This fascinating sci-fi saga takes readers on an exhilarating journey to Saturn, a planet shrouded in mystery. Fleeing from a relentless tyrant, the protagonists utilize powerful portal technology they have invented, setting off a high-stakes chase through treacherous environments and encounters with intriguing characters. With imaginative world-building, suspenseful action, and well-rounded character development, this compelling sci-fi novel offers an immersive experience that will leave readers eagerly turning the pages.

The second biggest planet in the Terran solar system has always been a mystery to scientists, astronomers, and to the people living on Earth. With its massive hexagon-shaped crown, an infinity of ice rings, and a family of moons, what secrets does this planet hold beneath its clouds of toxic gases?

Forced to flee their home planet, Jen and Kyle escape through powerful portal technology they have invented. Pursuing them is a tyrant emperor from a neighboring star system who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the portal technology.

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Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post Saturn’s Light: Voices From The Past by R.E.H. appeared first on Joelbooks.

When an international crew of seven survivors find themselves stranded on the world's first space elevator, they are forced to retreat to Shenzhen Station after a nuclear war makes Earth uninhabitable..

Despite their initial fears and apprehensions, they soon realize that they must put their political and personal differences aside if they hope to have any chance of making it to the self sustaining Mars One colony. With the clock ticking down and resources running low, they must race against time to modify Shenzhen Station for the next to impossible attempt.

As tensions rise and obstacles mount, the crew is forced to confront their deepest fears, betrayal and personal demons, to work together in ways they never thought possible. Sacrifices will have to be made. With stunning visuals and heart-pumping action, “Shenzhen Station” is a gripping tale of survival, perseverance, and the power of teamwork in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Science aside, Shenzhen Station is a deeply human tale of trust and betrayal, love and hate, sacrifice, loss and ultimately hope for a brighter future.

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Excerpt from Shenzhen Station© Copyright 2023 Rick Cramer

Prologue

At the height of the global fiat currency collapse, the Chinese shocked the world by abandoning its fledgling central bank crypto currency project and reverting to a gold standard. China quickly became the world's reigning economic superpower. Other world powers scrambled to convert, but China had been quietly accumulating hard gold for decades. Their head start was insurmountable. Conspiracy theorists and retired Senator Ron Paul had their dreams, or rather nightmares, come true when the US gold reserves at Fort Knox were audited and found to be non-existent. But the U.S. was still better off than most countries. Riots and police actions erupted around the world as other governments and countries collapsed overnight.

Better than gold for China was their intentional over supply of cheap lithium-ion batteries for the ever-growing EV car market. Cheaper EVs meant vanishing demand and sinking prices for oil. The economies of the New Soviet Federation (NSF), created post-Ukraine and OPEC were devastated. As a last-ditch effort, Putin reasserted the NSF ownership claim of the resource-rich Kuril islands, traditionally claimed by Japan. The naval standoff was ongoing.

When China launched the Dz-Yu mission, it was announced as a Geo-stationary satellite mission. What wasn't announced was the 110 thousand kilometer long, virtually indestructible carbon nanotube ribbon that unspooled from said satellite. The earth-bound end of the ribbon locked on to what had previously been believed to be a massive, cobbled-together oil drilling platform in the south China sea. A counterweight in the launch vehicle and the centrifugal force of the earth kept the ribbon vertical and stretched tight. Electrically-powered crawlers moved up and down the ribbon, transporting construction material into space.

Within a year, construction was completed on Shenzhen Station, a massive six-story, industrial strength octagon. Shenzhen itself was the way point between Earth and the interplanetary launch point at the end of the ribbon. A second ribbon had been deployed that allowed for simultaneous ascent/descent and doubled the mission capacity of the station. The speed gained by being flung off the end of the ribbon cut transit time to the moon to a few hours and the trip to Mars to less than three months. It also meant there was no weight penalty caused by having to carry massive amounts of liquid fuel. Payload to orbit prices tumbled from the Space-X price of 3 grand per kilo to $200-400. Musk and Bezos, not to mention NASA, realized their rockets-to-Mars missions had become obsolete overnight. An unexpected benefit from the construction of the space elevator was a new, never before seen cooperation among nations. Money always trumps politics, at least for a little while.

Two years later a space elevator had been completed on the Moon. Lunar colonies dependent on resupply from Earth had been established by China, the U.S., Japan, Australia, and the NSF. Two years after that, a space elevator serviced the long dreamed of self-sustaining Martian colony. Mars One initially housed 250 permanent residents at the base of the largest known volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. Mars Two was scheduled for completion in less than a year. It never happened.

A hundred meters above Shenzhen, the US Space Ship Intrepid slowed for docking on the descending ribbon. The ascent ribbon on the opposite side of the station was vacant for the moment. A towering central octagonal cylinder formed the industrial strength, central superstructure of Shenzhen. More than anything, Shenzhen resembled a giant space going, digital dumbbell. Older portions of the structure were dull steel gray. Functional modules of every size and shape hung in seemingly haphazard fashion added an often not so obvious function to form. The newer modules gleamed silver or bright white. To the untrained eye, Shenzhen was more of a hodgepodge than a technical marvel. Lange noted another half dozen new modules hanging from the sunlit side. Artificial lights bled through porthole and view ports dark side. The interior of Shenzhen was simple and practical. A.I had designed it so humans could function with maximum efficiency. No space was wasted. Movement from apex to base was facilitated via a central tube elevator system. Except for arriving and departing crew and passengers, the system was mostly unnecessary. All crew functions and housing, recreation, med facilities and galley were contained on two main floors. Back out in space, the flat upper deck of Shenzhen bustled with activity. The JAXA ship Hokkaido moved along a rail track to the ascending ribbon. The pilot of the Intrepid, Colonel Linda Lange, US Space Force, took it all in. Pride came before a fall or so they said, but Lange was proud of what she and her team had accomplished. A successful interplanetary trip to Mars. Construction of a space elevator there. Return using minimal fuel. This was the first mission in a new era of interplanetary space travel. The crew had become family which wasn't surprising. Their time on Mars passed quickly as it does when your work isn't really work. Relationships with the Martians was strictly business. The crew kept to themselves. In all likelihood, none of them would ever see each other again once they returned to Earth. Lange grew to relish the calm, quiet monotony of interplanetary space on the return. She felt it in her bones. Coming home would bring its own set of hardships that had nothing to do with politics. She caught her co-pilot, Major John Zhu, smiling at her and smiled back.

Then there was John. What to do about that? Lange's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden power surge. Control panels flickered and went blank before popping back to life. Lange glanced over at Zhu.

“At least we're on the ribbon,” she said.

“Gremlins,” Zhu shrugged. Lange hit the com link.

“Shenzhen, Intrepid, we've just had a major power flux.” A smooth, controlled, Chinese- accented voice came back over the com link.

“Copy Intrepid, we've got an M class solar flare impacting operations. Your mileage may vary.” “Captain Feng, I'm surprised to find you still in the five thousand block,” Lange intoned.

“It's Major now, Colonel Lange. You guys have been gone a long time. Welcome back. How are my favorite Martians?” “Looking forward to being Earthlings again?”

