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 | spyfi | steampunk | stonepunk | superheroes & villains | terraforming | teslapunk | theological | time travel | transhuman | transistorpunk | uplift | utopian | virtual reality | wattpunk | weird sci fi
Note: these books are currently sorted by release date, with newest first.
Word Count: 16500
Summary: Spaceship Captain Luke Matthews has kept his sexuality a secret. What happens when the crew finds out? Is Lieutenant Kent as straight as he always believed? Will he hit him or kiss him, or both?
Word Count: 96000
Summary: Three women, two planets, and a whale. For Marianne Woolsey, linguist and tutor, being empathically bonded to the leader of the Tolari turns out to be a bed of roses – complete with thorns. Especially thorns. With diplomatic relations severed and humans kicked out of Tolari space, the Earth Fleet ship Alexander is gone … for now … but Earth Central Command hasn’t given up trying to get Marianne back. As she struggles with surprises, nightmares, and a bond-partner who can’t be tamed, she just wants to figure out where she fits in a society that isn’t quite human. Laura Howard, the Admiral’s widow, only desires to be left in peace to gather the fragments of a shattered heart, but Central Command has plans for her, too. Meanwhile, the Sural’s apothecary is a serene and gifted healer who knows what – and who – she wants. Circumstances have conspired to deny her the man she’s always loved, but in the pursuit of his heart, she has an unexpected ally – in the depths of Tolar’s oceans. Daughters of Suralia is a sweet scifi romance.
Word Count: 80000
Summary: Uncover the startling truth before time runs out in this complex search for an ancient treasure. Alex is a former basketball player who has always been able to bend time. These days he teaches physics and parents three quirky children alongside his unusual wife. When the administration at his high school wants to resume its connection with organized hate groups, Alex can no longer remain the quiet bystander. He must stand up and fight for what he believes is right. Just when he has his hands full at school, Alex is drawn into a treasure hunt. An old high school rival and a handful of his grad students lost an obsidian box years ago containing partial directions to a big discovery. The box has mysteriously reappeared and Alex's code-cracking skills can help locate hidden relics containing remaining clues to the treasure. But can he do it fast enough to beat another unknown team of treasure seekers? As both of Alex's situations grow more dire, it becomes clear he must tap into the abilities he left behind. Can he manipulate time for the people and causes he cares about most?
Word Count: 24000
Summary: 1915. Teddy Roosevelt is building an empire. Only Pancho Villa stands in his way. The American Expeditionary Force under the command of General "Black Jack" Pershing has invaded Northern Mexico. Pancho Villa leads his revolutionary army in a desperate raid against the American force only to be outflanked. Just as Pershing's airships prepare to deliver the death blow, Pancho Villa is transported to a parallel Earth where he finds an unexpected ally and the technology that might just turn defeat into victory. Revolution of Air and Rust is a stand-alone novella set in the Empires of Steam and Rust world created by Robert E. Vardeman and Stephen D. Sullivan. A story filled with military action, espionage and gadgetry that's sure to satisfy fans of steampunk and alternate history.
Word Count: 41099
Summary: Terra is overcrowded, but a solution may have been found -- tucked away in Roswell is alien technology that leads to the creation of a method of space travel known as portaling . A party of soldiers and scientists led by Dr. Emma Bradley, Colonel John Berger, and Dr. Layton Tremayne are about to take what they believe is the first step into the unknown. But what they discover is not only a wonder but a puzzle. The city of Eden on the distant planet Nibiru has obvious Terran influences. Who was there before them? When Emma, John, and Layton return to Terra, they're dismayed to find things are even worse than they were when the trio left. The atmosphere is on the verge of toxicity and the population is reaching Malthusian proportions. Worse, there are plans afoot to portal the excess population off Terra to planets which may not be what their new inhabitants expect. Most won't survive. Then they learn that a platoon of soldiers were portaled to Eden for a planned invasion of Nibiru and the surrounding planets. Emma, John, and Layton scramble to stop the military action, but will they be able to take back the city that’s become their home?
Word Count: 67000
Summary: Winner of the 2013 PRISM Award for Futuristic Romance When Earth Central Command tells you to travel 24 light-years to a long-term assignment you never asked for, you go. High school teacher Marianne Woolsey has no choice but leave her hometown in rural Iowa to spend 26 years teaching the daughter of an alien ruler so humanlike that she has to keep telling herself that he is just her boss. Handsome, deadly, and far older than he looks, the Sural finds himself drawn to the tutor he requested from Earth. He cannot reveal anything to her that he wants to conceal from the spacefaring races of the Interstellar Trade Alliance, but he cannot stay away from her. As their friendship grows, so does his conviction that she is hiding something from him. This first novel in the Tales of Tolari Space series explores what can happen when you put an unsuspecting human on a planet of empaths.
