Military Space Opera

From the dawn of history onward, commanding the most powerful ship around has been a dream of admirals, sultans, emperors, kings, generalissimos, and sea captains everywhere. For what the intimidation factor alone doesn't achieve, a massive barrage from super-weapons probably will.

Captain Kyle Roberts has commanded the carrier Avalon through the most vicious battles of the war against the Terran Commonwealth - but with Avalon in for repair, his political enemies deny him a new ship. Unwilling to accept a desk, he takes command of a covert operation using a captured Commonwealth warship to strike at the very heart of their enemy, drawing away the reinforcements that could destroy the Alliance's recent gains.

The former warship Trouble Dog and her crew of misfits is called upon by the House of Reclamation to investigate a distress call from the human starship the Lucy's Ghost. Her crew abandon their crippled ship and seek refuge aboard an abandoned, slower-than-light generation ship launched 10,000 years before by an alien race. However, the enormous ship contains deadly secrets of its own.

Copernicus Smith, everyone's favorite starship repairman, scoundrel and deep-cover spy, has stumbled upon a conspiracy of galactic proportions. It has also gotten him beat up, near death and a captive of the secretive Ryness Cartel. And they will continue to torture him until he reveals what he knows. The problem: He knows nothing. Now Adam Cain, Sherri Valentine and Riyad Tarazi are on the hunt for their friend and on-again, off-again teammate. But just when our heroes think they have the mystery figured out, something new jumps up that throws all their assumptions into a tailspin.

The Council/Confederacy Conflict is rapidly gaining speed, with hundreds of stellar systems burning and under attack. The Unified Council, having struck at the Confederacy with bioweapons and having made great gains, is unprepared for the Confederacy's counter-attack and the arrival of "Heavy Metal" in dozens of systems. Terrible weapons and projects are being released by both sides, the autonomous war machines have regrouped and returned, and everyone is caught in the middle of the largest conflict since the First Precursor War. The burden of Citizenship falls on Confederate citizens as ...

WHEN IN DOUBT, WING IT. The Stellar Thief collects together the first four books in the Emberling series, a pulse-pounding, adrenaline-fueled space opera that will have you clinging to the edge of your seat! Slim Taggart has stolen plenty of things in his short life. That's what happens when you come from a family of planet-hopping thieves. But when he somehow finds himself in possession of a shard from an ancient alien tech known as the Emberling, the heat is suddenly cranked up to scorching levels. Before Taggart knows it, a half-dozen criminal syndicates are on his tail, desperate for ...

Karen Drayson is coming to terms with her new reality. Not that any of it seems all that real. The League of Worlds is giving her conflicting goals. While her admirals keep telling her she’s barely adequate. The only real part is her standing at the gates to her homeworld as their list of enemies expands. And wondering if today is when the admirals replace her. Looking up through the Glass Ceiling is one thing. But above it, is the Hard Ceiling. The Hunter Imperium Universe Is best read in this order: The Spacemage Chronicle Yesterday's Spacemage Today's Spacemage Tomorrow's Spacemage The...

Lyla Cowan knows that the ties that bind the most are the ones you put on yourself. But when you get them untied, there are still the ones others put on you. Freedom from your own ties, though, can be a powerful thing. And being free of them gives you a different perspective on what else is going on. The Terran situation is still unresolved. The Ralnor situation might be even worse than she thought. And now she has to deal with being politically part of the Imperium and League of Worlds. All while dealing with the chaos her new system has brought her. Can she now rise to the challenge of ...

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

When the over-driven hyperdrive on their mobile shipyard burned out, the Chhrt'ktk't abandoned it in an inhabited system along their path, hoping it would work as a decoy to buy them more time to escape the Khreetan fleet pursuing them. They didn't anticipate how far the pre-spacefaring species they turned over their broken-down maintenance facility to would subvert their plan.

Humanity knows it is not alone in the universe. The War of Succession has been raging for 70 years in the remnants of the old Empire. On one side is the Alliance, and the crew of the Epsilon, on the other, the Coalition. Their fight now threatens the very existence of mankind. Repairs to the Epsilon are underway on Earth while new threats emerge. But more dangerous than any threat on Earth, is the arrival of any unexpected enemy.

