B.V. Larson Q&A

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B.V. Larson

Are you an avid fan of B.V. Larson sci-fi novels? His newest, Sky World, is available now in print, digital, and audiobook form. The eighteen-book series is both epic and popular, regularly hitting the top 100 worldwide bestseller list. They are among the most widely read ebooks of any genre.  If you haven’t tried Larson’s mix of humor and adventure, you should treat yourself today.

Larson, a life-long SF reader, began his writing career with college textbooks, but when his fiction started taking off a decade ago, he became a full-time novelist. He has written over 100 books in many genres, but his SF fiction novels are his most infamous works. As a USA Today bestseller with over three million copies sold, he has managed to make quite an impact in the science fiction genre.

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with B.V. Larson about his vivid imagination and how that translates into madcap adventures for James McGill and his friends. We were very excited that he was able to make time to speak with us and give us a peak into his creative process.

DSF: When you wrote Mercenaries series Steel World, the first installment in the Undying Mercenaries series, did you know how it would change the nature of current science fiction and inspire a whole host of young new talent?

BVL: I was inspired by how uninteresting I found most SF novels to be, say in the 1990s. I felt the genre needed a boost, a change in direction that would bring in new readers who were used to faster-paced plots and more dramatic action. All you need to do is attempt to watch a movie made pre-Star Wars to realize how much slower the SF film genre once was. In addition to speeding things up, I also wanted to bring back a “man vs. the machine” heroic focus.

DSF: You’ve been writing the Undying Mercenaries books for almost ten years. How do you stay fresh and relevant?

BVL: I have not run out of ideas yet! The series explores what happens to the value of human life if the body and mind become recyclable. Then there is the “man against the machine” element, which in this case consists of conquering aliens known as the Galactics. The Galactics exist very far from Earth and have no interest in the welfare of the planet except to collect fighters for their distant wars.

DSF: What’s the major premise behind the series?

BVL: Starting in the twentieth century, Earth sent out probes and transmitted welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. It turns out we’ve had alien overlords all along, but we weren’t worthy of notice, anymore than the average guy with a lawnmower notices an anthill in his yard.

DSF: How would you describe your Undying Mercenaries plot to an uninitiated reader?

BVL: Aliens known as the Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn’t the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers. Someone had to do their dirty work for them—the fighting and the dying.

DSF: How does the series fit in with other SF books?

BVL: This is definitely military SF. Most characters have ranks and say “sir” a lot. The stories are part horror and part comedy but always entertaining. I wanted the adventures to entertain more than deliver a message. Sometimes readers just want to enjoy the ride, and they find my books refreshing. Their feedback and support keeps me going. As soon as I finish one book, they demand the next!

DSF: After eighteen books, where is the series headed now? 

BVL: There are an estimated 100 billion stars in our galaxy. With one new world visited per book, that gives me quite a bit of room to run! That said, there is an overarching plot in addition to the episodic nature of each new story. In most of the books, we meet a new kind of alien on a new kind of planet. But there is continuity with the Galactics, who are in a titanic struggle for dominance among themselves. 

Putting the series into an historic perspective, Earth is like a tiny tribal group on the fringes of the Roman Empire. We’re technically part of that empire, but in the halls of “Rome” there are factions fighting for the throne of the empire. We’re essentially irritants barely worthy of notice, but as the years go by and the Core Worlds waste their strength squabbling, we keep growing stronger… . 

That’s the phase this epic series is in now—the expansion of Earth into a power in her own right. 

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Highly Anticipated 2023 Sci-Fi Releases!

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As readers are aware, we here at Discover Sci-Fi have begun our look back at 2022 and at the best sci-fi books released through the year. You are, dear reader, an important part of that review, so if you haven't gotten your nominations in, make sure you do that before you read on!

Got your nominations in? Good! Now get your calendars out and grab a pen because our other favorite thing to do this time of year is to take a look at what books are on the horizon for the coming year. And let us be the first to tell you, there are a lot to look forward to in 2023!

Wild Warriors (New Frontier Book 3) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and Anthony Melchiorri

Release Date: January 10, 2023

The thrilling New Frontier trilogy comes to an end in 2023. Reserve your copy today!

