Dark Web (St. Tommy N.Y.P.D. Book 11) – Declan Finn

Anything can be ordered from the Dark Web.

Including people.

When  an Internet celebrity is kidnapped, Tommy Nolan must team up with a ghost from his past in order to battle the horrors lurking in the Dark Web, including a drug dealer peddling supernatural powders, Chinese nationals wielding supernatural weapons, and a Private Military Contractor staffed with witches.

To unravel this web of lies, Tommy will go through Hell.

Hell itself is going to pay.

Escape from OUB-8 – Bryce Beattie

Space pirates murdered his crew. Time for some payback.

Cavalier Burns is the first mate on an interstellar freighter, and his only goal in life is to someday become the captain of his own vessel. That dream is shattered when pirates assault his ship. It is only by accident that he is left alive. Burning with hatred toward his shipmates’ killers, he is willing to throw his life away if it means exacting revenge on the brutal aliens.

All that changes when he learns he’s not the only innocent on board the pirates’ space station. Now, Cav must race the clock and find a way to get everyone off the ugliest base he’s ever seen.

Expedition Earth (First Colony #14) – Ken Lozito

One last mission…

After a long and exalted military career, General Connor Gates thought he was finally ready to retire. He was wrong.

When interstellar probes sent to Earth’s star system report back 40 years earlier than expected, the colonists learn that humans somehow survived the cataclysmic events of the past…but so did the enemy.

The colonists owe their lives to the sacrifice made by the people of Earth, but the survivors are struggling and the colonists have the technology to turn the tide. Someone must lead an expeditionary force back to Earth. Connor might have been ready for retirement, but Earth calls, promising answers to what happened so long ago.

Can Connor and his friends survive one last mission and pay back the huge debt of sacrifice made long ago? Read More

To upset the stable, mighty stream of time would probably take an enormous concentration of energy. And it’s not to be expected that a man would get a second chance at life. But an atomic might accomplish both—

Allan Hartley, a dying soldier on a nuclear battlefield closes his eyes, and his life appears to flash before him. But it stops when he’s thirteen, and on the day before the atomic bomb drops in Japan. With all the memories of the future, Allan remembers what also happened on this day, and sets out to change the future–by preventing a murder.

But Allan also must prove to his father that he is who he says he is, a version of Allan from 1975 with 30 years of life experiences that a thirteen-year-old could never have had.

H. Beam Piper started his science fiction career with “Time and Time Again”, joining April 1947’s Astounding roster of A. E. van Vogt, Hal Clement, Henry Kuttner, and C. L. Moore. From this first story, Piper would begin to explore one of the two common fixtures of his fiction: time travel and the historical aftereffects of nuclear war. While he would build longstanding series around each, “Time and Time Again” stands outside the Paratime and Terro-Human History series. However, the 1970s nuclear war that claimed Allan Hartley’s future dovetails nicely with the the 1973 war that created the Terro-Human Future History, of which Little Fuzzy and Space Viking are a part.

The war, however, is just a mechanism to jar Allan back in time, and give him a reason to spend most of the story exploring theories of time travel with his skeptical father. It is curious to see a multiverse idea roundly discarded for something resembling an eternal view of time, where all points might be seen and accessible from any other. But all the exposition on time travel pulls the story down, as it comes after the dramatic conflict of the story–whether Allan is correct about the man he has accused of wanting to kill his wife.

Theory, after all, isn’t as interesting as practice, and while Allan being right goes a long way to helping his father believe him, that doubt needed to linger longer through the conversation instead of being resolved too early. Structurally, the revelation that Allan’s choice is correct should be at the climax and resolution, but that is both a beginners’ mistake and an editorial choice of an editor known to favor theory and conjecture over drama.

“Time and Time Again” is still serviceable science fiction, and a far improvement of the average from that of ten years earlier. Piper’s penchant for space operas have yet to be revealed, but, even in the ending, his characters are men of decisive action rather than navel-gazing theorists. In another magazine besides Astounding, Piper may have received guidance to play towards that strength.

