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sci fi s-z

Sci fi is a type of speculative fiction that looks ahead and asks “what’s next?” You can also check out these subcategories (s-z):

science fantasy | silkpunk | singularity | slipstream | social sci fi | soft sci fi | solarpunk | space exploration | space opera | space western | spacepunk | spyfisteampunk | stonepunk | superheroes & villains | terraforming | teslapunk | theologicaltime travel | transhuman | transistorpunk | uplift | utopian | virtual reality | wattpunk | weird sci fi

Note: these books are currently sorted by release date, with newest first.

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Word Count: 102000

Summary: Ancient voices reveal a terrible secret: human scientists created the kresnas, devourers of life and sanity. Not only created, but also used in terrible, torturous experiments, turning them against their creators. Romenel's dilemmas pile up until he's lost in them. How can he destroy all the hordes of kresnas at once and is it morally defensible to do so? What other solution is there if humans are to survive? What should he do about the beautiful warrior, Kyliki, since he has no place in her world and she has none in his? And, hang it all, if he can resolve these things, what in blazes is he going to do about the mess of a succession war raging back home?

Obligations of Blood - Sandra C. Stixrude - Anchorage
Obligations of Blood
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Word Count: 36000

Summary:

“Wanna know what sucks most about an apocalypse? You don’t get to pick which kind you get!”

Surviving a worldwide plague can lead to unlikely alliances, especially in Hanning County.

It's hard enough for Ashley Korrs keep the tribe of young survivors alive and together, but the pressure is on to learn all she can from their unlikely sage, Toby Cracken, the handyman, before he succumbs to his mental decline. When Toby is snatched by a violent gang, Ashley must consider cozying up with old adversaries to rescue him. Adversaries like the notorious MacKenzie Tanner—a girl as manageable as a wolverine stuck in a water bucket with the lid on—and her twin outlaw boyfriends who may be the chaos needed to free Toby... if Ashley can keep the whole thing from going off the rails.

Dirty secrets are exposed as the truth comes to light in this story of small town reputations, rivalries, and survival.

“Rich with pulpy apocalyptic dysfunction, ‘gritty’ is not a raw enough description—put on your grown-up pants before taking this journey.”

Reader Advisory: This novella contains violence, explicit language, graphic sexual content, and gritty, adult situations; kinda like life.

This'N Apocalypse or Not? - CK Page
This'n Apocalypse Or Not?
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Word Count: 90000

Summary: Biology professor Roman Janz was walking across campus and planning his next plant-collecting trip to Brazil, when something stung him on the neck. And now… now he’s wandering in the dark, in the blue, floating, disembodied, and confused. There has to be a good explanation, if he can just find someone, anyone, he can actually talk to about it. Xavier Faulkner is intelligent, creative, and made millions when he sold his tech-security company. But all his wealth and skills couldn’t keep his sister Tam from being poisoned by food contamination. She lived, but her health was damaged, and her job as a cop is gone. In the antebellum house he moved them to, Xavier hopes to find both a distraction and maybe a purpose for their lives. But the old house seems to come with strange noises, and odd blue lights, and maybe― if Xavier isn’t just going crazy― a naked guy, walking away into the blue…   This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love’s Landscapes" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. Dear Author, I just moved into this old antebellum home I bought with the intentions of restoring. I often find myself awoken in the night by strange noises I cannot identify or hear during the day. At first, I think it’s just a dream… this seemingly phantom always walking away. Who is he and how can I get him to finally turn around and see me? 79,000 words

Laser Visions - Kaje Harper
Laser Visions
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Selena Dillon and her team return to Loreen after their attack on Mantis, only to find the myriad worlds of Mankind once again plunged into war. As the Penal Regiments are betrayed by the Federation of Man, and fighting spills throughout the galaxy, the dreaded Manta raise their heads once again. Selena soon finds herself trying to track down her friends’ daughter, Hope, from the rabbit holes of Loreen and then fights to free her home planet from alien invaders. While a general amnesty means previous sins are forgiven, the Queen has not forgotten Selena’s attempt on her life. Selena soon finds herself torn between obeying orders to protect the monarch, and her ravening thirst for revenge. But strange forces are stirring amidst the stars and Mankind finds itself with surprising new allies, while a terrifying enemy that’s manipulated events from behind the scenes finally reveals itself for the very first time.