Inside Shenzhen, Feng sat in a freely rotating chair suspended from the ceiling by a robotic arm. An A.I. augmented reality helmet/visor covered his head, allowing him to monitor multiple action areas at once. Feng watched as Intrepid slowed to a bare crawl, then stopped. He punched a luminous plasma key in front of him. A crane arm plucked the Intrepid from the ribbon and dropped it on the rail track behind a dust-covered, beat-up lunar mining ship with Russian markings.

“Docking procedure complete. Sorry Colonel, gotta keep you on board for a few more minutes.

That rust bucket in front of you is the Antaeaus. She has to clear before I can get you inside.”

Two levels down, unfiltered sunlight blasting through view ports illuminated a large, multi- ethnic crowd awaiting Lange and her crew. Workers adjusted “Welcome Home” and “Mission Accomplished” banners in Chinese and English. The crowd began to clap and cheer as the elevator stopped. The accolades stopped as quickly as they started when the doors opened. Nikolai Volkov and his ragged crew of lunar miners filed out. Volkov was an anachronism: a clearly Russian name with a clearly American accent. He looked more like a former US Marine than a Russian. Volkov took in the proceedings, saying to an officious looking American woman, “All of this for us? You shouldn't have.” Volkov's men filed out behind him and melted into the crowd while he remained behind.

“Actually, we didn't,” she replied. “You're shitting me lady, Really?” “That's Senator Giffords to you, Mr…?”

“Volkov. That's Nick to you, Senator. What's the occasion?” “Seriously? Have you been living under a rock?”

“We don't have time to watch CNN at Clavius.”

“The Intrepid just returned from Mars. Surely you saw the ship top side.” “Half that crew is Chinese, Senator.”

“As much as we might not want to admit it, we wouldn't be on the Moon in such numbers, or Mars at all, if it weren't for the Chinese.”

“If congress would ever pull their heads out of their asses you could have a space elevator built with the Russians by now.”

Behind Volkov, the elevator doors opened again. Giffords and the rest of the crowd pressed forward, clapping and cheering as Lange and her crew exited. Giffords extended a hand to Lange and Major Zhu.

“Colonel Lange, Major Zhu, congratulations on a fantastic accomplishment. We hope this instance of cooperation…”

Minister Yao of the Chinese Communist Party pushed past Giffords for a photo op with Zhu. He congratulated Zhu in Mandarin Chinese.

“Major Zhu, it is with great honor the President Tong has asked me to express his thanks for a job well done.

Congratulations.” Yao switched to English.

“The CCP would like to remind the world that this fantastic achievement would not be possible without China's benevolent assistance. He also asked me to remind the world that interference with our internal affairs would be unwise for those who wish to continue receiving such assistance. Thank you.”

The barking dogs of the Russian, Chinese and American press peppered the crew with questions.

“Colonel Lange, Geraldo Mediera, GNN, how has the current situation with Taiwan affected your mission?”

“We accomplished an incredible feat of engineering that required cooperation between many nations and many peoples. No politics required. I'd be more than happy to talk about that. Next?”

Flight Engineer Dick Miller watched all this play out with a typical West Texas sensibility. Wasn't much politics involved in running 3000 head of cattle across the Llano Estacado. Weren't many people out that way either. That meant no lights and dark skies. The kind city folk never see. Even on moonless nights, it was never so dark Miller couldn't see from gentle glow of the Milky Way.

He knew from a young age that he belonged in space; he just couldn't see how to get there. His mother had died shortly after his birth. Miller's father raised him to make up his own mind instead of cramming his own beliefs down his son's throat. He also knew there was no way he was keeping Dick down on the farm. He was way too smart for that. Dick used to sit up late into the night on the rare visits from his Uncle George, talking about the planets, stars and life. Life out there.

George was the one that put it in his head to join the Air Force as a precursor to Space Force service. Miller's father wasn't surprised when Dick enlisted in the Air Force on his eighteenth birthday and said goodbye. By the time he was twenty-one, he had completed Officer Training School, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, and accepted into flight school. The scars covering the left side of his face were the result of flying his malfunctioning, flame engulfed T-38 trainer away from a packed elementary school before ejecting. Miller's Air Force career came to an end after that, but by his choice. He couldn't be kept down on the farm though and when a G.S. position as a flight engineer in the Space Force opened up, Miller returned to the fold so to speak.

Now he was part of Lange's crew. They had just built a space elevator on another planet with the Chinese, and he had to stand here and listen to this political bullshit. Being in space for even a few days wasn't like he imagined it. The cramped quarters and lousy food he could deal with. It was the vast empty blackness of space that got to him. Thirty-four million miles of it between here and Mars. It was a different kind of emptiness. But now they were back and these small-minded bureaucrats wanted to blow up the planet. Some things never changed. He moved up to Lange's side as the press scrum dispersed.

“What's this ‘interference’ bullshit?”

“PRC has been making serious moves to reclaim Taiwan in the last couple of weeks.” “What else is new?”

“The naval blockade in the Taiwan Strait. I saw the ships on the descent.” An eavesdropping Volkov horned in on the conversation.

“The Chinese have a saying: Your friends today are your enemies tomorrow. Should've thought about that before you made a deal with them.” Miller clocked the NSF logos on Volkov's uniform.

“If it wasn't for the Chinese, you'd still be freezing your ass off in Siberia, comrade.”

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post Shenzhen Station by Rick Cramer appeared first on Joelbooks.

Collision Chronicles Volume 1

Alien Invasion!
Government Tyranny!
Organic Computer, with a catapult! (Catapult?)

That last aside, concentrate on the issues. What has first call on your catalogue of heroic talents: opposing wicked tyrants, or fighting off evil aliens?

What if the human régime doesn’t believe aliens exist? What if all those unelected bureaucrats on all those planets are concentrating on making people obey?

What’s preeminent, the alien menace, or the threat to freedom and human rights? Support or overthrow the government? If you overthrow the government, is humanity vulnerable to annihilation by the aliens? If you convince the government and join them to fight the aliens, are you capitulating to an oligarchy and sacrificing your chances for freedom? When is authoritarianism acceptable in a crisis? When must freedom be sacrificed for safety?

Collision Course is the first book of a series exploring how the end of the human race depends on the moods of a dysfunctional Organic Computer with identity issues.

The dinosaurs had it easier – just before they went extinct.

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Excerpt from Collision Course © Copyright 2023 Alan Zimm

Corporate Captain Manchez was fuming. Exhausted. Frustrated. Worried. Eyes closed, he visualized details of the twitching dreadfuls that a just and righteous universe would inflict on all the idiots he had encountered over the last 24. Who allows morons on space stations? Dammit all and the universe it came in.

