SPSFC 2023 Self-published Science Fiction Competition 2023
A sister competition to the SPFBO, the SPSFC is for sci-fi self-published works. Stories tagged with this mark were entered into the third year of this competition.
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Inbound: The Merimnae Saga by William Altmann This is the sequel to Outbound. The four are inbound into the Tau Ceti system. so is something else. Castor and Magellan have entered the Tau Ceti system. Henry's memory affliction is under control - for now. They must establish bases, come up with a long term plan to deal with the medical challenges, and decide how to accomplish their mission. Then they detect another ship coming toward them from Sol. Yet it sends no communications ahead to them. |
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It takes a certain type of person to save the world, and Kong is not that person. Which is about to become a serious problem... Kong has been working as a Trans-Temporal Copyright Protection officer since he was fifteen years old, jumping through time to arrest people who threaten the status quo. And he's good at his job - the best. He's pretty certain he'll spend the rest of his life working cases until a bullet gets him or the time pressure finally crushes him. Or he might just medicate himself to death; that's always an option. The problem is, Kong doesn't believe in it anymore, whatever 'it' is. See enough of the past and you realise people keep making the same mistakes, again and again. It's not really so surprising he's lost hope. That is, until he meets a handsome stranger who changes the course of his life - and threatens to change the past, the present and the future of the human race. Now Kong must decide if humanity is still worth saving. And he needs to decide quickly because, for once, time is running out... |
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Into the Darkness by Charles Hack The Space Warfare Group books are a new kind of space thriller with hardcore military action, dark political conspiracies, and compelling world building. "Charles Hack’s exciting fusion of space sci-fi and military action is every bit as enthralling and wild as it sounds. From the thoroughly descriptive alien worlds to the more traditional style of cutthroat paranoia and action, Into the Darkness never falters in its goal to keep you hooked in for the entire length of the narrative." - Kashif Hussain, The Best Thriller Books When the princess of an unfamiliar alien planet fails to arrive in time for a diplomatic summit with humanity’s top government officials and her spaceship is found floating dead in space, the Space Warfare Group is called into action. On the brink of a diplomatic nightmare and desperate to keep the events top secret, Major Malcolm “ Mac ” Lambert and his team, fresh off a costly mission, are tasked with breaking into the dead spaceship to investigate. As they search, they find a grisly scene and discover the beginnings of a dark conspiracy threatening to unravel into chaos. Mac faces the most difficult mission of his prestigious career, pushing him beyond the breaking point. Will he find the princess and the evil lurking in the shadows? Or will the mission destroy him? For fans Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Dalton Fury, Andrews & Wilson, Jack Carr, Mark Greaney, James S.A. Corey, Jason Anspach & Nick Cole, J.N. Chaney, Ken Lozito, John Hindmarsh, Timothy Zhan, B.V. Larson, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica. |
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Initialize (Mod Superhero #1) by Samuel Fleming For this cyborg, power is just an upgrade away. Emmett was used to being caught between college and his engineering internship, but when he gets caught between a powerful hero and an even stronger villain, he becomes collateral damage. Instead of dying, he wakes up a cyborg—a melding of flesh and machine. Turns out his boss wasn’t just an eccentric inventor, and the old man just gave him a shining opportunity to be a hero. Except that’s just the beginning, and things are about to get a lot more complicated. His boss has his own agenda. The boss’s daughter has her own power armor. His roommate works for an evil corporation. And Emmett is just a Class 1 hero. Superheroes aren’t just masks—some work for corporations, or for the government and the military, and even as mercenaries in wars. Shadowy cabals pull the strings of hero and villain alike. The city of Belport might be peaceful for now, but most of the world is in turmoil. If Emmett is going to have any chance at making a difference, he needs to get stronger. A lot stronger. How much of his humanity will he hold onto and how much will he trade away? 4.4 Stars on Royal Road! A new Superhero Progression Fantasy series. This series features a zero-to-hero protagonist, dystopian intrigue, superhero action, occasional swearing and gore, and Ship of Theseus-style power progression. |
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In Reason's Name: Book 1 of the Ceti Conflict by William Gee Adam is a man on the verge of breaking. Kidnapped as a child and raised under a ruthless authoritarian regime; he harbors a hidden disloyalty that threatens to be uncovered. To escape this fate, Adam volunteers to pilot mankind’s first manned mission to survey a new system: Tau Ceti. Tasked with preserving Adam on his eighteen-year voyage is a prototype artificial intelligence, ‘Voice’. Untried and untested, the AI is cold, calculating and unknowable. Those on Earth face turbulent times as different factions vie for control, whereas the shrouded and mysterious Tau Ceti system may not be as welcoming as it appears… |
