Books like 'Down to Dirt'
Readers who enjoyed Down to Dirt by Kevin Killiany also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi military, war & conflict pulp military
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Hostile Negotiations by Michael Anderle
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSometimes one must face one’s fears to get something accomplished. Even if death would be preferred.Poaching is a crime. Poaching when a person is using the ZOO to help make it happen is a crime against humanity.That’s when McFadden and Banks get involved.Unfortunately, the trail heads off in multiple directions and one of those arrows goes straight back to the ZOO... -
Renegades by Craig Alanson
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe battle-scarred star carrier Flying Dutchman is finally on her way back to Earth, after an exceptionally successful series of missions that have once again Saved The World. The ship needs a serious refit, and her exhausted crew just wants a break from constant clandestine warfare against a vicious and superior enemy. Wishes come true, right? Not for the Merry Band of Pirates... -
Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe Shadow Crusade has begun. While the Ultramarines reel from Kor Phaeron’s surprise attack on Calth, Lorgar and the rest of the Word Bearers strike deep into the realm of Ultramar. Their unlikely allies, Angron and the World Eaters, continue to ravage each new system they come across – upon the garrison planet of Armatura, this relentless savagery may finally prove to be their undoing... -
Black Ops by Craig Alanson
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe elite crew of the pirate ship UNS Flying Dutchman had a simple mission: determining whether the Thuranin are sending another starship to Earth. Along the way, they became sidetracked by securing a future for the UNEF troops on the planet Paradise. When asked whether Earth was now safe, their ancient alien AI responded 'Not so much'... now they have to deal with the consequences... -
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Mamelukes by Jerry Pournelle, David Weber
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTHE FINAL NOVEL BY LEGENDARY AUTHOR JERRY POURNELLE, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR DAVID WEBER AND AUTHOR'S SON PHILLIP POURNELLENO REST FOR THE WEARYRick Galloway's still not sure what inspired him to volunteer to fight Cubans in Angola, and he certainly never expected to end his African adventure shanghaied by a flying saucer when his CIA superiors cut him and his... -
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath by Tom Kratman
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA NEW NOVEL IN TOM KRATMAN'S HARD-HITTING MILITARY SF CARRERA SERIESWhen Patricio Carrera’s family was murdered by Salafist terrorists aided and abetted by the fleet of alien Earth, the only restraint on his ruthlessness and ambition was also removed... -
Star Fox: Book One by Rob Buckman
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a future not far from our own, Christopher Knight, a sergeant in the Royal Marines is transported to an alien world where the technology is so far advanced from his own it seems like magic. Chris tries to find a way home, but the beautiful alien woman responsible for dragging him into this situation, and the dreaded Tal-Shial agents chasing her make it impossible... -
It All Falls Down by Michael Todd, Michael Anderle
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLieutenant Gregor Popov is on trial for his efforts along with Heavy Metal to save the Russian Scientists. Will they go after Sal, Madigan and Courtney next? Born from the fertile imagination of bestselling author Michael Anderle… Will Popov get a light sentence, or something worse?Savage has been tasked with an operation, hidden from everyone... -
Get Out Of Our Way by Michael Todd, Michael Anderle
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSal needs to work on something that has bugged him from the beginning. His dissertation. Born from the fertile imagination of bestselling author Michael Anderle… There is a group engaging four new mercenaries, prepping them with simulated operations in the ZOO. How come? Courtney has approved a new member of her team in California and Sal isn't sure it was a good idea... -
Backstabbing Little Assets by Michael Anderle, Michael Todd
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNot every creature in the ZOO is out to eat you. Some are humans who intend to stab you in the back. Born from the fertile imagination of bestselling author Michael Anderle… Sal is hard at work trying to figure out if he can keep his crazy little company afloat, and now he wants to add more headcount? Kennedy isn’t sure what is going on inside his young and not-all-that-wise head... -
Commandant by Jonathan P. Brazee
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis is the conclusion to Ryck Lysander’s saga as a United Federation Marine.Major General Lysander has spent 38 years of his life dedicated to the Corps and sworn to perform the duties assigned to him by the Federation. In the process, he has become the most decorated Marine in its history... -
