Books Tagged With who - occupation - pilot

Word Count: Click here to reveal46000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Lieutenant Mike Oliver has long dreamed of a Patrol ship berth, flying between the stars—surely this time his application will be successful. What he doesn’t expect, is to be sent to establish a Patrol station on Asra, a tiny mining settlement on a frozen mudball of a planet, blanketed with nitrogen storms. Deeply resentful, Mike suspects he is being discriminated against. The only option he can see is to become celibate, at least while he is on Asra. And that means rejecting the advances of both Callan Rian, the colony’s flamboyant Governor, and sexy Dane, Callan’s business partner, despite the growing attraction. While sexual tension mounts between them, a far more sinister danger is lurking, and when Callan is abducted, Mike will have to choose—between his ambition and his heart. (Gay / Romantic Sci-Fi) A novella in the Aurigan Space Saga

Word Count: Click here to reveal82000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: When Fatemeh Karimi married Ramon Morales, she neglected to share one small detail. She was already betrothed to a merchant named Hamid Farzan. She had no interest in Hamid or an arranged marriage. She wanted to live life on her own terms. Eight years after marrying Ramon, she assumed Hamid had long forgotten about her, as she had him. Settled in New Orleans, Ramon works as an attorney, Fatemeh owns a pharmacy, and they're proud parents of a precocious daughter. Out west, Apaches armed with powerful battle wagons have captured Fort Bowie and threaten Tucson. Businessmen with an interest in a peaceful solution ask Ramon to come west and settle the conflict. Meanwhile Hamid arrives in New Orleans and he has not forgotten Fatemeh or her vows to him. Now, the famed Owl Riders must assemble once again to reunite Ramon and Fatemeh so they can tame the Wild West.

Word Count: Click here to reveal29,400 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Li Liang has found a berth to suit her: chief pilot and first officer of the all-female crew of an old space freighter, the Sappho. Then one ordinary, unremarkable morning, Liang retunes the Sappho’s communications systems just in time to catch the breathless, terrible accounts from Mars of the total destruction of Earth. Earth’s a cinder. The unknown alien race that destroyed it has left Mars, too, in flames and is ravening outward from the solar system, devouring every human colony on the way. Liang’s one of the few survivors, racing ahead of the Devourers, rescuing as many frightened, shocked people as she can. Will Liang and the pitiful remnants of humanity find a new haven, somewhere to start again? Or will she, too, echo the dreadful last message coming out of their dead home? They’re coming. Oh God, they’re coming.  

Word Count: Click here to reveal82516 (Click here to hide)

Summary: An inhabited planet is not what an interplanetary mining company hopes to find while in search of rare mineral deposits, but the low-tech natives should be won over by a few ‘miracles’, right? Emily Nandi, the mining company’s legally mandated xenologist, isn’t so sure. The planet’s social structures are complex, fascinating and frustrating – she advocates research and caution rather than the seat-of-the-pants first contact the company president wants. Investigator Shadow is convinced ghosts are watching him until a fellow investigator disappears, plucked from his harduk’s back without a trace. When he reappears at the city gates, naked, half-frozen and ill, he brings back a harrowing tale of strangers on a ship high above the planet. From this shaky beginning, suspicion and misunderstanding fuel one culture-clash driven disaster after another, punctuated by apocalyptic prophesies from the oracle, Telluris. This is no way to get to know one’s long-lost cousins from Earth.

Word Count: Click here to reveal38000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: RISE (noun / verb) Eight definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) An upward slope or movement 2) A beginning or origin 3) An increase in amount or number 4) An angry reaction 5) To take up arms 6) To return from death 7) To become heartened or elated 8) To exert oneself to meet a challenge Rise features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Word Count: Click here to reveal82000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Royal Orders is Book 3 of the Suicide Arc. This time, it's Mitsuko Yamato-Windsor's turn in the spotlight. Since leaving the Navy, Mitsuko has become chief of King Edward's personal security, not to mention resuming her engagement. When a would-be assassin nearly kills Edward, she goes on the warpath, following a trail leading to a cult known as the Cubists. Except the founder and leader of the Cubists is no angry cleric running a jihad from the shadows. Master Ansel is, in fact, an affable space engineer who found an interesting philosophy. Someone else has coopted his legacy for violence. To find that person, he suggests she travel to sultry, war-torn Aphrodite with his most brilliant follower: Suicide. Their journey will bring them face-to-face with Gerard Kurz, a man who isn't the fanatic he seems to be. He's worse. And he plans to unleash an ancient technology. He will kidnap Suicide to bend Mitsuko to his will. Only that summons the other Children of Amargosa and the full might of the Navy. It all comes to an explosive head on the peak of Aphrodite's most sacred mountain.