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In Sekhmet's Shadow by JD Rhodes The year is 2061, and the world has ended. In the city of Asclepion, Sabra Kasembe dreams of a superheroic future yet wakes to the taste of blood and ash. When her father is shot six times in a heist gone wrong, she resolves to bring those responsible to justice—no matter where the trail might lead. To do this, she'll need to team up with a washed-up superhero, a brooding robotic woman, and the very man who shot her father. Because he is her only link to a conspiracy that threatens to shake the Functioning World to its core. But it may be impossible to save a world on the brink of apocalypse without pushing it over the edge. As her reckoning approaches, Sabra realizes that her future may not be filled not with the cries of those she's saved, but the screams of her victims. IN SEKHMET'S SHADOW is a complete anticapitalist "post-superhero" sci-fi thriller, and first of a trilogy (IN SEKHMET'S WAKE, IN SEKHMET'S HANDS.) It is intended for mature audiences and features violence, swearing, and ideas that may be considered traumatic or provocative. But remember this: everyone finds love in the end. |
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Jake's Magical Market by J.R. Mathews Meddling gods. A magical card system. An apocalypse no one could have predicted. Jake is working at the neighborhood market under his apartment when the world ends. He expected nuclear war, a computer virus, or even climate change burning everyone to a crisp to bring about the downfall of civilization. But cruel and arbitrary gods from another world? Who would have guessed that? When these cruel gods shuffled Earth like a deck of cards, nothing was in the same place anymore. Monsters, dungeons, and magical items appear scattered across the globe. And suddenly, everyone has access to a new, strange magical card system that gives them magical powers. Jake, wasting his day slacking off in the cooler, as he usually did, found himself alone in a completely new and very dangerous world. Can he learn to survive? Can he collect enough cards and create a good enough deck to fight back against the monsters that have overtaken his former home? And why are these strange people that look a lot like elves knocking on the door of the market he is hiding in and asking to buy some of his goods? The gods may have stacked the deck against him, but Jake just might have a few cards up his sleeve that will help him survive. |
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I am an astronaut by Zhangqi Bai A drunkard woke up in an escape pod, drifting in space. He had no idea what happened since drinking with his friends was the last thing he could remember. Who put him in the escape pod? What happened to the Martian spaceship? Why were there also three bottles of wine with him? |
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Hostile Contact (Weapons of Choice Book 1) by Nick Snape When faced with hostile aliens, do you stand down? Or stand by your fellow soldiers? An alien incursion pits a squad of army reserves against the might of alien technology as Military Sci-Fi meets First Contact. The modern-day world panics as alien spacecraft enter the Earth’s atmosphere for the very first time. With desperate governments helpless to act, the small alien force renders Earth’s defence technology ineffective as they race towards their goal. Insubordinate and on the edge, Finn is a War Hero racked by guilt, faced with dragging his rag tag squad of rookies through basic training. Suddenly caught up in a major global crisis, he faces a struggle of epic proportions as his squad are attacked by the alien marines, their advanced technology decimating the best Earth has to offer. Only Zuri, the strong-willed female machine gunner, and Smith, his dead but digitally copied Corporal, can keep him on track, as together they struggle to keep their trainees alive in the face of overwhelming odds. As governments circle, the prize of alien technology breeding greed and uncertainty, Finn and his remaining squad battle for Earth’s future. In this near real-time fight for survival, they discover the aliens are more than they seem, and that alien technology can be just as deadly in the hands of humans as they unearth the Weapons of Choice. An all action, brilliantly paced, and character driven sci-fi novel, Hostile Contact: Book One of the Weapons of Choice sci-fi series, will take you from the forests of Earth to the space between the stars. ‘This is a moment in time humanity will never forget. Hostile Contact’ |
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Seg Holton yearns to leave his isolated farming dome and travel the ravaged Earth, or even to Mars Colony. Only a few things stand in his way: an authoritarian government, deadly storms, and an enchanting outsider who may be the most dangerous of all. Fast-forward 500 years. Civilization has nearly wiped itself out of existence, and is on the long, slow road to recovery, held together by an agreement called the Pact between cities, agricultural domes, and a new global government. Seg is a farmer in Holtondome. Like his ancestors, he's chosen a life of ignorance about technology and the outside world in favor of a simple existence, free of the corruption that almost destroyed the human race. His world turns upside down when Fi arrives. Tall, exotic, and far too wise for her age, she challenges everything he's been taught to believe, making him question for the first time if a simple life is right for him or, indeed, for the rest of humanity. But Fi has secrets darker than her black-ringed eyes — bigger than the Pact — that have implications far beyond Seg and the residents of Holtondome. |