Manchez was floating in zero gravity at the pilot’s station in the command deck of Ajax, a bulk cargo shuttle returning from an emergency delivery sortie to Tevil Corporation’s orbiting spaceyard. The cockpit was as dark as his mood, illuminated only by the glow from controls, indicators, and information screens. The forward viewscreen showed black sky, Stars from the edge of the galaxy looked like they were hiding from the wrath of God; below lurked the ugly gray mass of Misplaced-4, one of the universe’s premier boring planets. The pilot’s combined control and survival seat, known in spacer’s black humor as “the coffin,” was shoved as far back as possible so he could stretch his legs. He leaned back, loosened his seat belt, and floated his heels above the instrument panel. All the bull manure he’d suffered through, plus being fourteen hours past bed time, would be enough to make an archangel grab an axe and start doing a Lizzie Borden on every one of those microbrains wearing Tevil Corporation beige.

He yawned widely. A nice siesta was required, say, twelve hours in bed, with somebody friendly.

The radio voice of the computer controlling the low orbital approaches to Dome City Spaceport had the sterile tone characteristic of Organic artificial intelligence computers. “Ajax, this is Spaceport Approach Control Organic—”

Saying ‘who to, who from’ starting every radio conversation was a communications protocol Manchez would like to nominate as spaceflight’s foremost total pain in the posterior. Why did he have to use it when dealing with spaceflight Organic computers? Advanced tankheads, so smart, they ought to be able to figure out who was talking. “It’s for safety,” the Spaceflight Regulating Agency bleats like some developmentally challenged sheep, “clearly identify who is talking to who.” Stupid rules, a bunch of sewage backflush, in Manchez’s highly-refined opinion.

“—my callsign is Approach Control Organic. Your vector good for Approach Cone Charlie. Cleared for approach.”

He wasn’t supposed to make up his own call sign, but dammit, if he had to do the ‘verbatim repeat back’ bullroar, an appropriate call sign would remind that tankhead of the quality of the rocket jock on his end of the conversation.

“Approach Control Organic, Ajax, my call sign is SuperHero. Roger, SuperHero is cleared, Cone Charlie, commencing approach.” And it would be greatly appreciated if you get every other idiot barge out of my way, like now, max blast, speed of light, he wanted to say. But didn’t.

Manchez glanced at the arrival countdown chronometer, and grimaced. The predicted arrival was past date time with Missy Hot-Body. She’d kill him. Or dump him. Bad, bad, bad.

It wasn’t fair, the junior pilot always getting tagged with no-notice sorties. He had just snuggled under the covers, yes, a little late, 0620, near the usual rising time for Tevil’s office peons, but he wasn’t scheduled for another 48. He was happily anticipating a lovely erotic dream after a shakin’ ‘n’ bakin’ night dancing and drinking at three nightclubs when he gets buzzed out of bed and fingered to deliver some Tevil Corporation executive’s bedpans or beauty cream or whatever it was that couldn’t wait for the regularly scheduled lift.

Then he had to deal with all those brain-dead oafs in orbit. First, the slothful union stevedores took the better part of an extended century unloading. Then, the lazy refuelers could have built the bleeding pyramids in the time they took to fill two lousy tanks with rocket-A. Next, in what was surely intentional sadism, Spaceyard Traffic Control couldn’t stop buffing its fingernails long enough to clear him off the dock expeditiously. Okay, Spaceyard Traffic Control was an Organic, and Organic computers didn’t have fingernails, so hell and creation there was no excuse for the piss-poor service.

He was bloody blue-blasted dammit-all late.

Manchez yawned, and scrunched his eyes closed.

Top it all, he got stuck driving Ajax and her freakin’ weird Navigation and Space Systems Organic. It was creepy ghoulish, growing brain tissue out of DNA and programming it like a silicon computer. Organics had superior parallel processing capacity and were honkin’ fast, but sometimes they were just—just weird. Like, Ajax Organic. That tankhead was an arrogant Frankenstein with an overinflated sense of narcissism flaunting the personality of a petulant three-year-old who had just popped his birthday balloon. Manchez would love to go nose-to-nose with the quant who programmed an Organic to sulk. Damn quants. Damn tankheads.

“SuperHero, Approach Control Organic. All approaches clear of traffic. Ground traffic is clear. You are authorized direct approach, Pad Two.”

Hallelujah! P2 was snug up to Dome City, only a three-hundred-meter sprint to the terminal airlock.

His very own Ajax tankhead just had to butt in. “SuperHero, Ajax Organic. Ajax exceeds allowable approach velocity. Stand by for a thirty second Number Six Aft Thruster braking burn. Acknowledge.”

Freya’s frosted bollocks! Clear Cones, direct approach, and something made out of gray glop wants me to go slow? Stupid, worthless rules. Put a tankhead in charge as the autopilot and all they know is their stupid rules. Bloody Organics and their nitpicking. You’d think the quants could program in a little compassion for somebody trying to make a hot date.

Manchez glanced at the Estimated Time of Arrival readout. ETA way too time-late.

Late for Miss Lihwa was a bad idea. Hot-Body Lihwa was too scorching temperamental and lava-volatile for him to hope she would forgive another missed date, or even tardiness. That Geoffrey ass had been hovering near her. Another blunder and the competition might cut him out.

Manchez didn’t make corporate captain by letting the riff-raff push him out of his chosen trajectory. Fork this braking burn bullroar. Feet off the instrument panel, he shifted the coffin forward so he could reach the controls. About time he ran this circus himself.

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post Collision Course by Alan Zimm appeared first on Joelbooks.

I never knew what I was missing until I read my first space opera book.

A subgenre of science fiction highlights melodramatic adventures set in space and involves galactic events called space opera books. Our imaginations could take us beyond what we see, feel, and experience, and what better way to nurture our imaginative combats, extra-terrestrial interactions, and supernatural capabilities than by reading a bunch of good ole science fiction?

Over the years, there have been many science fictions that have successfully caught the attention of readers of all ages, so now we’re here to give you the best space operas books of all time! Grab a good wine and launch into space with these thrilling and exciting novels!

What Are The Best Space Opera Novels of All Time?

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Dune is the only planet capable of producing melange, a spice drug that, as perplexing as it may be, most beings would kill to obtain. Blinded by greed, the old rulers of Dune called the Harkonnens are secretly teaming up with the Emperor to destroy the current leader of the vast deserts of Dune named Duke Leto Atreides.

A vigilante in the making, Paul Atreides, the son of Duke Leto, who would turn into Maud’dib, has made it his mission to avenge his family. While being in the mission, Maud’dib would then discover the most ancient and impossible dream of humankind. What exactly has taken place in Dune? Discover the secrets of Dune by reading this mind-blowing science fiction.

Conjunction, by A.D. Zoltan and Steven N. Nagy

You might think space opera was a good old fashion category within sci-fi novels. Well, this far future novel proves we aren't even deep in the rabbit hole of space operas. While the story is a mixture of metaphysical and alien sci-fi genres, it holds the key ingredients of classic space operas: travelling through space and time.

In this Earth utopia, the society is looking for their next step towards to the development of humanity. They understood that this wouldn't be a technological development, but the development of mind and consciousness. The human society finally finishes the technology of long distance space traveling which opens the opportunity to discover new alien worlds, but people receive with the first encounter something completely different than what they expected. The new species not only reveals their society, but also shows to opportunity of multi-dimensional travel.