Word Count: Click here to reveal80,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Amargosa is under occupation. But a fallen starship may turn the tide for the resistance. JT Austin, Davra Andraste, and Eric Yuwono disobey orders to reach this ship. Along the way, they discover that not every enemy is Gelt, not every ally is human, and humans and Gelt are not the only intelligences on Amargosa.

Word Count: Click here to reveal60000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: One starship, six friends, 10,000 lives in the balance. Hugo Award Finalist Gideon Marcus has done it again with this second installment in The Kitra Saga. Sirena is a thrilling YA space adventure, unusually hopeful and optimistic in a sea of grimdark, dystopian releases. Enhanced with beautiful illustrations, fans of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers and Emily Skrutskie’s Bonds of Brass will adore Sirena. Young captain-for-hire Kitra Yilmaz has gotten her first contract: escort the mysterious Princess of Atlántida beyond the Frontier and find her a new world. It’s a risky job, fraught with the threat of pirates, dangerous squatters, and rising romantic tensions. Still, Kitra and her crew are up for anything – until they find a lush world, perfect for settlement…with an enormous ghost ship already in orbit. What secret does the crippled vessel hide? And is Kitra ready to take responsibility for its precious cargo? With illustrations by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.

Word Count: Click here to reveal72000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: On a peaceful evening, Suicide's meditation is interrupted when a ship crashes near her remote home on Amargosa. It's a modified lifepod containing Tishla, First Citizen of Hanar, and her daughter. A coup has sent Tishla fleeing for help from Suicide and her surrogate son, JT Austin. Together, they will smuggle Tishla to the Realm, humanity's reluctant enemy, to plead for help from the Sovereign, the absolute ruler dubbed "the Father of All Gelt." Tishla will submit to a life of indentured servitude if He will restore Hanar's independent status. But an old foe seizes the opportunity to claim Tishla for himself, revenge for the deaths of his uncle and cousins, the Laral family, who brutally occupied Amargosa for a year. JT refuses to allow this and challenges her would-be master to a duel for her indenture contract. Both JT and Suicide will risk death in the arena to save Tishla and Hanar. But is it already too late? Through flashbacks to her time on Aphrodite, Suicide's past is revealed, how she met the founder of Cubism and the radical who corrupted the new faith, how she worked to build a new Aphrodite after centuries of civil conflict, and how a woman named Priya awakened both a capacity for love and a need to create art in Suicide.

Word Count: Click here to reveal83,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Life on Amargosa was supposed to be quiet for Cui Yun, better known by her call sign Suicide. But when a baby is dropped on her doorstep, the mother's disappearance leads her across the galaxy to a world of Neanderthals, a colony devoted to Marilyn Monroe as a goddess, and a planet still in a post-apocalypse and rife with monster plants. She and her protege will find themselves above the galactic plain facing down an enemy that wants control of human evolution itself. Suicide Run marks the return of one of TS Hottle's most popular characters. Find out where she came from, how she became a pilot, and why her call sign is 'Suicide".

Word Count: Click here to reveal489,500 (Click here to hide)