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Hot Ash and the Oasis Defect (Ashley Westgard, #1) by Philip Wyeth “Robots and exowombs and hemp, oh my!” Welcome to 2045. Automation has freed humanity from the drudgery and limitations of blue-collar labor. For twenty years, a remarkable group of female bureaucrats has overseen an ambitious construction program that is spreading equity, prosperity, and peace worldwide. But Detective Ashley Westgard of the Jacksonville Police Corps senses that beneath all the glimmer and shine, a new malaise has taken root in society. From brazen acts of criminality and rampant party pill abuse, to her own insatiable desires... All is not well on the road to paradise. Ash is beautiful, vain, headstrong, and erratic. A symbol of her time as she careens from impulsive shopping sprees to drunken fights to escapades of sin. But now that a methodical killer is on the loose, she must rise above apathy and doubt in order to forge her raging inner fire into a fearsome weapon of justice. Philip Wyeth’s crazy fifth novel is imaginative, hilarious, sexy, and poignant. It will dazzle fans of Rich Larson, Neal Stephenson's “Snow Crash,” “The Tomorrow File” by Lawrence Sanders, and women who kick ass! Note to Readers: This book contains adult language and sexual themes. (45,500 words) “Once you get that nano crawling through you... You feel alive!” |
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Final Hope by Joshua J. Piedra Final Hope centers around Mikomi Saigo, who inherits Onyx Technology Ventures from his father. Mikomi succeeds in completing his father's work, but the day before he announces the completion of an advanced A.I., he is shot and killed in the parking lot of the company. He wakes up 10 years in the past with all of his memories intact where he meets Sebastian, a custodian of time. Mikomi has been given a second chance and decides that he wants to do more than just find his killer... he wants to change some of the more unpleasant events of his life, but the more he changes, the more the world responds. |
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Falling Stars by Justin Lucero There are those who fight for change, and others who‘d rather suppress it. Outcasts come from all sides of the spectrum. Some—can be willful allies. In the end, ‘What goes around, comes around’. The year is 2084, the future is bleak. Within a compound called Hangar sixty-eight, deep underneath an Arizona desert—problems have risen. Venturing through its many sub-levels, James, an escaped experiment is met with harsh realities and deadly encounters he's never endured; guided by two, mysterious characters to witness an underworld of total terror and knowledge of a threat that's almost unimaginable. As he fights on, so does his girlfriend, Alice. Who’s led to battle through the realm of dreams. Journeying an outer land, she meets a few allies and enemies along the way. Take a ride into this sci-fi, action-packed horror and fantasy experience, as these two rebellious souls make their way through a dark and puzzling chain of events. |
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Explorers of Rinth by John Simons Aristotle wakes with no memory after being left for dead in a place that carries the seeds of a distant and dying Earth, but he is not alone. The survival of the human species rests on his shoulders and a small group of discarded humans. Meanwhile, Iseulte and her friends flee the spark of civil war that engulfs their home. They escape into long-forgotten tunnels where they find that things Humanity dabbled in and abandoned have taken on their own lives and destinies. Although separated by unimaginable distance, the future of these two groups was bound together in the distant past by the strangest secret of all. |
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Explorer's End by H.W. Portland It’s up to an unlikely hero to find the origin of the galaxy and protect it at all costs in this new sci-fi adventure from author H.W. Portland. Dr. Alan spent his life searching for the origin of those who seeded the galaxy with intelligence. After years of dead ends, he is shown an extraordinary new clue with the promise that on a distant planet, covered in exotic jungles and teeming with life, lies the answer. The only problem: the planet is about to be obliterated in a galactic cataclysm. Faced with little time and few resources, Alan must team up with a headstrong adventurer to get to the remote planet and recover the forgotten knowledge before it’s too late. But Alan isn’t the only one who has seen the clue. An old nemesis is already on his way to steal the evidence — and the credit. And if he beats Alan, he will use what he finds to rewrite history and undo civilization as we know it. In Explorer’s End, a science fiction adventure, friend and foe race to capture the last evidence of a lost, life-giving civilization. Whoever wins will control the history of a million planets… |
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A hidden mystery in Jupiter’s second-largest moon holds a power beyond imagining. Beneath the icy surface of Callisto lies an underground sea. Decades from now, a research base is built to study the strange lifeforms inhabiting this silent world before tragedy struck, killing everyone in it. News of this incident is quickly hushed up, and all access to the Galilean moon restricted. Kirill Sereda became orphaned when his mother went missing at that very outpost. Now an adult, he gathers together a team of misfits for a clandestine mission: head to Callisto and find out what really happened. What they uncover is a profound enigma that sheds light on humanity’s true origins, and its revelation could bring about our ultimate extinction. |
