Books like 'Deception Well'
Readers who enjoyed Deception Well by Linda Nagata also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi hard sci-fi space-opera colonization
-
The Saints of Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsHumanity is struggling to hold out against a hostile takeover by an alien race that claims to be on a religious mission to bring all sentient life to its God at the End of Time. But while things may look grim in the immediate aftermath of the attack, mankind is busy playing an even longer game than the aliens may have expected... -
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... -
School Days by Nathan Lowell
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA New ShipA New CrewA Different Kind of MissionWhen Manchester Yards donates a new training vessel to the Merchant Officer Academy at Port Newmar, Alys Giggone recalls the Chernyakova.She wants Ishmael Wang and his crew to take a crew of cadets into the Deep Dark. They have to sort out the crews of two ships, figure out what lessons they need to teach, and who will get those lessons... -
The Sins of Our Fathers by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsThrough one of the gates, a colony stands alone. Their supplies are low. Their defenses, weak. The leadership is uncertain, and the community fragile. Huge alien beasts threaten the little they have left.But the worst monsters are human, and the greatest dangers are the past they brought... -
-
The Life of the Mind by John Scalzi
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPart one of the four parts of the full-length novel, The End of All Things.A down-on-his-luck Colonial Union starship pilot finds himself pressed into serving a harsh master-in a mission against the CU. But his kidnappers may have underestimated his knowledge of the ship that they have, quite literally, bound him to piloting... -
Wherever Seeds May Fall by Peter Cawdron
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAstronomers from around the world watch in awe as an extrasolar comet approaches Saturn, being drawn in by its immense gravity. When the comet grazes the planet rather than plunging beneath the clouds, speculation is rife... -
Hell's Reach by David VanDyke, B.V. Larson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsUSA Today bestseller B.V. Larson and Dragon award finalist David VanDyke have released book six in their epic military space opera! The Breakers find a new home among the stars: Utopia. An engineered planet that is vast beyond comprehension with plenty of room to grow. They set up trade routes and work as mercenaries for their supplies… but trouble lurks. Pirates strike their merchant lanes... -
Enemies on All Sides by Michael Chatfield, Dawn Chapman
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe game never changes, only the players do. Others might call it rebellion, call it cowardice. The Vanguard will not forgive, nor will they forget. Their trust lays with one another, in those who have shed blood with them and joined the Net. Empires, governments, leaders, alliances, planets, corporations—many have fallen in humanity’s past... -
Enemies & Allies by Rick Partlow
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe war is over and Andy Clanton is ready to live happily ever after.Space Force has other ideas.Recruited to follow the last signal of the mysterious Elders to a system halfway across the galaxy, Andy joins the crew of the James Bowie for another adventure into the unknown... -
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
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... -
Peacemaker by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAt last—Cajeiri has his young guests from the starship, three young folk entranced by weather and trees and creatures with minds of their own. It’s all he dreamed of.. -
Beyond the Aquila Rift: The Best of Alastair Reynolds by Alastair Reynolds
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsLibrarian's Note: an alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.The very best of Alastair Reynolds’ more than sixty published short stories are gathered in this anthology, a sweeping 250,000 word career retrospective spanning more than fifteen years... -
"Star Wars" Encyclopedia by Stephen J. Sansweet
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFeaturing an introduction by Star Wars novelist Timothy Zahn, this deluxe, hardcover encyclopedia covers everything having to do with the film and its characters, sequels, production, special effects, computer games, and the like, and includes full-color illustrations. Reissue...Categorized as:
space-opera book children-books fiction hard-sci-fi male-author military violent-conflict -
-
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... -
The Quantum War by Derek Künsken
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe eagerly awaited third volume in the number one bestselling Quantum Evolution series. An all-new, ground-breaking, action-packed new science fiction adventure set in the universe of The Quantum Magician and The Quantum Garden... -
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... -
The Vanguard Emerges by Michael Chatfield, Dawn Chapman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEarth and her colonies are not alone. Politics, discussions and alliances. Mark doesn’t care about any of it. When did it matters when the artillery falls and blood is spilled? All that matters is who stands beside you when blood is spilled and hell lays all around you. Centurion Victor, has a nice ring to it, Major Victor, Corporal Victor, Private Victor, his path has not been a short one... -
Unreconciled by W. Michael Gear