Word Count: 80000
Summary: Sail the Pacific in this mystery adventure where things are not always as they appear. Zane, a young man who can change his physical appearance, is starting his first job at Penthes Pharmaceuticals. It's nothing like what he expects. Soon he is drawn into a world of corporate secrets and dangerous knowledge. But the deceptions are only beginning. Sent on a sales trip to the South Pacific, Zane finds new friends with abilities as surprising as his own. Too bad an unsolved murder sends them all fleeing, as issues from back home threaten to destroy lives half a world away. Can Zane use his unique talents to unravel the mysteries he's encountered? Can he find love in a world so different from his own? More importantly, can he find out who framed his friend for murder before it's too late?
Word Count: 78600
Summary: What can you do when a computer virus starts infecting people? For years, a virus that targets cybernetics has plagued people with any sort of computerized implant in their bodies. It is untraceable, unpredictable, 100% fatal and infecting more people every day. Politics tore apart Project Requiem, a highly-funded military endeavor meant to create an antivirus to save humanity. A ragtag group of programmers and visionaries is trying to pick up where Requiem left off, but their resources are limited, they're hounded by the army and corporate mercenaries and a key engineer with the only remaining copy of the antivirus is missing. As the virus grows more powerful by the day, all they can do is hope that they can finish before it becomes powerful enough to attack the entire city at once.
Word Count: 86000
Summary: Regan has her ups and downs. -Dumping her girlfriend: Down. -Moving in with her loving brother: Up. -Waking up to a plague of undead: REALLY down. After the undead began roaming the neighborhood, Regan lost track of her brother. She’s spent the last two years searching for him. In the meantime, she’s fallen in love, only to be told, “Sorry, I’m straight. And you’re a lunatic.” There’s a psycho out there somewhere who caused the outbreak, using nanotechnology, just for the fun of it, and Regan intends to hunt him down. Oh, and the crush she still has on the straight gal? Dangerously distracting, when there’s a zombie around every corner.
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Summary: Spaceship captain Tom lost his copilot and lover to a slipstream accident, but he refuses to accept Briak is dead. As he loses himself to his obsession, his ship begins to exhibit technical glitches and personality traits not normal for a shipboard computer. It gets worse as Tom finds a new pilot and decides to manipulate the slipstream to go back in time and stop the accident from happening. But if Tom can’t figure out the problem, the space-time jumps may tear the ship—and his dreams of reunion with Briak—apart.
Word Count: 80000
Summary: Celebrate the superhero in each of us in this unique exploration of the connections we forge. A young Nigerian telepath faces a crisis when her sister is forced into a frightening marriage, then disappears. Once Somadina cannot locate her sibling’s thoughts, she seeks another telepath to help. What she finds is Lola, a busy Texan scientist who has ignored the disturbing phenomenon in her mind for decades, and has no intention of embracing this nonsense now. Yet these two women have more in common than they know, and a powerful link will be forged. When Somadina discovers her sister is a pawn in a dangerous political game, the stakes rise for everyone, including an ancient organization of telepaths compelled to intervene. For both women are stronger than they realize, and they have ignited the wrath of a fanatic willing to kill anyone to alter his nation’s future.
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Summary: It's her first job...and it's already going wrong. Freshly graduated from university with a degree in engineering, Crystal approaches her placement on the wormhole-constructive ship Crossing Paths with nothing but enthusiasm. But while Crystal gets used to the ins and outs of a multispecies, multicultural ship, tension brews both at work and back home. Not murdering her coworker Jai is hard enough; the last thing she needs are the terrifying errors cropping up on her maps. Reality and space are either tearing themselves apart - or someone else is attacking them. With conspiracies lurking everywhere, friendship won't be enough to see her through these dangerous new problems... Fans of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series will enjoy this sometimes joyful, sometimes dark personal adventure set in a world of politics, bureaucracy - and piracy.