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“First called, final star, they hold the line.” Years of war have taken their toll on the crew of Gold 1, but there’s no rest to be had. Even as forty years of war seem to be ending, a new threat lurks in the shadows which could tip the balance of power against The United Systems Republic. As the danger grows and battle lines are drawn, Major Jason Harlem, and his fox like Holdren crew, will lead their veteran fighter group back into the fires of war. But with a fragile peace hanging in the balance, forces working behind the scenes of both governments, and an outside threat that may not be “new” at all, Gold 1, and perhaps others, will be tested in ways they never could have expected. Can the Gold Group hold the line one more time, or will the cost of fighting become too great to bear? |
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Kaylee’s dreams ended when the huge, furless Langons ordered her to marry Ralaf. If she refuses, she will be forced to work in the mine with all the other disposable Cadorie. Determined to find a better life, Kaylee runs away, searching for a mythical land called Freedom Hold, where Cadorie live free. One hundred twenty years ago Langons invaded Cadorie. Although the League of Free Cadorie established an alien free zone called Freedom Hold, the rest of the world is under the thumb of the Langons. In the mining colonies, Cadorie are little more than slaves. Kaylee meets Gillis, son of the head of the League of Free Cadorie. Together they plot to free Kaylee’s family and eventually their world. But that brings the wrath of the Langons down upon them. It takes all of Gillis’ electronics knowledge and Kaylee’s mathematical skills to find a way to defeat the aliens infesting their world. In doing so, they change the lives of all the spacefaring races. |
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Hall of Skulls by Jamie Eubanks A strategic abduction kicks off this award-winning, high-stakes science fiction novel. When Kai becomes the youngest provisional leader of Churi, Mokuteki law decrees he must prevail against a brutal challenge. Once the ritualized testing phase begins—one designed to break both body and spirit—Kai discovers more than his title is at stake. As part of that challenge, while blindfolded and chained, Kai learns his betrothed, Asher, has been abducted. In his search for Asher and truth, trading deeds for information, Kai must not only face the alien invaders who attempted to conquer his world but must fight against time and space. Believing his future and that of Asher are inexorably entwined, Kai discovers his only hope is to unlock the ancient technology and secrets that lie within the Hall Of Skulls. |
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Harbinger in the Night by John Warner In the near future a new space race is in full swing to be the first to colonize Mars. The United States and allied European governments working alongside private industry are competing against the RSAC, a new Russian-Chinese alliance, to build working spacecraft to make the long journey. In preparations for the mission, an engineering team from an aerospace/tech conglomerate is building out the interplanetary communications network, when a mysterious object emerges from the depths of interstellar space. As the nations of Earth scramble to investigate this strange comet, they must overcome plots from within and the machinations of a malignant AI in order to be the first to meet the menace, or the promise, that the intruder foretells. Major Koda Cheveyo, a special operations soldier is tasked to lead his team to face this possible threat while Michael Thompson, a quantum computer engineer, works with his homebrewed AI to counter the emerging peril from within. Together with the help of a billionaire tech tycoon and a government security agent, their mission could reshape the future of humanity. |
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Gabriel's Watch (The Scrapman Trilogy, #1) by Noah Fregger It is the darkest chapter of our civilization. Ten years after the global fallout, teetering on the edge of extinction, a man is fighting for survival. As the threat of inner-city violence spans outward, Miles Stone is left to his own ingenuity, along with the gifts of his unique partner, Alice. Together they begin to construct a weapon designed by the genius of old. But what horrors might await them upon its completion? This is his personal account of the events that will forever alter the fate of humanity |
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Fulcrum: The Globur Incursion Book 1 by D Rebbitt John Forest was famous. His intervention piloting an experimental fighter at the Battle of the Markus Nebula turned the tide against the Globurs and made him a hero. That was over 20 years ago. Now, he is recently retired and trying to settle into his new life on Earth. The imperial senate called the war and ongoing skirmishes an "incursion." Globurs probe for weakness and attack without mercy. In the interstellar space along the rim frontier, fleet outposts and patrolling task forces continue to defend humanity in a stalemate that has lasted decades. Now, the stalemate has been broken. The lives of billions are at risk. An intractable enemy, a desperate mission, and a shocking secret. Fulcrum reveals, new worlds and new technology in humankind's first contact with sentient alien life. |
