sci fi – space opera

Word Count: Click here to reveal65000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Romance may be in the atmo when Colin joins the Merry Swallow’s crew on the beautiful ocean planet of Merak, but for Alan, it’s just another day working the most important and stressful case of his career. Yet Alan’s woes are only beginning. Not only does the pirate confederacy have ties to both the pyrean navy and human corporations, pyrean separatists have gotten involved, and Alan’s employers are about to advance their own agenda, whether or not Alan supports it. Worse yet, the case is more personal than Alan could have realized. Steele, the man who murdered Sven’s sister thirty years prior is not only alive and well, but ready to return to the public eye in grand, and bloody, fashion — and he has his sights set on the Swallow. A storm is on the horizon, and as Alan’s fragile happiness aboard the Swallow comes to an end, the only question remaining is — when the storm breaks, will he and Sven be able to weather it? A Gathering Storm is the third book in the Triple Strike series, and it includes seven illustrations plus additional bonus content and comics.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: In 2048 BCE, the ancient Egyptian ruler Mentuhotep II of the Upper Kingdom of Mizraim campaigns to overtake the Lower Kingdom and become Supreme Pharaoh of all Egypt. At the same time, the last few Bor-ak survivors of the destroyed Red Planet, which the Egyptians called Horus, were coming for one last fly-by of the Blue Planet, before heading out of the solar system, searching for new worlds to inhabit. Mentuhotep saw the arrival of the Eye of Horus as a sign that the gods favoured his campaign and implored the Bor-ak to destroy his enemies. Meanwhile, his beautiful daughter Princess Iset has fallen for humble soldier Achillas and Mentuhotep plans to thwart the undesirable union. Would the Bor-ak side with Mentuhotep in his military campaign and efforts to dissuade Princess Iset?

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 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: Information not available

Summary: In the depths of space, amidst a relentless interstellar war, Nena Videt's name echoes as both a legend and a pariah. Convicted of a crime she vehemently denies, she rots in prison, a star-faring turned into a forgotten prisoner. But when the Union of Galactic Commerce faces imminent destruction, the lines between hero and villain blur and desperate times call for desperate measures. Drawn from her darkened cell, Nena is thrust into a world where freedom awaits-but at a cost. As she joins a crew on the edge of mutiny, Nena must navigate more than perilous space battles. A mysterious race of warrior women seeks to claim her as their own, offering both allegiance and enmity. In the heart of the conflict, Nena finds herself in an uneasy alliance with Admiral Kirpich, a relentless leader hell-bent on securing victory, no matter the consequences. This book is a riveting sci-fi saga of redemption. Nena Videt's journey will take readers on a voyage through uncharted territory, where the lines between loyalty and betrayal, heroism and atrocity, blur into infinite.

Word Count: Click here to reveal32000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: After a job gone wrong, Special Agent Olgo is trapped within the bowels of Mars with no means of escape. The device that imprisons the trauma within them is about to fail, and the past terrors kept hidden by it must be contained for Olgo’s sanity and everyone's safety. From the darkness comes a tiny voice, and a tinier hope: "Hello?" *** The first book in the ‘Cold Rush' Verse follows Agent Olgo as their corporate masters give them what could be their big break: a mission to Mars. But trying to change the working conditions in the planet's underground cities proves more challenging than the agent could have imagined. When a wearable device Olgo uses to block emotions begins to fail, an unlikely friendship changes everything as Olgo struggles to prevent spilling more blood on the Red Planet.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: In 2084, Planet Earth was utterly destroyed by a rogue comet and around 25,000 surviving humans were transported to Capitol Base on Mars. These humans included Ewan and Jill Sinclair. Their son Jack Crossan Sinclair is the first Martian child born on Mars and graduates as a geologist. He leads a project to conduct geological surveys to find extractable mineral resources close to Olympus Mons. However, a powerful and secret pseudo-religious organisation back at Capitol Base makes it their mission to stop Jack, at all costs.