The Cull of Lions - Mark Iles - Darkening Stars
The Cull of Lions
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Word Count: 15400

Summary: Space ship Lieutenant Matthew Ferris has desired Daniel Peters, his ship’s newest recruit, from the moment he saw him. But Peters is a lowly private and as the senior officer, Ferris knows he must wait for a sign that his feelings are returned before making an approach. When Peters follows him into a two-man capsule after a mission, Ferris thinks all his dreams are about to come true. What he doesn’t expect is to discover a scandal that could tear his ship apart. Some call it rough play, he calls it unacceptable. A novella in the Aurigan Space Series. Gay sci-fi romance.

Rough Play - L.V. Lloyd - Aurigan Space Saga
Rough Play
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Ten years ago, roboticist Forbes Pohle received a visit from time-traveler Oliver Lennox. “Wait for me,” Oliver said. Now a decade has come and gone, and Oliver has returned. However, Forbes never dreamed Oliver would reappear as the point man for a gang of technology thieves breaking into his lab. He finds the younger Oliver just as sexy and even more annoying; still, he must convince him their happily-ever-after is meant to be—but he only has the time it takes his robotic cat Jeepers to thwart the thieves to do it. After waiting so long, he could lose everything in the span of seconds.

The Break-in - Aidee Ladnier
The Break-In
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Word Count: 69300

Summary: Vassily Belikov, composer and pampered son of privilege, suffered neurological damage in the accident that killed his father. Resentful of being treated as an invalid, he lives as a recluse, dependent on his mother. That changes the day she brings home a new husband with two sons of his own. When deep-space pirates capture Vassily's mother, he's left to the mercy of his cruel, amoral stepfather. Fighting addiction and his physical shortcomings, he's forced to seek out the criminal mastermind Baba Yaga for a crucial piece of equipment. While she agrees to deal with him if he beats his Exoticus addiction, paranoia and mysterious intentions infuse her household. Drawn to her fierce, suspicious youngest son, certain his actions are all carefully observed, Vassily must find the courage to face both his fears and his desires if he expects to survive.

Vassily the Beautiful - Angel Martinez - Esto Universe
Vassily The Beautiful
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Word Count: 39865

Summary: The boys desperately need a vacation. With the not-quite-ill-gotten gains from the Frog incident, Shax takes the Brimstone's crew to the exclusive resort planet, Opal, for some much needed rest and relaxation. The resort has everything a demon prince and his crew could want, but an incident on the Trauma Ball court has Ness stalking off in anger and sends events swiftly spiraling out of control. ​Loving a demon isn't easy, as Ness has discovered, and harder still for a newly fallen who's still sorting out what that means. A new friend lending a sympathetic ear helps until Ness learns too late that friendship was the last thing on BJ's mind. Shax will need every bit of his cunning and his legendary luck to save his Ness as he’s drawn into a web of criminal experiments and…pink hedgehogs?

Shax's War - Angel Martinez - Brimstone
Shax's War: Brimstone 4
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: A solar powered girl. A ballerina vigilante. A boy with an alien sharing his brain. A girl with a black hole for her heart. And, a werewolf with confidence issues. This is the next generation of heroes Doc Silence has gathered together, a random collection of amazing kids he hopes to train to make the world a better place. But Silence isn't the only one collecting super-powered teenagers. In the shadows, a dark organization — long thought destroyed — has been building a better monster, combining sentient hurricanes with car crash survivors, crafting designer cyborgs, girls made of fire and boys made of pure rage. What is this mysterious organization's goal? And what does it have to do with Doc's past, and his team's future? Will Doc Silence have enough time to teach them to be heroes before they are called upon to save the world — and will his team be ready to accept the mantle as their generation's brightest stars? The Indestructibles introduces Jane, Kate, Billy, Titus, and Emily— Solar, Dancer, Straylight, Fury, and Entropy — to the world as they learn how to use their bizarre powers. Along the way, they also discover something about themselves and whether they have what it takes to save the world. Meanwhile, the mercenary Agent Black and the mysterious Rose find themselves pawns of a villainous organization who plan on changing the world, starting with the creation of a living, breathing, sentient storm system they're able to bend to their will. The Indestructibles, coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

The Indestructibles - Matthew Phillion - The Indestructibles
The Indestructibles
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Word Count: 100300

Summary: Traveling has always frightened Marya, but when the Ktar chooses her to protect the heir on his confirmation journey, she fights panic. A prophecy concerning the heir's death, ominous dreams of a mysterious city, and news that one of the heir's companions will betray him all point to disaster. Unfortunately, the discovery of the assassin's identity is only the beginning. His menace pales in comparison to the ancient evil lurking in the mountains. When Marya is trapped and the men with her enslaved, she is faced with two choices: surrender to the alien being who offers her power, or ally with the handsome assassin she sought to thwart. One way she loses her soul, the other she may lose her heart.