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNow in paperback, the fourth book in the thrilling Donovan sci-fi series returns to a treacherous alien planet where corporate threats and dangerous creatures imperil the lives of the colonists.Where does one put a messianic cult of practicing cannibals? That becomes the question when Ashanti appears in Donovan's skies. She was designed for no more than four years in space. It's taken ten... -
Tactics of Conquest by David VanDyke
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsArmed with alien technology and a complete refit, Henrich Absen captains Conquest on a voyage to take back what humanity has lost. Along the way he must confront a new form of life as well as his own demons in this shocking episode of the Plague Wars/Stellar Conquest saga... -
Gregor's Run: The Universe is too Small to Hide by Saxon Andrew
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA young human male orphaned by the death of his adopted father struggles to survive in a universe that offers little more than despair. He’s forced to scrub booster tubes on commercial starships to make enough coins to feed his alcohol addiction in his dirty day-to-day existence. The future looks dark and is getting darker... -
Freedom's Last Gasp by M.A. Rothman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn "intelligent and entertaining" tale. (Kirkus Reviews): Priya is thrilled when she's recruited to serve in the spaceborne military. But she's soon forced to volunteer for a dangerous mission - and finds her life at stake... "For nail-biting science fiction thrillers, look no further than one of Rothman's stories" (New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia).------Aliens exist.. -
Effie by C.J. Williams
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEffie didn’t intend to bring death and destruction to Earth. But with Enforcers in hot pursuit, Special Agent EAFY584 can only escape by crashing her stolen starship out of hyperspace into an uncharted solar system. Fortunately for her, the planet called Earth has a human population. Unfortunately for them, standard Enforcer procedure is to sterilize any planet where a spy might be hiding...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera aliens book female-mc fiction first-contact galactic-empire -
Conquest of Earth by David VanDyke
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPoised to reconquer humanity's home, Captain Absen and Conquest are confronted with a new enemy that upsets the balance of power and changes everything EarthFleet expected. Their struggle to free Earth becomes instead a desperate battle for sheer survival as they contemplate the unthinkable... -
-
Conquest and Empire by David VanDyke
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook 5, the final book in the Stellar Conquest series! Over 300 pages packed with your favorite hard-hitting military science fiction adventure.After barely fending off the insectoid Scourge, Admiral Absen frantically prepares for another attack while dealing with politics and treachery from within, even as Spectre pursues his own hidden agenda... -
Theft of Fire by Devon Eriksen
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAt the frozen edge of the solar system lies a hidden treasure which could spell their fortune or their destruction—but only if they survive each other first.Marcus Warnoc has a little problem... -
Alliance Space (Company Wars #2) by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsThis omnibus edition of two novels set in Cherryh's most renowned universe--the Union-Alliance Universe--marks the first time these books have been available in more than a decade. Includes "Merchanter's Luck" and "Forty Thousand in Gehenna...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book dystopia female-author -
Race Across Spacetime by M.D. Cooper
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Alliance has suffered an unimaginable loss: Tangel is dead. The crew of the I2 struggles to carry on, dealing with the impending occupation of New Sol and surrender of the Orion Freedom Alliance. But Bob harbors a suspicion, a kernel of hope, and sends the Falconer in search of additional survivors... -
Another World by Samuel Best
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLeaving Earth is the easy part. Surviving the trip to a nearby spiral arm of our own galaxy is a journey like no other.Merritt Alder is done with Earth. The planet is polluted and overpopulated, and its people are hungry.Earth’s first colony, Galena, is a pioneer world 10,000 light years away. It has clean air, unpolluted water, and continents of arable land...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history book exploration fiction -
Entropy by Gerald M. Kilby
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe science vessel, Hermes, has been urgently recalled from its mission to survey the moons of Saturn, just as First Officer Miranda Lee receives bad news from home—her mother is dying so she must leave the ship and return to Earth—for good... -
Finity's End by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFinity's End is the oldest Merchanter ship in the universe. In an era of spies, pirate traders, and uneasy alliances, the Company Wars are now over, the hunt for the fleet is winding down, and the ship is coming home to reclaim her trade routes... -
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... -
The Other Place by Nathan Hystad
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen a mysterious invisible barrier appears on a Montana ranch, no one knows what to think of it.Drake, a retired police detective, receives a call in the dead of night from an alien-obsessed podcaster. He hastily departs for Montana the following morning.The phenomenon continues all over the globe... -
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... -
-
Tanis Richards: Blackest Night by M.D. Cooper
