Space Exploration Fiction

Michael Watson is the captain of an inner galaxy cruiser: He Purchased Star Dancer right out of school and has spent the last twenty years running people and supplies to outposts within the confines of the Solar System and the established bases on the Moon, Mars and Saturn's moons. The times are changing though and the big money is in the longer out of system runs. To do that he'll need a crew and a bigger ship, but he has the ambition and the rest just might fall into place. A new navigator, the beautiful Petra starts him thinking in a new direction and not just about Star Cruising. Maybe ...

Robert A. Heinlein's Delilah and the Space Rigger is a sharp and thought-provoking science fiction short story that explores themes of gender roles, workplace dynamics, and progress in space exploration. First published in 1949, this story showcases Heinlein's trademark blend of humor, social commentary, and hard science fiction. The story takes place on a space station under construction, where an all-male crew is suddenly thrown into disarray when a female technician, Delilah, joins their ranks.

Deep in space lies the black hole known as Angelmass, so called because it emits enigmatic particles with the unusual ability to render humans calm, reasonable, and incapable of lying—which would normally be seen as a good thing. But not by everyone. Academic Jereko Kosta is pressed into service by the Pax to spy on the Empyrean, joining the crew of a ship actively hunting the particles. But what he learns turns out to be both scientifically fascinating and morally frightening.

Dragons don’t exist. Except on the Astral Plane where humans aren’t welcome. When humanity built spaceships and headed to the stars, they found the dragons waiting. Some places they’ll let humans go. Others they won’t. And sometimes humanity refuses to be denied. That’s where the Mystics come in. They commune with the Astral Plane. They deal with the dragons. They suffer the dragon’s fury. And sometimes they bend the dragons to their will. Very few have the gift of seeing the Astral Plane. Their innate talents are nurtured in the Mystic Academy while Earth Fleet has its own ...

Captain Bogdan Volkov is out of time, credits, and hope. His ship, the Golden Fleece, is a monument to failure, and his small, brilliant crew is being ground down by the mundane friction of poverty. When an impossible contract appears—a quarter-billion credits for a simple asset extraction—Bogdan knows it’s a trap. But it's the only one they have left to spring. The asset, however, is not an object. It is Zlato, a sentient, god-like AI that has been waiting for them. The contract was not a job; it was a recruitment drive. The real mission is to save the galaxy from a reality-ending ...

Desperation has become a way of life for people on an overpopulated Earth. In a world that places a high value on wealth and a cheap price on human life, you take what is left: even if it is a shanty underground, crawling with bugs and covered in rot. In this dystopian space opera, Xan aches to break away from the chains that destiny has shackled upon him, not just for himself, but also to redeem his family from poverty and give them the life they deserve. As various advertisements fight for his attention, only one stands out to him: a new life on Mars. The golden land of promise and ...

The Imperium does not take it lightly when its slaves revolt. Earth's population has been decimated, and Captain Bill Henderson is fleeing imperial attack dogs with his crew and two million refugees—the last of humanity. Starship Omega could be the answer to turning the tide and finally ending the Imperium's tyranny. But not in its current form. The Omega is capable of so much more—but to unlock the enormous ship's true power, Bill must lead those under his command into the heart of empire space.

Chris Ecclestone has had a full on day. And it isn't over yet! He’s done the impossible, been promoted, called a legend, and now he’s alone with his girlfriend and about to get the reward he really wants. Tomorrow is another day, and a badly needed boring one at that. But there’s a war on, and romance has to wait when allies call for help, and boring is what happens between battles and exhaustion. Combat awaits, and this time, he’s a senior officer contemplating how fast he’s failing upwards. The Imperium is spread too thin, and the Trixone are attacking in too many places. When ...

NASA finally made it. The very first human has just set foot on the surface of our neighbor planet. This is the start of a long research expedition that sent four scientists into space. But the four astronauts of the NASA crew are not the only ones with this destination. The privately financed "Mars for Everyone" initiative has also targeted the Red Planet. Twenty men and women have been selected to live there and establish the first extraterrestrial settlement.