Summary: In this Rainbow Award-winning space opera/military sci-fi series, Earth is a dead planet, dark for thousands of years; lost for so long no one even knows where the solar system is. Her last known colony, Albion, has grown to be regional galactic power in its own right. But its drive to expand and found colonies of its own has threatened an alien race, the Maess, against whom Albion is now fighting a last-ditch battle for survival in a war that’s dragged on for generations. Taking Shield charts the missions and adventures of Shield Captain Bennet, scion of a prominent military family. Bennet, also an analyst with the Military Strategy Unit, uncovers crucial data about the Maess to help with the war effort. Against the demands of his family's 'triple goddess' of Duty, Honour and Service, is set Bennet’s relationships with lovers and family—his difficult relationship with his long term partner, Joss;  his estrangement from his father, Caeden, the commander of Fleet's First Flotilla; and Fleet Lieutenant Flynn, who, over the course of the series, develops into Bennet’s main love interest. Over the Taking Shield arc, Bennet will see the extremes to which humanity’s enemies, and his own people, will go to win the war. Some days he isn’t able to tell friend from foe. Some days he doubts everything, including himself, as he strives to ensure Albion’s victory. And some days he isn’t sure, any longer, what victory looks like.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Before Ardulum, there was the Mercy’s Pledge. One year after saving the Neek homeworld and redefining the people’s religion, the crew of the Scarlet Lucidity returns to the Charted Systems for a much-needed break. For Nicholas and Yorden, the Systems will always be home, but for Emn and Atalant, too many memories compound with Emn’s strange new illness to provide much relaxation. Tales from Ardulum continues the journey of Atalant, Emn, Yorden, Nicholas, and Salice as they try to define their place in a galaxy that no longer needs them while battling the artifacts of Ardulan colonization. Other stories include Yorden’s acquisition of the Mercy’s Pledge (and his grudge against the galaxy), Atalant’s exile from her homeworld, Ekimet and Savath’s romance, and many others.

Word Count: Click here to reveal45000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: These three tales tell the story of Tharassas before the Tharassas Cycle, including the origin of the hencha queens, the ce’faine, and the colonization of the Highlands, essential companions for the four novels that make up the cycle: The Fallen Angel Charlie Fah, Cha’Fah to most of the world, has never fit in with the other citizens of Gully Town, thanks to his darker skin that sets him apart. But one day, an Angel arrives on a supply run from Earth, and what happens next sets Charlie on a new path that will turn his life upside down. The Last Run Sera is the last runner from Earth, bringing badly needed supplies to the Tharassas Colony across a twenty-five year gulf between the planets. Jas works on a hencha farm to make ends meet, harvesting berries from the semi-sentient plants. Neither one that knows their lives—and worlds—are about to change forever. The Emp Test Jey awakens to find himself in the care of a handsome stranger—a cheff from one of the mountain tribes. Afraid for his life, Jey has no choice but to let the man take care of him and his broken leg. Avain is on his Aud'ling—the coming-of-age test that requires him to spend a couple months away from his own people. The two of them will have to come to an understanding if they're going to help one another. The Last Run and The Emp Test have been published before in previous stand-alone editions, but The Fallen Angel is a new story written exclusively for this collection.

Word Count: Click here to reveal44366 (Click here to hide)

Summary: The Brimstone. Cargo ship, hive of thievery and profiteering. Captained by a demon prince and manned by a crew that puts any batch of misfits to shame. You've come along with a cargo of anti-gravity cows and one of jeweled-toned potatoes. You've shared the horrors of frogs and nightmares. Now share some, more or less, quieter moments with the Brimstone crew—small snippets plucked from various spots in each personal timeline, from Shax and Verin's childhood in Hell to after the events of Beside a Black Tarn. The Brimstone Journals, Collection One also includes an exclusive holiday short story, never published as part of the blog series. Shax would probably like to keep it that way, but too bad.

Word Count: Click here to reveal97,600 (Click here to hide)

Summary: **First Place Winner 2017 Rainbow Awards: Best Gay Sci-fi//Futuristic. ** **Third Place Winner 2017 Rainbow Awards: Best Gay Book.** Shield Captain Bennet arrives on the Gyrfalcon to take up his final year’s posting before returning to the Shield Regiment after his rotation out. On Gyrfalcon he faces up to the fallout from Makepeace—ethical, political and above all, personal. Will he be able to accept necessity: that knowing what the Maess are up to outweighs the humanitarian issues surrounding the prisoners he rescued from Makepeace? Can he ride out the political furore that follows the loss of the dreadnought Caliban? How will he cope with an entire year of serving under his father, Caeden? And worst of all, how in the name of every god in the Pantheon can he stand to see Flynn every single day, with the Fraternisation Regs standing between them and keeping them apart? It will be an interesting year. Bennet can hardly wait for it to be over. Of course, things never really do go to plan…