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Mendel's Ladder (The Collected Histories of Neoevolution Earth, #1) by E. S. Fein In 2099, Earth is unrecognizable. Ravaged by climate change, nuclear devastation, and other cataclysmic events, the planet and its people continue to undergo radical changes in order to survive. Most of humanity has allowed themselves to be transformed into Nomads, bizarre human-plant hybrids who continue their lifecycle as flesh-bearing trees connected to a vast mycelial network that forms Earth’s burgeoning consciousness. Welcome to the thrilling, action-packed, and emotionally compelling world of Mendel's Ladder , the first book in the epic sci-fi series, The Collected Histories of Neoevolution Earth. Battling across the world after the destruction of their home, a pair of cybernetically enhanced warrior women bound by love and loyalty clash with Mutants, Biofreaks, and various other dangers to protect two human-like girls known as the Virus and the Cure. Traveling alongside them is an enigmatic Nomad who has served as the girls’ protector since they were created. Together, they must face the enslaved Hunter and the ruthless Huntress, lethal creations of the old world. The Hunter just wants to save the human woman he loves and lost, while the Huntress desires only to continue the Eternal Hunt and eradicate the final bastions of humanity remaining on Earth. Above this unforgiving landscape, the utopian space station Astrea offers refuge to the select few who escaped Earth's devastation. Here, a tireless worker and son of a notorious revolutionary, discovers the harrowing truths hidden beneath the veneer of Astrea's idyllic existence, exposing a reality more insidious than anyone ever imagined. While these characters' paths intersect in surprising and explosive ways, ancient powers lurk in the shadows, wielding god-like influence and potentially orchestrating the fate of the world itself. With societies and cultures on the brink of collapse, our heroes must form unexpected alliances and confront their deepest fears to protect their fragile world from the encroaching darkness. Mendel's Ladder delivers an adrenaline-fueled journey set on a dystopian future Earth, brimming with high-stakes action, adventure, and mystery. This epic series opener plunges readers into a world filled with diverse cultures, heart-pounding battles, and characters who will captivate your heart and imagination. |
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Memoirs of a Synth: Gold Record by Leigh Saunders Tour guide, emissary, diplomat, thief -- and a long-lived, genetically engineered Synth -- Brianna Rei travels the Hundred Worlds, hiding in plain sight. She knows her survival depends on staying one step ahead of the bounty hunters who have nearly exterminated her kind. All that changes when she teams up with fellow-thief, Jerrold McKell, and he discovers Brianna's true identity. Now Brianna must choose between trust and survival, and what it means to be truly human. |
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Medusa Falling (Cosmic Shores #1; Amaranthe #20) by G.S. Jennsen * A stand-alone adventure set in the Amaranthe universe * “Can I ask where we’re going?” “Someplace safe…as safe as anywhere on this broken, fallen world can be.” A first contact encounter isn't supposed to kick off with a dead body. Ambassador Marlee Marano has been dispatched to Belarria as part of a Concord initiative to meet new species and build alliances. But when an assassin murders her counterpart in front of her eyes and takes her hostage, she is plunged into an alien world on the brink of collapse. With no way to contact Concord or get offworld, Marlee’s only allies may be a shadowy band of rebels with a questionable agenda steeped in government conspiracies, mysterious genetic experiments and bloody historical grievances that threaten to boil over. The rightness of their cause is the least of her concerns, though, for she finds herself wanted for murder and hunted by all sides. Medusa Falling is a heart-pumping sci-fi adventure that will take you on a roller-coaster ride of twists and turns as Marlee races to uncover the secrets and lies of a captivating but deadly alien culture and find a way home. |
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Magenta Skies: Rise Of The Berserkers by J.R. Manga Our salvation may lie with the unexpected Society is on the brink of chaos , a new threat is leaving its malicious mark on the city, and because of historic events, a great and malevolent force has set its gaze upon humanity. All that stands between such perilous evil and our surviving fate is a blind young man who only lives for vengeance, and a group of mentally unstable criminals that have no reason to help us. We must entrust them with a divine power no mortal should ever possess, and we must hope they use it to safeguard us from oblivion. For we have created beings of equal dread, and such abominations should never have been made. Book 1 of the Berserker Saga |
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Lume (Lume Duology #1) by T.M. Ghent The capital city of Lume is on the brink of chaos. A newly formed underground city begins a rebellion, threatening Lume's complacent king. A Prince, content with a warm bed and a full glass, must choose between his family and his honor. A Girl, buried beneath her past, must decide whether to risk everything she has for her dreams. A Lawless, forged to be a leader among the rebels, must find a way to remain in control. They never wanted to be heroes. Ruled by old traditions, Lume is plagued with new technology it isn't ready for. In a world filled with betrayal, hard truths, and broken pasts, can Lume be saved or will it succumb to its eventual destruction? In TM Ghent's debut novel, Lume blurs the expectations of fantasy and science fiction into a creative blend featuring a new and exciting world. |
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Living Metal: Metallic Soul by Matthew Harrington A tough-as-nail Martian cop, Anna Maytrix, with the ability to control metal finds herself face to face with another of her kind, Sara Bennett who’s wanted by the government and hunted by shadowy, malevolent organization. With no memory of her past Anna navigates through a dystopian world of Mars to figure out the mystery of Living Metal program. Unknown to Sara, and Anna, another of their kind had awaken, Nakita. What she knows about them, she will keep to her grave. Because of her hatred for the two, Nakita is willing to set Mars on fire to get her revenge. Born of flesh, baptized in steel, they are what lie beyond the next stages of human evolution. Welcome to Living Metal, welcome to the rebirth. |
