Books like 'Brightness Reef'
Readers who enjoyed Brightness Reef by David Brin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi space action / adventure hard sci-fi military, war & conflict space-opera aliens politics invasion first-contact
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Messinants by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPyre is a volatile planet. Its surface belches heat and noxious gases, forcing downsiders to inhabit domes. But Pyre’s instability isn’t limited to its geology. The colonists, who were marooned in the system hundreds of years ago, have endured a tumultuous history.Exploring Triton, Pyre’s third moon, spacers inadvertently activate an alien dome... -
![Odysseus Ascendant by Evan Currie]()
Odysseus Ascendant by Evan Currie
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsA mysterious entity may be the key to a starship’s survival—or a terrifying new threat—as the Odyssey One series continues… The Empire has set its sights on its next target: human Terrans. As effective allies of the Priminae, the denizens of Earth have proven themselves enemies to the Empire, and now the Imperial forces know more about the Terran home world than ever before... -
![Destroyer by Joshua Dalzelle]()
Destroyer by Joshua Dalzelle
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA relentless enemy… An old wolf's last hunt… The future of two species hanging in the balance… The Darshik war machine is flagging, but the war is far from over. Even as an exhausted Federation military tenses up for a counterattack after repelling the last Darshik invasion, reports are coming in of a new, more powerful class of ship that's striking deep into Terran space... -
![Iron & Blood by Joshua Dalzelle]()
Iron & Blood by Joshua Dalzelle
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Black Fleet Saga continues… A human planet has been invaded. The enigmatic Darshik have landed troops on a frontier world and have begun subduing major cities even as their blockade repels all attempts by the fledgling United Terran Federation to mount a counteroffensive... -
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![Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor]()
Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsCivil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by best seller Dennis E. Taylor.More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost... -
![Quantum Space by Douglas Phillips]()
Quantum Space by Douglas Phillips
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThis is an alternate Cover Edition for ASIN: B06ZY9T5Y5.If you liked the authenticity of The Martian, the page-turning pace of Da Vinci Code, and the inspirational world view of Arthur C. Clarke, you'll love Quantum Space.High above the windswept plains of Kazakhstan, three astronauts on board a Russian Soyuz capsule begin their reentry... -
![The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet by Mackey Chandler]()
The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet by Mackey Chandler
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the first book of this series "Family Law", Lee's parents and their business partner Gordon found a class A habitable planet. They thought their quest as explorers was over and they'd live a life of ease. But before they could return and register their claim Lee's parents died doing a survey of the surface... -
![Omnia by S.H. Jucha]()
Omnia by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAlex Racine, who led an elite group of humans and SADEs (self-ware digital entities), left the newly discovered planet of Celus-5 under difficult circumstances. Few of the Harakens with Alex thought there was little he could do to bring peace to the embroiled planet... -
![Allora by S.H. Jucha]()
Allora by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsUntil the Confederation created Allora, it had produced SADEs (self-aware digital entities) for hundreds of years with enormous consistency and harnessed their capabilities to power the society. But this particular, young SADE was disturbed by her confinement... -
![Celus-5 by S.H. Jucha]()
Celus-5 by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFor the Sojourn’s initial mission, the Haraken explorer ship undertakes the investigation of Celus-5, a world identified by Willem, a SADE (self-aware digital entity), and his team of scientists, as the best prospect for a new colony.What should be a routine survey mission becomes a disaster. To the Harakens’ surprise, they discover, not one, but two alien species engaged in conflict... -
![Haraken by S.H. Jucha]()
Haraken by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNine years of tranquility came to an abrupt end when a Méridien starship entered the Hellébore system, sounding a dire warning for Alex Racine, the Haraken president. Unwanted visitors had arrived again. But this time, they’re not alien; they’re human... -
![The War Ship: Rise of the Jain, Book Two by Neal Asher]()
The War Ship: Rise of the Jain, Book Two by Neal Asher
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTheir nemesis lies in wait . . . Orlandine has destroyed the alien Jain super-soldier by deploying an actual black hole. And now that same weapon hoovers up clouds of lethal Jain technology, swarming within the deadly accretion disc’s event horizon. All seems just as she planned. Yet behind her back, forces incite rebellion on her home world, planning her assassination... -