Marya - Dandra Stixrude - Anchorage
Marya
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Word Count: 31368

Summary:

While Shax recovers from a near fatality, his shipmates have been busy. He's rather proud of them for taking the initiative and finding them a lucrative cargo run. His pride turns to outright horror, though, when he finds out what sort of cargo. Frogs. The one thing in the universe that incites mindless panic in Shax. Unfortunately, he also soon discovers that a healthy fear of frogs doesn't prevent frog-driven disasters.

An unlikely series of overlapping mishaps hurls the Brimstone back to an even more unlikely point in history for a couple of demons and a fallen angel in a spaceship. Somehow they need to repair and refuel, and puzzle out how to get home. Time travel has never been so messy.

Fear of Frogs - Angel Martinez - Brimstone
Fear Of Frogs: Brimstone 3
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Word Count: 80000

Summary: Celebrate those who light a candle in the darkness in this compelling and eye-opening tale. Teddie is into country music, her old pick-up truck and getting through high school with as little drama as possible. Yet somehow her best friend, Michelle, talks her into spending a semester in Darjeeling, India. The thrilling adventure turns treacherous when she uncovers a seedy underworld in which young women are bartered and sold—including her friends. As she fights to understand a depravity she never dreamed existed, a stranger makes her an unexpected offer. He will train her to find her missing friends, but she will need to have trust in abilities she barely believes exist and more courage than she ever thought she could summon. And there will be no going back. Given the choice between this and abandoning her friends to their horrifying fate, the decision is simple. She must rise to the challenge. But how can she be a superhero when she doesn’t know what her power is? (Layers of Light is part a collection of interrelated stand-alone novels. It contains some non-graphic mature content and references to human trafficking and the sex trade.)

Layers of Light - S.R. Cronin - 46. Ascending
Layers of Light
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Escaped lunatics, lost children, vengeful lords, and love. Really, the situation is becoming quite impossible. Left alone after the Arabian Bubble financial disaster, Lady Claire Trevelyan now leads the cleverest group of gamblers and reformed cutpurses in the London underworld. The lightning rifle she took from a rival gang contains a unique source of energy—and its inventor has been locked up in Bedlam by powerful men in order to suppress its very existence. In order for Lady Claire to understand it, she must consult with the mad scientist ... even if it means breaking her out of the most frightening institution in London. Then, in a moment of madness, she becomes engaged to Lord James Selwyn, who knows nothing of her double life. He expects her to be the perfect hostess to the rich investors interested in his and Andrew Malvern's Kinetick Carbonator. But how can Andrew stand by and watch Claire marry someone she does not love?

Her Own Devices - Shelley Adina - Magnificent Devices
Her Own Devices
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Word Count: 90681

Summary: In an America that might have been, two war orphans from a divided nation, one in the north and one in the south, meet across a vast battlefield, striking out to forge a future together in the west. It's 1892, the fourth and bloodiest year of the Civil War. The North and the South are spent, bled white with struggle across a battlefield strewn with machinery and bodies. In the west is the mother lode, Kay's legacy from her father, The Rose mine. Can they find it -- and can they leave the war behind?

The Rose of the West - Mark Bondurant
The Rose of the West
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Word Count: 23000

Summary: Shax, the Demon Prince of Thieves, has reconciled himself to exile. He has a grand time careening around the galaxy as a high-end, intergalactic purloiner of pretties. Everything's going just fine, thank you very much. All right, fine, the anti-gravity cows are a bit problematic and some of his buyers are bad for his health, but he manages until he comes across an injured angel in a psychedelic alien jungle. He only rescues the wing boy for his golden feathers, but what Shax doesn’t know about angels could fill an intergalactic encyclopedia. Ness, since his full, angelic name is too much to deal with, is shockingly naïve and seems convinced that Shax and Verin have brought him aboard to torture him or perhaps eat him. Little by little, Shax begins to earn his trust in the quest to wheedle a golden feather or two from him until to Shax's dismay, the yearning after pretties becomes a different sort of yearning entirely.