A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsCensured at the Council of Nikea for his flagrant use of sorcery, Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons Legion retreat to their homeworld pf Prospero to continue their use of the arcane arts in secret... -
Ravenor Rogue by Dan Abnett
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsIn the third book of the series, Inquisitor Ravenor's pursuit of his arch-nemesis Molotch takes him and his team to places dark and dangerous. Unknown to Ravenor, one of his team hides a deadly secret that could doom them all... -
Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber, Eric Flint
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSequel to national bestsellers Crown of Slaves and Torch of Freedom, Cauldron of Ghosts is the return of Secret agent Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat in the Wages of Sin, the classic tie-in series set in David Weber's Honorverse... -
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The Man Who Never Missed by Steve Perry
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOnce a ruthless soldier, Emile Khadaji has disappeared from the Confederation-with a secret plan to destroy it all in the name of freedom... -
Mavericks by Craig Alanson
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsThe remnants of the Expeditionary Force stranded on the alien-controlled planet 'Paradise' get a chance to prove themselves, in a simple off-world training mission with a ship full of teenage alien cadets. When the mission goes horribly wrong and the survival of everyone on Paradise is at risk, the Merry Band of Pirates may have to come to the rescue. Unless they get killed first.. -
Know No Fear by Dan Abnett
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsUnaware of the wider Heresy and following the Warmaster’s increasingly cryptic orders, Roboute Guilliman returns to Ultramar to muster his Legion for war against the orks massing in the Veridian system. Without warning, their supposed allies in the Word Bearers Legion launch a devastating invasion of Calth, scattering the Ultramarines fleet and slaughtering all who stand in their way... -
For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsCommisar Ciaphas Cain - hero of the Imperium and renowned across the sector for his bravery and valour - is sent to help maintain order on an outpost world on the borders of Tau space. But when the alien ambassador is murdered and the situation quickly spirals out of control, Cain and his regiment of Valhallans find themselves in the middle of a war... -
Sniper by Jonathan P. Brazee
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter a successful initial tour as a Marine rifleman, Lance Corporal Gracie Medicine Crow volunteers to become a scout-sniper, one of the deadliest—and most dangerous—military specialties in the United Federation Marine Corps. Gracie comes from the Apsáalooke Nation, a people with a long history of military tradition... -
Guard at the Gates of Hell (Gladius Book 1) by George Olney
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHuman civilization is crumbling. The Empire, the structure that held civilization together for a thousand years, is collapsing. Trying to hold things together is the Corps of Imperial Gladius, one of the pillars originally created to support and protect the Empire throughout its long life. A Gladius is a genetically bred ultimate soldier, the best soldier that ever existed... -
Tasmanian SFG: Book III, Of One Mind by C.R. Daems
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Tasmanian's unofficial motto is et anima una, Of One Mind, and somehow the elite special forces group performs like they have one mind. Jolie understands on a subconscious level but not on an intellectual level. An important level for Jolie as she has a platoon and no stated objectives while on assignments and, therefore, easy to lose her connection with the main force... -
Angles of Attack by Doc Spears, Jason Anspach
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe galaxy follows a logical structure.Legion Dark Operator Kel Turner believed that.To know the order of battle and how an enemy unit was organized was to know its purpose and how to destroy it. That logic existed down to the smallest scale, down to what made up life itself. To know a molecule’s structure was to know its function—they were one and the same. It was no different for Kel... -
Duty Calls by Sandy Mitchell
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsWhile assisting local forces quell widespread civil disorder, Commissar Cain and his regiment of Valhallans discover sinister forces are at work behind the scenes... -
Fernix by Michael Chatfield
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMark and Tyler Victor have fought Harmony from Masoul to Osdal. They've lost friends, shed blood and tears and now they're headed for one of Harmony's strongholds-Fernix. Osdal left Mark a changed man, a man not just looking to keep his people alive, but a man looking to avenge the only woman that cared for him... -