Owen Deathstalker - outlawed, with a price on his head and the blood of a mighty warrior lineage in his veins - had no choice but to embrace a dangerous destiny. With nothing to lose, only he had the courage to take up arms against Queen Lionstone XIV. Now as he gathers his unlikely allies - the legendary washed-up hero Jack Random, the beautiful pirate Hazel d'Arc, and the alien Hadenmen whose purposes no human can discern - the eyes of the downtrodden are upon him while the freedom of a galaxy hangs in the balance....

Following their successful escape from Androchida Prime’s capital city, Sir Chuck and the rest of the Phantoms find themselves mystified by unsettling news. The leader of the Blood Guard resistance, famed General Cordan, has defected to the AE. But while many doubt the veracity of the development, more pressing intel awaits: the empire is planning to invade the Sci-Rung home world.

The Merry Band of Pirates stopped the enemy from stealing a Sentinel, and destroyed its Elder starship, so why weren’t the Pirates planning a victory party? The enemy was not what they thought it was. It was much, much worse.

Lyla Cowan holds the key to an important lock. But in this case, using it both locks and unlocks at the same time. There are consequences to locking, and consequences to unlocking. And whichever you do, the other will happen too. The real question is: Will you accept the consequences or not? She’s not the one who must answer that. But she also knows the consequences will be hers to face. So what do you do? Lock or Unlock? The Hunter Imperium Universe Is best read in this order: The Spacemage Chronicle Yesterday's Spacemage Today's Spacemage Tomorrow's Spacemage The Hunter Legacy Prequels ...

The Cygnus-Orion Galactic Arm Spur is engulfed in warfare. A four way brawl with its roots a hundred million years prior, with the Lanaktallan Unified Council on one side, a strange invader from a dying universe on another, the Precursor Autonomous War Machines, strengthened by alliances, coming back into the fight, and, of course, the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems. The war has spread to dozens, hundreds of different systems with no signs of stopping. Each side is grimly digging in for the long haul. The vile Atrekna, invaders from another dimension, view the entire universe as ...

Far from the fury of The Great War, the citizens of the Liberty Federation live in peace and prosperity. The Dawn Empire’s light is fading. Admiral Ikson Koto has one chance to renew the flame before it is extinguished forever. To save the Empire from a slow death, he must destroy the Federation’s fleet in one fell swoop. His plan calls for a brutality that has never been seen before. For Lieutenant Shannon Reeve, the horrors of battle still burn strong in her mind. Her posting to a fighter squadron in the paradise of the Federation’s premier base, Azure Anchorage, should be a welcome...

FIRESTORM BECKONS YOU INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE COSMOS... Captain Aaron Decosta, a decorated starship commander, embarks on a clandestine mission across the uncharted expanses. But fate has a twist in store when his vessel is swallowed by a cosmic maelstrom, leaving him and his crew stranded on a world shrouded in mystery and danger. Back on Earth's galactic frontier, Colonel Michael Decosta receives the harrowing news of his son's disappearance. Bound by blood and honor, he defies the chain of command, embarking on a perilous journey to the Bone Yard—a place where space anomalies distort ...

The war will come - it is inevitable. After centuries of struggle, the ISF Intrepid has finally brought its colonists to New Canaan, a star system better than any they imagined. They made landfall and began to build their new home, far from the troubles of Sol and the Inner Stars. Yet no one in the Orion Arm has forgotten that the colonists possess the most valuable technology known to humankind, least of all Tanis Richards - as she secretly prepares to defend New Canaan against any and all aggressors.

You've heard of him. He's Adam Cain, the alien with an attitude. Now he's back...in a series of new adventures as a badass human, showing the galaxy who's the boss. Accompanied by his buddies Riyad Tarazi and Sherri Valentine, Adam is struggling to make ends meet on a distant tropical world running Capt. Cain's Bar & Grill. The problem: They picked the worst place in the galaxy to run a legitimate business...smack dab in the middle of lawless Dead Zone. Comprised of a hundred dead worlds, The Zone is a gold-rush-like region of salvagers, pirates, and scoundrels.