29 Best Space Opera, Fiction Books

Now privateers rather than criminals, the Redshift Runners protect Earth and its colonies from pirates …

Until trade routes are attacked by the unmanned fleets of the Prestige, the former protectors of ancient Earth. Though the deadly raids threaten the stability Deadeye and Talon have sacrificed so much to achieve, they discover its true
purpose: an operation code-named Termination Vector, which has targeted the Runners for destruction.

Old enemies reappear in a bid for power, abusing the very technology that has allowed humanity to settle the stars. Deadeye and his shipmates must gather their allies to confront the marauding fleets in a battle for the future of the Orion Spur.

But the cost might be more than they can bear.

The Metal Legion is committed to saving all, despite their differences, despite their loyalties. Leeroy Jenkins commits the Metalheads to a battle that makes them traitors to the Republic and enemies of the Solarians. It’s the no-win scenario.

Unless they can do the unthinkable. The stakes are high and risk higher as they bet everything they have in a single pitched battle to win the freedom of all humanity.

Metal Legion–climb the ramp and come along for the ride. It’ll be bumpy and hot, but the sound of the 15kg mains is worth it.

Troy is no longer himself. Kidnapped by the aliens known as Pirans, infected with the essence of the dead General Tohmas, Troy grasps at his only hope of survival. He merges his soul with the alien parasite trying to possess him, leaving him forever changed–and not entirely for the worse. Once plagued by crippling phobias, Troy is now fearless, willing to fight his enemies with his bare hands.

But with this new strength also comes a new weakness: women. Tohmas was notorious for his insatiable desires, and Troy finds himself constantly resisting temptation–especially the gorgeous, manipulative Alta. Although Alta has convinced the Pirans she’s helping them prepare to battle the murderous Reptaurens, she’s actually meticulously planning to steal their ultimate power source and then abandon them to their fate.

Alta won’t hesitate to kill anyone in her way, and her deep love for Tohmas is Troy’s only advantage. He convinces Alta that Tohmas has taken full control of his being and thus keeps her trust and his life.

While Alta schemes, Troy covertly struggles to save the Pirans and prevent the Reptaurens from invading Earth–but first he must wrest back control of his own soul.

Superdreadnought Reynolds has cornered his enemy and believes that Gulg technology will help him defeat the Kurtherian-armed Phraim-‘Eh.

But what if it doesn’t?

With all guns blazing, the battle is joined, but the crew learns more about each other than the enemy.

Even though it’s a battle, the superdreadnought must win. Maybe that gives them an edge over the cult.

Reynolds wants to take what he’s learned back to Bethany Anne. He’s ready to go home, even if only for a short while. The crew is behind him in his search for peace within his own fractured mind and his duty to the Federation and his loyalty to his crew.

Barnabas has destroyed the Committee’s research facility, but his victory came at a cost: his friend Jeltor remains captive and brainwashed.

He isn’t going to stand for that. He is going to find and rescue his friend, no matter what it takes.

But what will he do when he has to decide between saving his friend and saving an entire planet?

The Committee has set its sights on the Brakalon home world, and it intends to convert every single citizen to serve as their new army.

And with two of the Jotun admirals on their side, is it too late to stop them?

The Pearl. A smooth round ball of a planet with an ocean hiding a secret.

The water is near boiling, and the Jemmin don’t want the Vorr or the Terrans to find what’s hidden in the depths.

What would make it worth it for the Jemmin to commit overwhelming forces to this out of the way system? And they aren’t the only ones bringing max firepower to the game. The Metal Legion gears up for what they expect to be a pitched battle against a determined defense.

Barnabas has traced the influence of the Yennai Corporation from High Tortuga to their secret base, which he has destroyed, killing both heirs to the company.

Who hasn’t he killed? Koel Yennai, the patriarch and founder…who has sworn vengeance on Barnabas for killing his children and destroying his legacy.

Now, Koel gathers what remains of the Yennai Corporation to hunt Barnabas across known space and kill him.

And Barnabas is more than ready for the confrontation.

Someone sent three fully armed ships to High Tortuga to back the slave-owners running the mines, and Barnabas and Shinigami are determined to find out who.

And take them down.

As they look deeper, however, they’ll find traces of an organization that controls whole mercenary syndicates, industries, and even governments: the Yennai Corporation.

They have plans for this sector of space, and they are not about to let humans interfere.

So they’re going to kill Barnabas, and they’re going to make an example of the mine workers he freed.

After all, who’s going to stop them? Barnabas is one human in one ship. They’re sure they can take him out.