Hell for the Company - Angel Martinez - Brimstone
Hell For The Company: Brimstone 2
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: An air voyage to remember turns into a disaster no one may survive. With her orphaned charges, Lady Claire Trevelyan joins Earl Dunsmuir’s family on an airship voyage to the Americas. If she can stay out of Lord James Selwyn’s way until her eighteenth birthday, she will be of age and cannot be forced into marriage. What she doesn’t know is that Lord James is in the Americas, too, with Andrew Malvern closing in on him—and the wonderful device he stole. But when a storm cripples the airship and air pirates swoop in like carrion birds, Claire and the children must live by their wits to make their way across a harsh landscape. Will Andrew ever see her again and right the wrong he believes he has done? Will Lord James succeed in his monumental thievery? And how exactly does Rosie the chicken evade the soup pot?

Magnificent Devices - Shelley Adina
Magnificent Devices
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: A lady of resources has the power to change the world—if she can stay alive long enough to do it. Lady Claire Trevelyan had been looking forward to glittering balls, congenial society, and relief from pursuit during her stay with Lord and Lady Dunsmuir in the Canadas. Though being pursued by a handsome airship captain is rather satisfying, especially when it appears Andrew Malvern is becoming distracted by a certain blond mechanic. But a shot fired in the night puts an end to such diversions, and instead plunges her and her orphaned band of children into a fight for their very survival. Between secret conversations at the highest levels of society and skullduggery in the diamond mines, Claire must discover who is behind the attempts on her friends’ lives—before her mother is compelled to make funeral arrangements yet again.

Brilliant Devices - Shelley Adina - Magnificent Devices
Brilliant Devices
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family ... or can you? Now sixteen, Lizzie and Maggie are educated young ladies who have not been called “the Mopsies” in years … except by their guardian, Lady Claire Trevelyan. With the happy prospect of choosing their own future, the girls can leave their dodgy past behind, and Lizzie can bury her deepest childhood memories where they can do no harm. But is she ready to be separated from Maggie and become the woman she believes she was meant to be? Or will old habits tempt her into defiance—like picking the wrong man’s pocket—and plunge her into disaster? But sometimes disaster leads to dreams coming true—dreams of family and a place in the world. Lizzie must decide whether her true family is the one she was born to … or the one she chose long ago when the Lady of Devices steamed into their lives …

A Lady of Resources - Shelley Adina - Magnificent Devices
A Lady of Resources
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family … or can you? Under normal circumstances, Maggie and Lizzie would be delighted to meet their long-lost relatives and be reunited with those who had believed them dead, but when are the Mopsies’ circumstances ever normal? With her half-brother Claude Seacombe, Lizzie travels to Cornwall to meet her mother’s parents. Maggie goes along, too, since she is part of the family … or so one might assume. But the more time she spends in her grandparents’ clifftop mansion, the more she realizes that something is not right, and the events surrounding her own mother’s death are more mysterious—and dangerous—than anyone alive suspects. For an old nemesis is preying on the weak and proud, and she cannot stand by and watch. Maggie must straighten her spine, plunge into danger for Lizzie’s sake … and prove that no matter the name she bears, she is first and foremost what the Lady of Devices believes her to be … a lady of spirit.

A Lady of Spirit - Shelley Adina - Magnificent Devices
A Lady of Spirit
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: When Selena Dillon is caught in an assassination attempt on her planet’s ruler, she finds herself sentenced to twenty-five years servitude in the most feared military force, the Penal Regiments. Much to her surprise she enjoys the harsh military life and is quickly selected for officer training. But something’s wrong, worlds are falling silent. There’s no cry for help and no warning, just a sudden eerie silence. When a flotilla of ships is despatched to investigate they exit hyperspace to find themselves facing a massive alien armada. Outnumbered and outgunned the flotilla fight a rear-guard action, allowing one of their number to slip away and warn mankind. As worlds fall in battle, and mankind’s fleets are decimated, Selena is selected to lead a team of the Penal Regiment’s most battle-hardened veterans, in a last ditch attempt to destroy the aliens’ home world. If she fails mankind is doomed. Little does Selena know that one of her crew is a psychopathic killer and another is the husband of his victim. Can she hold her team together, get them to their target and succeed in the attack? Selena knows that if she fails then there will be nothing at all left to go home to.

A Pride of Lions - Mark Iles - Darkening Stars
A Pride of Lions
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