sci fi – space opera

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Summary: A First Contact... with Earth’s fate hanging in the balance. Milijun, the riveting first book in Clayton Graham’s thrilling series, takes readers on a mind-bending journey to the edge of possibility. Fans of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Contact, and Arrival will be captivated by this gripping tale of mystery, betrayal, and alien intrigue. 2023 Author Shout Top Pick Winner - 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading AuthorsShow.com ★★★★★ "If you are looking for a gripping tale about aliens and what would happen when they make contact with an unprepared Earth, then this is your book. If you want something deeper, something that will leave you with profound questions and thoughts, then this is your book as well." ★★★★★ "Secrets were revealed and the book ended without a cliffhanger. But what an ending it was! Methinks I wouldn’t mind so much picking up another sci-fi book by Clayton Graham." ★★★★★ "The timelessness of this book hinges on the philosophical aspects. This is more than a book about aliens trying to experiment on humans and seeing whether inter-species contact will be peaceful... It is a book about human nature, our behavior towards one another, and our ambitions for the future." ★★★★★ "Graham’s concept of how completely “alien” an alien could be is astonishing. Gone are the assumptions of “life as we know it”. Graham has conceived of life as we could not possibly imagine it." Laura and Jason Sinclair's peaceful vacation becomes a nightmare when ethereal beings descend upon Earth under the cover of darkness. Stranded in a world suddenly turned upside down, they are drawn into a shadowy conflict between covert government factions and a mysterious alien presence. As reality itself begins to fracture, the lines between friend and foe blur. Caught in a web of secrets and hidden agendas, Jason may hold the key to the alien visitors’ true purpose—but what role does he play in their mission? As the world teeters on the brink of an interstellar revelation, humanity faces a future that could change everything—whether they’re ready or not.  

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Summary: Exiled Tolari ruler turned hired assassin, Farryn never stops plotting revenge on his home planet while building a criminal empire on the human colony world of Far India. But when his former wife dares to follow him into human space and attracts the attention of Earth Central Security, Farryn is forced to choose between hatred and love, ambition and heart’s desire. Described by Kirkus Reviews as "a solid entry for readers craving new, original space operas," Farryn's War promises to thrill fans of science fiction and romance alike in this first book of a new series by award-winning author Christie Meierz.

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Summary: When a steel trap of celestial and infernal politics threatens to close around them, Shax and Verin flee Earth’s system in a stolen ship, leaving everything behind. It’s an elegantly simple plan, with a new ship and a new life as carefree brigands among the stars. But the ship seems to hate them, and in order to have any sort of life they need funds. A frightened man offering them a contract to deliver three mysterious crates comes just in time, and Shax is sure their troubles are over. Out of his environment and in over his head, Shax scrambles to understand the players and the consequences of his new life. With cargo that’s not what it seems, shadowy motives around every turn, and a gorgeous rogue named Julian for a dash of added confusion, Shax’s grand schemes of a new start may be his demise before he can even begin.

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Summary: A derelict ship and a splintered crew are not the rewards Ro had hoped for when she helped disrupt her father's plans to start a war with smuggled weapons. But with the responsibilities of full Commonwealth citizenship and limited resources, she is forced to take her father's place working as an engineer on Daedalus station while she and Barre try to repair their damaged freighter, Halcyone. Barre's brother, Jem, is struggling with the disabling effects of his head injury, unable to read or code. His only hope is to obtain a neural implant, but the specialists determine he is too young and his brain damage too extensive. When Jem disappears, his trail dead ends at the black market. Ro and Barre race to find Jem before he sells his future, risking his mind for an illegal neural implant. But they're not the only ones looking for "The Underworld" and its rogue planet, Ithaka. What they find endangers more than just the three of them and forces them to confront a very different truth about the war they believed was ancient history.

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Summary: Undercover agent Liam Connell stared at his captor.  He looked like a pirate from a holovid— black trousers, a white, puffy-sleeved shirt, and a purple sash wrapped jauntily around his waist. Wavy black hair fell to his shoulders and ... Connell couldn’t believe it.  He actually had gold hoops hanging from his ears. The pirate ran his forefinger lightly down Connell’s cheek and smiled. “Mmm! Mmmm! What do we have here?” Just what had Connell gotten himself into? (M/M Romantic Sci-Fi) Word Count 36,600

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Summary: Dragons in space?  A preposterous legend, dragons dueling with riggers. Nothing can live in the interdimensional Flux of interstellar space. But in the Flux, visions of the mind converge with reality, and visions can be perilous. When star pilot Jael defies an abusive ship's master and rigs "the mountain route to Lexis," dragons indeed appear in the night sky—and challenge her to duel to the death. Just one dragon, Highwing, offers her friendship. If she escapes, she would be wise never again to fly this route between the stars. But Jael has been caught up in an age-old struggle of good and evil, in unwitting fulfillment of an ancient prophecy of "One" from the outside who will shake the realm to its foundation. Fate has its ways, and when the currents of space once more bring her back to the dragon realm, she finds Highwing under sentence of death for the kindness he showed her. Only "the One" can intervene—and so Jael must, for the sake of one who risked his life to save hers. A genre-bending novel of the Star Rigger Universe, from the Nebula-nominated author of Eternity's End, and recipient of the Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award for writing science fiction. Original print publication by Tor Books. Also available in the ebook Dragon Space: A Star Rigger Omnibus. REVIEW QUOTES: "Carver writes powerfully and clearly and has produced a book that is likely to find an audience among hard SF readers." —Booklist  "An interesting and entertaining blend of genres." —Science Fiction Chronicle  "Carver's prose effectively lends a spare yet evocative resonance to the draconian realm. Like a good stage performer, this story should leave its audience wanting more." —John Bunnell, Amazing Stories

