Space Exploration Fiction

Get ready to experience two more origin stories in the Backyard Starship universe.

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.

Looking for an exhilarating science fiction adventure that will take you on a journey beyond the limits of Earth? Look no further than "First Step into Outer Space" by Alexander Hawthorne. In this thrilling novel, readers are transported to a future where humanity has finally taken the first steps towards establishing a permanent presence in the cosmos. With stunning detail and vivid prose, Hawthorne paints a picture of a world on the brink of a new era of exploration and discovery, where a brave group of pioneers must confront incredible challenges as they work to build the first space ...

When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck - enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother - meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane. Instead, she got Em. Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition.

Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them. While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them - and among the humans - who seek power. And no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization....

"The Gods of Avalon were envied by Mortals, but it was Pandora's hubris that unleashed a plague that turned men into Monsters. Then, the Gods came to fight the Monsters. And in fighting them, the Gods became Monsters too." A Galaxy at the brink of Extinction. Two Star-crossed lovers. Their choices will change the course of history. Ava is a Spacetraveller —one of the 3 billion people that have been wandering through deep space for ten thousand years in search of a place to call home. And they finally found it: Exer, a habitable planet in a solar system at the edge of the Xperyion Galaxy. ...

After a series of victories, the Imperial forces are on the back foot once more. The power of Chaos is rising, the Traitors gain ground, and all hope seems lost. Can Terra endure?

Top Gun heads to outer space in this throwback to the classic science fiction of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. Strapped in to artificial wings spanning 25 feet across, your arms push a tenth of your body weight with each pump as you propel yourself at frightening speeds through the air. Inside a pressurized dome on the Moon, subject to one-sixth Earth's gravity, there are swarms of chiseled, fearless, superbly trained flyers all around you, jostling for air space like peregrine falcons racing for the prize.

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor. With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew—a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

The star cluster's super-powers tried to make peace last. Truly, they did. But everyone knew war between Ascendant Horizon and the Coalition of Giants was inevitable. Saddled with an alliance that seems to struggle with the basics of space warfare, Captain Thatcher must fall back on his tactical prowess—along with the steadfastness of the crews under his command—just to keep his people alive. But an enemy lurks around every corner, and there is dissension even in Thatcher's fleet.

Hannah is a fusion scientist working alone at a remote cottage off the coast of Scotland when she sees a figure making his way from the sea. It is a young man from a human settlement on Mars, traveling backwards through time to try to make a crucial intervention in the fate of our dying planet, and he needs Hannah's help. Hannah and the stranger are on the path towards a breakthrough—and then things go terribly wrong.

In a world where family secrets unravel and identities shatter, Troy’s life takes an unexpected turn. His home is no longer a sanctuary, and his family’s truths are nothing but a web of lies. Cast adrift with only a battered ship, a cryptic name, and a distant destination, Troy embarks on a perilous journey to unravel the mysteries of his past.

Mysterious gateways are appearing throughout the universe, bridging violent civilizations, leading to war, and sowing chaos. While some species succumb to the pandemonium, the Chut’un forge an unholy symbiotic relationship—The Order—with red Europhids, a vast hive intelligence populating the universe’s far reaches. Desiring structure and fearing the unknown, they cull everything opposed to their plan, including the Europhids’ blue counterparts, carrying out a galactic genocide until only one blue Europhid remains...inside Moses Montgomery, a.k.a. "Dark Horse".

In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy.

Colton Beck has six months to live. He works for the Angor near Los Angeles, aware that any day could be his last. The Angor arrived twenty years ago, resolved to help mankind survive, but not everyone believes their motives are honorable. When the Angor offer humanity a colony world, Colton is determined to see another planet before his final breath. He's been diagnosed with Xeno, a rare disorder that surfaced with the Angor's arrival, but he won't let this stop him.

For nearly a decade Garak has longed for just one thing—to go home. Exiled on a space station, surrounded by aliens who loathe and distrust him, going back to Cardassia has been Garak's one dream. Now, finally, he is home. But home is a world whose landscape is filled with death and destruction. Desperation and dust are constant companions and luxury is a glass of clean water and a warm place to sleep.

No one has ever ventured deeper into space than the four astronauts of Shepherd-1. The aim of their mission is to witness the creation of the cosmos. Using the sun as a lens, they are to align a flock of probes in such a way that the moment of the Big Bang becomes visible. For astronomer Christine, this is a dream come true. So she is bitterly disappointed when the first images are obscured by a kind of veil that prevents any insight. She works obsessively to find a solution, but when she finally succeeds in lifting the veil, she sees something that would have been better kept hidden...

When Cordoba fell and his officer was murdered, Jacob T. Grimm vowed the fight wasn't over. With the help of DesRon 12 and the stalwart spacers of the USS Interceptor, he's going to bring the Guild to their corporate knees. On Cordoba, things aren't going well for the Marines. Local infantry are eager to attack, while refugees are forced out of the capital city on the verge of winter. The Spanish planet is in trouble. However, not all is as it seems.

The continued adventures of Jake. Jake, along with his forever-increasing alien family. They run a busy family business that transports food and goods between alliance worlds, encountering various situations in the process. The human race would not have been considered ready for first contact if it were not for one overriding reason. The most deadly alien foe known to the alliance has its sights on Earth and is set on a path to invade, not to conquer but to annihilate all the planet’s human inhabitants. Earth’s primitive weapons will not save them; this is where Jake can help. Jake has ...

The Owl war is over, but for Snark, normal isn’t what it used to be. He's on his way home from seeing Jane crowned Queen, and the Kingdom of Hunter's Run come into being. The war might be over, and the trade deal he made at the end of it might finally be enough for this wayward cat to be allowed back into cat society. The only thing faster than human ships, is the stories about their entry into sector ten, which ripple into the adjacent sectors. On the Cat Homeworld in sector eight, this triggers long awaited, and long stifled change. For a Warlord in sector nine, human tech would allow ...