Three best-selling space operas return in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in science fiction.

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Agents of Mars (Starship’s Mage: Red Falcon #3) – Glynn Stewart

Captain David Rice and the crew of Red Falcon have spent two years infiltrating the arms smuggling underworld of the Protectorate of the Mage-King of Mars. When the co-opted rebellion on Ardennes reveals a supply chain of weapons intended to fight Mars, this makes them the perfect team to investigate.

His new mission brings him across old friends and old enemies alike, but as his suspects start turning up dead, David realizes he isn’t the only one following the loose ends.

As shadowy enemies move to position themselves for civil war, Red Falcon’s crew must chase an ever-shrinking set of clues. If they succeed, they might just buy the Protectorate peace for their lifetime.

But if they fail…

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By Right of Arms (Terra Rising #1) – J. T. Buckley

The Confederated Nations of Terra receive a mysterious distress signal from Earth’s closest celestial neighbor, Alpha Centauri. Captain Aaron Richardson and the crew of the TNS Intrepid are shocked and horrified by what they find. What they discover launches them into a new universe of political and military intrigue.

Using ancient legends, they forge Earth’s position in the Principean Empire and discover the secrets of Earth’s distant past. Thwarted at every turn by pirates, they must fight a race of aliens who are intent on killing all humans and destroying the Earth. Unable to do it alone, they must seek assistance of new allies to save their home.

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Empire Dawn (Road to Empire #1) – Dietmar Arthur Wehr

The grand experiment of a democratic Commonwealth of Star Nations has failed. With colony after colony leaving the Commonwealth, Earth finds itself in desperate straits as ecological disaster and mass starvation looms in the near future. The collapse of the Commonwealth means there’s now a power vacuum but no shortage of ruthless egos looking to fill that vacuum.

Will it be the Republic of Corona, the most prosperous and populous colony world, or a resurgent Earth under a messianic leader or perhaps a power-hungry interstellar corporation? With stakes this high, political intrigue, backstabbing and betrayal are par for the course.

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Infinite Exodus (Infinite Exodus #1) – N. R. Whitaker

Locked inside an unreleased game awaits a world of untapped possibility–and consequences.

Gerard is a would-be scientist, not a soldier, but his father is nowhere near fit for the open-ended rescue mission into the Parallel, a hyperrealistic VR world that was stolen for government applications from genius game developer Ned Dixon. As a fan of Dixon’s immersive and often twisted worlds, Gerard thinks he knows what he’s getting himself into by taking his father’s place, but within the Parallel awaits an infinite number of sinister surprises.

The mission is simple: Play through the deadly game’s storyline to save the living researchers trapped within. Not so simple? Dealing with a snarky A.I. who knows Gerard doesn’t belong and fending off the monstrous angels Dixon programmed to make the crew’s job as difficult as possible.

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Initiate (The Animus #1) – Joshua Anderle and Michael Anderle

It was just one fight, but it changed Kaiden Jericho’s life forever.

He was in a gang but was trying to change his future when a board member of the elite advanced academy NEXUS made a snap decision and offered him a chance. Then fate, or an unbalanced genius, offered him another.

The Nexus Academy is for the elite trainees from Earth, and now trials from our alien allies, as they teach the future generation how to fight, lead, hack, spy, and many other talents and tactics.

Hired by companies, governments and NGOs, these graduates work to pay off the massive debt their training at the academy accumulates. You don’t become the best of the best by staying alive. With the Animus, you are closer to perfection with each death you suffer.

Kaiden Jericho would rather skip the death part, thank you very much.

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Invasion (Blood on the Stars #9) – Jay Allan

War…like none that has come before.

The Hegemony has launched the invasion Tyler Barron and his Confederation comrades have feared, and all the Rim is ablaze with the fires of war and destruction.

The Hegemony has brought its vast fleets, its advanced technology, and its endless legions of grim cyborg warriors to impose its system of rigid genetic hierarchy over all humanity on the Rim.

The Confederation fleet is outnumbered and outmatched, but they will fight nevertheless, struggling and dying to hold back the onslaught any way they can, even as the Marines they leave behind dig in and prepare to defend worlds swallowed up by the advancing battle lines.