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Humans sheltered from the threat of extinction. Now their shelter is a prison. No one has heard of science. Priests burn books and save their sharpest daggers for people asking the wrong questions. Sensible girls stay quiet and become docile wives, but Phos doesn’t do sensible. She seeks escape, and questions smoulder inside her. Who created her world and what lies beyond its walls? Science might have answers, but the Church outlawed science thousands of years ago. A nearby windmill explodes, and Phos explores the ruins. But curiosity breeds danger, and her parents vanish along with her entire school. Now she runs from the priests - to survive she must learn how her world works. Ask the wrong question and she’ll face disaster. Stay silent and she’ll face death. |
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Legends of Galhalla: A Spark in Fate’s Hand by B.C. Licht A Spark in Fate’s Hand is the first book of three in the Legends of Galhalla series. Emma Stevenson lives in a world she fears will never understand her. So she spends her time in a world that Video games. Her latest escape is the virtual reality MMORPG, Legends of Galhalla, a fantastical world of airships and magic, but Emma doesn’t want to leave. Now thanks to an otherworldly glitch, she doesn’t have to. With millions of players trapped within the virtual confines of Galhalla, Emma is finally free… until she starts crushing on someone desperate to escape. Emma now faces a difficult Help her new friends escape the crumbling reality that is Galhalla or stay hidden away in her new home. Either way, Emma’s fate and the fate of millions rests in her hands. |
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Kwelengsen Storm: Logan's World, Book One by David M. Kelly You can turn your back on war, but sometimes it refuses to let you go. When Logan Twofeathers takes on the job of head of engineering on Kwelengsen, the first habitable planet discovered by Earth, he thinks he’s leaving conflict far behind. But when he investigates the loss of a deep-space communications relay, his ship is attacked and crash-lands back on the planet. With his new home destroyed by the invaders, Logan is stranded deep in the frozen mountains with an injured sergeant who hates him almost as much as the enemy. Against the ever-present threat of capture, he must battle his way through icy surroundings in a treacherous attempt to find his wife. And when he's forced to ally himself with a disparate group of soldiers and their uncompromising captain, Logan must face the reality that he may have lost everything—and everyone—he loves. Will he choose to fight? And what will it cost him? Kwelengsen Storm is the first in a gripping, new sci-fi thriller series from the author of the Joe Ballen novels. |
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Kizuna: Or How To Lose a Spaceship and Still Go Places by Jamie Watt Enoch is a down-on-his-luck salvage pilot who is trapped in his job, wants to go home but has nothing to go home to, and no way of affording it anyway since his best friend left him for a masseuse job on Mars. Since he'll be spending all his time in the lonely depths of space, he picks up a cheap interface for his AI so he has to someone to talk to, and on their voyage, they are kidnapped by pirates, meet a famous engineer lost in time, chase a mysterious (possibly alien) ship, and end up in the crosshairs of Earth’s monolithic, bureaucratic, and almost sociopathically uncaring System Navy. |
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Joy and the Intergalactic Librarian by Alex Idris Thomas Joy Pritchard is scared of the black dog that lives inside her dad. It’s not a real black dog of course, she looked in his mouth once to check. But it makes him very sad and angry a lot of the time. So when she discovers someone who can help, she leaps at the chance. The only problem is that someone is an alien psychiatrist called Larson Wix who has lost his memory. Oh, and he’s also trapped inside a book. Also did I mention the book is being hunted by mysterious alien forces intent on destroying the book and anyone who knows about it? Luckily Joy has some help in the form of a short grey space librarian called Steve (a strange name for an alien I agree). With him she goes on a desperate adventure to the Great Space Library meeting many friends and enemies on the way. Will Joy discover the secrets hidden inside the ancient book and the key to helping the black dog in her dad? |
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Mind Over Antimatter by Rose Green Thirteen-year-old Cole Uribe can’t believe his luck when an invention contest wins him top security clearance. His pose as the grandson of inventor Nicolás Araya and find Araya’s plans for a micro-black-hole-powered storage device—before Alzheimer’s erases Araya’s mind for good. Only…Cole’s not the only kid claiming to be Marcelo Araya. And one of them is telling the truth. Can a real grandson, a fake grandson, a nosy neighbor girl, and the greatest mind ever to lose brain cells be a match for a top-secret, most ruthless organization? Ages 9-12. |
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Minimum Safe Distance by X. Ho Yen First contact was nothing like we imagined.Can the aliens save Earth? Should they?With the Earth teetering on recovery from humanity's 21st century mistakes, two highly advanced aliens observing from the Moon are suddenly on opposite sides of an ethical battle over a dire cosmic threat. As governments seek to destroy them, the aliens wrestle and scheme, entangling all of humanity as they influence and empower specific humans to achieve their contrary objectives. Among them are a brilliant AI expert who has channeled her autism in the service of science, and a violent, anti-secular zealot who hates everything she stands for. Drawn into the conflict, Laurence and Matt must reach minimum safe distance from human nature itself – their own, the rest of humanity’s, and of the former-human, techno-demon ‘monstas’. Chased into the ruins of the US, they struggle to distill the meaning of personhood, discover the value of their own lives, and in so doing decide the fate of the solar system. |
