Military Space Opera

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 ...

A virus. A planet in danger. A race against time. When a deadly virus appears on a highly advanced world, questions will be asked. Where did it come from, is it a threat, and is there a cure? When a government official gets infected, the Alliance’s premier special forces team will be sent out to investigate. Val Standish and the Prime Team must deal with not only the virus, but local bureaucrats as they try and unravel the mystery before things spiral out of control.

In the chaotic heart of the Helios Rift, where swirling radiation fronts and gravitational anomalies make every journey a gamble, Commander Elara Voss and the crew of the privateer vessel Corsair face their first mission after Elara's conditional pardon from a court-martial that ended her military career. What begins as a straightforward assignment to intercept a vessel smuggling weapons to insurgents quickly evolves into a complex ethical dilemma when Elara discovers the target is carrying political refugees fleeing cultural persecution. As the Corsair navigates deadly radiation zones and ...

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.

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.

He was the highly decorated Battle Commander who won the Slave War. Power hungry bureaucrats want him dead. They didn’t send enough ships… The Slave War lasted a thousand years. Oman Lim destroyed the enemy with uncanny skill and battlefield ingenuity. Now, power hungry bureaucrats are afraid he will interfere with their arrogant pursuit of greed, power and control. Sending him on a death mission was easy. Having him die there? Not so... His keen and unconventional battle tactics make it difficult to kill him at every turn. They were fearful of his skill and ability. They had a right to...

Lyla Cowan has just had a shock, but to everyone else it was inevitable. Her life is a roller coaster ride these days, but it feels like home to her now. As Halloween grips Haven Station, she’s thinking about the next mission. Out on the edge of the galaxy is a small cluster where people just want to be left alone. But that’s not happening anymore. And no-one knows what’s going on. One couple do, but they can’t do anything on their own. They need someone who will step up and help. But who’s going to help the Unseen? The Hunter Imperium Universe Is best read in this order: The ...

In the remote Bellus Sector of the Helios Rift, where radiation fields and gravitational distortions make every mission treacherous, Commander Elara Voss and the crew of the privateer vessel Corsair face an unexpected discovery that will test both their specialized skills and fragile trust. What begins as a routine patrol quickly evolves into a complex web of political manoeuvring when the Corsair detects an abandoned research vessel with revolutionary technology. As Elara's team secures the derelict Prometheus and begins salvage operations, the arrival of a corporate ship led by her former...

The Earth is gone. On the planet Focal Point, far from home, humanity must rebuild the society they lost. Under the leadership of Colonel Joe Hunt, there are two priorities: rescue the slaves held in bondage amongst the cosmos and ensure humans have a voice in the Grand Marshall’s new Empire. But all is not well. A last-minute diplomatic mission to the planet Axis reveals an unexpected threat that poses a risk to all life in the universe. To defeat this danger, humanity must join forces with Etelainen and Pohjois in one final battle for peace in the galaxy.

Testing the limits of a mage can be a very bad idea. Bud’s been mainly sitting the Keerah War out so far. He once sent billions home across two galaxies for a day with a single errant angry thought. So he’s kept his focus on supervising the trainers of new mages. However, the war keeps drawing him in. A bit of magic here, a bit more magic there. And then they found enslaved mages, but it was a dragon thing, and not his responsibility. But genocide is another matter, and he can’t let that stand. But others can, and have, and they’re blocking him from doing what he feels is right. The...

Peacetime can be a rough adjustment for the battle-hardened Merry Band of Pirates.

Especially when aliens don’t get the memo that the shooting is over.

Claws That Catch is the fourth volume from their popular Looking Glass series. Humankind’s only interstellar craft, the Vorpal Blade is dispatched to investigate an ancient civilization that may have left vital technology behind. But when the crew finds more than they bargained for, they’ll have to scramble to survive.

After orchestrating a galaxy-wide failure of the communications network owned and maintained by the powerful ISC corporation, Gammis Turek and his marauders strike swiftly and without mercy. First they shatter Vatta Transport. Then they overrun entire star systems, growing stronger and bolder. No one is safe from the pirate fleet.

Lyla Cowan pushed for it to happen. But it had to be asked for, so it didn’t happen. Then it was asked for. But she had to be the one to make it happen. What happens next is therefore on her. In trying to fix things, just how badly has she broken them? Sometimes all you can do is get it done, and then let things Unfold. 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 1969 Was That You? One Last Battle NPC PHQ The Hunter Legacy Hero at Large Hunted Hero Hunting Send in ...

Vampires had been extinct for thousands of years, or so we thought. Captain Drake was the kind of smuggler that would take any job that needed to be done. That was as long as you had the credits and didn’t mess with his crew. Now one of those very crew members had been taken, and Drake would stop at nothing to find her. Samantha Ripley only wanted one thing, she wanted to get off Hyperion Four. For the last four years, she had dedicated herself to nothing but flight school. Her graduation was so close she could almost taste it. A chance encounter as she finished her shift at the diner was...

Lyla Cowan is a force to be reckoned with. She’s tough, ruthless when she needs to be, and intolerant of bullies. While at the same time she’s making sure colonists and refugees have what they need. ‘You broke it, you bought it’ has a whole new meaning when two thirds of the galactic core is affected. She started this path as a lowly paid mercenary. Now she’s running the third largest militia in the League of Worlds. The Unbound became bound. To each other, and to the work. But the work is changing, and change begun cannot be stopped. Sometimes to continue on, you must first ...

Carrie Faulkner is now in command of the Milky Way Alliance while Luke Blackburn is absent. Her orders? Destroy as many of the murderous Bakkui as possible! Her latest mission results in over three hundred million kills! Unfortunately, they were all friendly. After such a spectacular failure, the Warlord relieves her of duty. But still, the war goes on, and someone needs to investigate the source of the unstoppable Bakkui menace. GOING DEEP BEHIND ENEMY LINES IS A SUICIDAL MISSION AT BEST. Devastated by her failure, Carrie decides she’s the perfect fit for the job. With help from Sadie, ...

They refuse to die like they are told. The Republic is dead. Its fleets shattered, its people slaughtered, and its warriors left to die in the void. But not all of them. Sergeant Doug "Blackcat" Ericson is one of the last Ronin—elite special operations armsmen of the fallen Republic—now hunted as terrorists by the same corporate overlords who orchestrated its destruction. For Ericson and his scattered brothers and sisters, survival isn’t enough. The Economic Exchange and its ruthless enforcers, Rentak Corporation, will pay in blood. Tasked with infiltrating Bast Station’s Rentak ...

Lyla Cowan has finally embraced who she was meant to be. A lone wolf leading a pack of lone wolves presenting as a mercenary company. It doesn’t matter where she goes across two galaxies, someone makes trouble for people she calls friends. But when your own and theirs are threatened, wolves don’t stand down. Lyla doesn’t like picking fights, but she never backs away from them when they start. What matters is how you fight with what you have. And every fight is somehow Uneven. The Hunter Imperium Universe Is best read in this order: The Spacemage Chronicle Yesterday's Spacemage Today's...

Rejected scientist Alexander Hawke is down to his last chance. Brilliant but sheltered, every banker in New York has refused to finance his ideas. Enter the Russian—charming, dangerous, and offering an Antarctic expedition that promises answers to all of his questions. Now, Alexander stands at the edge of a bottomless chasm. With a helpful shove from his foreign benefactor, he plunges into adventure. Landing in darkness, Alexander finds a portal to destiny—weirder than New York, colder than Russia, and filled with the ruins of an empire that once spanned the galaxy.