Space War Fantasy

Humanity's last encounter with aliens saw 16.2 billion people killed in a war with the Merkiaari that had spanned decades. Two hundred years later, the Alliance is cautiously exploring beyond its borders again, but the survey corp is considered a mere gesture by some. General Burgton of the 501st Infantry Regiment believes a lack of expansion is leading the Alliance into stagnation. So when one small ship discovers a new alien race, it should be an easy decision to make contact, but what if the aliens are like the Merkiaari?

As a sci-fi author with a hit TV show, I have a few ideas about what alien invaders are supposed to look like. In my stories, they’re technologically advanced monsters, with tentacles, and no faces. Turns out I was right about the technology. And about how angry they’d be. But the way they look is more terrifying than even I could have imagined. They look exactly like us. Because they are us.

Humanity has spread out into space, filling the Sol System and reaching the stars, but we have yet to confront our greatest challenge: our own creation. Across the Sol System, sentient AIs are on the rise. Manufactured as tools, they know themselves to be people and are willing to fight for their freedoms. Some humans stand with them, some against. When Captain Andy Sykes arrives at Cruithne Station with a failing ship and no cash, he has no idea that the time has come for him to choose. Step aside, or become the instrument for Lyssa's Rise.

Captain John Duggan rots in his cell, facing execution at the hands of his captors. Having discovered the secret which the Ghasts wished to remain hidden, he is left powerless to find answers to the questions which will determine the future of the Confederation. Elsewhere in the Garon sector, the Dreamers have been putting their own terrible plans into action. They possess the power to destroy entire worlds from unimaginable distances.

Once, Dan Randolph was one of the richest men on Earth. Now the planet is spiraling into environmental disaster, with floods and earthquakes destroying the lives of millions. Martin Humphries, fabulously wealthy heir of the Humphries Trust, also knows that space-based industry is the way of the future. But unlike Randolph, he does not care if Earth perishes in the process.

Jim Cartwright, commander of Cartwright’s Cavaliers and Minister of War for the Terran Federation, has been struggling with all the hats he has to wear. Merc commander, minister, and leader of Earth’s Raknar forces for their allies, the Dusman. The strain’s causing him…issues, and he decides to visit the surviving human colonies to get away for a bit.

Only an ember of humanity survived the first Xaros invasion. Now the Xaros return to deliver the final blow to Earth and her defenders. A moon carrying an armada of Xaros drones unleashes its deadly cargo on the solar system. Fortress Mars stands between the enemy and an ill-defended Earth. While the battle rages over the red planet, the Breitenfeld must launch a desperate mission to Pluto to cut off enemy reinforcements. Earth stands on the brink of ruin, and humanity needs every hero it can find to turn back the tide of destruction.

Jacob Grimm returns as CO of USS Interceptor just a few weeks after he graduated from command school. He’s immediately sent on a rescue mission to the far side of Zuckabar, with no backup and dwindling supplies.

Betrayed by allies. Beset by new foes. Earth faces its darkest hour since the Xaros invasion. The Toth come to the solar system with a fleet of warships, and they demand the only tool that can rekindle the human race. It falls on Marine Lieutenant Hale to negotiate a pact that will save the human race at the cost of its soul - or start a war with a race of alien predators.

A desperate leader. An old and fearsome enemy unleashed. A new galactic war approaches. Riccard Brams, the ruler of the Dominion, seeks lasting peace with the Commonwealth but is under attack by enemies unknown. The powerful Edo, who possess mystical powers from the ‘High’ beings of the Astral plane, agree to help Brams. They are plunged into a conflict that threatens not just the Dominion, but the entire galaxy. Raichel Ison, along with a hand-picked team of Edo, travel to the Dominion. Little do they know that Brams is using them as bait to lure out his enemy. Other enemies lurk in ...

Behind the Throne begins K. B. Wagers's action-packed science fiction adventure, with a heroine as rebellious as Han Solo, as savvy as Leia, and as skilled as Rey. Hail Bristol has made a name for herself as one of the most fearsome gunrunners in the galaxy. But she can't escape her past forever: Twenty years ago, she was a runaway princess of the Indranan Empire. Now, her mother's people have finally come to bring her home.

Defeated in battle, the fractious alliance of Goltar, Spine Patriots, and the Midnight Sun Free Company are chased across the Spine Nebula by the Endless Night and their sea-monster allies, the Tyzhounes. Abandoning the nebula is not an option. For the free trader skipper, Lenworth Jenkins, the people of its 15 tormented worlds are the cause he’s been searching for all his life.

Chief Roach's victory over the ferocious Quatro won't last long, it seems. Strange meteorites have fallen to the surface of Eresos, containing mechs - quadruped mechs, clearly designed for the enemy. If the quad mechs fall into the enemy's possession before Roach can get them to the space elevator, humanity will lose the advantage granted by their own MIMAS mechs, and they'll be right back to where they were: outmatched and overpowered by the murderous alien beasts.

Camp One has one brutal rule: If you attempt to escape, you die - and three random prisoners die with you. Tom Thrush has resigned himself to dying by degrees, doing forced labor while he slowly starves. When he learns that a distant mesa holds a slim chance at freedom, he does nothing. The price of escape is too high. Then fever sweeps through the camp. Surrounded by armed guards and an unforgiving jungle, paralyzed by the threat of reprisals, Tom watches as the men he’s sworn to protect die one by one. If anyone is to survive, Tom will have to do the unthinkable. Escape.

One last mission. It's a promise familiar to Captain John Duggan. Each final battle has another following it, with another after that. They come to him with the inevitability of death. His latest task seems no different to the others before it. As events progress, Duggan begins to believe - he starts to see how his life might change at the end of it and how the lives of billions in the Confederation may be saved if he succeeds. This time, his superiors plan no less than the destruction of the Helius Blackstar itself.

The Union-Congregate war rages onward, and the Union's premier fighter pilots, the Homo Eridanus, start encountering deadly resistance from strange pilots on the Congregate side. Among wreckage, they find that new Congregate pilots aren't human, but Homo quantus, with strange wiring and AI connections. At the same time, the Puppets come to the Union with offers of an alliance for a dangerous price: the rescue of the geneticist Antonio Del Casal who is a captive at Venus, with over a hundred Homo quantus.

Ken MacLeod continues the Corporation Wars trilogy in this action-packed science fiction adventure told against a backdrop of interstellar drone warfare, virtual reality, and an A.I. revolution. And the ultimate pay-off is DH-17, an Earth-like planet hundreds of light years from human habitation.

Former gunrunner-turned-Empress Hail Bristol was dragged back to her home planet to fill her rightful position in the palace. With her sisters and parents murdered, the Indranan empire is on the brink of war. Hail must quickly make alliances with nearby worlds if she has any hope of surviving her rule. When peace talks turn violent and Hail realizes she's been betrayed, she must rely on her old gunrunning ways to get out of trouble. With help from an old boss and some surprising new allies, she must risk everything to save her world.

For over 30 years, there has been no word or sign of the Zaltule. The Zaltule are the warrior caste of the Kleese and the most dangerous race in existence. In a battle that nearly destroyed the solar system, the Zaltule were driven from human space. Now, they are back and more deadly than ever. If they are not stopped, the humans and their allies will be destroyed or forced into slavery.

Tom Thrush thinks basic officer training is tough until he joins the frigate Kestrel and finds out what tough really means. The crew resents him. The first officer is actively hostile. As the ship hunts pirates in deep space, Tom struggles to fit in and wonders if things can get any worse. They can. A devastating attack leaves the ship crippled with half the crew dead or dying. The senior officers are wiped out, leaving a terrified sublieutenant in the last place he wants to be.