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Blackcoat by Steve McHugh
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Celine Moro took a job as a Blackcoat, an elite agency tasked with investigating crimes throughout Union space, she thought she had finally put her past to rest.Now, betrayed by her allies, her world is falling apart. Running from the corrupt politicians that she had sworn to bring to justice, Celine is dusting off the skills of her old trade in order to bring truth to light... -
Shroud of Night by Andy Clark
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn band of elite Chaos Space Marines from the Alpha Legion undertake a deadly stealth mission to infiltrate a heavily defended Imperial world.Upon the oceanic hive world of Tsadrekha, the darkness of the Noctis Aeterna is held at bay by the golden light of a unique beacon... -
Blood of Asaheim by Chris Wraight
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGreat Space Marine action as the Space Wolves return in hardbackThe feral warrior-kings of Fenris, the Space Wolves are the sons of Leman Russ. Savage heroes, few can match their ferocity in battle. After half a century apart, Space Wolves Ingvar and Gunnlaugr are reunited... -
New Frontier by D.L. Harrison
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAlicia Jones has a life that just keeps getting more complicated and ever more dangerous. Toward the Rim of the Orion arm lies the unknown. She’s tasked to start exploring it, and Earth’s leaders don’t want to wait a couple of years to build the fleets first. Then there are the Seltan, a race that lives in the core, they could attack at any time... -
Fight or Flight by Sandy Mitchell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCiaphas Cain's early years come to light as he fights alongside the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery on the world of Desolatia. A short story from the 'Hero of the Imperium' omnibus... -
A Hole in Time (Time Loop Book 2) by Clark Graham
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMajor Robert Dalton swallowed involuntarily. After his crash, he vowed he would never fly again. Now he would be flying into the past in a new plane was designed travel to travel through time. The mission was going to fail. He knew that. It was more than a premonition. His assignment: Kill Hitler. Stop the Holocaust before it starts. No one knew what the consequences of changing the time-line... -
Thorn and Talon: Eisenhorn and Ravenor by Dan Abnett
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsThe Inquisition is the most powerful and secretive organisation within the Imperium. Its agents, the Inquisitors, are the last line of defence for mankind. Gregor Eisenhorn, dedicated servant of the Inquisition, takes to the field again in three audio dramas. Regia Occulta finds him on a world wracked by ethereal storms and haunted by a terrifying beast... -
The Cost of Honor by Sally Malcolm
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe sequel to A Matter of Honor - the team attempt to rescue Major Henry Boyd and the SG-10 team from the black hole planet. But the rescue attempt has unforeseen consequences which force them to confront a monstrous secret on the homeworld of the Kinahhi... -
Interstellar Incident by D.L. Harrison
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAlicia Jones has been through a lot since the invention of FTL, and she was ready to get on with her life as a scientist and put what happened behind her. She was done with the military, except perhaps a planned invention or two. She was also set to complete her dissertation defense, and has plans to buy a house and start a business with her best friend Kristi... -
Deathwatch by Steve Parker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen they first came together, Talon Squad were a disparate group of Space Marines from various Chapters. Under the auspice of the Deathwatch, trained in an ironclad Watch Fortress, they become a kill-team. Alien hunters, experts in xenos extermination, their first mission under the mysterious Inquisitor Sigma is a deadly one... -
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The Warrior by David Drake
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThey were the best.Colonel Alois Hammer: He welded five thousand individual killers into a weapon more deadly than any other in the human universe.Luke Broglie: His brilliant mind could have succeeded in any business; but war was the business he chose.Tess Kuykendall: She knew what her job was, but she also knew what was survivable... -
Shadow Hunters by Christie Golden
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn original tale of space warfare based on the bestselling computer game series from Blizzard Entertainment. Driven by the living memories of a long-dead protoss mystic and hounded by the Queen of Blades' ravenous zerg, archaeologist Jake Ramsey embarks on a perilous journey to reach the fabled protoss homeworld of Aiur... -
Prince of Sparta by Jerry Pournelle, S.M. Stirling
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDefeated before, the Earth-backed Helot terrorist hordes renew their assault on the legitimate government of Sparta... -
