Space Exploration Fiction

Get ready to experience two more origin stories in the Backyard Starship universe.

Captain Jim Garrett thought his navy career was over. But when aliens attacked, he took the helm of an experimental warship, leading her into battle for the first time. Now, he commands a ragged fleet of ships that survived the alien onslaught. Their crews are inexperienced and exhausted but there’s no time to rest. Garrett must shape them into a lethal fighting force. His deadliest enemies may come from within. A rival captain threatens mutiny, furious that Garrett is now his superior.

In the future, venturing out into the stars is more than a way for humanity to chart the cosmos—it's big business. Every time a new planet is discovered, the highest bidder gets first dibs with exclusive property rights for a year. Anything they can find, they can keep. The planet Limbo was considered a waste of rock to most, which is the only reason apprentice cargo master Dane Thorson and the rest of the crew of the Solar Queen could afford to bid on it. But they soon discover that Limbo is far from uninhabited, the Solar Queen is far from the first ship to explore it.

Tornado Onwubiko is one of seven people on Earth paired with sentient ships to explore and research the cosmos for twenty million euros. A decade of solitary life for a lifetime of wealth. Five years into the ten-year mission of total isolation comes a consolation: a temporary meetup among fellow travelers. A lot can happen in a week. For Tornado, who left a normal life behind, a little company can be life-changing.

La bataille pour la survie du Commonwealth atteint son paroxysme. Les savants humains travaillent sans relâche pour développer une arme capable de stopper l'invasion des Primiens. Mais, quand une deuxième vague d'assaut déferle contre des dizaines de planètes humaines, on découvre avec stupeur que ces adversaires implacables ont eux aussi fait d'énormes progrès en matière de destruction.

Titan: The largest moon of Saturn. A deadly enigma harboring the greatest secret in the history of humankind. In the wake of the first mission, two companies with very different goals plot a return to that distant moon. Their ships are safer, their technology has improved…and they want answers. The competition triggers a new space race that will push the crews to the very edge of survival. Yet Titan does not hold all the secrets. On Earth, a startling ocean discovery reveals that whatever created the alien artifacts has been to our planet before…and it’s coming back.

On the Ark, a colonyship bound outward across the stars, not everyone is a volunteer - or even human. Lovelock is a capuchin monkey engineered from conception to be the perfect servant: intelligent, agile, and devoted to his owner. He is a "witness", privileged to spend his days and nights recording the life of one of Earth’s most brilliant scientists via digital devices implanted behind his eyes. But Lovelock is something special among witnesses. He’s a little smarter than most humans: smart enough to break through some of his conditioning, smart enough to feel the bonds of slavery - and want freedom.

Lucas Trask had a beautiful bride, a powerful position, and a bright future. Yet now, he's a man obsessed with revenge, willing to cross the galaxy in search of the man who stole his happiness. The galaxy is a dangerous place, full of dangers, allies and enemies, civilizations and barbarians. As Trask pursues his quarry, he will discover new friends and foes, new planets and cultures, new challenges and opportunities. He will also find a new purpose: to build a civilization out of chaos, to create a new home for his people, and to forge a new destiny for himself.

Elysium Fire is a smoldering tale of murderers, secret cultists, tampered memories, and unthinkable power, of bottomless corruption and overpowering idealism from the king of modern space opera. Ten thousand city-state habitats orbit the planet Yellowstone, forming a near-perfect democratic...

The Ark—humanity’s valiant effort to reach beyond our solar system to establish the first interstellar colony at a distant star. For 300 thousand colonists, the colony brings the promise of a fresh start and for some, a second chance. Connor never meant to escape wrongful imprisonment, nor being put into stasis aboard the Ark. He might be the wrong man for the colony, but he’s the right man to see that it survives what’s coming.

Shopping in the Empire's biggest shipbuilding star system, Hiro's offered a bargain on an intriguingly uncanny vessel! Then he crosses paths with Kugi--a devout fox shrine maiden hailing from a mysterious sect. She can speak to him telepathically and volunteers to teach him to use his powers. Hiro signs on, but he's about to be put through his psionic paces!

From the acclaimed author of New York 2140 and Red Mars, this NYT bestselling novel tells the story of a future where humanity has populated miraculous new habitats engineered across the solar system -- and the one death that triggers a precarious chain of events that could destroy it all. The...

An interstellar craft is decelerating after its century-long voyage. Its destination is V538 Aurigae, a now-empty planet dominated by one gigantic megastructure, a conical mountain of such height that its summit is high above the atmosphere. The ship's crew of five hope to discover how the long-departed builders made such a colossal thing, and why: a space elevator? a temple? a work of art? Its resemblance to the mountain of purgatory lead the crew to call this world Dante.

Matthew is a normal 11-year-old boy living with his parents and little sister in Surrey. He's too old and sensible to have an imaginary friend really. Yet when Matthew's parents keep finding him talking and arguing with a strange presence whom Matthew calls Chocky, that's what they believe it must be…at first. But Chocky is oddly sinister, and keeps asking Matthew all sorts of complicated questions about the world and making him behave in unusual and erratic ways. Then Matthew suddenly does something heroic, well beyond his capabilities; the media become interested and the interest in Matthew widens.

The interstellar bridges provide a lifeline for billions. To save humanity, the Darkspace Renegades must tear them all down. Unjustly kicked out of the Consortium Security Force, Hallam Knight has been reduced to working as a gunner, defending the precious Randenite fuel tankers from notorious extremists, the Darkspace Renegades. Then, he discovers that everything he thought he knew was a lie. Far from being the enemy, the Darkspace Renegades are humanity’s only hope.... They just don’t know it yet.

Aran awakens in chains with no memory. He’s conscripted into the Confederate Marines as a Tech Mage, given a spellrifle then hurled into the war with the draconic Krox and their Void Wyrm masters. Desperate to escape, Aran struggles to master his abilities while surviving the Krox onslaught. Fighting alongside him are a Major who will do anything to win, a Captain who will stop at nothing to see him dead, and a woman whose past is as blank as his own.

The human race is running out of time on overcrowded Earth, and only one man has the courage to do what is necessary to save it. Colony ship Ark is the greatest project the human race will ever attempt, a self-contained world 100 years in the building, launched on a 10,000-year voyage to carry the seeds of civilization to the stars. It is humanity's final gamble for escape from a desperate world, but the price of hope is measured in lives.

Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2020! "A terrifying tour de force." --James Rollins "Readers will be riveted." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) Sally Jansen was NASA's leading astronaut, until a mission to Mars ended in disaster. Haunted by her failure, she lives in quiet...

Hiding from her problems as she vacations at a beach house, Gloria's only concerns are walking her dog, relaxing by the pool, and kayaking. Then she spots a strange sea-creature stalking her as she paddles around a secluded cove.

After a brazen rescue mission to the Citadel, the crew of the Trash Squid have rescued Captain Axel Finn. During their escape, a dying Admiral Jessup tells Axel he must lead the resistance, and that he must start it where his father made his last stand, on the mining world of Furia. On the planet Runi, Sergeant Jax Brito returns to her family farm to find her father on his deathbed. After dealing with the thugs that put him there, her trip is cut short when a Clipper arrives with a message—the Citadel has been attacked and forces are gathering to take it back.