MainCategory: SCIENCE FICTION

The Ember War (The Ember War Saga)

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The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Celebrate one of the earliest science fiction novels by rediscovering Jack Finney’s internationally acclaimed Invasion of the Body Snatchers—which Stephen King calls a story “to be read and savored for its own satisfactions,” now repackaged with a foreword by #1 New York Read more

The Ember War
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Published: 2015-06-30
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A dire warning. An impending alien invasion. Only one chance for survival. In the near future, an alien probe arrives on Earth with a pivotal mission-determine if humanity has what it takes to survive the impending invasion by a merciless armada.

The probe discovers Marc Ibarra, a young inventor, who holds the key to a daring gambit that could save a fraction of Earth’s population. Humanity’s only chance lies with Ibarra’s ability to keep a terrible secret and engineer the planet down the narrow path to survival. Earth will need a fleet. One with a hidden purpose. One strong enough to fight a battle against annihilation.

The Ember War is the first installment in an epic military sci-fi series. If you like A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo and The Last Starship by Vaughn Heppner, then you’ll love this explosive adventure with constant thrills and high stakes from cover to cover.

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Starship Troopers
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Published: 2006-06-27
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In Robert A. Heinlein’s controversial Hugo Award-winning bestseller, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe—and into battle against mankind’s most alarming enemy… Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job… “A classic…If you want a great military adventure, this one is for you.”—All SciFi

Legionnaire (Galaxy’s Edge serie)

Legionnaire
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Published: 2019-01-15
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The Galaxy is a Dumpster Fire.

A hot, stinking, dumpster fire. And most days I don’t know if the legionnaires are putting out the flames, or fanning them into an inferno.

A hostile force ambushes Victory Company during a diplomatic mission. Stranded behind enemy lines, a sergeant must lead a band of survivors against merciless insurgents on a deadly alien world. With no room for error, the Republic’s elite fighting force must struggle to survive under siege while waiting on a rescue that might never come.

 

There is also a short novel available here

The Irish Brigade: A Fallen Empire Novel

The Irish Brigade: A Fallen Empire Novel
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What’s a soldier to do when the war is over? When he’s only known conflict his whole life? Since time immemorial the solution has been to find another war, this time for pay. Whoever has the credits and wins the high bid gets the experienced fighter. Sometimes, though, the money isn’t enough to cover the price. In the tradition of Hammer’s Slammers and Falkenberg’s Legion, a new universe of mercenaries and warfare takes place in the ruins of an alien empire.

The fighting is done for now and the alien Grausians who ruled over the Terran worlds have withdrawn from known space after a devastating civil war. In their wake the formerly subject races have fought themselves to a standstill and a negotiated armistice, leaving tens of thousands of veterans out of work and hundreds of planets in the lawless DMZ.

Captain Iona Keely ended the war as a veteran soldier with an Honorable Discharge from the Terran Union Marine Corps, a useless degree in 20th Century Old Earth Culture and no job. When her old boss, Colonel Meagher, catches up to her at a job fair he makes her an offer she can’t refuse and soon finds herself the Commander of Bravo Company, The Irish Brigade, Hibernia Arms LLC. Her first mission drops her on Holcomb IV, up to her neck in intrigue, sweat and blood. Along the way she picks up a new recruit, an alien Grausian who is trying to understand being nobility in an empire that doesn’t exist anymore.

An exciting new storyline and shared universe from two time Dragon finalist and author of the best selling “Irregular Scout Team One” series.

A Hymn Before Battle, Second Edition (Legacy of the Aldenata Book 1)

A Hymn Before Battle
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Published: 2018-05-01
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The First Book in John Ringo’s Groundbreaking military sf series. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . . . With the Earth in the path of the rapacious Posleen, the peaceful and friendly races of the Galactic Federation offer their resources to help the backward Terrans—for a price.

Humanity now has three worlds to defend. As Earth’s armies rush into battle and special operations units scout alien worlds, the humans begin to learn a valuable lesson: You can protect yourself from your enemies, but may the Lord save you from your allies.

About John Ringo: “. . . the thinking reader’s zombie novel . . . Ringo fleshes out his theme with convincing details . . . the proceedings become oddly plausible.”—Publishers Weekly on Under a Graveyard Sky “[Ringo’s work is] peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse.”—Library Journal “. . . Explosive . . . fans . . . will appreciate Ringo’s lively narrative and flavorful characters.”—Publishers Weekly “. . . practically impossible not to read in one sitting . . . exceedingly impressive . . . executed with skill, verve, and wit.”—Booklist “Crackerjack storytelling.”—Starlog

Blindsight

Blindsight
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Canadian writer Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with the Hugo and Campbell Award finalist and Locus Award winning Blindsight Two months since the stars fell… Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune’s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps.

Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn’t wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores.

You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won’t be needed.

You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find.

Nightflyers

Nightflyers: The Illustrated Edition
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Published: 2018-08-28
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A gorgeous illustrated edition of a classic novella from the #1 bestselling author of A Game of Thrones—a chilling mystery set on a seemingly haunted spaceship, now an original series on SYFY. Featuring fifteen original illustrations, this is the definitive edition of an electrifying tale that combines the deep-space thrills of Alien, the psychological horror of The Shining, and, of course, the inimitable vision of George R. R. Martin.

When a scientific expedition is launched to study a mysterious alien race, the only ship available is the Nightflyer, a fully autonomous vessel manned by a single human.

But Captain Royd Eris remains locked away, interacting with his passengers only as a disembodied voice—or a projected hologram no more substantial than a ghost. Yet that’s not the only reason the ship seems haunted. The team’s telepath, Thale Lasamer, senses another presence aboard the Nightflyer—something dangerous, volatile, and alien.

Captain Eris claims to know nothing about the elusive intruder, and when someone, or something, begins killing off the expedition’s members, he’s unable—or unwilling—to stem the bloody tide. Only Melantha Jhirl, a genetically enhanced outcast with greater strength, stamina, and intelligence than other humans, has a chance of solving the mystery—and stopping the malevolent being that’s wiping out her shipmates. But first she has to keep herself alive.

Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1)

Hyperion
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Published: 1990-02-01
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A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man. On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. Praise for Dan Simmons and Hyperion “Dan Simmons has brilliantly conceptualized a future 700 years distant.

In sheer scope and complexity it matches, and perhaps even surpasses, those of Isaac Asimov and James Blish.”—The Washington Post Book World “An unfailingly inventive narrative . . . generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed.”—The New York Times Book Review “Simmons’s own genius transforms space opera into a new kind of poetry.”—The Denver Post “An essential part of any science fiction collection.”—Booklist

Darth Plagueis: Star Wars Legends

Darth Plagueis: Star Wars Legends
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The story of Darth Plagueis and he’s apprentice Darth Sidious (destined to become the emperor) who will infiltrate the highest sphere of the republic and set in motion the clone wars starting the whole movie saga

One of the best and most “canon” star wars book ideal to read before starting a chronological viewing session of the movies!

 

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This essential Star Wars Legends novel chronicles the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, and the origins of the saga’s most enduring evil—the malevolent Sith master Palpatine. “The best Star Wars publication to date . . . [James] Luceno takes Darth Plagueis down the dark path and never looks back.”—Newsday Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires; losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. When the time is right, he destroys his Master—and vows never to suffer the same fate.

For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power . . . over life and death. Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor. Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination—and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?

“Luceno draws on his storytelling skill and prodigious knowledge of the [Star Wars] world . . . to craft a complex tale of ambition and desire.”—Library Journal

Path of Destruction: Star Wars Legends (Darth Bane): A Novel of the Old Republic (Star Wars – Darth Bane Trilogy Book 1)

Path of Destruction
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A trilogy set in the in the “legend” (pre disney) star wars universe about 1000 years before the evenement of the movies it show the rise of Darth Bane and he’s quest to find an apprentice with whom he’ll start the infamous “rule of two” of the sith.

Only 2 true sith alive at any one time : a master to wield power and he’s apprentice to covet it. Therefore allway having a new master stronger than the last.

A good trilogy if you like the old republic setting or want to discover it

This essential Star Wars Legends novel is the first in a trilogy chronicling the rise of the fearsome Sith lord Darth Bane. “A solid space adventure [that] charts the evolution of an antihero almost as chilling as Darth Vader.”—Publishers Weekly

On the run from vengeful Republic forces, Dessel, a cortosis miner, vanishes into the ranks of the Sith army and ships out to join the bloody war against the Republic and its Jedi champions.

There Dessel’s brutality, cunning, and exceptional command of the Force swiftly win him renown as a warrior. But in the eyes of his watchful masters, a far greater destiny awaits him. As an acolyte in the Sith academy, studying the secrets and skills of the dark side, Dessel embraces his new identity: Bane.

But the true test is yet to come. In order to gain acceptance into the Brotherhood of Darkness, he must defy the most sacred traditions and reject all he has been taught. It is a trial by fire in which he must surrender fully to the dark side—and forge from the ashes a new era of absolute power.