Read Wild Warriors here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

A World of Dinosaurs (Mintari Book 1) by Daniel Arenson

Release Date: January 17, 2023

A dinosaur adventure for fans of Jurassic Park! From the USA Today bestselling author of Earthrise.

Dinosaurs. Majestic giants. They’ve captured our imagination for generations. On planet Mintari, they live again.

Read A World of Dinosaurs here on Amazon.

The Secret Base (the Glass Book Three) by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: January 24, 2023

The Glass changed the world forever.

Ransom and Britt attempt to settle into a new life, but a dreadful threat is constantly hanging over their heads.

The settlers in Tucson know their time is limited. An invasion is underway.

Peggy is adamant they can destroy the Glass, but it will take a trip to another time and place to ensure it remains off.

Cedric, under a cloud of doubt, must decide where his true allegiance leans.

There is hope. A military base with something that could change the tides of their future.

No one seems to have remembered the base exists, but they search for their salvation. Joel is determined to finish the battle before it begins, but his chances of survival are bleak.

The Secret Base concludes this chapter of The Glass, from Nathan Hystad, the author of Lost Contact, The Event, and The Other Place.

Get your copy of The Secret Base here on Amazon. 

Village in the Sky by Jack McDevitt


Release Date: January 31, 2023

Centuries after a war with the Mutes, the first aliens to be encountered by humankind, a startling new discovery in the far reaches of the Orion Nebula appears. On a planet with conditions favorable to life, explorer vessel The Columbia comes across a small town seemingly inhabited by an intelligent species not yet discovered.

But when a highly publicized follow-up mission is sent to make contact mere months later, the entire town has vanished, leaving no trace—or such is presumed to be the case until Alex Benedict and his archaeological crew show up to investigate. Officially, their mission is to find concealed artifacts that may have been left behind, but the team’s real goal is to solve the mystery of how these aliens disappeared so rapidly—and why. In turns terrifying and miraculous, the answers raise the stakes for every member on board as they look to make their mark on history.

Nebula Award–winning author Jack McDevitt, whom Stephen King has called “the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke,” brings back Alex, Chase, and Gabe for another brilliantly crafted science fiction mystery.

Read Village in the Sky here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

Release Date: January 31, 2023

Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her.

But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano.

As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.

A science fiction epic for our times and a love letter to our future, The Terraformers will take you on a journey spanning thousands of years and exploring the triumphs, strife, and hope that find us wherever we make our home.

Read The Terraformers here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Arch Conspirator by Veronica Roth

Release Date: Feb 21, 2023

In this gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Antigone, #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth reaches back to the root of legend and delivers a world of tomorrow both timeless and unexpected.

“I’m cursed, haven’t you heard?”

Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end.

Antigone’s parents – Oedipus and Jocasta – are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father's vacant throne, all Antigone feels is rage.

When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest.

But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.

Get your copy of Arch Conspirator here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of highly anticipated 2023 releases, why not join the DSF community for more awesome content? You'll get to be notified whenever a top 10 list or any other articles of interest go up on our site. It's free to sign up and you'll also get recommendations for new releases and discounted ebooks from our expert editorial team, from bestsellers to hidden gems.

And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Release Date: March 28, 2023

Harry Bodie’s been called into the delightful fantasy world of his grandmother’s beloved children’s books. It’s not delightful here at all.

All roads lead to Underhill, where it’s always winter, and never nice.

Harry Bodie has a famous grandmother, who wrote beloved children’s books set in the delightful world of Underhill. Harry himself is a failing kids’ TV presenter whose every attempt to advance his career ends in self-sabotage. His family history seems to be nothing but an impediment.

An impediment... or worse. What if Underhill is real? What if it has been waiting decades for a promised child to visit? What if it isn’t delightful at all? And what if its denizens have run out of patience and are taking matters into their own hands?

Dive into And Put Away Childish Things here on Amazon. 

The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter

Release Date: April 18, 2023

In Lambda Award finalist Chana Porter’s highly anticipated new novel, an aspiring chef, a cyberthief, and a kitchen maid each break free of a society that wants to constrain them.

In the quaint religious town of Seagate, abstaining from food brings one closer to God.