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Summary: Award-winning science fiction romance author Christie Meierz presents the newest of her bestselling Tales of Tolari Space. Laura Howard, Earth Fleet widow and exile from human space, found more than safety on Tolar: she captured the love of a Tolari ruler and became a powerful Tolari empath. But in the midst of ancient, bitter rivalries, a serious injury erases Laura's time in Parania--and, perhaps, loses her the love of her Paran, who yearns for the woman she once was. Armed only with the memories of her youth, and empathically bonded to a man she can no longer understand, she struggles to recover and find her place, and herself, before a hidden enemy forces the Paran to do what he had always considered unthinkable: risk his life, and with it Laura's, to fight for the leadership of the ruling caste. The Fall is the story of a world re-opened to the stars after millennia of isolation, and the hazards and opportunities that abound when one's feelings are known to everyone around you.

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Summary: War between the stars... It was started and fought by an AI. Few humans even knew there was a war at all. But now people are dying—and the AI wants it to stop. But a war is easier to start than to stop, and the computer can't alter its course without outside help. When the Gnostic Control System searches for co-conspirators, it chooses its friends carefully. Pali: a brooding public relations director. Ramo: a flamboyant senso-dancer, who prefers a musical jamdam to serious conversation. Sage: a systems designer for whom the AI rapture-field is realer than life. And three of the alien Ell: Harybdartt, who would rather die with dignity than betray his people; Lingrhetta, who tries to unravel the meaning of human dance and music, pain and love; and Moramaharta, the binder, who must persuade his fellow decision-makers to risk everything for the sake of a fragile bridge of understanding across the stars. A thought-provoking novel from the award-winning author of Eternity’s End and The Chaos Chronicles, and recipient of the Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award for science fiction writing. REVIEWS: “The story is meaty and satisfying. I enjoyed this one greatly.” —Analog Science Fiction “An absorbing, suspenseful novel of first contact and interstellar war. It’s a complex book, requiring concentration from the reader, and is well worth the effort.”—Aboriginal SF “A lively dance of ideas—first contact, interstellar war, artificial intelligence, alien culture—and it moves at a rapid pace, from Earth through cyberspace to the Horsehead Nebula, and various points between. It’s well-worth the trip ticket.” —Roger Zelazny

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Summary: Here you’ll find tales of the supernatural, betrayal and murder; the mistakes that lead to the fall of empires and the constant tug of war that haunts mankind. There’s a blend of science fiction, fantasy and horror - from a modern day detective facing a serial killer to a future utopia filled with disloyalty. Lovers of romance will find a little something for them too, but within these bright sparks of hope shades of darkness lurk.

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Summary: Alan Stewart, First Lieutenant on the space ship Qatar, and Captain Robin Lang of the Huan Police Force, have been best friends since their days in the Space Academy, despite the fact that Stewart is homosexual and Lang has a wife and son, Max. However Max is growing up and their friendship is threatened when Lang believes Stewart has designs on his son. When Max, now an adult and a recent recruit to the Qatar, is assaulted in a gay bar, Lang accuses Stewart.  In an attempt to protect his son at all costs, Lang finds himself drawn into a dark conspiracy of murder and blackmail. Meanwhile, Stewart has his own battles to fight.  Apart from defending himself against Lang’s accusations, he discovers the young man he is falling in love with, Michael Banner, is the one man on the ship who is out of bounds, untouchable. Lives and love hang in the balance as Lang and Stewart search for the truth.

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Summary: Aviana Aquila does not have much, but she does have structure. No home but whatever she is currently assigned to, no family, and the closest to a relationship she has is a not very clandestine affair with her emotionally inhibited commanding officer, with whom she dreams to run away. As an Imperial soldier, ever on deployment, she knows she may die at any moment. As a commander, she knows she will need to order people to their deaths. After years on years, she is dull to all of that, existing to exist. But when an Alliance Admiral comes aboard on what was just supposed to be a routine mission, her structured semblance of a life is completely overturned. The Admiral is not a normal being, and possibly insane. Yet her presence may save Aviana in more ways than one and make her rediscover the woman she loves. A stand-alone book in the Worlds of the PACT universe.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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Summary: When Rosalen Maldonado tinkers with the derelict freighter, she's just hoping to prove she deserves a scholarship to University. She certainly doesn't count on waking the ship's damaged AI or having three stowaways, Micah Rotherwood and brothers Jem and Barre Durbin, along for the ride. They all have their private reasons for hiding aboard and lives they are seeking to escape, but if the accidental crew can't work together and learn to trust each other, they'll die together, victims of a computer that doesn't realize the war ended decades before any of them were even born.

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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.

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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.

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Summary: Any landing you can crawl away from is a good one. A data privateer crash-lands on a barely habitable moon where he's rescued by a research scientist who refuses to show his face. Though suspicious and paranoid by necessity, Rhodi finds himself drawn to the soft-spoken man behind the mask. Professor Covington prefers being isolated with his research. He has good reason to limit human contact, but he can’t abandon anyone to the ravages of a fickle and dangerous environment. He knows Rhodi’s hiding things. It’s none of his business and his mysterious guest will leave once a nasty native virus has run its course. Strange how the thought makes him less happy by the hour.

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Summary: Lieutenant Jack Alexander has wasted years, waiting for his best friend, Marc Duran, to return his affections.  Perhaps it is time to finally move on and find someone new. However, when Major Ethan Pattisson is sent to the planet Mayia to investigate the theft of hundreds of illegal weapons, Marc comes under suspicion, and Jack can’t help stepping in to save him. When Jack finds himself caught in the middle between Ethan and Marc, he discovers that unrequited love might soon be the least of his problems.