Three years after Ashanti spaced for Solar System, Turalon reappears in the Donovanian sky. The Corporation has returned. Donovan’s wealth is a lure for the powerful families who control the Board. Unburdened by morals, they are
bringing their battle for supremacy to Port Authority and a showdown that could tear The Corporation apart.

Much to her disgust, Falise Taglioni has been chosen to ensure that her family emerges triumphant; she comes with instructions for her brother, Dek. After all, she could always manipulate him to her will. And she will again, even if she has to
destroy Talina Perez in the process. And if her war with the Grunnels, Xian Chans, and Radceks destroys Port Authority in the process? Who cares?

But nothing on Donovan is static, and in the three years since Ashanti’s departure, life on the planet has hardened Kalico Aguila and the scrappy inhabitants of Port Authority. Life in the bush breeds a different kind of human: genetically altered,
tough, and self-reliant. And on Donovan, determining who is predator and who is prey has never been easy.

Meanwhile, for Kylee Simonov and her bonded quetzal, Flute, there will be a final comeuppance. Because on Donovan, blood vendetta needs to be paid. And then she’s going to town. After which, nothing will be the same.

Now Barnabas is in for a surprise–it turns out that the alien who’s been pulling the strings against him is none other than Uleq, the Torcellan who escaped Bethany Anne’s clutches.

He isn’t taking any chances now. He’s going to find the Yennai Corporation’s main base and bring them down.

But Uleq has problems of his own…problems that might just bring an entire fleet down on Barnabas’s head.

After taking down the Yennai Corporation, Barnabas has earned a little break.

On the way back to High Tortuga, however, he stops to answer a distress call. How long could it take after all?

Barnabas is about to find out. In what should have been an open-and-shut murder case, questions begin to pile up fast: Who, exactly, was this Jotun Naval captain? Why was there a black-ops ship lurking nearby, ready to shoot down anyone who tried to approach?

Barnabas has made a promise to a friend that he’ll unravel the murder, but the closer he gets, the more questions he has.

The Brick was an inhospitable planet in Finjou space. Humans settled there anyway, and now the aliens want them gone.

Captain Xi Bao, your orders are to conduct Operation Red Rock. Evacuate the human colonists from the Brick before the Finjou find them. Collect material evidence of the Jemmin conspiracy buried more than thirty kilometers below the surface. Easy mission.

But the colonists don’t want to leave. And the Finjou don’t want the humans boring a hole in their dead planet. And everyone has nukes.

Metal Legion gets thrown into the middle of an intergalactic cesspool. Make the humans evacuate. Peacefully. Using the awe-inspiring firepower of the mechs. Make peace with the aliens, even if you have to fight them.

The Finjou aren’t amused–they’re predators who believe in dominance.

Decades of groundwork. Countless civilians abducted, experimented on, and killed. The perfect plan has taken shape, and soon, the entire sector will be under the control of the shadowy Committee.

That was the plan anyway. But some human has decided to blow the whole thing up. What do you do when one of those pathetic little newcomers tries to ruin your plans?

Make him pay.

On the other hand, maybe you should have found out more about this “Barnabas” guy before trying that.

But it can’t possibly go too far wrong, can it? Soon you’ll have an entire fleet under your control. He couldn’t weasel of out that, right?

Wrong.

An ice planet. Three species vying for power. Then the humans arrive. Thrust into the middle of combat with enemies from the air, ice, and space, the Metal Legion pulls no punches, hitting back with everything they have.

Who comes through unscathed? Surely not Elvira and her crew. Captain Xi Bao faces her greatest challenge during a secret mission. Alone and unafraid, she does the unthinkable.

From criminals to heroes, the Armor Corps defends the interests of all Terrans, even if the politicians don’t seem to be fighting the same war.

Victory or death! More ammo. More missiles. More beds in the hospital.

The superdreadnought is hunting the cultists.

The chase takes the ship and crew to Muultar, a planet tortured by three raging stars. Why would anyone live in such a place?

But they do, and the Phraim-‘Eh cult has found fertile recruiting ground. Their plan is nothing short of taking over the whole planet.

How are they doing it? And who are those other aliens in the system, the ones who take issue with Reynolds? They seem more powerful than the superdreadnought.

Are they the long-lost Kurtherians, and is Muultar ground zero?

The rebellion on Mars gains traction and threatens the greatest industrial infrastructure in the solar system. For all humanity, Solarians and Terrans join forces in an uneasy alliance.

Can they keep it together when a new threat raises its ugly head?

Count on Colonel Jenkins and Major Xi Bao to bring their best game with every single shot fired. Rally the troops, blast the metal, and forge ahead.