If you are looking for a mind-bending well developed sci-fi world “The Wise Society” series would be definitely a great read.

Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge

Super intelligent beings from the Transcend and minds who have limited capacity that populates the Unthinking Depths are some of the races who have evolved in space.

Soon enough, a threat arises in this partitioned space as the Straumli realm decides to weaponize an ancient Transcendent object that may bring destruction to all natural and artificial intelligence. A family of scientists with two children was taken captive by aliens called Tines, which provoked a rescue mission composed of several beings. These beings must then save the children and the secret that could save their civilization. Find out who these beings are and what secret could save these creatures from the clutches of the Straumli realm!

Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur Clarke

A massive cylindrical article entered Earth’s solar system, which alarms the human race. Determined to investigate the mysterious object—a group of astronauts is sent to explore it. What they discover is beyond what they could imagine, a fifty-kilometer interior; an unfathomable cylindrical sea; mysterious buildings; and some out-of-this-world machine-like animals called “biots” that populate the ship.

What had these astronauts bewildered aside from the unexplainable objects they found inside the ship is the question, “Who inhabits the ship?”. Entities called Ramans are the sole reason for the inexplicable object’s existence, but where are they? Who are the Ramans, and what strange force had them disturbed the peaceful life of the human race? Unravel the mysteries as you go page by page through this sci-fi!

Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Sacrifice and camaraderie are more than words for Johnnie Rico. Johnnie, who is a Mobile Infantry trooper, portrays what it means to be a real soldier. With lesser combats for military science fiction, this story dwells more on morality, and the concept of “what makes an individual a better citizen by giving service”.

The troopers are given a special mobile infantry suit, and the wearer obtains technological powers, making them almost invincible in the face of battle. As Johnnie makes his journey into becoming a successful trooper, discussions about society, political involvement in the military, and society's responsibility to its citizens are in this masterpiece.

The Crimson Deathbringer, by Sean Robins

Being caught up in the middle of a war between two space entities, the safety of humanity now lies in the hands of a super-assassin, a prankster, a top-class fighter pilot, and a stuntwoman.

The Akakies or also known as “pranksters of the galaxy” are peaceful species who are a target of a dangerous military race called the Xortaags. The Xortaags are hell-bent on taking over the universe, and good thing Tarq, the chief strategist of the Akakies who is also an exceptional shadow master, has come up with a plan.

Jim, a fighter pilot, is close to proposing to his girlfriend Liz when his friend Kurt shows up without notice, covered in injuries and blood. As they find themselves in the middle of a galactic conflict, will they be able to find ways to save humanity?

Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi

As strange as it sounds, John Perry finds himself joining the Colonial Defense Force on his 75th birthday. In this story, humanity was able to coexist with galactic species. The only problem is that; there are a few planets left that could accommodate life.

Opening Earth to threats of colonization from alien races, humanity’s safety is under the hands of the CDF. John, who has recently joined the CDF, will be sent to space for two years to protect the planet upfront.

John has no idea of what he just entered. Engaging in combat with galactic species while being light-years away from home is not what he expects his 75th birthday would turn out to be.

This military sci-fi book is a great mixture of intergalactic combat and space operas.

Pandora’s Star, by Peter Hamilton

In the year 2380, an Intersolar community in outer space was linked by transport tunnels called wormholes. Meanwhile, an astronomer named Dudley Bose observes the puzzling disappearance of a star that is a thousand light-years far. No explosion, no involvement of a black hole, it just disappears.

Set to find more about the disappearance, Wilson Kime, a former NASA pilot, is on a mission to fly the Second Chance, to investigate the missing star’s previous location. However, Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians of Selfhood, has fears that the Starflyer wants to lure their best starship out for its destruction. Starflyer is the alien entity that the Guardians believe is above the human race.

Falling Free, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Leo Graf is an engineer, average but is highly efficient. He doesn’t like complications, does his work in an organized manner, and moves on to another task. However, his peaceful life soon changed when he was sent to the Cay Habitat. Leo will teach welding to humanoid workers, who were genetically designed with two more arms to make them ideal for working in free fall.

Despite wanting to be free of some complications, Leo could not stand there and allow the mistreatment of those hundreds of children. In all his years of living as a peaceful engineer, Leo would have never imagined that doing the right thing would involve danger. Find out how Leo will turn his life upside down to save the poor humanoid children by reading this thrilling novel!

Space Opera, by Catherynne Valente

A hundred years ago, the galaxy was torn apart by the Sentience wars, which has almost ended the interstellar concept of life. This has given rise to a new tradition, to restore the peace and unity between the shattered worlds.

With the birth of the Metagalactic Grand Prix, different races gather to celebrate it now and then. All species are required to join, and there would be gladiatorial contests, beauty pageants, concerts, and maybe some continuation of the previous wars.

Then comes humankind, who discovered the massive universe, but instead of endless battles, wormholes, and gunships; what they find are sparkly instruments, glitters, and makeups. Instead of fighting for their fate, man-kind should compete by belting out a few notes. Come and join this sparkly journey and dance through the pages as you go further into the story!

Shadow Moves, by PR Adams

Greeted by the post inside starship Pandora, Lt. Commander Faith Benson knew her career would not have a further advancement. She figures out how she will be able to take leverage of it until the S.O.S alerts them. The signal comes from an area that is dangerously near the enemy’s lair, but they know they have to do their job.

Faith is aware that one mistake could lead them to the clutches of the aggressive Azoren Federation, but what she doesn’t see coming is their captain’s misguided decision. It’s now up to Faith and the crew to save their lives. Will Faith defy an illegal order and risk her position more, or does she have a backup plan that could save all of them, including the one who signaled the S.O.S?

Manifold: Time, by Stephen Baxter

Left with cries of humanity for salvation, Earth is almost at its destruction when one man courageously envisions a brighter future. As promising as it sounds, his vision could either be humanity’s last chance or be humanity’s end. Reid Malenfant’s answer is an exploration in space to search for another planet that could be their second Earth.

It sounds easy, but how will Reid do it? Building a spacecraft in the middle of catastrophic riots is not something Reid had in mind, but it’s the only option he has. Luckily, he successfully builds the craft and launches it deep into space. The probability of finding a new home for humanity while humanity destroys one another isn’t inspiring, but what choice does Reid have? Follow Reid’s exploration in this space opera book, and maybe, just maybe, you’d be able to discover a chance of human life after Earth.

Startide Rising, by David Brin

Dolphins in space? How absurd it sounds. However, Brin has other things in mind.

Several decades from Sundiver, a mission composed of uplifted dolphins, a chimp, and some humans, flee from different armadas while carrying a valuable secret inside their ship. This odd group of species then finds themselves in the middle of Delphin politics, where two divisions are competing to have control over their stricken spacecraft.

With the existence of complex intergalactic alliances fighting their way to obtain the secret onboarding the uplifted dolphin’s ship, who will end up having control of the “secret” in the end? Also, what exactly is this secret that one would send a whole armada to obtain it? Travel in space as you weaved through intelligent animals, talking dolphins, and Delphin politics.