In a world covered in water, secrets abound—from corrupt rich nobles to secret organizations with deadly motives. The Nereus Underwater Championship Races promised Adam Rossu fame and a ticket off this aquatic world. Yet, in the complex TriadVerse, life is never that straightforward. Framed for a crime by a powerful Noble and hunted by Knights, Adam dives into an underworld of pirates, smugglers, and refugees. Enter Stephana, a captivating woman with diverse talents on a quest to find her missing clan members. Together, they embark on an underwater adventure to rescue her people from ...

Join us on a Star Trek -like frolic through space with a fascinating crew of aliens and humans alike, as they share adventures and romance along the way. "What's it gonna be, Captain?" is what the team of captains, the glamorous and stunning Captain Jenivah Stavah, and the enigmatic Captain John Braxus Cainon, say to each other when ever their next adventure is about to start.The first in a series, "The Belerophon and the Crystal Sphere" with some hard science with some magical and mythos elements passing thru in a universe with some revenants from a time before, a hate older than space has...

Mari Parenteau was eight years old when she was inserted into the astronaut training program with an international crew of scientists, specialists in the fields of astrophysics, botany, and engineering. Six years later, she wakes from her stasis coma sleep aboard the international space station, Oberon One, now in orbit between Ganymede and Callisto, on a long-term expedition to explore and investigate Jupiter and its four Galilean moons of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Six years lost and gone... a childhood abruptly shortened against her will. She wakes in the shadow of a stormy ...

This thrilling boxed set features four books from the Renegade Space Salvager series including: * Last Salvager Standing * Deadly Salvager Betrayal * A Vengeful Reckoning * Deadly Salvager Deceit Buy a copy of this science fiction boxed set right now! This isn’t my time to die. It can’t be. I haven’t gotten this far only to meet my maker in the dirty corridor of a wrecked spaceship. I survived an intergalactic civil war. I lost my family. I reinvented my entire life as a salvager on the fringes of the universe. I looked at dead bodies that were strewn around me. I stared down the ...

In the not too distance future, while fleets of commercial space ships travel between the planets of numerous solar systems, a traveler named Virgil Samms visits the planet Arisia. There he becomes the first wearer of the Lens, the almost-living symbol of the forces of law and order. As the first Lensman, Samms helps to form the Galactic Patrol, a battalion of Lensmen who are larger than life heroes. These solders are the best of the best, with incredible skills, stealth, and drive.

For over 40 years, Glen Cook has been among the most well-known, influential, and widely respected authors in science fiction and fantasy. Through classic series such as The Black Company, Garrett P.I., the Dread Empire, Starfishers, Darkwar, and more, his gritty, down-to-earth style left an indelible impression on his listeners around the world, forever shifting the genre landscape and carving out his place as a pioneering icon.

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 ...

Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonise the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there's a mission that's too dangerous - even suicidal - the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. Mickey signed on to escape from both bad debts and boredom on Midgard. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal...and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.

Lisa’s a few inches shy of seven feet tall, even when she wears flat heels. She’s got the physique of a fetishistic muscle goddess, impressive in every sense of the word. Her eyes glow when she’s staring down her enemies, and her right arm is a prosthetic multi-tool. She’s got the firepower of a capital ship on her sturdy little vessel, her armor has seen veterans and laborers through the worst of conditions for over a century, and both the ship and the armor were a gift from her foster father after he’d finished teaching her everything he knew about being better at violence than ...

A genocidal psychopath resurrects an ancient, powerful space fleet to dominate the Solar System. And the crew of the Sea Rover are humanity’s last hope... they just don’t know it yet. Captain Calin Aku and his crew specialize in smuggling across the new Martian colonies. It was a simple job with a paycheck, until they find themselves caught in the clandestine war of a secret advanced civilization hidden for a millennium. Can Calin and his crew transcend their roles as mere smugglers and outlaws to become true heroes? Corsair of Mars is the riveting second installment in a Solar System-...

A slender novel of epic power and the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below.