that not only challenges entrenched religious beliefs, but eventually inspires a much greater scientific leap—towards the Celestial Ocean and beyond. PIERCING THE CELESTIAL OCEAN THE SAGA OF THE CERULEAN UNIVERSE BEGINS |
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Shasta Mountain. Known for its overall strangeness: UFOs, strange lights, and unusual creatures. Perhaps Greer McClelland, the protagonist, lives among the source of these sightings after her car spins out of control while driving to Seattle. Waking up after her accident, she finds herself at the mercy of an underground hybrid alien-human people with special abilities and fascinating history. The Zakota people welcome her, but in doing so has sealed her fate: she’s not allowed to leave. Greer rebels against this, struggling to come to terms with her new reality. Her life takes on as many twists and turns as the dark passageways in the underground cavern where she now lives. She discovers a simple way of life, yet with unexpected advanced technology. As Greer comes to know these people, including two potential love interests, she’s forced to decide between staying with the Zakotas, or escaping back to the outside world. |
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Earth. The mere name has had an almost talisman-like pull on the human race since we were driven from our homeworld over 6,000 years ago. Mankind’s ancestors ran from the genocidal threat engulfing them, fleeing like intergalactic refugees towards a new home that would allow us to flourish once again.And flourish we did. From a ragtag group of just over 12,000 survivors, humanity has grown to create a proper empire of nearly 900 billion spanning two galaxies. But we never forgot our home, so we waited and we planned. Now the time was finally right to return to Earth and take back what we once had no choice but to abandon.Although the military campaign, as well as the alien races between humanity and our birthplace, were the primary concern, they turned out to not be the only ones. You see, Earth itself, despite crawling with the vermin that nearly eradicated us, was far from free of surprises, both physical and historical. Unanticipated challenges waited for the people of the Terran Confederation, including notions that would shake the very foundations of what it meant to be human. Our legends had defined us, but could those legends withstand scrutiny? What if everything we’d come to believe about ourselves and our world had been carefully crafted to cocoon us for our own good?A story meant to be about our return to Earth expands to cover our journey both across and within the realms of known space, from long lost colony worlds where mankind has morphed into something else, to the edges of an intergalactic war between implacable enemies…enemies that now had the incentive to turn their attention towards humanity... |
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Lost Solace by Karl Drinkwater Lost Solace was a semifinalist in the international SPSFC science fiction competition in 2022. Sometimes spaceships disappear with everyone on board - the Lost Ships. But sometimes they come back, strangely altered, derelict, and rumoured to be full of horrors. Opal is on a mission. She's been seeking something her whole life. Something she is willing to die for. And she thinks it might be on a Lost Ship. Opal has stolen Clarissa, an experimental AI-controlled spaceship, from the military. Together they have tracked down a Lost Ship, in a lonely nebula far from colonised space. The Lost Ship is falling into the gravity well of a neutron star, and will soon be truly lost ... forever. Legends say the ships harbour death, but there's no time for indecision. Opal gears up to board it. She's just one woman, entering an alien and lethal environment. But perhaps with the aid of Clarissa's intelligence - and an armoured spacesuit - Opal may stand a chance. Ideal for fans of sentient AI ships (such as Brandon Sanderson's Skyward books), while the creepy, derelict Lost Ships evoke Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving series. |
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Leviathan centipedes. Ravenous wasps. Moon universities. Viscoelastic AI's in the nude. One upstart anthropologist trying to learn echolocation. A tortured weapons dealer dodging exploding flowers. Predator Moons is equal parts horror and wonder. It's Dune meets Pokémon, with a splash of Blade Runner and a touch of Annihilation. |
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Stars Forever Black by A. L. Bruno A Bold New Novel of First Contact! For eighteen months the Terran starship Hyperion hid in orbit and marveled at a world that should not exist. Far from the ravages of a war-torn galaxy, Phelspharia blossomed, populated by humans as varied as those on the Earth of old. But when the starship is discovered, the crew is forced to trust a war-weary officer whose knowledge of local languages may mean the difference between life and death.

Now, breathing the air of a world he has come to know from afar, Lt. Commander Jason Roberts realizes how high the stakes are for Terrans and Phelspharians alike. Scarred inside and out by a past filled with treachery and carnage, Roberts must perform his duty to the Terran Star Force… and, if he can, do right by the people of Phelspharia.