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card

With the threats of aliens, the only solution the government finds is to breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. An Intelligent young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, who lives with his distant parents, a barbarous brother named Peter, and his beloved sister Valentine were candidates for the program. However, the two older siblings weren’t qualified to continue.

Ender then moves forward to the Battle School, where his skills make him a leader and a respected candidate in the Battle Room. However, with the pressure that comes with being seen as the hope for survival, Ender suffers a psychological battle. Despite not making it to the Battle School, Ender’s two older siblings can recreate a world.

What does fate have in store for the Wiggin siblings? Find out more about Ender’s game with this Hugo and Nebula awards recipient story!

Cassastar, by Alex Cavanaugh

Meet Byron, a skillful young lad who hides behind his rebellious façade. With a dream as high as the sky, Byron, who is trained as a Cosbolt fighter pilot, is set on proving his worth as he launches off to the Guaard’s moon base.

Despite his tough exterior, the most resilient instructor in the ship named Bassa sees past Byron’s façade and feels obliged to help Byron in reaching his full potential.

As battle looms in space and time runs short, Bassa must decide for the fate of both pilots and Byron needs the best navigator to survive. How will their skills save them in a mission that stretches way past their abilities?

Final thoughts on the best Space Opera Books

It’s fun to explore imaginations through novels, especially the ones that include extra-terrestrials activities, which humans have been so intrigued about for the longest time. Science fiction broadens your knowledge of how far a human’s imagination could go, which adds excitement to our everyday life. Have an adventurous weekend and fight off aliens as you uncover a series of mysteries with some of the best space opera books of all time!

Check also our all time favorite sci-fi books.

Cover Art: Stuart

​

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post ​Top 15 Best Space Opera Books Of All Time (Ranked) 2022 Edition appeared first on Joelbooks.

Sadistic Aliens…

…Man is an endangered species.

Is it the end of the world or the rebirth of a new one?

In the year A.D. 3000, Earth is a dystopian wasteland. The great cities stand crumbling as a brutal reminder of what we once were. When the Psychlos invaded, all the world’s armies mustered little resistance against the advanced alien weapons.

New York Times bestseller Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 by L. Ron Hubbard is a science fiction novel of adventure, daring, and courage—man is an endangered species and the future survival of the human race is at stake.

First published in 1982 and dedicated to “the merry crew of science fiction and fantasy writers of the 1930s and 1940s”—The Golden Age—Battlefield Earth is the culmination of an era and stands as the last of the classics.

Find out everything you want to know about this classic science fiction adventure right here—from the science of teleportation to sci-fi weaponry, from the movie to the audiobook of the year, from the author’s message of peace to the album inspired by the book. Learn about the Battlefield Earth characters you’ll come to love or hate. Experience the joy, anger, happiness, sadness, love, excitement, and ultimate triumph of a great work.

Amazon Book's Website

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000, by L. Ron Hubbard appeared first on Joelbooks.

In case of sci-fi books the limit is only your own imagination.

Do you ever dream of a comprehensive collection of sci-fi books of our time? We attempt to mix and rank the classics with the newest works of science fiction books. Sci-fi novels are often written with out of the box ideas that may seem unbelievable, but that is precisely what makes them so appealing.

Part of the best sci-fi books are classics, known by nearly every person who reads. And yet there are still some new ones worth mentioning, they are simply a “must”.

What Are The Best Known Sci-fi Books Genres?

There are a great number of science fiction book categories, just some of the main ones:

• Adventure science fictions
• Space operas
• Cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk
• Military sci-fi
• Hard Science Fiction
• Humorous science fiction
• Sci-fi horror
• Historical science fiction books
• Far future sci-fi books
• Sci-fi romance novels
• Spiritual and Philosophical sci-fi books
• Novels on future society (visions about our future)
• Superhero books (soft science fiction)
• Video game fictions and Game fanfictions (part sci-fi, part fantasy)
• Speculative fictions (a great number of books connecting to science fictions)
• Techno-thrillers (part of this genre strongly connected to sci-fi)

Our list ranks the top science fiction novels ever written, starting with #1, but honestly in terms of story #20 is as good as the first, just different. Anyone can suggest new titles on our Twitter page via message, making it more accurate.

These books represent the greatest works in the world of science fiction. It doesn't really matter whether they're classic or modern, utopian or dystopian we tried to find the most relevant ones. We think fantasy is a separated genre so you won't find any Tolkien books here. We preserved not to put more than one work from the same author into this list.

What Are The Essential Must-read Science Fiction Novels of Our Time?

Foundation (Foundation Trilogy), by Isaac Asimov (1951)

The book first shows a “psychohistorian” named Hari Seldon, whose research uses mathematics in order to predict the future. The Emperor (Cleon I) does not have the ability to prevent the decline of the their civilization predicted by Seldon. Seldon collects clever scientists and students to an unkown planet to save the most important knowledge of the humankind, and to start a new society mastering technology, art and science. This is the “Foundation”.

Isaac Asimov's tremendous and influential Foundation series stood out for its mix of bold action, imaginative ideals, and extensive worldbuilding. If you want to read the series in chronological order, you need to know that the author wrote the first parts (Prelude to Foundation 1988) of the story years after the original Foundation trilogy (Foundation. 1951).

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Ender’s Game (Ender's Game Series), by Orson Scott Card (1985)

The army are recruiting young soldiers to prepare for the next attack of a hostile alien race. Ender, a brilliant young boy quickly becomes familiar with military tactics and mastered his leadership skills in order to lead the army against the aliens. But not every detail fits into the great picture.

Clearly, Ender’s Game is the mark of an excellent sci-fi book, so a lot of people probably share my assessment of author's work. This sci-fi book has aliens, ridiculously smart children, a fast-paced and interesting plot line and action and battle and war! It's beautiful written and should certainly be read.

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Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga), by Peter F. Hamilton (2004)

In 2380 humankind lives in different planets connected by a wormhole. Sentient alien races, independent AI and advanced biotechnology are all part of this future.
An astronomer Dudley Bose observes a strange thing on the sky: the Dyson Pair, two stars seemingly disappeared, which couldn't be a natural phenomenon. The Commonwealth creates “Second Chance” (an interstellar spaceship) to investigate the phenomena. After the ship comes closer to the foreign star system they discover an aggressive species called the Primes.

Overall, a splendid piece of science fiction escapism. Hamilton deftly creates an absolutely believable future set hundreds of years in the future, which in itself is rather impressive.

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Old Man's War (Old Man's War Series), by John Scalzi (2007)

A lot of people love Scalzi's writing raw style filled with natural humour. In this military science fiction Scalzi plays with the idea of immortality which is only available for the armed forces. Soon the protagonist John Perry found himself in the middle of a galactical war between Humankind and Consus. John Perry celebrated his 75th birthday celebration by going to the grave of his wife and in the army.

John Scalzi's Old Man's War is a series, that is ground breaking in modern sci-fi books. It uses humor and well developed characters to introduce some interesting hence not totally new technology and it's implications. Overall this novel by the author isn't accidentally on the 4th spot.