Dragon Mind (Blood of the Ancients #5) – Dan Michaelson and D. K. Holmberg

A discovery of the source of Rob’s essence leads him home.

Now that Rob has progressed to dragon heart, he’s called upon to help the artic cats find their leader. The journey leads him deeper into a dangerous land, where he must find a way to stop the ice king and his servants.

There he discovers the way to protect those he cares about is to head back to where he first learned of essence.

What he learns is the true danger hidden until now—and the source of the Spread—but it might already be too late to stop it.

Legacy of Queens: Embers & Ash (Eldros Legacy #7) – Marie Whittaker

Princess Mahaela Bellagrave nearly escapes her fate as queen, but murder accelerates her ascension to the throne of Pyranon. Denying her birthright is no longer an option; she must embrace the magic she’s possessed since birth but hidden out of self-preservation.

Banu Liin, an immortal demon construct and ancient palace knight, lives on as the royal advisor. He’s ruled Pyranon through its queens and their magic for centuries. He’s hidden truths and kept the loyal kingdoms of Pyranon in the dark about life-and-death threats that imperil the mortality of every living soul on the continent.

Banu sets his trap for the new queen. He refuses to lose his long-lived and lasting power over the fiery continent of Pyranon and the reigning queen of the empire.

In a world plagued by centuries of evil possession, can a determined young queen embrace inherited magic and free Pyranon from a throne long tarnished by a deadly legacy of deceit?

Sleeper Protocol (The Protocol War #1) – Kevin Ikenberry

How far would you go to remember your past?

Kieran Roark awakens in a wheelchair, unable to remember anything. As part of a classified experiment, he will have one year to learn his identity and recover his memory, or he will be euthanized by the state.

Scientist Berkeley Bennett has one mission: manipulate Kieran’s emotions in an attempt to bring back his memory. But when she falls in love with him, she is forced to make a harrowing decision that may cost Kieran his life.

What Kieran knows could save Earth from a coming war. Whether he believes the future is worth saving is another matter. Racing across an unfamiliar world in a body he does not recall, Kieran needs to discover who he was and, more importantly, who he is.

The Tyr: Ordeal (The Tyr Trilogy #2) – Richard Fox

The human invaders will have the Tyr’s planet. No mercy. No survivors.

The corporation continues to grind the Tyr into dust. With cities under siege, their armies shattered and against an enemy they can barely comprehend; the Tyr must find a way to fight back or be doomed to extinction. The Clay family struggle to find a way to stop the corporation before all hope is lost. Daniel Clay and General Fastal launch a secret and dangerous mission to steal the only weapon that can turn the tide. Sarah Clay, surrounded by a faction she can’t trust, must win over the Hidden cabal to infiltrate behind enemy lines. Their son, Michael, fights to survive amidst a sea of refugees and to keep his true identity secret.

The ordeal of the human invasion continues. The Clay family are beset by enemies and threats on all sides as they search for a way to save the Tyr…and to save their family. Read More

“Behold…the engines of death ride the sky. Every day they grow more numerous. Unless our nation bands together and ceases this endless wandering…we will disappear forever from the planet Elekton.” – Trigo the Mighty

In the 1930s, an alien spacecraft crashed into the Florida swamps, the crew frozen at their posts. After many years of physical examination, little was known of these men or the empire they represented. But one lone eccentric devoted his life to deciphering the texts recovered aboard the craft, until, almost in retirement, he discovers the insight needed for translation. Thus the recorded history of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire was finally revealed to all.

From 1965 to 1982, eighty-eight complete stories of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire graced the pages of British magazines Ranger and Look and Learn. While many writers and artists worked on the comic strip, writer Mike Butterworth and artist Don Lawrence combined their efforts on fifty. These fifty stories, doled out one full-color comic strip a week, inspired many in the British comics scene, including Neil Gaiman and Dave Gibbons. Once locked behind expensive premium collections, these tales of raygun Romans have now been rereleased in to the mass-market in three paperback and ebook volumes.