Metal Legion–climb the ramp and come along for the ride. It’ll be bumpy and hot, but the sound of the mains is worth it.

Krokus 4. The system’s nexus of intelligent life. Who are the Krokans? Who are the Orau? Are there any good guys to protect?

It’s a dog’s breakfast from the word go. Reynolds is positioned to keep the sides from killing each other while he and the crew try to figure out what is going on. With a healthy dose of skepticism, they dig deep trying to find the truth. Underwater. In the vacuum of space. On another planet. Clues and answers can be found by only the most diligent.

All while fighting for their lives.

It’s business as usual for the superdreadnought and his crew.

On the planet now known as High Tortuga, the mine workers are far too close to being slaves, so the ruler of the planet shut down the mines–except for the one owned by Venfirdri Lan.

He’s taken his mine off the grid and decided to keep everything running. With no need to pay the workers, profits should be good. After all, who’s going to stop him?

He had no idea there was a new type of man working for justice on the planet–a man named Barnabas.

In fact, he didn’t even know who Barnabas was. But he’s about to.

Barnabas may not be Ranger One anymore, but one thing definitely has not changed: when someone screws over the powerless, Barnabas is going to bring the pain. He has a bloodthirsty AI running his advanced spaceship, so those who love evil should start looking over their shoulders.

Life just got a lot more fun.

Battles in space, battles of wits, battles of ideologies–Reynolds in cyberspace, the crew on the ground. Everyone is engaged.

The crew of the superdreadnought deploys on foot to win the hearts and minds of the native populations. The Grindlovians and the Telluride. Two races. One destiny.

And an interloper is making everyone take notice.

Integrated with a superdreadnought, the artificial intelligence known as Reynolds has recruited a humanoid crew to help search the universe for the elusive Kurtherians. His mission continues, and no one can stand in his way.

Jack suffered from an attack by the Blue Caps. He sued the RSN and won. He also sued the Royal Family and won. Now he’s acquired his own warship and his first mission is to rescue the princess.

What? Yes, Sofia is missing. The Queen has taken an intense dislike to her daughter’s ambitions and Sofia has disappeared. Jack sets out to rescue her with the assistance of Black Company marines.

The task is not as easy as it seems.

Join Jack and his bot and AI friends as they search for the missing princess. First, they must survive sabotage and alien threats. In the meantime, has Sofia, battered and bruised, rescued herself?

Olawale Wombo and a small contingent of Omnians are sent to assist Earth to uplift its technological prowess. With the aid of the incomparable SADEs, advanced tech is transferred to the Sol Enclave, the system’s governing body.

After Sol’s construction of Tridents–Omnian-designed warships–Earthers possess the ability to transit quickly among the stars. The desire to know what happened to Earth’s colony ship, the Honora Belle, sent to the stars a millennium ago is resurrected. An Omnian Trident and the vessel Reveur accompany three Sol Enclave Tridents in search of the Belle’s colonists.

Swiftly, the Omnians and the Earthers become enmeshed in a centuries-old conflict enveloping a vast area of space inhabited by alliance races. The enemy is the Colony: a giant insectoid species that has arrivied in force to overtake an alliance home world.

Olawale Wombo must decide whether to abide by the expedition’s original purpose or help the embattled alliance races. He asks himself one question: What would Omnian leader Alex Racine do? He knows the answer to that question. Every Omnian knows the answer.

The scar across the side of Jack’s head is the visible price. The risk to his friends at the academy is the hidden price. His challenge is how to balance the risks.
The final stage of his training is a shakedown cruise on an old minesweeper, barely able to achieve FTL entry and exit.
Midway through their cruise, the minesweeper collides with an ancient alien wreck, ripping the sides off the starship. Jack’s team of bots help seal the combined wreck to prevent air loss. Ghost, a nanolife form from the alien wreck, provides assistance.
Jack and his girlfriend, Sofia, are the only survivors, and air, food, and supplies are critical.
The countdown of days to survive is ticking.
No wonder the Royal Family are angry.
And there’s still a price on Jack’s head.

The Golden Brat” Reinhard von Lohengramm, a military prodigy and admiral of the Galactic Empire, has ambitions beyond protecting the borders or even defeating the Empire’s enemies. He seeks to overthrow the old order and become a truly absolute–yet benevolent–dictator. His rival, the humble Yang Wen-li of the Free Planets Alliance, wishes to preserve democracy even if he must sacrifice his political ideals to defeat the Empire. Their political and military battles play out over a galactic chessboard in an epic saga fifteen centuries in the making!