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Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965)

We found ourself 20,000 years in the future where people are living across the galaxy. One of their favorite resource is called “melange” a spice which is extremely rare. Two big house is facing against each other the House of Atreides and the Harkonnens. In Frank Herbert's book, we find some classic motives combined with a great story played in rather than strange universe.

A sympathetic, dramatic hero's journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his comprehension, who must travel to the most terrible place in the cosmos in order to ensure the safety of his loved ones and his people.

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Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos), by Dan Simmons (2011)

Seven people, seven stories, one thing in common. They have been chosen to visit the Shrike (an incredible strong creature of the universe) in the Time Tombs on Hyperion. There are people who worship this creature and there are the ones against it. Nearing Armageddon, the seven prophets set out to uncover the secrets of the mystery.

Dan Simmons has certainly added important values to today's modern sci-fi storytelling. The book is ultra intelligent and the parallels are phenomenal. If you into intelligent multiple storyline books this one is definitely a timeless sci-fi book.

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2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson (2012)

Scientific advances have opened new avenues for exploration, but numerous developments have occurred throughout space and time. in 2312 Earth is no longer our only home. The number of our habitats have expanded beyond our solar system. The next year, a sequence of events will challenge humanity to confront our past, present, and future.

The book includes a substantial amount of hypothetical information on how people can quickly and easily travel in and across the solar system. Some of these ideas are quite advanced, and in a sense sounds like a real world possibility. Anyway Kim Stanley Robinson's book is a real deal among hard science fiction novels.

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1984, by George Orwell (1949)

A timeless classic dystopia by George Orwell. In this book we meet The Party, which controls everything in this world. The eyes of the Big Brother is everywhere, and every intention which isn't matching the aspiration of the Party is considered against the Party.

The story starts when the Party is forcing the implementation of a new language called “Newspeak” in order to eliminate all rebellious thoughts and words from the language. Our protagonist Winston quickly finds himself in the middle of situation he never ever wanted to be in. In this unpleasant world, spies are in every corner and the abuse of power is a commonplace.

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Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline (2011)

2045, Earth. We jump into the world of Virtual Reality where a so-called OASIS is in the middle of everyday life. Everybody related somehow to this virtual world, but mainly the lower class, who finds a new opportunity, a new place where they could be famous and even rich.

The creator of OASIS hided several easter eggs in this virtual universe, anyone who founds these keys become instantly famous. Ready Player One is a fast-paced near-future sci-fi with a lot of relations to today's gaming world.

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Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir (2021)

Only Ryland Grace survived the last-chance mission, and in the event that he fails, the whole world itself will be destroyed. All he knows is that he's been asleep for quite a long time. And he's just been awoken to discover himself millions of miles away from his home with only two corpses as company. And the clock is ticking…

This book is even better then Andy Weir's Martian, more mystery, more uncertainty and a real adventure. Ryland Grace should face with unusual discoveries and a lot of danger.

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Recursion, by Blake Crouch (2019)

If you had the ability to go back to the exact same time and place from which a catastrophe occurred. Could you save the world from the disaster? What if this hope would be only a zero-sum game, and there is no real hope of changing things, or?

With the release of his novel, Dark Matter, Blake Crouch revealed himself to many readers as a master of psychological suspense. Three years later, it seems Crouch has established a strong genre of it's own to show to the global audience that sci-fi is more than just space travel.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (2007)

If you are looking for sci-fi humor this book is definitely the no.1. Strange characters in a comedy collection featuring Marvin the paranoid robot, Arthur Dent the hapless protagonist and many others.

Douglas Adams’s popular novel refreshes our minds by posing cosmology-shattering puzzles, trampling years of relativistic physics, toying with bouncing balls and digital clocks, and providing us with excellent commentary on such matters as dot matrix printing, potted plants, and ballpoint pens.

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The Ghost in the Shell, by Masamune Shirow (1989)

The Ghost in the Shell begins in 2029, featuring Section 9 led by Chief Daisuke Aramaki and Major Motoko Kusanagi. As they investigate the Puppeteer, a cyber-criminal wanted for committing a large number of crimes by proxy through “ghost hacking” using the “cyberbrains” of the victims.

This story questions the entire existence of soul and the nature of mind. What motivation lies behind the intelligent existence. The storyline is somehow melancholic, but the questions and conversations reveal much more from the human psyche than any other books from this list.

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The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin (2008)

At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China, a woman named Ye Wenjie witnessed the brutal murder of her father by a mob, giving rise to the Three-Body Problem. While at a labor camp, she is now at an isolated scientific facility where she can utilize some of her astrophysics training. While there yet, she conducts some research, and ends up developing a way for a radio wave signal to be amplified to beam into space.

Fed up with humans and with the treatment that she has been through, she anwers to Trisolarans allowing them to come to Earth. Trisolaris are coming from another world. Their home orbits around three stars in an unpredictable way, repeatedly destroying their civilization over and over again.

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The Fifth Season (The Borken Earth Series), by N. K. Jemisin (2015)

A gifted woman (Essun) must hide her secret ability and find her abducted daughter in a strange world of mystery. On this planet, there exist orogenes , which are beings which possess superhuman strength. Characteristic abilities of orogenes include facilitating moderation of seismic activity, as well as causing natural disasters, such as earthquakes, which can also cause fatalities.

If two normal parents note their child has a orogenic power, they will either kill the child for being a monster as grownup, or allowing Fulcrum to take the child.

The story of three orogene women. A child, a young woman, and a middle-aged woman, all follow the adversities they endure and the racism they face as a result of their abilities.

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Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson (1992)

Snow Crash, a frenetic and somewhat eerie film, grabs you from the beginning in its opening sequence a thrilling race through an anarchic Los Angeles that has been cut up into corporate-owned ‘burbclaves.’

Our protagonist, Hiro Protagonist, a hacker and swordsman, must combat a virus that is endangering a religion. The station's central core appears to be occupied by apparitions related to fantasies.

The books makes connection between old sic-fi concepts and todays always connected world in poplar terms the ‘metaverse‘.

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Consider Phlebas (Culture Series), by Iain M. Banks (1987)

The Idirans strived for their independence, while the Culture was determined to defend their moral integrity. Principles had been at stake. No concession is possible.

The novel revolves around a war between the Idiran and Culture. This story is set in numerous microcosms. Its protagonist, Bora Horza Gobuchul, is an opponent of the Culture.

This is the first published novel of the Culture series. It presented the series from the viewpoint of an opposite party, namely, the enemy.

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Neuromancer (Sprawl Series), by William Gibson (1984)

A futuristic cyberpunk sci-fi book surrounds a group of mercenary criminals working to collect the data of an AI that's trying to break free. Neuromancer follows its protagonist Case, an unemployed computer hacker who is hired by a mysterious new organization named Armitage.

He’s teamed up with Molly (a cyborg) and Peter Riviera an illusionist to bring about a series of criminal activities meant to be the beginnings of a final mission. Which takes place on the orbiting space station called Freeside, home to the fortune-seeking Tessier-Ashpool family.