![Salvation Lost by Peter F. Hamilton]()
Salvation Lost by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe comparative utopia of twenty-third century Earth is about to go dreadfully awry when a seemingly benign alien race is abruptly revealed to be one of the worst threats humanity has ever faced. Driven by an intense religious extremism, the Olyix are determined to bring everyone to their version of god as they see it... -
![Sol by S.H. Jucha]()
Sol by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSol’s warships paid the ultimate price for threatening the Haraken and New Terran worlds. Now, Haraken President Alex Racine and his Méridien partner, Renée de Guirnon, are engaged in a desperate gamble to stop a war between their worlds and United Earth’s (UE) massive forces before it starts... -
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![Connection Unknown by Michael Chatfield]()
Connection Unknown by Michael Chatfield
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLuke Tavares has dreamed of joining the vast gaming guilds of the hypernet. After recently graduating high school, his parents have given him the same ultimatum as his siblings; he has one month to get a job to pay for his air, gravity, and water aboard the Dahlia.The freighter needs more hands, but Luke doesn’t want to be a trader-ship engineer... -
![Protector by C.J. Cherryh]()
Protector by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt's coming up on Cajeiri's birthday. The boy has been promised he can have the young human children he knew from his voyage sent down from the space station for a two week stay. But there's far a darker business going on in the background--a major split compromising the Assassins' Guild, which furnishes security and law enforcement to the whole continent... -
![Explorer by C.J. Cherryh]()
Explorer by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIt has been nearly ten years since the starship Phoenix returned to Alpha, the station orbiting the world of the atevi, which had been abandoned following a rift between a faction of the station's inhabitants and the spacers' Pilot's Guild... -
![Tracker by C.J. Cherryh]()
Tracker by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTracker is the sixteenth installment of CJ Cherryh's acclaimed Foreigner series.It’s been a year of upheaval, since Bren Cameron’s return from space—a year when he and the aiji-dowager, one of his most powerful atevi allies, returned home from their two-year interstellar mission to find the government overthrown and their world in chaos...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook bodyguard -
![The Long-Range War by Christopher G. Nuttall]()
The Long-Range War by Christopher G. Nuttall
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe gloves have finally come off ... The Tokomak, the unquestioned masters of the galaxy, have dispatched a massive fleet to crush the Solar Union - and the fledgling Galactic Alliance - before the human race and its alien allies can tear the galactic order asunder. Hundreds of thousands of starships under the command of an alien tactical genius, bent on exterminating the entire human race .. -
![Intruder by C.J. Cherryh]()
Intruder by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe civil war among the alien atevi has ended. Tabini-aiji, powerful ruler of the Western Association, along with Cajeiri his son and heir, and his human paidhi, Bren Cameron, have returned to the Bujavid, their seat of power.But factions that remain loyal to the opposition are still present, and the danger these rebels pose is far from over... -
![Divergence by C.J. Cherryh]()
Divergence by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe twenty-first book in the beloved Foreigner saga continues the adventures of diplomat Bren Cameron, advisor to the atevi head of state... -
![Betrayer by C.J. Cherryh]()
Betrayer by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsBetrayer (Foreigner, Book 12)The twelfth novel in Cherryh’s Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences…In the wake of civil war, Bren Cameron, the brilliant human diplomat of the alien atevi civilization, has left the capital and sought refuge at his country estate, Najida... -
![Deep Black (Infinite Sky #1) by Samuel Best]()
Deep Black (Infinite Sky #1) by Samuel Best
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTwo crews return to Titan. Who will survive?Titan. Sixth 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... -
![Méridien by S.H. Jucha]()
Méridien by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Méridiens are fleeing to their far colonies—and they have reason to run. Over the course of decades, they have lost hundreds of ships, billions of people, and seven Confederation colonies to an alien enemy: an advancing swarm of silver ships transported in the bowels of a gigantic, spherical vessel... -
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![Into the Stars by James Rosone]()
Into the Stars by James Rosone
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe stars are within mankind’s reach……But what awaits in the void may end humanity…Mars and the Moon have been colonized, piracy runs rampant in the asteroid belts, and a thriving society grows in the depths of space. Humanity prepares to embark upon its greatest journey—the colonization of Alpha Centauri... -