Barron and his people will fight, they will fight like demons unleashed, and Jake ‘Raptor’ Stockton will lead his wings of strikefighters in one desperate attack after another into the teeth of the enemy armada, but time is running out…even as the enemy pushes relentlessly toward the Confederation’s Core and final victory.

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The Last Strike (The Last War #5) – Peter Bostrom

His son is dead. His ship is dead. His career is dead.

But Spectre is very much alive. And with his plans of galactic domination laid bare, Captain James Mattis must gather what allies he can to stop him.

Admiral Pippa Spears and the HMS Caernarvon make a mysterious discovery in the wreckage of the USS Stennis, one that could change the outcome of the war. And in the uproar after the assassination of the American President she and Captain Mattis race across the galaxy after the suspected shooter, knowing full well the murder is another of Spectre’s schemes to throw them off guard while he carries out his sinister plans.

Plans that Mattis and Spears are close to unraveling.

The cost of failure is unthinkable: a destroyed Earth and an unstoppable immortal foe.

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The Lazarus Protocol (SynCorp Saga #1) – David Bruns and Chris Pourteau

A climate in crisis. A world on the brink. And we did it to ourselves.

After centuries of exploitation, Mother Nature is mad as hell. Flooded coastlines drive refugees from their homes. Dust storms bury cities. New species disappear every day. And humanity is next…

While some look off-planet for answers, the American President, in an election year gamble, recruits a brilliant billionaire inventor for the most important scientific undertaking since the Manhattan Project: reversing climate change by geo-engineering Earth’s atmosphere. But the New Earth Order, a mysterious cabal of reactionary activists, has another agenda.

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Lemuria – John Triptych

Nick Dirkse is a workaholic software developer, and he’s desperate to save his crumbling marriage and reconnect with his neglected children. So he takes them on what promises to be the ultimate vacation in a tropical paradise.

The island, newly built off the southwest coast of India, is named for the mythical land of Lemuria. And it’s a world-class private resort to indulge the modern-day rich and famous.

But this seemingly luxurious wonderland hides a terrible secret, a nightmare so real and terrifying it will test the outer limits of Nick’s courage and resolve if he is to save the ones he loves.

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Reclamation (Legacy War #6) – John Walker

Humanity has unlocked another secret of the Orbs but it has put them on a collision course with their enemy, the terrorist group known as the Tol’An. As they race to collect another of the powerful devices, they must face another of their enemies, the cold corporate mercenaries known as the Kalrawv Group. Hidden away on an illegal mining facility, their purpose there can only mean one thing: they are trying to take the Orb for themselves.

But Earth has an ally in the Pahxin people and the battleship Stalwart is committed to assisting with the operation. As the two ships depart Earth, they head out to raid a planet which is known for destructive weather patterns. The unstable system holds the powerful secret from a long dead civilization, one which must be collected before either of the nefarious groups get their hands on it.

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Tempest (Legend of the Galactic Heroes #7) – Yoshiki Tanaka

Reinhard, under his Golden Lion banner, is setting out to bend history and the universe to his will. Meanwhile, with no flag of their own to raise, Yang and his compatriots have escaped the murderous hands of the Free Planets Alliance’s government and dubbed themselves the “Irregulars.” Yang receives word that an Imperial fleet is closing in on the capital of Heinessen, and in a daring move, recaptures Iserlohn Fortress. In the meantime, Reinhard’s invasion of the Free Planets Alliance proceeds steadily apace. Standing in the path of the Imperial fleet is a fleet of FPA Navy vessels commanded by the elderly Admiral Bucock.

An old lion roars out a life-or-death challenge, and a young lion answers it—the final battle of the Free Planets Alliance now begins!

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The Theos (The Survivors #5) – Nathan Hystad

“The Theos await you. Only then will we stop the Unwinding.”

Some secrets prefer to stay buried.

When Dean’s closest ally is kidnapped by an ancient race, his grief threatens to turn to madness. With the support of his friends, he embarks on a mission to get his loved one back, and stop the eventual destruction of the known Universe.

But Dean can’t do it without solving an age-old mystery. He must find the real Theos this time, and he’ll stop at nothing to accomplish that.

Join the Survivors as they battle for every race in existence.