The family has made two AIs (Wintermute and Neuromancer) who are so powerful that they should be never linked together. Case and his partners discovered that they were hired by Wintermute to work towards accomplishing a connection between the two AIs.

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The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig (2020)

This is an uplifting sci-fi book also suitable for romance lovers.

Matt Haig's work The Midnight Library delves into the infinite realms of human existence. It is about a young woman named Nora Seed, who lives a dull, uninteresting life. One night, her despair reaches a peak and she commits suicide.

The story doesn't end there. Nora gets a chance to experience various ways her life could be had she done slightly different things. She finds herself in a place known as the Midnight Library, which occupies one of two areas between life and death, and is overflowing with infinite parallel lives she might have led.

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Altered Carbon (Takashi Kovacs Series), by Richard K. Morgan (2002)

By the beginning of the 25th century, humanity had spread across the entire galaxy. The world watched over by the U.N., which maintains the peace. Even in the era of modern science, there's still a lot of diversity and conflict left.

Takashi Kovacs has multiple lives, but now ha receives a new body once again. Kovacs dropped into a conspiracy of dark forces. Slowly he understand the motives and the huge gap between the wealthy and poor lives.

A well built story, and a very good world built in the future. This series reminds me of the cyberpunk novels of William Gibson.

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Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (1953)

Fahrenheit 451 chronicles Guy Montag's progress from a fireman who hated books to a rebel reader. Montag lives in an oppressive civilization that strives to eliminate all problems, discrepancies, and inconsistencies to ensure simple pleasure for all its citizens.

Montag's perception of life begins to alter when his new friend Clarisse introduces him to a world, drawing him back to a time when society lived according to the ideas of books instead of the noise of television.

If you are into classics, than finding the starting line “It was a pleasure to burn.” will definitely warm up your heart at the very beginning of the book.

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Winter World (The Long Winter Trilogy), by A.G. Riddle (2019)

Mankind has had to grapple with imminent extinction, thanks to the onset of a new ice age. The latest refuge for survivors of the glaciers has been crowded out, forced to flee the only available, last habitable lands. From these lands, only they can escape their inherent desire to wage a war yet entirely inevitable.

At the very edge of the solar spectrum, a group of scientists notice a brief glimmer of something that shouldn't be there. Humankind must come to the conclusion that maybe they aren't entirely alone. And maybe this intelligence is only here to vanish our existence on this planet.

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Rama II, Arthur C. Clarke (1989)

In Rama II, many years have passed since a wildly unexpected rover was boarded by humans for a period of time as they passed through Earth's solar system. Humanity is now getting ready for the arrival of a second extraterrestrial spacecraft, determined to investigate its secrets.

A team of a dozen astronauts, with diverse personalities and abilities, will board the craft, ahead of them realizing that someone among them is a betrayer and a looming calamity accidentally strands three of them alone on board as the spacecraft leaves the solar system. Characters' lack of knowledge regarding places and their length of stay on board provide insight into various aspects of space survival.

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To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, by Christopher Paolini (2020)

Kira finds that an alien relic during her survey mission on a planet uncolonized. She is delighted upon discovering it, but the flash of ecstasy is extinguished when the alien dust around her begins to vibrate.

Kira is introduced through the course of a war into a voyage of self-discovery. Her first contact with beings far from Earth is quite different from her expectation, and it brings her to a place where she is not before.

While Kira and Earth fight for survival, the fate of humanity rest in their hands. Now, Kira might be humanity's only hope.

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Exhalation, by Ted Chiang (2019)

Exhalation is an awesome re-framing of the scientific laws inherent in entropy. What is Expected of Us illuminates the social consequences of experiential evidence that the notion of pure choice is an illusion.

People who study the book Exhalation felt like they were re-visiting a place of childhood. They felt like hearing a song they had only heard before. Perhaps I never found any similar collection of science-fiction short stories that resembled similar style and ideas.

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Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem (1961)

The book follows a team of researchers and scientist as they attempt to comprehend an extraterrestrial intelligence, which takes the form of a vast ocean on the titular alien world.

Scientists have observed intricate patterns of behavior, including a course that seems to almost rectify itself. But since only the water of the ocean looks like human biochemistry, its existence is hard to confirm.

Kris Kelvin, an overly objective psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting Earth. When he arrives, he finds out that a scientist has committed suicide dooming the others into nervous collapse.

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Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr (2021)

The book tells the tale of Aethon, a man who sets out to search for the “utopian city in the sky” called Cloud Cuckoo Land. Along the way, he has many adventures (transformed into a donkey, captured, escapes, transformed into a fish, eaten by a sea creature, transformed into a crow, etc.) before he at last finds Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Doerr's novel includes an orphaned girl and a farmer boy in the 1400's, an environmentalist setting off a bomb in a library in 2020, and a girl on a mission to a distant planet in the not-so-distant future.

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick (1968)

We follow the story of detective Rick Deckard in San Francisco as he tracks down runaway androids. These androids are made of organic matter so similar to a human's that only posthumous “bone marrow analysis” can differentiate them, making them nearly impossible to distinguish from real people.

Dextra tries this undertaking so he can acquire enough bounty money to obtain a live animal to replace his homed-in computer sheep to address his upset wife's depression. The protagonist lands one of the Rosen Association's headquarters in Seattle to verify what the newest empathy analysis implies for calculating android identities.

The author creates fascinating storyline so that it is difficult to tell what is really happening. But during reading the lines you simply fall under the magic of the author.

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88 Names, by Matt Ruff (2020)

Matt Ruff likes interesting speculative fictions, and he composes them usually in literary style.

John Chu is a “sherpa” who plays Call to Wizardry which is an online RPG. For money he supplies new players with a high experienced character equipped with the best weapons and armor. He can take you dragon-slaying in Asgarth's realms, hunt a rogue starship in the Alpha Sector or battle hordes of undead in the zombie apocalypse.

Chu has recently taken on new client Mr. Jones, who claims to be a rich and famous person with powerful enemies, and he's offering a staggering amount of money for an all-encompassing tour of the world of Call to Wizardy. For Chu, this mission is like a dream assignment, but as the tour gets underway. He begins to suspect that Mr. Jones is in fact the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and plays under fake identity.

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Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines Series), by Marko Kloos (2013)

2108 and the North American Commonwealth are overrun by its rapid growth. For Andrew Grayson, there are only two options for struggling welfare rats like himself: He could send his younger sister into a lottery and hope to win a ticket on a colony ship off-world, or he could stay at the run-down tenement and hope that the authorities neglect to notice that it's not their own fault.

In order to get off the sheltered planet back home, Andrew decides to enlist in the Army. In response, Andrew finds himself worrying he will have nothing to show for it except a retirement bonus and a ticket off Earth. As he discovers, all of the good food and fair health care he bargained for don't come cheap.

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Invisible Planets, translated by Ken Liu (2016)

A contemporary Chinese sci-fi anthology.

I think the variety of characters and the writing were superior to a lot of the published stories in the United States and beyond. Furthermore, the stories in this book were pretty new for the eyes of the sci-fi fans in the western countries. They were unusual and intriguing than many mainstream writers' stories. This story collection had a lot of exceptional, original and diverse stories. I will be looking forward to the next sci-fi book from Ken Liu after his latest work Broken Stars.

