Space Opera Science Fiction

Humans expanded into space...only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a hostile universe. The Colonial Union used the Earth and its excess population for colonists and soldiers. It was a good arrangement...for the Colonial Union. Then the Earth said: no more.

Sanguinius is the Great Angel, most beloved of all the primarchs, his mighty exploits celebrated throughout the entire Imperium as the Crusade expands into the void. And yet the origins of his Legion are shrouded in mystery and rumour, his unique physical form is an enigma, and his perilous home world remains off-limits to all but his own secretive people. When a discredited remembrancer arrives with the expeditionary fleets to chronicle the primarch’s deeds, he has to work hard to uncover the truth behind the legends.

On the 300th anniversary of Earth’s first expedition to another solar system, the original colony ship miraculously appears near Saturn. But the crew of Excursion One is nowhere to be found. All that’s left is a broken android, and a string of clues. Captain Calvin Brooks, a hero from the Solar Wars, spends his days trying to forget the past on Link Station, until he’s thrust into danger when he’s asked to pilot the decayed ship back through the wormhole to search for the Ethos colony.

Raised fatherless in a galactic Brinktown, Joe Pikeman only ever wanted to escape. The Galactic Guard offered that escape, with the promise of regular meals to boot. Now Joe is a full Guardsman, with his own ship and a snide partner bot who hates humans almost as much as he hates other bots. To the pirates he hunts, Joe is known as the Butcher. His bloody reputation has landed him in the center of a sweeping conspiracy that threatens to stamp out the galaxy’s last surviving human settlements.

The best science fiction and fantasy stories of 2021, selected by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Veronica Roth. This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth...

The AI known as Reynolds is traversing the universe in search of the elusive Kurtherians, but when he realizes he needs a crew, he finds himself out of his element.

Fighter pilot Beau Ward was always willing to bend the rules to get the job done. His "independent" attitude got him bounced around the Federation Fleet for years—until he took it too far. A long-standing debt has been called in, and he's the one who must pay it back.

Vance Turbo, Hero of Space, has spent most of his hard-won officer's career helping refugees. This ends when a star gets blown up and he accidentally ends up saving everyone. Now the captain of the E.S.S Ares, he is on a goodwill mission to Contested Space. Unfortunately, his crew is made up of people who couldn't qualify for Space Academy but are now in thanks to lowered enlistment standards.

The Empire is dead! And Captain Josiah Bleys, smuggler and charmer though he may be, is likely to soon follow unless he is willing to at least pretend to be something he loathes: a hero. His "pal" Chief Ragnar Kane, one of the Emperor's finest warriors, likewise harbors no aspirations toward gallantry, just increasing his kill count. Fate, however, has other plans.

All pretenses of diplomacy have crumbled, and Concord is no longer considered neutral territory. The Imperator is coming, and he intends to reduce the station to dust, forcing Commander Reeves to order an emergency evacuation. But old enemies linger on in the background. Not only must Reeves contend with the Sa’Nerra, but a final showdown with the Lord of Night appears inevitable, and the crime kingpin will stop at nothing to get his revenge. Meanwhile, the Sa’Nerra have invaded Bastion Federation space with thousands of warships and near-unlimited reserves.

Finally possessing the ability to enter the Progenitors’ shadow realm, Commander Reeves and Major Kane embark on a daring mission into the heart of enemy territory. However, en route they must detour to the Quarr planet of Vroxxa, which is under Sa’Nerran occupation. There they will learn the true horrific purpose of the "atmosphere acclimators" the aliens have installed on dozens of worlds. They will also discover the sickening depth of the Sa’Nerran’s cruelty, forcing Reeves to again confront his dark side.

Tensions amongst the six realms are running high as the galaxy witnesses the overwhelming might of the Sa’Nerra armada. The Quarr race are facing defeat, and no one wants to be next. Desperate to find a way to unite the realms against the Sa’Nerra, Commander Reeves and his team take the warship Invictus on a quest to learn about the mysterious and ancient Progenitors—the puppet masters manipulating the war. With threats from the Sa’Nerran Imperator and the New Earth Movement looming over him at every turn, Reeves is still struggling to embrace his legacy.

The Great Crusade is ending. The Emperor has returned to Terra, while Horus remains among the stars to complete the unification of humanity. As the Imperial armies fight the final battles of the age, Remembrancer Solomon Voss seeks the answer to one question—why does Sigismund, First Captain of the Imperial Fists and greatest champion of the Legions, believe that war will not end? Granted a rare audience with the master of the Templars, the answer takes Voss on a revelatory journey to a time before Sigismund became a Space Marine.

The shrine world of Divinatus Prime has become lost to the light of the Astronomican, and no ship can piece its veil. Only the Lord of Death himself, Blood Angels Chief Librarian Mephiston, has any hope of discerning the fate of this once pious world. After enacting a powerful blood ritual, Mephiston and an honour guard of his fellow Blood Angels reach the stricken shrine world to find it seized by religious civil war. Each faction fights for dominance of a potent artefact, the Blade Petrific, said to be wrought by the Emperor Himself.

New York Times best-selling author Eric Flint has received glowing critical praise for his Ring of Fire alternate history series. In this first installment, a West Virginia town is transported from the year 2000 to 1631 Germany at the height of the Thirty Years’ War. Thrust into conflict, the town residents must also contend with moral issues such as who should be considered a citizen.

The enemy is coming. The enemy is already here. For years they’ve prepared, plotted, and planned. For years they’ve waited to strike from above and below. Earth is under siege. The enemy covers the landscape. Proxima is unharmed. But that’s about to change. No armies can stop this menace, and no defenses can slow the advance. We are scattered and isolated. We are ignorant and weak. No help is coming. No help remains...or does it? Old heroes will sacrifice everything. New heroes will rise.

As the Emperor travels the galaxy at the head of his Great Crusade, few events are as important as rediscovering his scattered sons, the Primarchs, and bestowing them as the masters of their Legions. United, a Legion becomes a reflection of its Primarch, both in his strengths and his flaws. For the Twelfth Legion, once the War Hounds and now the World Eaters, the line between strength and flaw is almost impossible to separate.

In the great black void beyond the boundaries of the galaxy itself, Archmagos Kotov's voyage has come to an end. He has found his quarry at last – the resting place of the long-lost Vettius Telok. But Telok yet lives, and as the brave explorators of Kotov's fleet marvel at the wonders laid before them, darker plans unfold. As reality itself is threatened by impossible technologies from the dawn of time, it falls to a small group of heroes to thwart an insane plan that could see the very universe itself annihilated.

Since the Clan Invasion of 3050 ended in failure, there have been those who have not forgotten Nicholas Kerensky’s ultimate goal: The conquering of Terra, and the rise of one clan above all others…to become the ilClan, and rule over both the rest of the Clans and the Inner Sphere…regardless of what the Great Houses may say about it…

Of all the Emperor’s sons who fell to Chaos, it is perhaps Magnus the Red whose tale is the most tragic. Sanctioned because of his desire for knowledge, chastised, judged, and shattered to his very elements – there is much for the Crimson King to feel vengeful for. Yet revenge is not the only thing that draws him to Terra alongside the Warmaster’s besieging armies. He seeks something, a fragment, the missing piece of himself that lies within the most impregnable place on the planet – the inner sanctum of the Imperial Palace.