But Beatrice Bolano is hungry. She craves the forbidden: butter, flambé, marzipan. As Seagate takes increasingly extreme measures to regulate every calorie its citizens consume, Beatrice must make a choice: give up her secret passion for cooking or leave the only community she has known.

Elsewhere, Reiko Rimando has left her modest roots for a college tech scholarship in the big city. A flawless student, she is set up for success...until her school pulls her funding, leaving her to face either a mountain of debt or a humiliating return home. But Reiko is done being at the mercy of the system. She forges a third path—outside of the law.

With the guidance of a mysterious cookbook written by a kitchen maid centuries ago, Beatrice and Reiko each grasp for a life of freedom—something more easily imagined than achieved in a world dominated by catastrophic corporate greed.

A startling fable of the entwined perils of capitalism, body politics, and the stigmas women face for appetites of every kind, Chana Porter’s profound new novel explores the reclamation of pleasure as a revolutionary act.

Dive into The Thick and the Lean here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

For the First Time, Again (Take Them to the Stars Book 3) by Sylvain Neuvel

Release Date: April 18, 2023

When you don’t know The Rules it’s hard to stay safe.

After a traumatic incident, Aster finds that her blood work comes back with some unusual readings. Unsurprising, as she’s the last of an alien race called the Kibsu, though she doesn’t know it.

She becomes the focus of a hunt, with her mortal enemies, the Trackers, on one side, and the American government on the other. But help has come from a most unexpected quarter.

Whoever finds her first, it won’t be good news for Aster.

Or for the world!

Get your copy of For the First Time, Again here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

Release Date: April 25, 2023

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.

Start reading In the Lives of Puppets here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Translation State by Ann Leckie 

Release Date: June 6, 2023

The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across galaxies in this powerful new novel by one of the masters of modern science fiction. Translation State is at once a sweeping space adventure and a brilliant exploration of how in order to belong, we must first become.

When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something entirely unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of her ability.

Reet knows nothing about his biological family. He loves his adoptive parents, but has always secretly yearned to understand his identity, the roots that would explain why he seems to operate just a bit differently. After all, no one else hungers to study the world by ripping it apart, by slicing into those around them in order to make sense of things. So when a political group approaches him with the claim that he has ties to a genetically mysterious, long-deceased family, Reet is only too eager to believe them.

Qven was created to be a Presgr translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presgr and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something different isn't "optimal behavior". It's the type of behavior that will have you eliminated. But Qven rebels anyway, determined to find a way to belong on their own terms.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presgr is on the line—the paths of all three will collide in a chain of events that will have ripple effects across galaxies.

Grab Translation State here on Amazon. Also available on audiobok.

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

Release Date: July 18, 2023

Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.

To save humanity, they left everything behind—except their differences.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again. Now, in order to survive, she must burn brighter than the stars that surround her.

Grab The Deep Sky here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.


Which of these upcoming 2023 releases will make their way into your (e)bookshelf or into your ears? Which ones are you most excited for? Let us know here in the comments, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group! 

*All book-related copy in this post was pulled from Amazon, Goodreads & Wikipedia, unless otherwise credited.

The Best Sci-Fi Books of 2022: Nomination Round!

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"The days are long, but the years are short"  —Gretchen Rubin

We cannot believe 2022 is coming to a close. Blink and it's gone. Did this year feel like a busy one for you? Have you had a chance to pause and look back at all the great books you read this year? Whether you have or not, we invite you to do that with us now. Go. Do it now. We'll wait... 

How many 2022 releases did you find on your list? Are there any that you have not been able to stop talking about? Any you can't stop recommending? 

We are getting ready for our 2022 retrospective, our look back at the science fiction releases of the year. Is there a sci-fi book published in 2022 you'd like to tell the world about? 

We're listening.

Using the nomination form below nominate your favorite sci-fi books published in 2022! We'll be holding the voting round in a few weeks time and you'll be pinned down to one selection then, but for now nominate as many as you'd like.

*Be sure to submit both the title and author name.


Voting now closed. See you for next year's awards!

Military Sci-Fi That Nails the Military!