My favorite stories from this collection were Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang and Tongtong's Summer by Xia Jia.

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Red Rising (Red Rising Series), by Pierce Brown (2014)

Darrow is a ‘Red' native to the color coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he will make the surface of Mars livable for future generations. He put his faith that his hard work and blood will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been deceived. Soon he discovers that humanity exited the surface centuries ago. Vast cities and lush fertile plains cover the planet. Darrow and other Reds are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Darrow is driven by the desire to see justice, he goes to the Legendary Institute. A proving ground for the elite Gold caste, hoping to gain access to its powerful ruling class.

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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Hunger Games Series), by Suzanne Collins (2020)

It's the morning of the tenth annual Hunger Games that kickoffs the annual Hunger Games. In The Capitol, Coriolanus Snow is preparing for one game victory as a coach in the Games. Snow's once-prosperous mansion is currently struggling to hang on. Considering that Coriolanus is relying on some kind of self-sacrifice for winning the school contest, to which he is desperate to outdo all of his fellow classmates.

He has received the ill-favored assignment of instructing the District 12 female tribute. Coriolanus's future can no longer be untangled from any of his actions – each choice he makes will dictate whether he gets ahead or gets wiped out. Inside of the arena, it will be a war to the death. Outside of it, Coriolanus senses the depth of his powerlessness.

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Conjunction (The Wise Society Series), by A.D. Zoltan and Steven N. Nagy (2022)

When we first read Conjunction it didn't feel like a debut novel. The story blends a spiritual journey with a space opera which creates a unique and new sci-fi story concept.

Keat a young truth seeker born with the initial need to find answers to the big questions of life, finally gets into the mission of his life, to enter the first intergalactic spaceship that will visit alien planets with intelligent life and hopefully an advanced civilization.

But after Keat and his team arrives to Füzen the story shifts into a new dimension, almost literally.

The story has a coming of age nature, and utilizes the popular concept of reincarnation. Honestly the book has a potential to open new perspectives to people who want to believe something that is beyond the materialistic world.

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Final Thoughts on Science fiction books

In conclusion, I hope you will find this ranked list helpful in your search for the next sci-fi read! Hence our ranks are relative and highly reflects our taste for sci-fi novels, we wanted to keep our list modern and also ideal for Gen X and Z readers.

If you're still not sure, we recommend you check out some more specific book lists like military sci-fi books or the sci-fi books with mind blowing adventures.

Last updated 08.09.2022

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post 33 Remarkable Sci-Fi Books (Ranked) To Read In Your Lifetime (For 2024) appeared first on Joelbooks.

A mission to space isn't all it seems to be.

Artemis is enlisted to lead up a mission into space To find humankind another home after the earth has been left crushed and turned into a wasteland from the ruthless 4-year interstellar war with the Aliens known as Anpu. During the battle, humans have gained alien allies to help fend off the Anpu for now.

The Coalition has provided a crew for her offering her some of the best in the galaxy, delegates from various planets to lend their aid. This crew has a big task at hand with unexpected rivals and all the other unknowns against them. From the point when an explosion wakes her and her team from Cryosleep, the blast harming their ship; Artemis ends up unwinding a secret that there’s a saboteur on board. And a hunter attempting to kill her for what they believe she has.

Outfitted with her resourcefulness and her assurance, Artemis leaves on a journey of disclosure that may either assist her with satisfying her main goal to direct humankind to another world or totally wreck her from her way and clear her into a whirlpool of mysteries.

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

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“Twenty-Two” ~

Trapped in a web of the past and the future, they, like her, have no names.

Twenty-two and the others are lost inside the frigid Dome. Her only sources of heat is her friend, Fifteen, and cracking of a whip across her back… until she’s transferred to a new worksite. Now, she must not only navigate a new place and a new language; she also must learn to live life as a Black worker and survive abject hostility.

Atom ~

Atom is his name. His aim is to keep her alive over five days with sheer ruthlessness, but behind the seemingly feeble façade, is a strong Black soldier who vows to keep her safe from harm and help her fight her way out of trouble. He may hold the key between her past and future, but can he be trusted?

Novak ~

An uncontrollable mighty force whispers into his mind, warning him of the power and the adversity he will soon face.

Others see him as weak. Fate tells him he’s a mercenary.

Now he must break free, overcome his fears, and embrace the unknown for the greater good.

Read online The Starseed by Julien Mbayi

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post The Starseed by Julien Mbayi appeared first on Joelbooks.

A personal message from the author:

I loved Sci-Fi since I was a child, seeing all of the amazing worlds, characters, and stories the genre could tell. Having many ideas built up in my head for all these years, it only felt right to finally have my first book in a universe I only plan to expand!

— Austin Patten 

Kane Lons, a simple cargo pilot wanted nothing but to finish his final delivery before taking what he believed was a well-deserved break. However, that didn't seem to be the case when the Union Galactic Government or U.G.G is suspecting him to be secretly supplying tech and weapons for a rebel faction…Now alongside his little robot companion Helix, he will soon be in a desperate fight for his survival. With the U.G.G seeming to deeply believe this theory, they will stop at nothing until this assumed criminal is taken down, dead or alive…

Read online Ignition: Unknown Criminal by Austin Patten

Review

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post Ignition: Unknown Criminal by Austin Patten appeared first on Joelbooks.

Book comment

We don't spoiler here.

Rae Carson is a very talented writer and I must say (after watching the movie in theatre) that we have the case when the book is better than the actual movie. J. J. Abrams did a very good job with the movie, but all those expect the ‘old' Star Wars feeling they will get disappointed. This book is slightly different, it has something in common with the old story.

Hence the plot is more or less the same, the book hides some very unique story parts which were greatly missed from the movie. Overall we enjoyd reading the book, and we felt that Star Wars feeling, thanks to Rae.

About the book

Witness the epic final chapter of the Skywalker saga with the official novelization of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, including expanded scenes and additional content not seen in theaters!

The Resistance has been reborn. But although Rey and her fellow heroes are back in the fight, the war against the First Order, now led by Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, is far from over. Just as the spark of rebellion is rekindling, a mysterious signal broadcasts throughout the galaxy, with a chilling message: Emperor Palpatine, long thought defeated and destroyed, is back from the dead.

Has the ancient Lord of the Sith truly returned? Kylo Ren cuts a swath of destruction across the stars, determined to discover any challenge to his control over the First Order and his destiny to rule over the galaxy—and crush it completely. Meanwhile, to discover the truth, Rey, Finn, Poe, and the Resistance must embark on the most perilous adventure they have ever faced.

Featuring all-new scenes adapted from never-before-seen material, deleted scenes, and input from the filmmakers, the story that began in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and continued in Star Wars: The Last Jedi reaches an astounding conclusion.

Read online The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition (Star Wars) by Rae Carson

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.

medium.com/@joelbooks

The post The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition (Star Wars) by Rae Carson appeared first on Joelbooks.