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Mission of the Ro'arck by Ericka Evren Archaria has stood for millennia. But nothing lasts forever. The Archarian Alliance is under attack. A merciless enemy has emerged with technology and weapons that rival their own. Their vendetta is destroy the Alliance. The Archarian council selects Kaytrix to command their best starship, the Ro’arck , to defend the Alliance, but there’s another reason they chose him. During the rising chaos, Kaytrix uncovers a deadly secret, one that could destroy Archaria and the Alliance before the enemy has a chance to. Kaytrix is eager to prove his worth, but can he sacrifice his morality for his dream? This novel contains scenes of violence and language not suitable for young audiences. Readers be advised. |
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Seventeen-year-old Kindle Kerr has been in deep mourning ever since a car crash took her family. To keep them close, she continues the family tradition of puppetry. That is until she's abducted by aliens and turned into a puppet herself--with strings made from her own skin. Now Kindle spends her time mining a mysterious golden substance whenever her strings are pulled by the Puppeteer--her puppet-obsessed alien overlord. But Kindle has an advantage. While the other puppets fall into a nightly coma, she doesn't. Instead, she develops a plan to meet with her captor because it's time Kindle pulled the strings in her life for once. |
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Prompt Excursion by Lewis S. Kingston An injured officer awakes on a heavily damaged military spaceship. Her memory is impaired. No one answers her calls. The ship is out of control. They are dying, adrift, the chance of rescue shrinking by the second. Clinging to the few positive thoughts she can remember, she fights to survive, to restore order, to bring the ship to safety. But should she? Step aboard the Prompt Excursion and find out what's at stake in this high-tension Sci-Fi story that’s packed with mystery, technology, and adventure. We all make choices. Hers might kill you. |
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Project Valhalla by Michele Amitrani Some secrets must remain buried. In an unknown location north of the Barents Sea, a research center as tall as the Eiffel Tower hides the greatest scientific discoveries of the 21st century. The few who know of its existence call it Valhalla, but none suspect why it was built. When Dr. Selene Sato accepts a job at Valhalla for eccentric billionaire Wei Wang, she discovers more about human ingenuity than she ever thought possible. But there is a secret buried in this outpost of progress hiding a catastrophic scenario: destruction on a planetary scale never before seen in human history. Wei prepares for war as Valhalla holds the only defense capable of repelling the coming apocalypse. |
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Two brothers on opposite ends of a secret war, one fights for what is right, the other fights for survival. It’s been 200 years since the ascension of mankind, and 400 years since the multiverse split open and the apocalypse, known as the cataclysm, swept across Earth gifting humans with game-like abilities and strength. Eli and his brother grew up seeing the stars from space, living on a space station. As soon as they were old enough they joined the Aggregate, an empire of aliens who wield humanity as a weapon against all who oppose them. When a mission to stop a rebellion goes south the two brothers worlds are ripped apart by fate. Now, years later on opposing sides only one will make it alive. This book is a standalone light novel, a love letter to sci-fi LitFPS with post-apocalyptic LitRPG elements, non-linear storytelling, and multiple POVs. |
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Pirates of Mars (The Pirates Trilogy Book 2) by Chris Gerrib Mars has a pirate problem - a big one! The pirates are even attacking the Volunteer Space Rescue Service! The Service and the individuals in it have a decision to make, namely fight or give up. But it's not just the Service that must decide - pirate victim Janet Pilgrim's boyfriend was kidnapped by pirates. Does she sit on the sideline or go into action? |
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Our Vitreous Womb: Book 1-4 by Haldane B. Doyle Podgy, hairy, sex-obsessed and terrified of death, Oji Anabasi is typical for a remnant sapiens. An accidental hybrid of two ancient lineages, with no preassigned role in this bioengineered utopia, Oji searches for reasons to be wanted. Follow Oji’s extraordinary life through the eyes of his head-strong mother, irresistible wet-nurse, steadfast wife and ardent ally in this compilation of four science fiction novellas. |
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Orbem Novis by Richard Hanners Three centuries after the Orbem Novis colonists told off-Earth financiers who backed their voyage to stay away from their new home on a distant planet or face death, the Farside Corporation receives an unusual request. Two top-drawer agents are hired to locate the last descendants on Earth of the colonists’ leader and bring them to Orbem Novis. The mission, however, keeps changing as the agents travel 50 light-years to a new world teeming with strange life forms. When civil war breaks out among the colonists, the agents learn they are pawns not of the Farside Corporation but a more powerful force – an artificial intelligence that links their universe to another and the long lost mining ship Anaconda. |
