Military Space Opera

From the moment she took a job on Captain Caldswell's doomed ship, Devi Morris's life has been one disaster after another: government conspiracies, two alien races out for her blood, an incurable virus that's eating her alive. Now, with the captain missing and everyone—even her own government—determined to hunt her down, things are going from bad to impossible. The sensible plan would be to hide and wait for things to blow over, but Devi's never been one to shy from a fight, and she's getting mighty sick of running.

The Vestrall fight back, but Leviathan stands in their way. And Major Payne opens a new front in the war. His goal is nothing less than turning the Vestrall's allies against them to bring peace to the galaxy. The Vestrall exist, and they have secrets. The war will continue because it suits them. Humanity must confront the real enemy. They must win or the war will continue for another thousand years. There's only one ship that can do what needs to be done.

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 ...

The full weight of the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems, long awaited, is finally arriving in Unified Council Space. Despite the original deployment having been sent to fight the Unified Council, things have changed drastically in the time it took the military forces to cross the Confederacy and the Long Dark. The Atrekna have arrived, the Precursor Autonomous War Machines have rebuilt, refit, and returned with new stratagems, and the Lanaktallan Unified Council has activated the remaining hundreds of millions of ships to try to hold off the Confederacy's vaunted Heavy Metal forces. ...

Once, Master Commander Carter Rose was the Union’s secret weapon. An augmented, bio-engineered officer in command of the most powerful warship ever devised by human minds, Rose brought them victory against the post-human Aternien Empire. Then they cast him aside. A century later, humanity’s enemy has returned, hell-bent on revenge, and the Union's only hope is the man they had forsaken.

Two centuries ago, the First Expansionary Fleet set off to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, hoping to explore, colonize, and conquer new worlds in the name of humanity. But when the fleet was violently and unexpectedly thrown off course, the colonists found themselves trapped in an unexplored region of the galaxy—and caught right in the middle of a bloody interstellar war. Now, after generations of relentless fighting, a tentative truce has finally ushered in an era of growth and prosperity.

Former Marine gunnery sergeant Torin Kerr is attempting to build a new life with salvage operator Craig Ryder on his ship, the Promise. Turns out civilian life is a lot rougher than she'd imagined - salvage operators are losing both cargo and lives to pirates. And when they attack the Promise, Craig is taken prisoner and Torin is left for dead. When Torin finds out why the pirates needed Craig, she calls in the Marines to get him back....

The Terran Xenocide Event has hit the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems hard. Over 60% of their active duty military is down and dead, entire fleets are crewed only by a handful of beings, whole armies have just slumped to the ground. The Council/Confederacy Conflict has ensured that every planet is armed and ready, but the Atrekna are the wrong foe. Able to gate in troops and war material without the need for ships or vast logistics lines, the Atrekna appear to be an unbeatable foe who can manipulate space and time to ensure they always get the right outcome. With Hesstla being invaded...

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.

Lord Indron is no stranger to war, but the mission before him is unlike any other. On the desolate, forsaken moon of Sakaratul Maut, buried beneath corporate failure and scavenger desperation, a nightmare of cybernetic horror waits to be unearthed. With his elite Echo Squad and hardened Salvage Marines, Indron must retrieve a classified Gedra Cyborg—a telepathic horror capable of controlling the dead, a weapon beyond human comprehension. But they are not alone. The desperate Red Listers who call this wasteland home will fight to the last breath, fanatics with nothing left to lose. And ...

Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is a Confederation Marine's marine. She has survived more deadly encounters---and kept more of her officers and enlistees alive---than anyone else in the Corps. Unexpectedly pulled from battle, Torin finds herself in an underground POW camp that shouldn't exist, where her fellow marine prisoners seem to have lost all will to escape.

Raised fatherless in a galactic Brinktown, Joe Pikeman only ever wanted to escape. The Galactic Guard offered that escape, with the promise of regular meals to boot. Now Joe is a full Guardsman, with his own ship and a snide partner bot who hates humans almost as much as he hates other bots. To the pirates he hunts, Joe is known as the Butcher. His bloody reputation has landed him in the center of a sweeping conspiracy that threatens to stamp out the galaxy’s last surviving human settlements.

The Confederacy/Council Conflict (The Big C3) rages on, the Orion-Cygnus Galactic Arm Spur is wracked by fighting with entire planets burning. The Precursor Autonomous War Machines are back with new tricks, the Atrekna are making more moves and displaying more of a presence than the Confederacy suspected, and the Lanaktallan Great Herd has invaded the home worlds of the prime species of the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems. The Sol System is awash with fire and flame as the Lanaktallan discover that the millions of ships they brought are nothing more than chaff before Fortress Sol. The...

HUMANITY HAS FALLEN. ONLY ONE SHIP CAN SAVE US. After a disastrous encounter with an alien species, Captain Roc Masters finds himself exiled on a rundown station in the asteroid belt, commanding an ancient starship with a near-mutinous crew. Just as he finally resigns himself to his fate, the aliens return to attack Earth. With the inner worlds crumbling and most of the Earth and Martian navies sidelined or destroyed, it's up to Roc and his lone starship to hold the line. He knows he must gather together what little humanity there is beyond the asteroid belt and make a stand against the ...

Five men and women venture to another universe to find beings whose power gives them abilities they can’t imagine. Their leader? The greatest warrior produced since Prometheus: Achilles. Young, untested, but with unbridled potential, will his raw talent be enough? Can Achilles fight gods and turn back the tide of fate for the entire universe? Or will he be crushed like an ant beneath the feet of beings who can walk the stars?

The Murkudahl come with a dire warning for humanity... The well-written, fast-paced plot moves from one hair-raising dilemma to another, ramping to a fevered pitch ...The writing is crisp, the pacing excellent! --KIRKUS Reviews For years, humans have exploited the noble alien race, the Murkudahl Kait, harnessing their advanced technology and medical miracles without mercy. What they don’t know is that the Kait are pacifist offshoots of the blood-thirsty Murkudahl Kurukaii, a savage race of warriors who thrive on war and domination. Now, the Kurukaii have learned of the humans' cruelty and...

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality.

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.

Constantine had forsaken his family name and birthright. At 28-years old, he’d escaped Earth to help terraform Mars. An empire’s heir went missing just as the universe’s greatest threat announces itself. War Games will decide who represents humanity in this extinction level struggle. Constantine is summoned. With little training but abundant talent, can Constantine win these games? If he does, will he be a force in the coming war? Or is it already too late for humanity?

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 ...