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sci fi – space opera

Epic sci fi takes that take place across an empire of stars – think Star Wars or Star Trek. Return to general Sci Fi

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Word Count: 65000

Summary: Romance may be in the atmo when Colin joins the Merry Swallow’s crew on the beautiful ocean planet of Merak, but for Alan, it’s just another day working the most important and stressful case of his career. Yet Alan’s woes are only beginning. Not only does the pirate confederacy have ties to both the pyrean navy and human corporations, pyrean separatists have gotten involved, and Alan’s employers are about to advance their own agenda, whether or not Alan supports it. Worse yet, the case is more personal than Alan could have realized. Steele, the man who murdered Sven’s sister thirty years prior is not only alive and well, but ready to return to the public eye in grand, and bloody, fashion — and he has his sights set on the Swallow. A storm is on the horizon, and as Alan’s fragile happiness aboard the Swallow comes to an end, the only question remaining is — when the storm breaks, will he and Sven be able to weather it? A Gathering Storm is the third book in the Triple Strike series, and it includes seven illustrations plus additional bonus content and comics.

A Gathering Storm - G.M. Gray - Triple Strike
Triple Strike: A Gathering Storm
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Word Count: 105000

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.

The Handler's Gambit - Ingrid Moon - Saxen Saga
The Handler's Gambit
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Word Count: 38000

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.

Rise Anthology
Rise
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: In the depths of space, amidst a relentless interstellar war, Nena Videt's name echoes as both a legend and a pariah. Convicted of a crime she vehemently denies, she rots in prison, a star-faring turned into a forgotten prisoner. But when the Union of Galactic Commerce faces imminent destruction, the lines between hero and villain blur and desperate times call for desperate measures. Drawn from her darkened cell, Nena is thrust into a world where freedom awaits-but at a cost. As she joins a crew on the edge of mutiny, Nena must navigate more than perilous space battles. A mysterious race of warrior women seeks to claim her as their own, offering both allegiance and enmity. In the heart of the conflict, Nena finds herself in an uneasy alliance with Admiral Kirpich, a relentless leader hell-bent on securing victory, no matter the consequences. This book is a riveting sci-fi saga of redemption. Nena Videt's journey will take readers on a voyage through uncharted territory, where the lines between loyalty and betrayal, heroism and atrocity, blur into infinite.

Voided - Ace Parlier
Voided
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Word Count: 32000

Summary: After a job gone wrong, Special Agent Olgo is trapped within the bowels of Mars with no means of escape. The device that imprisons the trauma within them is about to fail, and the past terrors kept hidden by it must be contained for Olgo’s sanity and everyone's safety. From the darkness comes a tiny voice, and a tinier hope: "Hello?" *** The first book in the ‘Cold Rush' Verse follows Agent Olgo as their corporate masters give them what could be their big break: a mission to Mars. But trying to change the working conditions in the planet's underground cities proves more challenging than the agent could have imagined. When a wearable device Olgo uses to block emotions begins to fail, an unlikely friendship changes everything as Olgo struggles to prevent spilling more blood on the Red Planet.

Cold Rising - Rohan O'Duill - Cold Rush
Cold Rising
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Word Count: 55000

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.

Hyvilma - Gideon Marcus
Hyvilma
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Word Count: Information not available

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!

To a Fungus Unknown - William C. Tracy
To a Fungus Unknown
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Word Count: 62000

Summary: Alan Beringer has settled into his role of human Elite inspector working with Pyrean Navy privateers. Is it stressful being the principle investigator into a dangerous and hitherto unknown pirate confederacy? Certainly. Is it kind of fun living amid the exuberant and free-spirited crew of the Swallow? Most definitely. Accidental kidnapping aside, Alan has come to think of the Swallow as his home and the crew his family — and it’s obvious to everyone except Alan exactly how infatuated the captain, Sven Jiordson, is with him. But right now, if Alan wants to survive (much less keep his job), he’ll need to determine how deep this conspiracy goes, its connection to a tragedy from thirty years prior, and what exactly his pyrean and human superiors plan on doing once he cracks this case. And if he can finally recognize flirting when he sees it? So much the better! Pasts Revisited is the second book in the Triple Strike series, and it includes seven illustrations plus additional bonus content and comics.

Pasts Revisted - G.M. Gray - Triple Strike
Triple Strike: Pasts Revisited
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Word Count: Information not available

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.

Tales From Ardulum - J. S. Fields - Ardulum
Tales From Ardulum
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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.

Shadows of Insurrection - Vanessa MacLaren-Wray - The Unremembered King
Shadows of Insurrection
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Word Count: Information not available

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.

