New Release Roundup–12 May 2018: Science Fiction
Saturday , 12, May 2018 Just Released Leave a commentSpace dragons, the King of Space, legions of space marines, caravans of space refugees, and the deadliest unpaid intern in the galaxy feature in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in science fiction.
Bandwidth (Analog Novel #1) – Eliot Peper
A rising star at a preeminent political lobbying firm, Dag Calhoun represents the world’s most powerful technology and energy executives. But when a close brush with death reveals that the influence he wields makes him a target, impossible cracks appear in his perfect, richly appointed life.
Like everyone else, Dag relies on his digital feed for everything—a feed that is as personal as it is pervasive, and may not be as private as it seems. As he struggles to make sense of the dark forces closing in on him, he discovers that activists are hijacking the feed to manipulate markets and governments. Going public would destroy everything he’s worked so hard to build, but it’s not just Dag’s life on the line—a shadow war is coming, one that will secure humanity’s future or doom the planet to climate catastrophe. Ultimately, Dag must decide the price he’s willing to pay to change the world.
Beyond Atlantis ( Ascendant Chronicles #4) – Brandon Elllis
Jaxx thought the Kelhoon were bad enough – a race of aliens enslaving humans, Atlanteans, and other ET’s, and shipping them off to their factory farms on Callisto, Jupiter’s second largest moon. But when Jaxx lands back on Callisto to free those bound in chains, he encounters something far worse.
The Agadon has followed him there. A psychotic sentient race of artificial intelligent Beings hellbent on wiping out all life in the Sol system – human, Atlantean and Kelhoon alike.
Now Jaxx must persuade rebel Kelhoon to join him in a battle against an intractable enemy.
With only one chance to succeed, Jaxx might just save everyone, or he might fail and die. When the Atlanteans offer him a deal that fulfills both, he may have no choice.
And he’s running out of time.
Broken Stars (Universe on Fire #1) – Ivan Kal
Sixty-seven years ago the Qash’vo’tar conquered Earth. They had judged humanity as dangerous and unworthy of joining the other races among the stars. Ever since then, the aliens had ruled from above, keeping humanity from even thinking about reaching for the stars. The Qash’vo’tar did not care what humanity did on the ground, as long as they didn’t attempt to build anything that could get them to the stars. Outmatched in every way and not willing to accept the cost of fighting back, the United Earth gave up ever again reaching beyond the boundary of Earth’s sky.
In its isolation, humanity turned its eyes from the sky and pointed them to the ground. Instead of the stars, humanity explored the oceans, burrowed deep underground, and broadened its understanding of laws of physics. Until finally they could take no more. In secret the United Earth’s best scientists attempted to find a way out. They experimented, and in a single moment changed the fate of humanity. Accidentally, they broke through someplace else, created a breach in space-time. Deep underground, they created a portal to another universe.
They made a breach to a universe where there was magic. This new universe changed them, changed their own universe. This one accident gave them a new weapon against the Qash’vo’tar. A weapon that the aliens had no knowledge of. It gave humanity magic. And they studied it, integrated it with their technology, and they waited for the right time to strike back against their alien overlords.
And now, sixty-seven years after they had been conquered, it was time for humanity to show the Qash’vo’tar that they had been right to fear humanity. Now was the time for humanity to reclaim its world and carve a place for Earth among the stars.
Freedom’s Fate (Freedom’s Fire #6) – Bobby Adair
War in the Heavens for Freedom on Earth
The first interstellar war, a generation ago, left humanity enslaved. Now humans fight in the armies of their masters to save themselves from annihilation.
At least, that’s what the propaganda insists is true. What the layers of lies keep hidden, is how badly the new war is going for the people of earth.
Now it’s Dylan Kane’s turn to blast into the heavens and join the battle, but what his masters don’t know, is that by putting a weapon in his hands, they’re giving him the key to unlocking his hopes of freedom.
In this finale of the Freedom’s Fire series, the Free Army tries to salvage victory from what looks like a total loss. They’ve found a weakness in the Gray-Trog alliance they think they can exploit. But they’ll need to ally themselves with the hated MSS, and put their trust in people they’ve sworn to overthrow.
