sci fi – space opera

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Summary: Stranded in deep space ... but at least they have donuts. When a warp engine malfunction spits them out in a distant corner of the galaxy, Lem and the crew of the Teapot seek refuge with the robotic catering staff of a backwater space station. With their ship out of action and comms offline, all they can do is wait for rescue … and enjoy the best snacks this side of the Oort Cloud. But when a spacefaring bounty hunter crashes the party in search of a dangerous runaway shapeshifter, Lem makes a terrible realisation – one of her friends may be an impostor. With suspicions rising and accusations flying, they need to smoke out the faker. But in a subtle game of trickery and subterfuge, there’s no telling if the shapeshifter will slip through their fingers. As tensions boil over, who is safe to trust? And when the Teapot blasts off, will everyone on board be who they claim to be? Gear up for a fun and fantastical intergalactic misadventure –  because Lem and the gang are back in the fourth book of the Starship Teapot series! For anyone who enjoys the idea of being scared more than the reality, Frozen Heck is what happens when John Carpenter’s The Thing collides with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

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Summary: Half a century before Ray M. Holler sets off for the stars for the first time, a chance encounter near Neptune forever changes not only the course of human history but that of the entire Galaxy. Colonel Milan Pavel is a highly decorated officer in the Visegrád Union Navy, serving his last few months in command of the Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the flagship of the VU’s Third Fleet. When an alien ship appears near Neptune, he initially dismisses it as an elaborate pre-retirement prank by his crew, but he is quickly proven wrong. The situation escalates rapidly as it turns out that the ship is on the run from a powerful enemy who is not far behind. Colonel Pavel has a decision to make: Either follow protocol and leave the aliens to their cruel fate, or risk his ship and crew in an attempt to save them.

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Summary: Another spaceship, another explosion. Harold Galahad would love to wake from this particular nightmare that is so eerily similar to the events that cost him his beloved wife and destroyed his soul. But the only way out is by saving the ship and its entire crew. If you ask Harold Galahad, he isn’t fit to lead a crew or command a ship. But nobody is asking Harry. Instead, he finds himself back on the bridge, on a ship stranded in space, no help in sight, only kept alive by remnants of a gradually failing life support system. His crew? A nurse running out of tentacles and eyes to care for all the wounded, a chief engineer who knows all about her systems but struggles with people, a chief of security who thinks everything can be solved with paragraphs from the Company’s handbook, a cursing chief of logistics, an anxiety-ridden communications officer, and a first officer who stays mysterious and feigns ignorance. This ship needs a captain to avert a complete disaster that includes the death of everyone on board. Can Galahad overcome his trauma? Can he find solutions where there are none? And worst of all, can he unravel all the mysteries surrounding the ship, its crew and the system they all work for? If you enjoy a complex tale that brings a human element to all species that travel space, combined with a multi-layered mystery, and starring a broken hero, Herald Petrel by Strange Seawolf will deliver. Warning: contains adult language and a considerable amount of swearing -- it is a cargo space ship in a desperate situation, after all.

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Summary: The fate of Lida looms. Agetha thought her fate was sealed, pushed to the edge of the colony to die. But with the revelation that the biomass is not only intelligent, but sentient, changes to colony are accelerating, threatening its very existence. Those who were controlled by the biomass once again have free will. Now, the human colonists are raising their voices and for the first time really influencing their new home. The planet-wide consciousness is slipping into a crisis of identity, when it doesn’t even have a sense of self. The wilds surrounding the colony are becoming increasingly unstable, and the colonists find themselves divided into those who have been touched by the biomass and those who are still wholly human. Can one small colony survive its inner conflicts as well as the titanic might of an entire planet?

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Summary: Tria and Resa have shared the same body since they were born. Like everyone on their home planet of Kinaru, their mind and body are divided down the middle: the logical right and the emotional left. Tria, the right, has a budding career as a biologist, while Resa dreams of more freedom than their home planet grants her.   When aliens land on Kinaru, Tria and Resa seize the opportunity to be the first of their people to travel to the stars. Karnath, the alien scientist assigned to study them, is convinced there is more to the Kinaru than meets the eye. But only days into the trip, crew members start turning up dead, and a mutiny redirects the ship toward a forbidden, war-torn planet—Earth.   To solve a conspiracy that threatens three planets, Tria must find out the truth of who her people really are, and Resa needs to finally tell Tria the dark secrets she's been hiding all their lives.