![Prelude to Extinction by Andreas Karpf]()
Prelude to Extinction by Andreas Karpf
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEarth's first interstellar mission -- An alien colony in ruins -- Their fight for survival has only just begun.When Jack Harrison climbed down the short ladder from the airlock and stepped onto the debris covered soil, the ground crackled with the sound of dried leaves and twigs... -
![Invaders by Laurence E. Dahners]()
Invaders by Laurence E. Dahners
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 15 ratings“Invaders” is about events that occur several years after those in the novel “Disc.” GSI (Gettnor Space Industries) is beginning to investigate our solar system and mine the asteroids. Aircraft and automobile companies are beginning to switch over to thrusters from their more traditional products. New uses for thrusters are popping up in the healthcare and sports industries... -
![Deceiver by C.J. Cherryh]()
Deceiver by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 23 ratings"One of the best long-running SF series in existence" (Publishers Weekly) continues with the second novel in a brand-new Foreigner sequence. The civil war among the alien Atevi has ended. Tabini-aiji, powerful ruler of the Western Association, along with Cajeiri, his son and heir, has returned to the Bujavid, his seat of power... -
![Chanur's Homecoming by C.J. Cherryh]()
Chanur's Homecoming by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe epic conclusion to the Hugo Award-nominated saga begins as alien entities called "humans" send their first exploration ship into Compact space, disrupting the seven Compact races' alliance. Pyanfar Chanur and her feline hani crew give shelter to the only surviving human from the ship, pitching them into the center of a galactic maelstrom which could cause interstellar war... -
![March to the Stars by David Weber, John Ringo]()
March to the Stars by David Weber, John Ringo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsStranded on Marduk with his Royal Marine protectors, spoiled prince Roger MacClintock experiences a change in attitude during a long journey back to civilization across a sea filled with dangerous monsters and well-armed enemies... -
![Invader by C.J. Cherryh]()
Invader by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsThe first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner, begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race... -
![Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio]()
Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe second novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.Hadrian Marlowe is lost. For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to find a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin... -
![Emergence by C.J. Cherryh]()
Emergence by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe nineteenth book in C.J. Cherryh's beloved Foreigner space opera series begins a new era for diplomat Bren Cameron, as he navigates the tenuous peace he has struck between human refugees and the alien atevi.Alpha Station, orbiting the world of the atevi, has taken aboard five thousand human refugees from a destroyed station in a distant sector of space...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook bodyguard -
![1st to Fight by Rick Partlow]()
1st to Fight by Rick Partlow
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsI retired from the USMC, and now I write about space marines. I never thought I’d actually become one. As a sci-fi author with a hit TV show, I have a few ideas about what alien invaders are supposed to look like. In my stories, they’re technologically advanced monsters, with tentacles, and no faces. Turns out I was right about the technology. And about how angry they’d be... -
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![Oracle by Douglas E. Richards]()
Oracle by Douglas E. Richards
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsA breathtaking near-future thriller. From the NY Times bestselling author whose books have been downloaded over a million times. An interstellar war is racing toward an unsuspecting Earth. Can one young woman stop it before it's too late? LA detective Anna Abbott can see brief, cryptic visions of the future. She just doesn't know it yet. But others do...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion politics space-opera action-adventure alpha-mc audiobook -
![Citadel by John Ringo]()
Citadel by John Ringo
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsOf all the hosts of Eurotas the Troias were the most fell. For they were born of Winter.Between the Solar Array Pumped Laser and Troy, the two trillion ton nickel-iron battlestation created by eccentric billionaire Tyler Vernon, Earth has managed to recapture the Sol system from their Horvath conquerors and begin entering the galactic millieu... -
![Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh]()
Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner, begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race... -
![Accord of Honor by Kevin O. McLaughlin]()
Accord of Honor by Kevin O. McLaughlin
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWar over energy resources devastated the Earth and her colony on the moon. A new agreement was reached between the nations of the world: The Lunar Accord. Designed to end the possibility of war in space for all time, it bars nations or individuals from arming ships in space. Twenty peaceful years have passed since the Accord was signed... -