Word Count: Click here to reveal55000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: A damaged ship, a dying shipmate–can she save both? Under attack! The flight back to Hyvilma should have been the easy part for the crew of the Majera–until a deadly ambush by pirates sends them reeling through hyperspace. Now getting to the planet in time is the only way Captain Kitra Yilmaz can save her dying friend. But landing at Hyvilma may be impossible: war has broken out on the Frontier. With illustrations by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Forty years after landing on Lida, the colony still isn't finished. Agetha has survived many more battles than she anticipated when she first landed on her new home planet. She's older and wiser, has gained family and lost loved ones. And yet her reward for four decades of service is to be pushed to the colony’s outer edges with the other aging Generationals. But that was only the beginning of her adventure. The biomass has spent years studying the intruders who landed on its surface, carving a new home from its very essence. Never satisfied in its attempt to communicate with this new and invasive species, finally it has found a way to express its intentions. The colonists may never be the same. Discover the fate of the colony in the second book of The Biomass Conflux trilogy!

Word Count: Click here to reveal62000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Alan Beringer has settled into his role of human Elite inspector working with Pyrean Navy privateers. Is it stressful being the principle investigator into a dangerous and hitherto unknown pirate confederacy? Certainly. Is it kind of fun living amid the exuberant and free-spirited crew of the Swallow? Most definitely. Accidental kidnapping aside, Alan has come to think of the Swallow as his home and the crew his family — and it’s obvious to everyone except Alan exactly how infatuated the captain, Sven Jiordson, is with him. But right now, if Alan wants to survive (much less keep his job), he’ll need to determine how deep this conspiracy goes, its connection to a tragedy from thirty years prior, and what exactly his pyrean and human superiors plan on doing once he cracks this case. And if he can finally recognize flirting when he sees it? So much the better! Pasts Revisited is the second book in the Triple Strike series, and it includes seven illustrations plus additional bonus content and comics.

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: Information not available

Summary: There’s a kettle of rotten fish on the fire … and the stink’s about to get worse. – Jeskan proverb Once in a generation, the matriarchs of Jeska choose a new king to manage the government and command the Guard — protecting Jeskans from crime, invaders, and insurgency. Corren's been training for that job since he was six, but this is an unsettled time: rumors of strange incursions, grumbling discontent, and increasing brigandry. Corren’s own problems are multiplying. His father, a skeptical shaman, has gone missing, His polyamorous foster-brother keeps interfering with his personal and professional business. And the king needs him to track down the conspirators behind a simmering insurrection. When a strange woman turns up wearing a shaman’s cape, speaking a weird language, and hiding knowledge that doesn’t belong in this world, all his plans will have to change.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: The planet wakes. Atalant is torn between two worlds. In uncharted space—head of a sentient planet—the new Eld of Ardulum now leads the religion she once rejected. Emn is by her side but the Mmnnuggl war brewing in the Charted Systems—threatening her homeworld of Neek—cannot be ignored. Atalant must return to the planet that exiled her in order to lead the resistance. She must return home a god, a hypocrite, a liar in gold robes, and decide whether to thrust her unwilling people into the truth of Ardulum, or play the role she has been handed and never see her family, or her world, again.

Word Count: Click here to reveal130000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Over a million years in the future, a desperate stowaway lies concealed in a space freighter’s cargo hold. Tam Amergan is bound for the prison world Corustloth, where his partner Brogan has been abducted. Ever since the Senate took over the planetary system decades earlier, gay men like Tam and Brogan—degens, as they are labeled under Senate rule—have been forced to live in secrecy. But Brogan is Tam’s life-line, bound to his soul in a ritual performed by a secret sisterhood of women with ancient, unknown designs. Tam has no choice but to follow Brogan wherever he goes. What Brogan sees, Tam sees; what Tam feels, Brogan feels. Neither can live without the other. Thousands of lightyears away, an ancient brotherhood of mentalists works at uncovering the mystery of humanity’s long-forgotten origins. Their leader, Father, enlists the help of Bennett, who is able to connect with the mind of a space freighter stowaway on the other side of the galaxy. Is Bennett the key to humanity’s origins? Could Tam’s quest to find Brogan have a wider purpose? ​ Both a soaring love story and sweeping sci-fi epic, Life-Line: Origins is a thrilling gay romance and science fiction novel. Ambitious, gripping, and full of heart, it is a must-read for anyone hungry for adventure and intrigue.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: A young woman in 1884 doesn’t have many options … But Susannah did not expect to be tutoring an alien snail child while aboard a ship sailing in space … Who will get the real education? Orphaned and penniless in Hong Kong in 1884 — what’s a young gentlewoman to do? Impulsive, adventurous, and self-confident, Susannah accepts an offer to become the governess to a young foreigner on a ship. She does not expect the ship to be in space, or the foreign child to be an alien who looks like a giant snail. Nevertheless, she throws herself into the job of bringing Victorian decorum to the natives. But when she is accused of spying and put on trial in an alien court, Susannah has to challenge the law of the aliens to save herself — and her young and slimy student.