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Summary: Ray M. Holler is an interstellar shipping freelancer, expert smuggler, and an occasional thief with a troubled past which means that his life is far from the boring, mundane exploits of your average denizen of the Orion-Sagittarius Union, a political alliance of intelligent species inhabiting the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, more often than not, he finds himself up to his neck in situations that require wit, courage, and a decent amount of luck to maneuver out of in one piece. Throughout his adventures in a universe where a safe, peaceful life is possible but not guaranteed, Ray gets to meet a variety of interesting individuals, make new friends, reunite with old acquaintances, and maybe—just maybe—face his own demons. All Quiet In the Milky Way: Ray M. Holler’s Adventures vol. 1 brings forth five stories, accompanied by an equal amount of side vignettes. This collection will take you on an exciting journey to remote worlds that, in some aspects, may not be all that dissimilar from the one we live in today.

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Summary: Unseen by human eyes, something sinister is attacking the inner solar system. In his third clone incarnation, Joe has dedicated his life to two unwavering pursuits: the hunt for the elusive Tanakhai starships and the construction of a colossal war fleet. His mission - to protect humanity from the inevitable alien onslaught he believes is coming. An alien fleet suddenly enters the solar system, and the fate of humanity once again hangs in the balance. Positioned beyond Jupiter's orbit, the Fleet of Humanity stands ready, expecting an all-out battle. But, to everyone's shock, the alien intruders don't attack. Instead, four of their enigmatic vessels vanish, leaving the rest in an eerie stalemate. What is their true agenda? Humanity soon discovers the grim truth—a catastrophic crisis unfolds on Mercury and Venus, threatening the very existence of all human worlds. Time is running out, and the stakes have never been higher. "FALCON'S BANE" is the thrilling conclusion to the multi-award winning Falcon Trilogy, by author Mike Waller. Join the indomitable Joe Falcon as he faces humanity's greatest and most relentless adversary in a final showdown that will leave you breathless.

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Summary: Cmd. Boone knows he works for the bad guy. He knows the warlord wants to end humankind. And he knows his treachery—hiding the warlord's rival—means death. His plan: escape with the warlord's weapon. But his superiors are catching on, and the rival fleet isn't as receptive as he'd hoped. And worse: the weapon has a reckless agenda of her own. Multi-award winning space opera. Full of page-turning action, epic space battles, twists & biological magic.

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Summary: RISE (noun / verb) Eight definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) An upward slope or movement 2) A beginning or origin 3) An increase in amount or number 4) An angry reaction 5) To take up arms 6) To return from death 7) To become heartened or elated 8) To exert oneself to meet a challenge Rise features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

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Summary: A damaged ship, a dying shipmate–can she save both? Under attack! The flight back to Hyvilma should have been the easy part for the crew of the Majera–until a deadly ambush by pirates sends them reeling through hyperspace. Now getting to the planet in time is the only way Captain Kitra Yilmaz can save her dying friend. But landing at Hyvilma may be impossible: war has broken out on the Frontier. With illustrations by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.

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Summary: In a world of frock coats, solar sails, and rigid class boundaries, a young Martian noble seeks her fortune as a midshipman of the Imperial Navy. Mars and Earth are at war, and Lucy hopes for quick promotion. But when she arrives aboard ship, she finds harsh officers and a crew on the verge of mutiny. And worse: among the crew is her former friend, Moira—a commoner and a radical. It’s clear where Lucy’s duty lies. As an officer and a gentlewoman, she has to quell the crew’s rebellion and preserve her ship for the fight against Earth. But soon, she’ll have to make a decision between all she’s been taught to believe and the injustice she can see with her own eyes.

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Summary: Forty years after landing on Lida, the colony still isn't finished. Agetha has survived many more battles than she anticipated when she first landed on her new home planet. She's older and wiser, has gained family and lost loved ones. And yet her reward for four decades of service is to be pushed to the colony’s outer edges with the other aging Generationals. But that was only the beginning of her adventure. The biomass has spent years studying the intruders who landed on its surface, carving a new home from its very essence. Never satisfied in its attempt to communicate with this new and invasive species, finally it has found a way to express its intentions. The colonists may never be the same. Discover the fate of the colony in the second book of The Biomass Conflux trilogy!

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Summary: Before Ardulum, there was the Mercy’s Pledge. One year after saving the Neek homeworld and redefining the people’s religion, the crew of the Scarlet Lucidity returns to the Charted Systems for a much-needed break. For Nicholas and Yorden, the Systems will always be home, but for Emn and Atalant, too many memories compound with Emn’s strange new illness to provide much relaxation. Tales from Ardulum continues the journey of Atalant, Emn, Yorden, Nicholas, and Salice as they try to define their place in a galaxy that no longer needs them while battling the artifacts of Ardulan colonization. Other stories include Yorden’s acquisition of the Mercy’s Pledge (and his grudge against the galaxy), Atalant’s exile from her homeworld, Ekimet and Savath’s romance, and many others.