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Heather Texle launches with a thrilling, non-stop, action-packed novel that is a blend of space opera adventure and sci-fi murder mystery that won the 2023 Minnesota Author Project contest in Adult Fiction. If you enjoy books with a strong female lead, a sass-talking spaceship’s computer, an annoyingly hot detective who won’t give up, and more action scenes that you can shoot a blaster at, then this book is for you! When the Department trained me to catch criminals, I never dreamed I’d become one. Agent. Suspect. Intergalactic fugitive. I was one of them until I shot my partner in self-defense. Even though the Department cleared me of wrongdoing, my co-workers didn’t agree. They turned their backs on me, so I turned my back on them. My partner’s actions never made sense. After ignoring my gut for a year, I asked my tech-genius best friend to dig into it. Now Jarrett’s gone dark, and I soon discover he’d been brutally murdered. An officer finds me standing over the body, blaster in hand. Even I admit it looks bad. There’s no way I can trust the Department to investigate further—not if I'm already the prime suspect. My only option is to run. Is it impulsive? Sure. Will having law enforcement dog me across the galaxy make life difficult? Most certainly. I’ll have to stay one step ahead of them if I want to solve Jarrett’s murder and clear my name. Doing that will require every trick the Department taught me—and a few I learned on my own. Grab it now to find out what mystery Jarrett uncovered and to what extreme Reliance will go to in order to bring her friend’s killer to justice. |
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New Yesterday by Frasier Armitage Find your past. Save your future. What if you could change everything in your life you wish you'd done differently? Fix regret? Unlock the potential of your past? That's what Adam Swann did in New Yesterday , a city where events in the present can alter history. He's living the life of his dreams, yet he can't shake a name from his mind -- the memory of a woman from a past he left behind. Who is she? And despite the dangers that remembering his former life would pose, why can't he bring himself to forget her? Adam will unearth long-buried secrets as he searches the city for clues to the woman woven through his memory, haunting his every thought. As the truth of his past drags him into a conspiracy that threatens everything he knows, he'll be forced to choose between the life of his dreams or facing the man he used to be. |
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Just six months ago the rogue android, BopLpops' grisly killing spree came to an end. Gaspar Núñez's conscience can find no relief for his part in unknowingly helping the horribly-abused 'Synth' wreak his terrible vengeance...even though it cost him his eyes. But now a desperate, dangerous path has opened up for him to seek atonement, one that will carry him all the way to Mars. Jenna Graham never saw the Darkness in BopLpops until that terrible summer night, half a year ago. She'd worshiped him every time he performed for his adoring fans, the monster within him wholly hidden from her eyes. Now chance has brought her an opportunity to confront the trauma that's haunted her all this time. Meanwhile, operatives of a shadowy anti-technological religious group have vowed to thwart their plans at any cost. NEW EYES continues the story of the critically-acclaimed Cyberpunk detective novella, MECHANICAL ERROR. A thrilling, thoughtful science fiction adventure, it crosses the space between worlds while exploring what it means to be human. |
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Mortal Mission by P.J. Skinner Will they find life on Mars, or death? When the science officer for the first mission to Mars dies suddenly, backup Hattie Fredericks gets the coveted place on the crew. But her presence on the Starship provokes suspicion when it coincides with a series of incidents which threaten to derail the mission. After a near-miss while landing on the planet, the world watches as Hattie and her fellow astronauts struggle to survive. But, worse than the harsh elements on Mars, is their growing realisation that someone, somewhere, is trying to destroy the mission. When more astronauts die, Hattie doesn’t know who to trust. And her only allies are 35 million miles away. As the tension ratchets up, violence and suspicion invade both worlds. |
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The Arachne Portal by Joan Marie Verba Their goal is to make the world a better place. One billionaires’s obsession may turn their altruism into destruction. Jay Ecklund is desperate to belong somewhere. Rejected by his family and former employer, he really needs this job as a receptionist at an up-and-coming tech corporation. He’s astonished when he discovers the all-woman staff is secretly developing a portal capable of instantaneous transport to anywhere on Earth. Thrilled to be part of a company designing innovations to help others, Jay is excited when the machine is at last operational. But he worries about it falling into the wrong hands when an ambitious billionaire hell-bent on accumulating power makes a bid to get it…at any cost. Will the portal be used as a rescue device as intended, or will a relentless manipulator warp it to a more sinister purpose? The Arachne Portal is an electrifying standalone science fiction novel. If you like fast-paced adventures, phenomenal science, and thought-provoking themes, then you’ll love Joan Marie Verba’s compelling story. |