Courage, loyalty, grief, and love drive conflicting nations and cultures toward a reckoning, not merely with each other, but with a threat that could leave the galaxy itself in ashes. |
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The Universal Good Deal by Cleophas Foy Alien white people from outer-space invade Earth armed with amazing deals and low, low prices. They're selling lava lamps, fanny packs, water beds, and more and everyone's buying it. Wouldn't you? It's from outer-space! Made by Aliens! And everything's on sale. It's a steal. But the Aliens only take cash. It's up to a marketing genius, a bosomy politician, and a genuinely nice guy to figure out what the Aliens want before we all become the product. Can humanity survive the most effective advertising campaign ever created or will the Aliens make a real killing? The Universal Good Deal is a satire about colonialism that explores all the horrible ways people fail to understand those who are different from them. |
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Ghost Dragon by Craig A. Price Jr. A spaceship crashes onto a planet… completely filled with dragons. When crash landing onto a planet filled with flying, fire-breathing beasts, Daniel is uncertain he can step up as the captain his crew needs to escape the strange planet. Daniel is an Unwanted. His parents didn't want him. The Space Academy didn't want him. The shipyard he worked at for years barely wanted him. But here he was, clawing through the ranks of them all to become the captain of his very own ship. The Ghost. After one successful accidental mission, and a second mediocre one, he is now the captain of an exploratory crew. To go where no one has gone before, and all that jazz. It's always been his dream. But when he crash lands on a planet full of dragons. No, not dinosaurs. Dragons. Yes, you heard that right. Dragons. Fire-breathing, Ice-Breathing, and lots of other elemental-breathing, flying dragons. Daniel doesn't know what to do. They may not be intelligent life, but he's stranded with a small crew and they must fight their way out, fix their ship, and get as far away from what Daniel is calling "Dragon Planet" (Original--I know), and onto his next exploratory mission ... if he can survive. If you love Star Trek and The Orville, Science Fiction with snarky characters and humor-filled plot lines with a little bit of hard science, then you’ll love Ghost Dragon, because everyone is an explorer at heart! |
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Ghost Surveillance by Craig A. Price Jr. A radio transmission deep in space… a surveillance mission is ordered … Daniel finally has his chance to prove himself with his first official planetary exploration mission. It isn’t going to be Daniel’s first time to a new planet, but it will be his first time leading an expedition from the beginning. In the past, he led missions to asteroids, and one planetary exploration since there were no nearby captains. But this time, he is chosen to go on his first official planet exploratory mission. He is ready to prove himself a capable ship captain. What could possibly go wrong with a simple surveillance mission? Daniel is an Unwanted, surrounded by a galaxy of clones. He desires nothing more than to prove himself, but no one takes him seriously. He uses humor as a defense mechanism and stumbles his entire way through being a captain. But this is his first serious mission. He needs to make sure it succeeds at all cost. If you love Star Trek and The Orville, Science Fiction with snarky characters and humor-filled plot lines with a little bit of hard science, then you’ll love Ghost Surveillance, because everyone is an explorer at heart! |
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Ghost Probe by Craig A. Price Jr. Roads?! Where we’re going, we don’t need roads! When a strange radio signal is detected in deep space, the president needs his finest officers to check it out. Unfortunately, the closest vessel is a lowly asteroid miner staffed with a ragtag crew of misfits. The leader of this crew is Captain Daniel, an "Unwanted." In the future, the rigors of space travel are reserved for two sets of people. Clones of the best and brightest officers, and the products of unplanned pregnancies. As one of the latter, Daniel is considered inferior to his peers and sees this exploratory mission as a chance to prove himself to the galaxy. Full of tongue-in-cheek humor, "Ghost Probe" will have you chuckling and smiling as the crew of the ship attempts to answer one of humanity's biggest existential questions. With comic dialogue and situations, "Ghost Probe" will appeal to fans of "The Orville" and other sci-fi that doesn't take itself too seriously. |
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The Rosetta Man by Claire McCague Wanted: Translator for first contact. Immediate opening. Danger pay allowance Estlin Hume lives in Twin Butte, Alberta surrounded by a horde of affectionate squirrels. His involuntary squirrel-attracting talent leaves him evicted, expelled, fired and near penniless until two aliens arrive and adopt him as their translator. Yanked around the world at the center of the first contact crisis, Estlin finds his new employers incomprehensible. As he faces the ultimate language barrier, unsympathetic military forces converging in the South Pacific keep threatening to shoot the messenger. The question on everyone’s mind is why are the aliens here? But Estlin’s starting to think we’ll happily blow ourselves up in the process of finding that out. |
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Almost a century after Keres Triplets asteroid impact and subsequent nuclear exchange nearly ended all human life on Earth, a strange artifact is discovered on one of the moons of Saturn. Who should be sent to the outer reaches of the solar system to initiate the first contact with an alien culture? Dr. Varsaad Volhard, an evolutionary-socio-historian, is chosen to help the world understand the alien civilization that left an artifact some thirty thousand years ago, before humans even learned to farm, at the time when other human species still walked the earth. While Vars prepares for the mission, her father, Dr. Matteo Volhard, discovers nanobots among the microplastics he studies. The bots are everywhere and seem to have been created to bond with human cyber implants. Why? Matteo is made to keep his discovery a secret...as well as his and his daughter's true origins. Both were donated to a Human DNA Vault as babies. Matteo was raised as a Seed before leaving with his young daughter to study ecology around the world. Who knows what? Who is in control? How does one communicate with non-human intelligence? People seem to die in gruesome ways as their cyberhumatics go haywire on Earth and on Luna and Mars colonies. Is Earth under attack or is it all just a cosmic misunderstanding? Vars needs to use all she knows to solve the mystery of the ancient civilization on Mimas, as her dad battles the alien nanobots at home. |