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“The noblest fate that a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war’s desolation.” — Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

If you're a military sci-fi fan who especially loves those books that aim to give a realistic sense of military life and action, you're going to want to add these books to your queue. Or—for those well-worn favorites—tee them up for a re-read!

A few of the writers with books featured this week have even served in the military themselves, and as such are combining their writing chops with first-hand experience; all of the authors featured are incredible story tellers, and so you are sure to find something here that will have you utterly enthralled! 

  

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

In Robert A. Heinlein’s controversial Hugo Award-winning bestseller, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe—and into battle against mankind’s most alarming enemy...

Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids.

Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job...

Read Starship Troopers here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

In this novel, a landmark of science fiction that began as an MFA thesis for the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to become an award-winning classic—inspiring a play, a graphic novel, and most recently an in-development film—man has taken to the stars, and soldiers fighting the wars of the future return to Earth forever alienated from their home.

Conscripted into service for the United Nations Exploratory Force, a highly trained unit built for revenge, physics student William Mandella fights for his planet light years away against the alien force known as the Taurans. “Mandella’s attempt to survive and remain human in the face of an absurd, almost endless war is harrowing, hilarious, heartbreaking, and true,” says Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Junot Díaz—and because of the relative passage of time when one travels at incredibly high speed, the Earth Mandella returns to after his two-year experience has progressed decades and is foreign to him in disturbing ways.

Based in part on the author’s experiences in Vietnam, The Forever War is regarded as one of the greatest military science fiction novels ever written, capturing the alienation that servicemen and women experience even now upon returning home from battle. It shines a light not only on the culture of the 1970s in which it was written, but also on our potential future. “To say that The Forever War is the best science fiction war novel ever written is to damn it with faint praise. It is . . . as fine and woundingly genuine a war story as any I’ve read” (William Gibson).

Pick up The Forever War here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Trading in Danger (Vatta's War Book 1) by Elizabeth Moon

Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father’s only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it’s no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can’t hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It’s adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family’s misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.

Expelled from the Academy in disgrace–and returning home to her humiliated family, a storm of high-profile media coverage, and the gaping void of her own future–Ky is ready to face the inevitable onslaught of anger, disappointment, even pity. But soon after opportunity’s door slams shut, Ky finds herself with a ticket to ride– and a shot at redemption–as captain of a Vatta Transport ship.

It’s a simple assignment: escorting one of the Vatta fleet’s oldest ships on its final voyage . . . to the scrapyard. But keeping it simple has never been Ky’s style. And even though her father has provided a crew of seasoned veterans to baby-sit the fledgling captain on her maiden milk run, they can’t stop Ky from turning the routine mission into a risky venture–in the name of turning a profit for Vatta Transport, of course.

By snapping up a lucrative delivery contract defaulted on by a rival company, and using part of the proceeds to upgrade her condemned vehicle, Ky aims to prove she’s got more going for her than just her family’s famous name. But business will soon have to take a backseat to bravery, when Ky’s change of plans sails her and the crew straight into the middle of a colonial war. For all her commercial savvy, it’s her military training and born-soldier’s instincts that Ky will need to call on in the face of deadly combat, dangerous mercenaries, and violent mutiny. .

Get your copy of Trading in Danger  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

Three separate alien societies have claimson Cavanagh's Star. But the new arrivals -- the gethes from Earth -- now threaten thetenuous balance of a coveted world.

Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home. But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marines, has not gone unnoticed by Aras, the planet's designated guardian. An eternally evolving world himself, this sad, powerful being has already obliterated millions of alien interlopers and their great cities to protect the fragile native population. Now Shan and her party -- plus the small colony of fundamentalist humans who preceded them -- could face a similar annihilation . . . or a fate far worse. Because Aras possesses a secret of the blood that would be disastrous if it fell into human hands -- if the gethes survive the impending war their coming has inadvertently hastened.

Read City of Pearl here on Amazon. 

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.

The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place.

So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What's known to everybody is that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve your time at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger.

Grab Old Man's War here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of military sci-fi reads that nail the military, why not join the DSF community for more awesome content? You'll get to be notified whenever a top 10 list or any other articles of interest go up on our site. It's free to sign up and you'll also get recommendations for new releases and discounted ebooks from our expert editorial team, from bestsellers to hidden gems.