Hunter Killer (Wardogs, Inc. #2) – G. D. Stark
WARDOGS INCORPORATED is one of the largest and most professional mercenary corporations operating in the Kantillon subsector. If you need a bodyguard, an assassination team, or an armored cavalry regiment complete with air support, WARDOGS Inc. can provide it for you… for a very steep price.
Fresh from the nuclear-scarred battlefields of Ulixis, Tommy Falkland and his squad mates are happy to be assigned to a simple corporate bodyguard contract when the interstellar corporation Datacon Verlag inadvertently offends a seriously strange religious cult with an advertising campaign and turns to Wardogs Incorporated for protection. But the contract proves to be considerably more challenging than expected when the executive they are guarding ends up dead, murdered by a military-grade toxin, and they find themselves ordered to track down his killer. But how do you solve a murder when your two primary skills are breaking things and killing people?
The King of Space Must Die (Space Team #9) – Barry J. Hutchison
It isn’t just war. It’s space war!
Geronimus Krone, the most dangerous man in existence has altered the course of time, appointed himself King of Space, and now rules the galaxy with the help of his four monstrous generals and their armies.
Cal Carver and his crew are the galaxy’s only hope. But, reeling from their recent loss, they can’t stop Krone on their own. Fortunately, they’ve got a whole bunch of friends they can call on for help.
With Krone’s grip tightening around thousands of helpless star systems, a much larger Space Team must find a way to crush his armies, defeat his generals, and finally face off against the King of Space himself.
But first, they’ve got a funeral to attend…
Knights of Saturn (Void Dragon Hunters #5) – Felix R. Savage
Betrayed and undermined, the Dragon Corps is in tatters.
Scarred by losses, the Dragon Corps is placed under ADCON by the Department of Defense. Jay Scattergood returns to Earth with his Void Dragon – and finds himself reluctantly spearheading a plot to break a traitor out of prison. The daring strategy enmeshes Jay and his friends in conflict with their own side, as they struggle to head off a calamity caused by the traitors who sided with the Offense.
Jay and Tancred have one last chance to save humanity. But enemies surround them on all sides. The Void Dragons are exiled from Earth. Their only hope is to flee … into Offense territory.
The final battle is coming. The Void Dragons will face their ultimate test at Saturn.
Last Man Out (Poor Man’s Fight #5) – Elliott Kay
Meet the deadliest unpaid intern in the galaxy.
Some people struggle to get to college. Tanner Malone had to fight through an interstellar war. Far from home, under a cloud of scandal and propaganda, hunted by assassins and haunted by trauma, Tanner is finally enrolled in a top university.
He didn’t plan for an archaeological expedition on the far side of human space. He didn’t want more corporate mercenaries or space pirates in his life, either. Yet ancient alien secrets don’t come without cost.
If his classmates want to survive the summer, their infamous intern is the only chance they’ve got.
The Midnight Sun (The Four Horsemen: Omega War #2) – Tim C. Taylor
War has come to the worlds of Humans. The rich planet of Tau-Rietzke, however, is far from Earth and the Mercenary Guild’s invasion, and its alien-registered mercenary companies are a safe haven for Humans on the run. Organizations like the Midnight Sun Free Company.
Having just completed another successful mission and taken possession of three Raknars, it was party time for Saisho Branco and the personnel of the Midnight Sun, and they were enjoying a little down time…until the war spilled over into their corner of the galaxy and two competing mercenary organizations showed up to steal the Raknars.
But no one takes the company owner’s toys, and Gloriana has given the Midnight Sun a new mission—return the Raknars to her at all cost…or don’t return at all.
This is the hardest mission the Midnight Sun has ever taken, and it will test not only the military prowess of the company, but also its members’ loyalties as well. When everyone is against you, and your race calls you to war, do you heed the call or continue to trust your shadowy employer? Outnumbered and outgunned, the Midnight Sun must decide whether to fight or to give up the Raknars and save their lives. Little do they know, it’s a decision which will impact the war being fought hundreds of light years away!
Odysseus Ascendant (Odyssey One #7) – Evan Currie
The Empire has set its sights on its next target: human Terrans. As effective allies of the Priminae, the denizens of Earth have proven themselves enemies to the Empire, and now the Imperial forces know more about the Terran home world than ever before.