Before there can be a rise of an empire, there first must be a founding. And the nomadic Vorg were the last race anyone on the planet Elekton would foresee to rise as an interstellar empire. Mindful of the constant attacks by airfleets from the empire of Loka, Trigo has a dream of a city of culture and power from which his people can resist Loka and flourish in peace. His first attempts to build it crumble along with the city walls. But when Loka attacks the city of the Tharvs, the refugees streaming into the Vorg lands bring the knowledge needed to build Trigo’s city. From the marriage of Vorg vigor and Tharv knowledge, a new people were formed–the Trigan Empire. But Loka would not allow Trigo and his new people to live in peace, so Trigo and his brother Brag attempt to steal Loka’s airfleet and turn those terror weapons against their makers–even if it means crossing their resentful brother Klud in the process.

Such a bloodless summary for a high adventure tale filled with daring acts of heroism, stunning reversals of fortune, and crushing betrayals. But it would be the first of many in the rise of the Trigan Empire from a single city to a world government, all under the watchful eye and quick fists of Trigo the Mighty, his brother, Brag, and their advisor, Peric.

Read More

Deathless Dungeoneers – J. D. Astra

An underrated dungeon. A determined dungeoneer. One chance for a new start.

Since the moment Rhen delved his first dungeon, he’s wanted nothing more than to own one himself. When a tiny plot pops up in the Dungeon Owner’s Guild, Rhen decides to take a leap of faith and realize his dream.

Rhen soon discovers the little dungeon has a lot more to offer than the Guild previously assessed—and that could mean big trouble. A powerful rival dungeon owner is breathing down Rhen’s neck for snatching up all the delvers in town, envious of his wild luck and the success he’s built from it.

To keep his dungeon safe and profitable, Rhen must acquire enough dungeoneers for a raid group and unlock the ultimate wealth: the Nexus node—a doorway to a new realm and a path to escape a dangerous secret. If he can’t power the Nexus node with the dungeon’s limited energy, his venture could be over before it’s even begun, and his dreams of founding a realm he can call home a faded memory.

The Enemy Revealed (The Last Hunter #4) – J. N. Chaney and Terry Mixon

Victory, but at what cost?

Commodore Jack Romanoff and his crew won the battle for New Copenhagen but lost their quantum drive in the fight. Now they must free the human prisoners and strengthen their defenses before the Locusts trap them.

If it’s not already too late.

Only the alien hyperdrive they recovered offers a chance to get a new quantum drive and more missiles before time runs out. To master it and solve the mystery of the invasion, they must open a dialog with the aliens and get their willing cooperation. Somehow.

With no time to waste, they’d best be persuasive.

The Lyons’ Pride (Four Horsemen Universe: The Phoenix Initiative #1) – Chris Kennedy and Marisa Wolf

No other Human is more enigmatic than the Lyon.

On the African savanna, the male lion is the lord who watches over his family, while the females of the clan do the real work.

Joel, “The Lyon” Lyons thought that owning a mercenary company would be similar—he could sit back and allow the Lyoness to run the Pride. Everything would go well, money from successfully completed contracts would flow like water into his bank accounts, and everything would be as easy as it had been for him when he’d owned a chain of highly-successful restaurants.

It’s easy to be full of pride when everything is going your way.

But when he runs afoul of Peepo, the Veetanho who is arguably the most successful mercenary general in galactic history, he finally meets his match—someone who is every bit the master of logistics he is—and he is brought low.

The true measure of a man isn’t in never being knocked down, though—it’s in what you do when you are. When Peepo leaves him for dead on the battlefield, will the Lyon slink away from the galactic spotlight, or will he get back up again and let the galaxy hear him roar? Read More