Scars by Chris Wraight
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsJaghatai Khan and his White Scars Legion must choose - the Emperor or Horus?Fresh from their conquest of Chondax and the discovery of Horus’s rebellion, Jaghatai Khan’s warriors stand divided. Long considered one of the less trustworthy Legions, many of the White Scars claim to owe their loyalty exclusively to Terra, and others still to the Warmaster and his warrior lodges... -
Second Stage Lensmen by E.E. "Doc" Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsKim Kinnison, Number One man of his time, had faced challenges before—but rarely one as daunting as this. To him fell the perilous task of infiltrating the inner circle of Boskone, stronghold of galactic civilization’s most deadly foe. Kinnison had to become a local Boskonian in every gesture, deed—and thought... -
The Course of Empire by Eric Flint, K.D. Wentworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWOULD THEY DESTROY EARTH IN ORDER TO SAVE IT?Conquered by the Jao twenty years ago, the Earth is shackled under alien tyranny--and threatened by the even more dangerous Ekhat, who are sending a genocidal extermination fleet to the solar system... -
Go Tell the Spartans by Jerry Pournelle, S.M. Stirling
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSince the late 20th century, the Soviet-American CoDominium had kept the peace, both on Earth and among the stars. But now the CoDominium is dying, and its death-throes will be terrible; already the nations arm for their final battle... -
West Of Honor by Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSooner or later, all civilizations age and decline, grow senile and die—either by conquest from without, or from internal rot. The final days of Western Civilization are signaled by the joining of the USA and the USSR into a ruthless and imperial state that spans first the Earth and then the Solar System. But, because it fails to hold the loyalty of its soldiers, it falters at the stars... -
The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsCommissar Cain returns to an icy planet to crush a new wave of ork attacks, but inadvertently disturbs a far greater threat which has lain frozen and dormant for centuries in a new hardcover edition.Imperial commissar Ciaphas Cain returns to Nusquam Fundumentibus to crush the ork attacks which have been plaguing the frozen planet... -
Lost Marine by James David Victor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOut of the galactic frying pan and into the fire Jack Forge was transformed from an unwilling Marine recruit to savior of the human race. The only problem: he’s now lost in space looking for the remnants of humanity. Just when he thinks he’s found help, TWO new hostile alien races enter the picture... -
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Endgame by Kristine Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEver since contact was first made between humans and the alien idomeni, tensions between the two races have been frequent and bloody. As the first genetically altered human-idomeni hybrid, former Captain Jani Kilian serves as a lightning rod for the anger, outrage, and hatreds of both sides... -
Family Matters by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOriginally featured in a limited edition of Peter F. Hamilton's Mindstar Rising, Family Matters is a sci-fi detective short story starring Greg Mandel from his blockbuster trilogy.Richard Townsend would proudly call himself a man of business as he secures a lucrative, though not entirely legal, financial deal...Categorized as:
military action-adventure adult anthologies fiction space-opera violent-conflict sci-fi -
Phalanx by Ben Counter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe next installment in the Soul Drinkers series.The Soul Drinkers have been captured by the Imperial Fists, who intend to see them put on trial on the Phalanx, the Fists' vast space fortress. Inside, one of Iktinos’ faithful breaks under interrogation and reveals the location of a vault hidden under Selaaca.An Imperial Fists squad opens up an ancient vault below the planet's surface... -
Ahriman: Sorcerer by John French
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAhriman, greatest sorcerer of the Thousand Sons and architect of the Rubric that laid his Legion low, continues to walk the path towards salvation, or damnation... -
Endgame by Loren L. Coleman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt is the darkest hour of the ongoing civil war between Prince Victor Steiner-Davion and his sister, Katrina. With Victor brought low by the assassination of his love, Omi Kurita, the allied forces are rudderless. As Victor recovers in hiding, Katrina's military rallies.Victor's last chance lies before him, and he will need to draw on his strongest supporters. Kell. Allard-Liao. Sandoval. Marik... -
Echoes of the Tomb by Sandy Mitchell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCiaphas Cain battles alongside the Reclaimers Space Marine Chapter against a mysterious foe.A short story from the 'Hero of the Imperium' omnibus...
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