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Summary: There’s a kettle of rotten fish on the fire … and the stink’s about to get worse. – Jeskan proverb Once in a generation, the matriarchs of Jeska choose a new king to manage the government and command the Guard — protecting Jeskans from crime, invaders, and insurgency. Corren's been training for that job since he was six, but this is an unsettled time: rumors of strange incursions, grumbling discontent, and increasing brigandry. Corren’s own problems are multiplying. His father, a skeptical shaman, has gone missing, His polyamorous foster-brother keeps interfering with his personal and professional business. And the king needs him to track down the conspirators behind a simmering insurrection. When a strange woman turns up wearing a shaman’s cape, speaking a weird language, and hiding knowledge that doesn’t belong in this world, all his plans will have to change.

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Summary: The planet wakes. Atalant is torn between two worlds. In uncharted space—head of a sentient planet—the new Eld of Ardulum now leads the religion she once rejected. Emn is by her side but the Mmnnuggl war brewing in the Charted Systems—threatening her homeworld of Neek—cannot be ignored. Atalant must return to the planet that exiled her in order to lead the resistance. She must return home a god, a hypocrite, a liar in gold robes, and decide whether to thrust her unwilling people into the truth of Ardulum, or play the role she has been handed and never see her family, or her world, again.

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Summary: A young woman in 1884 doesn’t have many options … But Susannah did not expect to be tutoring an alien snail child while aboard a ship sailing in space … Who will get the real education? Orphaned and penniless in Hong Kong in 1884 — what’s a young gentlewoman to do? Impulsive, adventurous, and self-confident, Susannah accepts an offer to become the governess to a young foreigner on a ship. She does not expect the ship to be in space, or the foreign child to be an alien who looks like a giant snail. Nevertheless, she throws herself into the job of bringing Victorian decorum to the natives. But when she is accused of spying and put on trial in an alien court, Susannah has to challenge the law of the aliens to save herself — and her young and slimy student.

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Summary: Ardulum. The planet of myth. The planet of unwanted destiny. The Charted Systems are in pieces. Mercy’s Pledge is destroyed, and her captain dead. With no homes to return to, the remaining crew sets off on a journey to find the mythical planet of Ardulum—a planet where Emn might find her people, and Neek the answers she’s long sought. Finding the planet, however, brings a host of uncomfortable truths about Ardulum’s vision for the galaxy and Neek’s role in a religion that refuses to release her. Neek must balance her planet’s past and the unchecked power of the Ardulans with a budding relationship and a surprising revelation about her own genealogy. Ardulum: Second Don blends space opera elements and hard science into a story about two women persistently bound to their past and a sentient planet determined to shape their future.

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Summary: Ardulum. The planet that vanishes. The planet that sleeps. Neek makes a living piloting the dilapidated tramp transport, Mercy’s Pledge, and smuggling questionable goods across systems blessed with peace and prosperity. She gets by—but only just. In her dreams, she is still haunted by thoughts of Ardulum, the traveling planet that, long ago, visited her homeworld. The Ardulans brought with them agriculture, art, interstellar technology…then disappeared without a trace, leaving Neek’s people to worship them as gods. Neek does not believe—and has paid dearly for it with exile from her home for her heretical views. Yet, when the crew stumbles into an armed confrontation between the sheriffs of the Charted Systems and an unknown species, fate deals Neek an unexpected hand in the form of a slave girl—a child whose ability to telepathically manipulate cellulose is reminiscent of that of an Ardulan god. Forced to reconcile her beliefs, Neek chooses to protect her, but is the child the key to her salvation, or will she lead them all to their deaths?

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Summary: Stationmaster and exiled aristocrat Albert St. John Rembrandt—Bertie to his friends—is in love with a Tolari ruler he believes he can’t have. When he nearly dies finding out the hard way that some Tolari are as poisonous as their planet, it’s only the beginning of his troubles. A ship has gone missing. His station is in crisis. Bertie must somehow recover his health and manage the disaster while trying to decide whether to accept genetic modification in order to be with the man he loves. And no Rembrandt has ever taken a gen mod.

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Summary: Lem and her dog, Spock, have a late-night encounter with a stowaway. ’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Teapot… Not a creature was stirring, not even a lonely robot; The stockings were hung in the mess hall with care In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.