Word Count: Click here to reveal54000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Alan Beringer’s day takes an unexpected turn when he’s kidnapped by alien space pirates. In all fairness, pyrean space pirates claiming they're "privateers” has become the norm since humans became an interstellar species. Pirates aren’t the problem. The problem is Alan's job is to curtail space piracy. The problem is Alan may be more pyrean than he lets on. The problem is the alien space pirate captain, Sven Jiordson, has a growing infatuation with Alan. The problem is Alan kind of enjoys being kidnapped. But who has time for romance when there's a new, unknown threat to interstellar space travel? Kidnapping aside, Alan needs to do what he does best: use his brilliant detective skills to notice everything…except Sven flirting with him. As the pyreans say — romance is more fun when somebody’s alive to enjoy it! Threads of Fate is the first book in the Triple Strike series, and it includes seven illustrations plus additional bonus content and comics.

Word Count: Click here to reveal72,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Cybercommand has a field agent newly licensed to kill. And his name is Yuwono. Eric Yuwono. Eric travels to the remote paradise of Hosh, where someone is peddling stolen resurrection technology not ready for general use. Posing as a smuggler and with the aid of a sexy AI named Effie, he'll penetrate the organization and discover a connection back to Juno, the shadowy operation undermining the Compact. To bring them down, he'll need the help of the Children of Amargosa and their mentor, Suicide. But if he's not careful, his newfound amortality might be cut short.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Ardulum. The planet of myth. The planet of unwanted destiny. The Charted Systems are in pieces. Mercy’s Pledge is destroyed, and her captain dead. With no homes to return to, the remaining crew sets off on a journey to find the mythical planet of Ardulum—a planet where Emn might find her people, and Neek the answers she’s long sought. Finding the planet, however, brings a host of uncomfortable truths about Ardulum’s vision for the galaxy and Neek’s role in a religion that refuses to release her. Neek must balance her planet’s past and the unchecked power of the Ardulans with a budding relationship and a surprising revelation about her own genealogy. Ardulum: Second Don blends space opera elements and hard science into a story about two women persistently bound to their past and a sentient planet determined to shape their future.

Word Count: Click here to reveal170000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: In the not so distant future…  Kiah Hasan, a young, talented computer scientist haunted by her war-torn past, is reaching for something just past the edge of theoretical possibility. Her best friend, physicist Nigel Evans, is obsessed with pushing the boundaries of space travel. And Captain Josh Walker? He’s just out here for the adventure – and Kiah. Together with the crew of Trinity Station, they head toward the Kuiper Belt and disappear just as simmering political tension on Earth erupts into outright war. A hundred years later… Admiral Darren Winters leads a mission to the Kuiper Belt to find out what happened to Trinity Station. To his, and Earth’s, surprise, not only have the Trinity Station scientists survived, but have reached levels of advanced technology due to the success of Dr. Hasan’s AGI experiments. After shaky negotiations with Earth that ends with the birth of the new nation of Survey, Admiral Winters is offered a new position with the AI ship Musashi. His first mission is to figure out what happened to the youngest AI, Loki, whose first crew was killed in a tragic accident. With psychologist Dr. Alex Campos, they uncover a secret that could endanger the newly formed Survey nation and its AIs. Can Darren and Alex find Loki before it’s too late?

Word Count: Click here to reveal140000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Jack Kirby just wants peace. Deeply scarred from a failed mission and struggling with the loss of his lover, Jack takes a job  as a Religious Program Specialist on a remote PreCol station. There, he finds what he never expected: a family. Marsha, a complicated woman with a deep connection to the spiritual world. Jenny, a cheerful ensign with a dangerous past. Mark, driven to demolish the atavistic cult he was born into. Can Jack protect them all as they become entangled in an espionage game with galactic stakes?