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A millennium has passed since the small world of Incari was struck by a meteor known as the Kutsal Stone. In the celestial object's wake, two powerful inhabitants of another realm—beings of light and creatures of shadow—ravaged the land with war until they were ultimately banished. Time distorted tales of these god-like creatures into myth and legend, but Princess Elurra quickly finds there is legitimacy amongst the lore. After her parents' deaths pave the way for her exiled aunt to claim the throne, she finds herself desperate and on the run. Elurra must uncover the truth about magic and untwist the legends of old in order to protect the future of her homeland and thwart her aunt's malicious plots. Mysterious visions lead Elurra and her unlikely allies down a path to the truth; however, they find the conflicts of the past may be impossible to repair before they rip Incari apart. |
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Return of the Knave by David Reynolds Fresh off an encounter with the deadly M’Oag—a being that makes a Great White Shark look like a guppy—The Knave needs to warn Earth before more M’Oag sterilize the planet. Can Theo find a way to persuade disbelieving leaders, protect Earth and keeping his K’Haat friends safe? Read Return of the Knave and find out. Available now at Amazon.com. |
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Birth of the Knave by David Reynolds “No good deed goes unpunished,” and if Theopolis Knavidowsky had known what kind of punishment he was going to get, he would have run away screaming as far and as fast as he could go. A small-town reporter and photographer, Theo lets a “friend” persuade him to shoot a rocket launch. Through a series of errors, Theo is blasted unprepared into space aboard a rocket module. One of four in this batch, the modules are designed to be connected and then sent to the surface of Mars. Each module has its own function, though one is filled with food and supplies. Unknown to its passenger, the “unoccupied” rocket’s purpose is changed from being part of a Mars mission to fending off an approaching asteroid. NASA’s people on Earth do not know the former moon is not an empty hunk of rock but something else entirely ... and it's occupied. Read Birth of the Knave available now on Amazon.com |
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Lazarus Code (First Family Saga #1) by Sharon Van Orman "I am Ryder of the Pentimalli, a member of the first families and Captain of the deep space exploration vessel, Serendipity." In the centuries since our forefathers tamed an uncivilized land and revolted against a King we had grown complacent. When our government waged cyber war on us the spirit of those long dead patriots was ignited, sparking a second revolutionary war. It was then that the First Families were born. Genetically enhanced humans who carried within our blood stream nano-bots that repair and regenerate. We were meant to be the record keepers. The vanguard of our species as we spread across time and space. I have returned home after a decades long mission to find Earth devastated by the Weeping Death. A disease that has made it possible for the dead to rise. With the help of my brothers and my crew we will find who is responsible. They expected us to be complacent. They were wrong. |
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Witches' Gambit: Book One of the Seven Worlds by Charles Freedom Long FINALIST- BEST SF/F BOOK OF 2018—Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Aidan Ray, successful attorney—and psychic—secretly communes with the dead in a fascist fundamentalist society that would call her “Witch” and wipe her mind. Earth is split into separate warring theocracies who want to dominate the planet. They are on the verge of expanding their conflict into outer space. Michael good, an executive who likes to live dangerously, leads a secret insurgency in Aidan’s home state. Fate places them together. And together, they must face a crisis that could destroy the earth. A mediating alien, concerned about the future of their shared universe, has come to earth. His galaxy is on the verge of making a preemptive strike against earth, to prevent the spread of a species that resolves its problems by murdering each other—a diseased specimen that may have to be exterminated before it infects other worlds. He ponders if earth is worth saving? And asks Aidan and Michael to plead humanity’s case to the council of the seven worlds, before the earth is destroyed. But to do that, they must brave the hazardous passage to another galaxy from which they may never return. Or have anything to return to. |
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Relics of Andromeda (Song of Ancients Book 1) by Jonathan Michael Erickson AN EPIC TALE SPANNING CIVILIZATIONS AND CENTURIES. Anka believed the stories since childhood: the alien relics bring ruin and madness. Ancient pieces of technology that have minds of their own, the relics interface with human psychology, granting the power to bend space and time—often inducing psychosis. When the colonists of Andromeda first discovered the relics, long before Anka was born, humanity was plunged into chaos. Now Anka carries a relic in her pack, tasked with securing the object before it does any harm. She sets out with her companions across the desert by foot, marching towards the distant city— even as the relic begins to whisper in her mind... |
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The Void Beyond by P.W Hillard In the vastness of space, something lurks in the darkness. Captain Morgan Starling and her crew travel the stars, shipping cargo from one system to the next. Easy work, until first contact with another race devolved into all-out war. Now, they’re under attack from humanity’s mysterious alien foe, ambushed in the void between systems. When an unknown vessel comes to their aid, events spiral out of control, a twisted secret within its haunted corridors threatening to consume them, body and soul. What they discover within will shatter what they know of life and death. Dragged into a battle with monstrous, unfathomable forces, they must escape the nightmare creatures that lurk out amongst the infinite black of space. Forced into a desperate struggle for life, the crew must survive, if they ever want to get home |