Space War Fantasy

I thought the hard part of helping the Helta defeat the rampaging Tevynians would be the fighting. How wrong I was. To the Helta, we Earthers look just like the Tevynians, their mortal enemies. And convincing their government to ally with humans may be even beyond the crew of the starship James Bowie. But the clock is ticking, because the Tevynian fleet is bearing down on the Helta homeworld. If we can’t talk the Helta into accepting our help to fight them off, then Helta Prime will fall.... And Earth will be next.

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.

Bombs go off in the human colony of Atlantis. In the same system, the gas giant miners of Hybras Station have been evicted, but refuse to move. Commander Hanson of the Solar Alliance Navy is sent to defuse the situation. But as he investigates, the mission becomes more complicated than anyone anticipated. The mysteries multiply. Who is really behind the bombings? What is the ancient alien substance inside the atmosphere of Hybras? And who is the silent, faceless, merciless stranger moving between Atlantis and Hybras Station?

When a ruthless commander takes over the moon, he has it out for Carter Ash. The commander sends him to a tiny settlement to defend it with the worst soldiers for the job. Carter’s only support comes from an unexpected place: an enticing alien diplomat. That’s not all, however—the meager soldiers he has are being hunted and killed by something outside the colony.

When the Mercenary Guild tried to bend the galaxy's deadliest assassins to their will, the Depik shocked the galaxy by choosing mass suicide to enslavement. Only those Depik not present on their home planet of Khatash survived to retreat to the shadows, to plan, to form alliances, to rebuild and look forward to the day when they could retake their home from the Veetanho invaders and exact revenge.

Sometimes Captain Max Robichaux fights by the book—and sometimes he throws the book away. This makes him one of the Union Space Navy's rising stars. It's also what has kept him and his green crew alive...thus far.

It's crunch time for Jonathon Hunter. The Darkness War has begun. His nightmares led him to the edge of death, waiting for darkness. Prophecy will not be denied, and the nightmare seemed to suggest all would go black. But is a nightmare something you can really rely on after all? And when you've seen the future, is that all there is? Does it have to go that way? Finding out the truth can sometimes be worse than your worst nightmare ever was. The biggest fleet since Jutland is ready to fight the longest rear-guard action ever fought, but does it need to?

The Dusman have accepted the Humans as allies but have given no indications as to what their long-term intentions are. Their goals have to be large, though, as they continue to spread their influence across the Human colonies…and beyond. Fighting continues to rage between the guilds, both in the shadows and out in the open for all to see. Although one of the Synthetic Intelligences has been killed, the others are now restive, acting from the shadows to affect events galaxy-wide. As the end of The Guild Wars draws near, one thing is certain—the tempest will rage until the very end.

Lieutenant Alex "Flex" Callahan watched helplessly as the first refugee ships fled Venus. Something was driving them mad, transforming both crew and vessels into horrors. But this was just the beginning. The mysterious alien menace that calls itself The Cure has arrived, threatening not only death and destruction but the monstrous and chilling corruption of humanity itself. While Flex works tirelessly to discover the true nature of The Cure, he is beset on all sides by doubters and enemies within.

When humanity reaches for the stars, our probes are destroyed. They crash into an incredibly advanced piece of technology: a massive force-field. Unknown beings have placed a barrier around our star and planets, enclosing us within. We’re locked inside a Great Sphere. Was this invisible obstacle built to imprison us - or to protect us? No one knows the truth, but it soon becomes clear the barrier has leaks. Aliens infiltrate and try to sabotage our efforts to escape our cage.

Disturbing the established order will mean kicking over a fair number of rocks, although Mark, Valint, and the others might be surprised by what scurries forth underneath—and what uniform it's wearing when it steps into the light. Mark Tudor will make the title Peacemaker mean something once again, but to do that, he'll have to face the worst the galaxy has to offer. Death waits in the quiet moments. And sometimes, it is a soldier's loved ones that pay the greatest price.

After orchestrating a galaxy-wide failure of the communications network owned and maintained by the powerful ISC corporation, Gammis Turek and his marauders strike swiftly and without mercy. First they shatter Vatta Transport. Then they overrun entire star systems, growing stronger and bolder. No one is safe from the pirate fleet.

Tanis Richards has spent half her life on the Intrepid, guiding the great colony ship, and its two million passengers, across hundreds of light-years. She has risked life, limb, and those dearest to her to get this far. Now she's within reach of her goal; the New Canaan System, and a normal, stable life. The kind she's only dreamed about. The only remaining hurdle is to strike a deal with the Transcend Alliance and trade the Intrepid's advanced technology for the star system. If only things were so easy.

In the far future among the colonized worlds of the galaxy, there's a war going on between the majority of civilized worlds and a colonial theocracy. Trystin Desoll grows up fighting against religious fanatics and becomes a hero, a first-class pilot, then, amazingly, a spy. What do you do if you're a relatively humane soldier fighting millions of suicidal volunteers on the other side who know that they are utterly right, and you are utterly wrong, with no middle ground? Trystin Desoll has an idea.

With Veteran pay comes veteran problems. And the Guild, more often than not, is the issue. He’s become an effective enforcer of the law, but unfortunately, crime is growing a lot more complicated. Someone is slaving artificial beings to ships, running contraband across the stars in a fatal practice that marries murder, theft, and kidnapping. Even as Mark’s crew grows, he discovers these crimes aren’t just horrific—they’re common. And he means to stop it.

The reborn God King Apophis, a dark force forged from vengeance, unleashes devastation across the Union of Nine. With planets burning and alliances fracturing, Master General Carter Rose and his elite officers face their greatest trials yet. From desperate alliances with sworn enemies to heart-stopping battles against ancient, godlike powers, the fight for the galaxy pushes Carter, Carina Larsen, and their crew to their breaking point.

Defeated in battle, the fractious alliance of Goltar, Spine Patriots, and the Midnight Sun Free Company are chased across the Spine Nebula by the Endless Night and their sea-monster allies, the Tyzhounes. Abandoning the nebula is not an option. For the free trader skipper, Lenworth Jenkins, the people of its 15 tormented worlds are the cause he’s been searching for all his life.

Veteran Lieutenant Ralph Hague and his platoon have completed far more dangerous assignments fulfilling the Berserker’s contract with Biodyne Industries. When an army of radical cultists, the Immortals, arrive in search of Biodyne’s research on a life-extending drug, Hague and his troops are redirected into the heart of a war-torn planet to rescue Biodyne personnel and their data from a secret research facility called Outpost 16. There he witnesses horrors that shock him to his very core. Surrounded by hostile forces, he must choose between his duty and his conscience.

A fearful Empire anticipates King Akira's next move. Will he abandon them to the corrupt hands of Caerwyn Martel or doom them to bloody civil war, leaving them defenseless against an imminent alien invasion? Just beyond human space, the crows are circling. Across the DMZ, the Rotham Republic prepares its war fleets with hungry eyes fixed on the weakened Empire.

The Second Kalu War rages across known space. The newly formed Union undergoes its first baptism, the baptism of war. The Free Fleet is barely holding the line against the Kalu. Salchar and the other commanders of the Free Fleet have one goal: survive. As war rages, politics and power brokering are at work behind the scenes in the Union. Even if the Free Fleet survives the war, will they survive its aftermath?