The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld

The undead Emperor has ruled his mighty interstellar empire of eighty human worlds for sixteen hundred years. Because he can grant a form of eternal life, creating an elite known as the Risen, his power has been absolute. He and his sister, the Child Empress, who is eternally a little girl, are worshiped as living gods. No one can touch them.

Not until the Rix, machine-augmented humans who worship very different gods: AI compound minds of planetary extent. The Rix are cool, relentless fanatics, and their only goal is to propagate such AIs throughout the galaxy. They seek to end, by any means necessary, the Emperor's prolonged tyranny of one and supplant it with an eternal cybernetic dynasty of their own. They begin by taking the Child Empress hostage. Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx is tasked with her rescue.

Separated by light-years, bound by an unlikely love, Zai and pacifist senator Nara Oxham must each in their own way, face the challenge of the Rix, and they each will hold the fate of the empire in their hands. The Risen Empire is the first great space opera of the twenty-first century.

Get your copy of The Risen Empire  here on Amazon. 

Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos

The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements: You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world . . . or you can join the service.

With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price . . . and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.

The debut novel from Marko Kloos, Terms of Enlistment is an addition to the great military sci-fi tradition of Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, and John Scalzi.

Dive into Terms of Enlistment here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Marines (Crimson Worlds Book 1) by Jay Allan

Erik Cain joined the Marines to get off death row. The deal was simple; enlist to fight in space and he would be pardoned for all his crimes.

In the 23rd Century, assault troops go to war wearing AI-assisted, nuclear-powered armor, but it is still warriors and blood that win battles. From one brutal campaign to the next, Erik and his comrades fight an increasingly desperate war over the resource rich colony worlds that have become vital to the economies of Earth's exhausted and despotic Superpowers.

Erik rises through the ranks and becomes a deadly warrior, and he finally finds a home, first with the Marines who fight at his side and later among the colonists - men and women who have dared to leave everything behind to build a new society on the frontier, one where the freedoms and rights lost long ago on Earth are preserved.

But causes can be fleeting and loyalties complex. Amidst the blood and death and sacrifice, Erik begins to wonder. Is he fighting the right war? And who is the real enemy?

Get your copy of Marines here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Star Shroud by Ken Lozito

They’ve been watching us for hundreds of years.
Now they need our help.
Earth is not safe.

Zack is good at finding things, but when he discovers a global conspiracy, life as he knows it is over. Sometimes the truth doesn’t set you free. It traps you instead.

Kept secret for 60 years, the discovery of an alien signal forces an unlikely team to investigate a mysterious structure discovered in the furthest reaches of the solar system. Join the crew of the Athena, Earth’s most advanced spaceship on the ultimate journey beyond our wildest imagining.

Strap yourself in. The Star Shroud is the first book in this action-packed space opera series. Readers describe them as “a cross between David Weber and John Ringo.” If you like space opera adventure stories with clever heroes, impossible situations, and chilling discoveries, then you’re in for a fun nonstop thrill ride. Read it now!

Start reading Star Shroud  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Warship (Black Fleet Trilogy Book 1) by Joshua Dalzelle

2015 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction

From Joshua Dalzelle, author of the bestselling "Omega Force” series, comes an all new vision of humanity's future.

In the 25th century humans have conquered space. The advent of faster-than-light travel has opened up hundreds of habitable planets for colonization, and humans have exploited the virtually limitless space and resources for hundreds of years with impunity.

So complacent have they become with the overabundance that armed conflict is a thing of the past, and their machines of war are obsolete and decrepit. What would happen if they were suddenly threatened by a terrifying new enemy? Would humanity fold and surrender, or would they return to their evolutionary roots and meet force with force? One ship—and one captain—will soon be faced with this very choice. Against incredible odds, Jackson Wolfe is determined to save humanity–and in the process, might end up saving himself.

Grab Warship here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Have you read any of these incredible military sci-fi reads? Which ones will make their way into your (e)bookshelf or into your ears? Have one you feel really nails it that didn't appear on our list? Give it a shout out in the comments here, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group! 

*All book-related copy in this post was pulled from Amazon, Goodreads & Wikipedia, unless otherwise credited.