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Summary: When young paleontologist, Ryan Thompson, finds a new species of mosasaur in Cretaceous seaway sediments, he is thrilled. The discovery should jumpstart his career. Joy quickly turns to fear when he touches an artifact buried among the sea reptile’s ribs. Suddenly, he must fight a mental takeover by an alien intelligence committed to transforming the Earth into a refuge for her own race. As Ryan and his girlfriend, Skeets, attempt to thwart alien plans to colonize Earth begun in the deep past, even this crisis becomes trivial. The uneasy symbiosis of Ryan and the alien, Siu, generates a new entity with the power to transform the entire universe.
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Summary: All she wants is to be an engineer, but her parents—and society—will never allow it. Until riots break out in steampunk London and she seizes her chance... It’s 1889, and Claire Trevelyan is expected to do nothing more with her life than catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, her talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the laboratory, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine despite the fact that everyone knows the world runs on steam, Claire finds herself out in the street with nothing to her name but her steam landau and her second best hat. But the embarrassments of her old life just might be the talents that save her now ... and it’s not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices… If you like old-fashioned adventure, brave young women, clever children, and strong-willed chickens, you’ll love the Magnificent Devices series. Fangs for the Fantasy says Claire is “a wonderful main character (one of my favourites in the genre)” and the series has “a great sense of Victorian style and language that’s both fun and beautiful to read.” With Lady of Devices, you can begin the adventure today!
Word Count: 120412
Summary: Sarah's got daddy issues. He lives in her head, built her out of fish, and killed millions of people. But he's really sorry. Honest. A father that lives in your head wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't the killer of millions. At least it's comforting to know that he didn't murder the fishes used to create your body. Or the seagull. Sarah hides her illegal nanite origins in an effort to build an ordinary life, but the legacy of dad's horrors makes it difficult. Especially when new but familiar zombie-like abominations begin to appear in the city.
Word Count: 109700
Summary: Cassidy needed a fresh start, and the offer of a guard posting for a historic temple in the middle of the desert sounded like a good way to clear her head. She didn't expect to find a new girlfriend- maybe even a soul mate. She didn't expect to be in the crossfire of a terrorist, a cowardly scientist, and a fleet of microscopic invaders. She didn't expect to lose. In the years after Lifehack and the Erebus incident, the world settles into relative quiet under strict nanite bans, but underground activity keeps dangerous nano-tech alive and well. (Although Watching Yute is a complete tale within the Lifehack series, it chronologically takes place between Lifehack and Echoes of Erebus.)
Word Count: 99837
Summary: Race, an ex-cop private eye in a world where most people are conditioned so that they cannot commit an act of violence, must release a savage artificial personality, Ralf, that was implanted in him when he did a deep-cover mission as a police officer, to rescue Astra, the woman he secretly loves, from the crime syndicates who have used a drug to turn her into a sex slave. Race succeeds at the cost of the crime syndicates discovering that Ralph is still alive. The syndicates want their assassin back and think nothing of toppling Race’s sanity to achieve their ends. Can Race maintain control of his body? Freed of the drug’s effect, will Astra return his affections? And what of Ralph, can a sociopath learn to love and what changes might that bring?
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Summary: Can a vampire learn to love a human? Adrianna never expected to meet the beautiful Heather, a young woman that loves fresh air, dances in the rain, and likes her heartbeat regular. Oh, and is as human as they come. Torn between her duty and her feelings, Adrianna struggles to find a place for the human girl in vampire society. In a cage or in her heart? — My Own Human is the first book in the completed Lesbian My Own Human Duology.
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Summary: When the shares Nicolas’s family rely on become worthless, he seeks help from their estranged Uncle Secundus Broadberry—a selfish man with no familial loyalty. Forced to live in a veritable hovel, Nicolas and his sister must find work to support themselves and their mother. Through his uncle, Nicolas meets Rufus Melbeck and accepts a post aboard his spaceship Strawberry Fields. Although the ship gives Nicolas a bad feeling, he quickly makes friends with Nathan Smith, a gentle, young man who seems very much out of place. Nothing and no one aboard the vessel are what they seem. Nicolas soon finds himself plunged into a dangerous adventure the likes of which he could never have imagined. Can Nicolas and Nathan survive the dangers of Strawberry Fields and solve the mystery that surrounds Nathan, or will Nathan's past reach out to destroy them both?
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Summary: Each unique short story in this supernatural anthology will transport you to a magical interpretation of romance as authors bring to life, uncommon love affairs and out of the ordinary long distance relationships. Escape into the realms of eroticism, fan fiction fables, intergalactic intimacies, lunar love, mythical fantasy, and past lives revisited. Is it fate, is it destiny or is it one of those defining moments where the universe comes to a screeching halt as an epic love appears?