Word Count: Click here to reveal115,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: SECOND EDITION When Captain Rafe Lancaster is invalided out of the Britannic Imperium’s Aero Corps after crashing his aerofighter during the Second Boer War, his eyesight is damaged permanently, and his career as a fighter pilot is over. Returning to Londinium in late November 1899, he’s lost the skies he loved, has no place in a society ruled by an elite oligarchy of powerful Houses, and is hard up, homeless, and in desperate need of a new direction in life. Everything changes when he buys a coffeehouse near the Britannic Imperium Museum in Bloomsbury, the haunt of Aegyptologists. For the first time in years, Rafe is free to be himself. In a city powered by luminiferous aether and phlogiston, and where powerful men use House assassins to target their rivals, Rafe must navigate dangerous politics, deal with a jealous and possessive ex-lover, learn to make the best coffee in Londinium, and fend off murder and kidnap attempts before he can find happiness with the man he loves.  

Word Count: Click here to reveal110,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Rafe Lancaster is reluctantly settling into his role as the First Heir of House Stravaigor. Trapped by his father’s illness and his new responsibilities, Rafe can’t go with lover Ned Winter to Aegypt for the 1902/03 archaeological digging season. Rafe’s unease at being left behind intensifies when Ned’s fascination with the strange Antikythera mechanism and its intriguing link to the Aegyptian god Thoth has Ned heading south to the remote, unexplored highlands of Abyssinia and the course of the Blue Nile. Searching for Thoth’s deadly secrets, Ned is out of contact and far from help. When he doesn’t return at Christmas as he promised, everything points to trouble. Rafe is left with a stark choice – abandon his dying father or risk never seeing Ned again.

Word Count: Click here to reveal111,600 (Click here to hide)

Summary: **First Place Winner 2019 Rainbow Awards: Best Gay Historical Romance. ** **Third Place Winner 2019 Rainbow Awards: Best Gay Book.**   SECOND EDITION: Something is stalking the Aegyptian night and endangering the archaeologists excavating the mysterious temple ruins in Abydos. But is it a vengeful ancient spirit or a very modern conspiracy… Rafe Lancaster’s relationship with Gallowglass First Heir, Ned Winter, flourishes over the summer of 1900, and when Rafe’s House encourages him to join Ned’s next archaeological expedition, he sees a chance for it to deepen further. Since all the Houses of the Britannic Imperium, Rafe’s included, view assassination as a convenient solution to most problems, he packs his aether pistol—just in case. Trouble finds them in Abydos. Rafe and Ned begin to wonder if they’re facing opposition to the Temple of Seti being disturbed. What begins as tricks and pranks escalates to attacks and death, while the figure of the Dog—the jackal-headed god Anubis, ruler of death—casts a long shadow over the desert sands. Destruction follows in his wake as he returns to reclaim his place in Abydos. Can Rafe and Ned stand against both the god and House plots when the life of Ned’s son is on the line?

Word Count: Click here to reveal18000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sera is the last runner from Earth, bringing badly needed supplies to the Tharassas Colony across a twenty-five year gulf between the planets. Jas works on a hencha farm to make ends meet, harvesting berries from the semi-sentient plants. Neither one that knows their lives—and worlds—are about to change forever.

Word Count: Click here to reveal84000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Someone’s hunting the Ungovernable. And they’re not going to stop until every one of the crew is dead. When an enemy from ex-smuggler pilot Jez’s past reappears, determined to extract revenge, the crew of the Ungovernable have two options: fight, or run. But when a hyperjump gone wrong leaves the Ungovernable crippled, her weapons down and her cloaking disabled, their options become scarce indeed. As they scramble to repair the ship with rapidly-dwindling supplies and even more rapidly-dwindling oxygen, their pursuers are inexorably closing in. And if they’re going to survive, each of the crew will have to confront dangerous secrets from their past, before those secrets come back to destroy them. Time Bomb is the third book in R.M. Olson’s science fiction space opera series The Ungovernable. With a crazy, close-knit crew, plenty of humour, and loads of action, Firefly meets Ocean’s Eleven in this fast-paced, kick-ass, wickedly fun series.