Ardulum Third Don - J. S. Fields - Ardulum
Ardulum: Third Don
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Word Count: 130000

Summary: Over a million years in the future, a desperate stowaway lies concealed in a space freighter’s cargo hold. Tam Amergan is bound for the prison world Corustloth, where his partner Brogan has been abducted. Ever since the Senate took over the planetary system decades earlier, gay men like Tam and Brogan—degens, as they are labeled under Senate rule—have been forced to live in secrecy. But Brogan is Tam’s life-line, bound to his soul in a ritual performed by a secret sisterhood of women with ancient, unknown designs. Tam has no choice but to follow Brogan wherever he goes. What Brogan sees, Tam sees; what Tam feels, Brogan feels. Neither can live without the other. Thousands of lightyears away, an ancient brotherhood of mentalists works at uncovering the mystery of humanity’s long-forgotten origins. Their leader, Father, enlists the help of Bennett, who is able to connect with the mind of a space freighter stowaway on the other side of the galaxy. Is Bennett the key to humanity’s origins? Could Tam’s quest to find Brogan have a wider purpose? ​ Both a soaring love story and sweeping sci-fi epic, Life-Line: Origins is a thrilling gay romance and science fiction novel. Ambitious, gripping, and full of heart, it is a must-read for anyone hungry for adventure and intrigue.

Life Line Origins - Grant Edward Miller
Life-Line: Origins
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Word Count: Information not available

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.

Snail's Pace - Susan McDonough-Wachtman
Snail's Pace
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Word Count: 54000

Summary: Alan Beringer’s day takes an unexpected turn when he’s kidnapped by alien space pirates. In all fairness, pyrean space pirates claiming they're "privateers” has become the norm since humans became an interstellar species. Pirates aren’t the problem. The problem is Alan's job is to curtail space piracy. The problem is Alan may be more pyrean than he lets on. The problem is the alien space pirate captain, Sven Jiordson, has a growing infatuation with Alan. The problem is Alan kind of enjoys being kidnapped. But who has time for romance when there's a new, unknown threat to interstellar space travel? Kidnapping aside, Alan needs to do what he does best: use his brilliant detective skills to notice everything…except Sven flirting with him. As the pyreans say — romance is more fun when somebody’s alive to enjoy it! Threads of Fate is the first book in the Triple Strike series, and it includes seven illustrations plus additional bonus content and comics.

Threads of Fate - G.M. Gray - Triple Strike
Triple Strike: Threads of Fate
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Word Count: Information not available

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.

Ardulum Second Don - J. S. Fields - Ardulum
Ardulum: Second Don
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Word Count: Information not available

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?

Ardulum First Don - J. S. Fields - Ardulum
Ardulum: First Don
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Word Count: 84000

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.

Rembrandt's Station - Christie Meierz
Rembrandt's Station
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Word Count: 3,000

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.

The Night Before - SI CLARKE
The Night Before
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Word Count: 52,000

Summary: A secret unicorn, a desperate family, and a cop dead set on hunting them down. Lem and the rag-tag gang of galactic adventurers on the starship Teapot are set to become roadies for the galaxy’s hottest band – but an urgent call from Bexley’s family means the rock stars will have to wait. Bexley’s soon-to-be-born sibling has a big secret: wings. On planet Hwin, skeledivergence is outlawed, so the Teapot crew swoop in to help the family escape. But their planet won’t let them go that easily. Hunted across the galaxy by a fanatical and eerily familiar cop, the Teapotters must find a way to outwit their pursuer and secure a future for skeledivergent people everywhere. Dive into the next adventure in this satirical space opera series. Artfully intertwining deep themes with tongue-in-cheek humour and intergalactic ridiculousness, Consider Pegasus is a must-read for fans of Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars or TJ Berry’s Space Unicorn Blues. Scroll up and grab your copy now!

Consider Pegasus - SI CLARKE
Consider Pegasus
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Word Count: 150000

Summary: Can a retired assassin be the savior his people need? How does a former assassin save his fellow humans from extinction? By allying them with mrrogs of course! But that’s easier said than done as humans are understandably distrustful and suspicious of sescurei, the official species of the InterGalactic community. Leopold must convince them that Mastrodai’s offer of alliance isn’t a trick, which means diplomacy, patience, and tenacity. Times like this make him grateful that he has two strong mates to lean on. And when it comes to understanding his own people, he’d be wise to follow Alex’s lead. Alex has been too long away from her family and is thrilled to see them again. But with reunions come old pressures, old doubts, and old wounds. She must negotiate who she was with who she is, while helping her mates and her colony come together with the shared goal of freedom. Mastrodai, meanwhile, finds himself in the minority for the first time in his life, and the constant hostility has him doubting the wisdom of their choices. But he’s devoted to his human mates and determined to see things through no matter the discomfort… or danger. Not everyone wants what Leopold and his mates have to give, and he needs to break through the resistance humans have built up after generations of degradation, humiliation, and fear. He must win his people’s trust, solve the riddle of his parents’ rings, and navigate the new complexities of his love life. Being an assassin was so much easier. Reader Discretion advised: PTSD, abusive family, a cult, MMF romance, dystopian.

Resistance - M.D. Grimm - Saga of the Bold People
Resistance
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