Jack has undertaken to return rescued Tirarge, a hitherto unknown species, to their home planet. The first problem? The Tirarge cannot speak–they’re telepathic. The second problem? They don’t know where their home system is located. The third problem? Another starship is following Fearless, likely seeking revenge.

Oh wait, there’s another problem. Two other species also inhabit this unknown planet, and they can’t speak either.

Surprisingly, that’s not the end of Jack’s problems.

Jack, while sympathetic to the issues facing the planet and its people, has no standing apart from Fearless and his three bots and the Eagles and the SAC scouts and a squad of Black Company marines and a warrior squad of Tirarge and an AI or two…

The rulers of the planet, ignoring civilized conventions, have a simple yet elegant solution. They re-name their world and nominate Jack as its new owner. They engrave the title to the planet on a massive diamond, a jewel worth more than Jack can ever dream of. The new name of this world? Jack Foster’s Planet.

There are enemies on their way, possibly a GalFed destroyer or two, and a planet to protect. Join Jack and his team–ever increasing–in their venture to help their new friends against slave traders and Jack’s Planet against illegal mining.

The second book in the NYT bestselling Expanse series, Caliban’s War shows a solar system on the brink of war, and the only hope of peace rests on James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante’s shoulders. Now a Prime Original series.

HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SERIES

We are not alone.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .

The Expanse
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban’s War
Abaddon’s Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
Babylon’s Ashes
Persepolis Rising
Tiamat’s Wrath
Leviathan Falls

Memory’s Legion

The Expanse Short Fiction
Drive
The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn
The Vital Abyss
Strange Dogs
Auberon
The Sins of Our Fathers

Sol’s warships paid the ultimate price for threatening the Haraken and New Terran worlds. Now, Haraken President Alex Racine and his Meridien partner, Renee de Guirnon, are engaged in a desperate gamble to stop a war between their worlds and United Earth’s (UE) massive forces before it starts.

What’s Alex’s grand plan? He hasn’t a clue, but his people believe in him and hope he will find a way to protect them. Alex does have powerful assets: the Haraken space fleet; the genius SADEs, mobile Haraken digital intelligences; and the defected UE scientists, who are providing a wealth of intelligence about their home world.

Arriving at Sol, Alex discovers the perfect opportunity to make his statement to the UE Supreme Tribunal in the form of the aging Idona Station, which has fallen into disrepair as UE militia and rebels battle for control. Alex explains his unorthodox plan when he says, “The UE tribunes will succumb when we overpower them with prosperity.”

The Harakens work to meld Idona’s militia, stationers, and rebels into the Haraken’s view of the world, one based on peace, purpose, and equality. The Tribunal is at odds over the Harakens’ interference in their system, forcing the rifts in the UE’s political structure to widen into chasms.

In the exciting conclusion to Haraken, the series’ previous book, Sol is the story of a clash of cultures and ideals as Earthers struggle to find a way toward a successful new future.

Who kicks off the battle? Cannon fodder. Soften up the enemy. The Metal Legion. Old mechs crewed by former prisoners with nowhere else to go. They bear the brunt of the pain. Never fight fair when you’re fighting for your life is the motto of the Metal Legion. They don’t want to die, so they fight to win. The mechs stand tall or crawl or run or scamper. A dozen different designs held together by rough welds and sheer willpower. But the soldiers within, like Xi Bao, refuse to give up. Taking her armor underground, she finds the enemy in numbers far greater than she was told. Knee deep in the war, her crew gives their old mech new vigor for one last chance at glory. Metal Legion–climb the ramp and come along for the ride. Fire the mains and enjoy the company of the crew as they live for each other and as they fight for all humanity. Join the Metal Legion today.

THE WAR FOR REALITY HAS BEGUN!

It’s been ten years since the Confederation defeated the Nimic fleet and Zefir-Five has been destroyed, but the fight for peace in the galaxy is far from over.

Lt. Commander Johnny Rangers undertakes a special assignment in Gravity City, the galaxy’s capital, as an equalizer for the Gravity City Police Force, and finds himself fighting a new war against criminal elements, mutinous robots, and thugs led by the elusive criminal mastermind known as Dickey Jets.

When Rangers encounters a cybernetic orphan in an alleyway who is being hunted by the city’s most powerful people and mega-corporations, he finds himself in the biggest fight of his life yet.

Meanwhile, many of Gravity City’s youth have been recruited into an underground cyber-cult that worship a Khovalt artifact capable of altering and replicating reality called the Sleepwalker.

Book 2 of the Gravity City Series by CJ Valin and Artie Cabrera. Space will never be the same after this rip-roaring adventure across the stars!