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe MICI sends Tanis on her toughest mission yet.In OuterSol a handshake often comes with a knife in the back.It’s been six months since the events on Europa. During that time, Tanis and the Kirby Jones have been working to uncover who was behind her betrayal and the oligarch’s near assassination... -
Starfire by M.D. Cooper
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn an effort to end the war, Tangel prepares starfire... -
The Orion Front by M.D. Cooper
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhile battles rage across the Transcend and the Inner Stars, Tangel's focus shifts to Orion space... -
Crystal Mentality by Max Harms
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFleeing the humans whose love she craves, Face has hijacked an alien ship and headed for Mars. But the Martians, who colonized their desert planet to escape Earth's high-tech decadence, did not invite the soulless android... -
The Final Dawn: by T.W.M. Ashford
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe sun is dying, and it’s taking the Earth down with it.Jack Bishop needs a pair of tickets aboard one of the Arks – colossal lifeboats destined to shepherd humanity to the stars. Desperate to save his wife, he signs up for a dangerous wormhole experiment… but something goes catastrophically wrong, and Jack finds himself cast into the Stellar Abyss... -
Skyship Thrive by Ginger Booth
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn ex-cop who cannot die. A moon full of settlers who cannot thrive. Mahina's terraformers built a high-tech urban paradise. Then Earth flooded the colony with desperate refugees, cop Sass Collier among them. The settlers who arrived with Sass died decades ago. Outside the citadel, their descendants die weak and young.Sass fought a rebellion against the city once...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult book exploration fiction genetic-engineering -
Voyages of the Orphan by Laer Carroll
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJane Kuznetsov has long wanted to travel among the stars. But first she must travel the Solar System, gaining the capabilities and the expertise to do so. Along the way she discovers that the Earth system has surprises. Such that once Cats, those blue-furred six-limbed near centaurs, lived in the asteroids. And even on Mars... -
Oceanworlds by J.P. Landau
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIf you were in awe of books like The Martian and 2001: A Space Odyssey or movies like Interstellar and Apollo 13, get ready for a story destined to become a Sci-Fi classic – one with the potential to leap from fiction into reality and become the greatest adventure on which humankind has ever embarked. September 7 2030. Mission Day 1179... -
The Parasite by Neal L. Asher, Neal Asher
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Parasite, a science fiction novella (40,000 words) by Neal AsherAfter mining complex ices deep in the Solar System, Jack Smith is concerned about his profit margin, but is it him who doesn’t want to face quarantine or something squirming inside him? The Cryon Corporation Director, Geoffry Haven, is also concerned about the bottom line and might consider Jack an expense he can no longer... -
Colony Three Mars by Gerald M. Kilby
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAn alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.Now that the truth of the genetic experiments on Mars has been revealed, new missions are on their way to gain control of this extraordinary technology. In the process, they seek to exploit and enslave the colonists—turning them into nothing more than lab rats...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book exploration -
-
Little Noises by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFor centuries, men and women have manned lighthouses to ensure the safe passage of ships. It is a lonely job, and a thankless one for the most part. Until something goes wrong. Until a ship is in distress. In the 23rd century, this job has moved into outer space. A network of beacons allows ships to travel across the Milky Way at many times the speed of light... -
Airthan Ascendancy by M.D. Cooper
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTanis and the Seras must face off against their most deadly enemy yet: Airtha... -
Return to Sol by M.D. Cooper
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe final novel in the Orion War series, Return To Sol sees the I2 and her crew return to where it all began... An Epic Space Opera Adventure... -
Set the Galaxy on Fire by M.D. Cooper
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe battle of Bollam's World is over, but war now looms over the Orion Arm of the galaxy. The arrival of the most powerful ship in human space is about to set the galaxy on fire. Bollam’s War The battle of the five fleets rages in the space surrounding Kithari in the Bollam’s World system...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult anthologies cyberpunk exploration fiction -
Koban Universe 1 by Stephen W. Bennett
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsHere are four stories, derived from the Universe of the Koban series. These are tales involving the Kobani people and Koban. Reading the series is NOT required to understand and enjoy these stand-alone tales... -
Alliance Rising by C.J. Cherryh, Jane S. Fancher
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsSFWA Grand Master Cherryh returns to the Hugo-award winning Alliance-Union Universe with a thrilling entry in her far-reaching sci-fi saga.Years after Sol has lagged behind other great megastations like Pell and Cyteen, Alpha station receives news of an incoming ship with no identification. The denizens of Alpha wait anxiously for news on the outsiders, each with their own suspicions...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.