Space Opera First Contact

Voice of the Chosen is the third book in the Spirit of Empire series. Readers are strongly encouraged to read the first two books before embarking on this third book. Struthers has suffered serious defeats at the hands of Terran forces, but he is fighting back. Next on his agenda: convene the Imperial Senate, name himself emperor, and officially declare Imperial Forces in rebellion. The Queen must present herself to the senate. If she can, Struthers’ rebellion will fail, but the meeting will be held on Triton, his headquarters world. It is up to First Knight Michael Carver to find a way ...

Hygeia, an outer rim colony, is doomed as the moon on which it was built hurtles toward an inevitable collision with the dead planet Hephaestus. When a distress signal arrives from a Weyland-Yutani biowarfare outpost near the colony, a desperate plan is launched to evacuate the trapped scientists and colonists. Their destination: LV-846, a key United Americas colony where high-level talks are scheduled to address the galaxy-wide hostilities between the colonies.

Nicole Hammond was just trying to survive on the streets of Philadelphia. Then she and her partner, Bungie, were abducted by a race of mysterious mothlike aliens and taken to a strange ship called the Fyrantha. Now, she is a Sibyl, a special human that has the ability to communicate with the aliens and their ship, and no one is happy. Competing factions control different parts of the Fyrantha with the humans and other sentient aliens caught in the middle. But Nicole is done being bullied, and now, she has a plan to take control of the ship.

Humanity lies dead. The Atrekna are landing nearly unopposed on thousands of planets. The day looks dark and many are losing hope. But the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems is more than just the Terrans. The Treana'ad War Hordes charge into battle against the enemy. Black Mantid Special Forces own the night. The Telkan Marine Corps spits their defiance into the faces of the invaders from a dead universe. The Lanaktallan desert the Unified Military Council by the hundreds of thousand to join with the Confederacy. Even further, just because you have killed a Terran does not mean its over....

Humanity knows it is not alone in the universe. The War of Succession has been raging for 70 years in the remnants of the old Empire. On one side is the Alliance, and the crew of the Epsilon, on the other, the Coalition. Their fight now threatens the very existence of mankind. Repairs to the Epsilon are underway on Earth while new threats emerge. But more dangerous than any threat on Earth, is the arrival of any unexpected enemy.

In a new Cold War between Earth and the colonies on Mars, when devastating weapons go missing, there's only one team you can call - the Outriders. A crack force of highly specialized super-soldiers, their clone bodies are near-immortal. When a fully-autonomous vessel with orbital strike capabilities goes missing, it's up to the Outriders to track the un-trackable. But when the trail leads them to the influential Martian People's Collective Republic, the operation gets a lot more complicated.

AN INVASION. A CONSPIRACY. ONE SHOT AT REDEMPTION. Three never-before-published books bundled together! The Lost Galaxy series follows the adventures of a lone lawman, his aging and possibly insane spaceship, and a trio of mercenaries, new recruits, and hardened criminals who are all swept together behind an alien invasion that could wipe out humanity. As Provincial Sergeant Jack Bowman and his ragtag group race to save themselves and warn humanity of the invasion force, they learn that there is more at stake than anyone—human or alien—could have guessed. A conspiracy could bring down ...

Light years from Earth, an alien planet forced their queen from power and cast her into space. For millions of years, the queen's ship wandered the cosmos, until it crashed on Earth. As a child, Michael Hems first lost his mother to cancer, and then his father to the bottom of a bottle. Growing up in a small town, Michael's friends became his life. The only one he knew. The only one he wanted. But the night he found the ship, everything he loved was thrown into jeopardy.

Thousands of crew are reported dead, including the ship’s captain. Reluctantly, the young XO, Galvin Quintos, will be taking command of the fleet's crippled dreadnaught, the USS Hamilton, while doing his best to bring fleet survivors back to Earth. To make matters worse, there’s a murderer running loose on board the ship, critically low fuel levels, and the Grish are back, in fast pursuit and ready to finish what they’d started. Only by sheer luck - and a good measure of cagey smarts - will Quintos be able to rise to the challenge.

After a fateful expedition to Antarctica, Alexander Hawkes finds himself catapulted across the stars into a galaxy in chaos. The Emperor is assassinated. The Eternum Empire, already fading, has collapsed. But he has a starship now. And friends. Alongside a crew of unlikely allies—Ban Tarro, an honorable Barundi soldier; Diliseth, a genetically-engineered Nacendo handmaiden; and Four, a sentient AI—Alexander witnesses the brutal aftermath of imperial collapse on the planet Twilight. Driven by an innate sense of justice, Alexander proposes a radical solution.

An interstellar colony ship on Earth prepares for take-off. Before reaching their first stop—Proxima b Centauri—they are awoken from their cryo pods early, only to learn there's been an alien invasion on Earth. But it's too late. Can the crew find a safe refuge from the invaders and track down colonists from other ships?

For more than a century, Winged Hussars has been the richest of Earth's mercenary companies, as well as the only one to specialize in space warfare. Led by Alexis Cromwell, they have carved out a reputation in the galaxy for being dependable, unflappable, and lethally efficient. Until people began shooting at them everywhere they went.

It's not every day that your roommate accidentally teleports you across time and space, but Jennifer MacDonald is not having an ordinary day. A chance encounter with a custom-built computer and an ancient pyramid sends Jennifer to a faraway land with six warring civilizations and an ancient prophecy that has a visitor from the stars at its heart. All she has to do is unseal one measly, missing god.

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.

Humanity thought they could run. They were wrong. The ongoing trials and tribulations of the Gaea Ark and the last remnants of humanity in the galaxy. Not Alone is the second book in the series. Aboard the Ark, there are as many secrets as there are survivors.

In a future where humanity has conquered mortality, Dr. Isabella Moretti, a renowned exo-archaeologist dedicated to deciphering the secrets of extinct civilizations, faces an unwelcome "Second Life" of compulsory service. Thrust into the Aegis Legion, the Concord's shield against frontier perils, she's deployed to the desolate Erebus System at galaxy's far edge —a place besieged by the Phantoms, an unseen, merciless alien force whose motives are unknown. With colonial outposts systematically obliterated by devastating kinetic strikes from orbit, Isa and her newly formed platoon, Void ...

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.

When avid gamer Brandon awakes surrounded by endless snow and countless monsters, he knows his survival odds look slim at best. Not that he's planning to go down without a fight. Being a self-confessed nerd doesn't mean he's going to roll over and die. Brandon's determined to get himself home and protect whoever he finds upon the way. That includes a couple of stunning alien women who need his help as much as he needs theirs.

When the Aunga’ri come to Earth, they have a thing or two to learn about humans. And they start with our favorite topic: Human Sexuality. This alien race has long since turned reproduction over to the scientists, quelling their primitive instincts in favor of a more peaceful, intellectual society. But when they come to Earth to try and stop a dangerous alien race from destroying the planet, suddenly their primitive instincts are back… in full force. Now they’ll need to learn to manage their desires before they become to distracted to do what they came here for. And they’re probably ...

Light is almost everywhere, but what is it, really? How does it work? What does it experience as it zips along at the universe's ultimate speed limit? Light features heavily in this, the 8th book in the Voided Man series. Alan Franklin, who was once known as Maestro, narrates the volume. In Book 8 we learn... Of Alan's early years in the City... Of what's been happening with Andromeda and others back on the Potato... More about what the society made up of quadrillions of humans in the distant future is like... What happened when Banner Dawson found Pioneer 10 past the orbit of Pluto... All ...