![The Commander by C.J. Williams]()
The Commander by C.J. Williams
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLucas Blackburn had a peaceful job as an Airport Director in an out of the way community in central Nevada. He wanted to live quietly and let old scars heal. But then a spaceship landed. The lone occupant, a guy named Sam, gave Luke the keys and said it was up to him to stop a massive alien invasion that was on the way. Luke wanted to believe it was a hoax. The problem was, Sam had the proof... -
![Espero by S.H. Jucha]()
Espero by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTrouble infiltrated the Harakens’ capital city of Espero, in the form of New Terra criminal gangs who grew wealthy and powerful on the moons of Ganymede, hiding behind the cover of an ill-conceived mining charter. The gangs brought stims and addictive hallucinogenic drugs to Espero, distributing them to the young on the planet... -
![Mission One (Titan Chronicles #1) by Samuel Best]()
Mission One (Titan Chronicles #1) by Samuel Best
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFive months to Titan. Four brave crew members. One incredible mystery.Jeff Dolan always wanted to be an astronaut. After helping a private space company build a ship that can travel to Saturn's sixth moon in five months, he gets his chance.Shortly after launch, a devastating malfunction forces Jeff and the crew to make a choice: continue to Titan, or go back home... -
![Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky]()
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe modern classic of space opera that began with Children of Time continues in this extraordinary novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise... -
![Libre by S.H. Jucha]()
Libre by S.H. Jucha
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe saga of the Rêveur continues in this second novel in The Silver Ships series.The surviving Méridiens have returned to Confederation space, aided by their recently discovered cousins, the New Terrans. They expect a celebration after their 71-year absence. Instead, they’re shocked to find the silver ships have destroyed half the Confederation... -
![Convergence by C.J. Cherryh]()
Convergence by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsConvergence is the eighteenth book in C.J. Cherryh's beloved Foreigner space opera series.Convergence marks a new phase in the Foreigner Universe: knowledge about the dangerous situation in adjacent space rests only with Bren Cameron, the human diplomat to the alien court of the atevi, four starship captains, and the two chiefs of state—both the human and the atevi, who share the planet... -
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![Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward]()
Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratings"In science fiction there is only a handful of books that stretch the mind--and this is one of them."--Arthur C. Clarke In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms--the cheela--living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years... -
![Call to Arms by Joshua Dalzelle]()
Call to Arms by Joshua Dalzelle
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsFrom Joshua Dalzelle comes the follow up to the #1 Bestseller “Warship.” Captain Jackson Wolfe survived the initial incursion of a vicious alien species into human space … barely. He had assumed the juggernaut that had devastated three Terran systems was the herald for a full invasion, but for the last few years it has been eerily quiet along the Frontier... -
![Gust Front by John Ringo]()
Gust Front by John Ringo
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThanks to human valor and alien technology, the Posleen were fought to a standstill. But the invasion of Earth is just months away Only these shell-shocked survivors can save the Earth from utter devastation... -
![The Heart of Matter by Evan Currie]()
The Heart of Matter by Evan Currie
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsAfter an epic maiden voyage that introduced Earth to a larger universe—and a cosmos full of terrifying new enemies—Captain Eric Weston and the crew of the NAC spacecraft Odyssey have spent months cooling their heels under their admiral’s watchful eye... -
![The Span of Empire by Eric Flint, David Carrico]()
The Span of Empire by Eric Flint, David Carrico
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA new novel in New York Times best seller Eric Flint's science fiction Jao Empire series. It has become clear to both the Jao and their human and Lleix partners that if they are going to defeat the Ekhat who have been terrorizing the galaxy for eons, they need more allies... -
![First Contact by Dean M. Cole]()
First Contact by Dean M. Cole
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the Bestselling Author of Solitude!As part of the Greatest Generation, Major Anthony Spinelli, a World War II fighter pilot, flew into combat to save his family and keep them free. Two years later, he lost them in the blink of an eye, leaving Tony rudderless and without purpose...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic
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