The battle for the planet’s survival will see the Odysseus first into the breach. But more perils loom for Commodore Eric Weston and his comrades. They’re at odds with the political conflicts dividing Earth’s government and challenged by the mysterious presence haunting their vessel—its intentions unclear, and the extent of its powers unknown.
As the Empire brings the battle home, the crew of the Odysseus will need to determine whether this entity will support them in their fight for survival, or prove to be another dangerous foe.
There’s no turning back…and the only way forward may be a pathway to doom.
Rage of Winter (Terran Strike Marines #2) – Richard Fox and Scott Moon
One Shot. One Kill. One sniper to strike fear in the heart of alien invaders.
Hoffman’s Strike Marines pursue enemy agents across a wintry world, desperate to stop an insidious threat festering in the heart of the Terran Union. Their hunt is disrupted when the fanatical Kesaht invade and the team is split across the snow and ice of a harsh planet.
The team’s sniper, Duke, plays a deadly game of hit-and-run to slow the aliens’ advance and earns the ire of the enemy commander.
Hoffman, trapped in the frigid wilds, leads his Marines and their cunning prisoners back to the front, where they must join the fight against the Kesaht before the planet is lost.
Single Shot (Justice of the Covenant #3) – M. R. Forbes
Hayley, Quark, and the Riders are finding it hard to trust anything after a series of betrayals has left them battered and on the run, heading for a safe haven to regroup and reload.
If they want to have any hope of preventing an intergalactic war, they’ll need to break onto one of the most highly secured planets in the galaxy and pull off one of the most unexpected heists ever committed.
When friends reveal themselves as enemies and enemies become accidental friends, there’s only one thing left to do:
Throw caution to the stars, take the leap, and make the single shot.
Storm of Vengeance (Crimson Worlds Refugees #5) – Jay Allan
Earth Two is a world beset by dangers, inside and out. It’s genetic groupings, the cloned “Tanks,” the “Natural Borns” and the hybrid “Mules” exist uneasily, each wary of the others, even as they rally to face the deadly threat of the First Imperium’s robot warriors.
President Max Harmon and his inner circle have played an elaborate game of chess for twelve years, a deadly battle of wits with the genocidal alien Intelligence known as the Regent. They have moved fleets, spread deceptions, built decoy planets…all to hide Earth Two’s location, to protect it from the deadly onslaught of the enemy.
But sitting and waiting is a losing game. The Regent’s resources are just too powerful, its technology too advanced. It will find Earth Two eventually…and when it does, it will consign the planet to the apocalypse of antimatter devastation. Harmon knows his people must do something…and when a scouting fleet sends back word that it has found the enemy’s antimatter production site, it seems almost too good to be true.
Harmon suspects it is all a trap designed to lure his fleet to its destruction. But, more than one side can lay a trap, or turn one around, and the elimination of the Regent’s antimatter production will go a long way to evening the two sides, and setting the stage for a final showdown the humans can win.
The War for Earth (Children of Earthrise #4) – Daniel Arenson
The basilisks. Giant serpents from deep space. Their true name is unknown. Their homeworld is cloaked in shadow. But one thing is certain: They’re killers.
And they vow to kill us all.
We humans have only just returned to Earth. For centuries, we lived as refugees among the stars. Hated. Hunted. After a long war, after devastating losses, we began to resettle our world. Only to find it swarming with monsters.
The basilisks show us no mercy. They constrict our children like boas, shattering their bones. They devour our loved ones, digesting them alive and screaming. Their starships hammer our colonies, destroying all that we’ve built.
They’ll never stop. Not until we’re all dead.
But we did not survive so many hardships to give up now. Our hope still burns bright. We will fight the basilisks. We will defend our planet. We will win the war for Earth!
A Warrior’s Home (Assignment: Darklanding #9) – Craig Martelle and Scott Moon
Thaddeus Fry became a sheriff, but he never stopped being a soldier. TerroCom needs him and he can’t say no.
A frontier world. One sheriff. The Company and all the action one spaceport can’t handle.
A warrior is never far from battle, even if the war is long over. Thad is torn between his new home on Darklanding and the familiarity of combat. His quirky friends or his fellow warriors. Whose call will be the strongest? Maximus deploys with the sheriff as they go off world to find out.
Fans of Firefly, Bonanza, and Tombstone will love this space opera / western and all the characters that make the story great. Join us on the latest journey through Darklanding.
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