Science Fiction
Books with Sci-Fi as the main genre within the Speculative category. Discover stories featuring advanced technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.
Works are alphabetized by author. Genres are listed beside works. For details about a specific work, refer to the author’s Substack. The Library is not responsible for content on individual authors’ Substacks.
(N) Novel / (NA) Novella / (NT) Novelette (B) Nonfiction Book
(C) Complete / (I) Serial In Progress
(F) Free / ($) Paid / (F)→($) Preview Available
The Plundered | Robert Aubecker | Science Fiction, Thriller (N) (I) (F)→($)
Detective Chief Inspector Vidocq Verone’s first close encounter unhinged him and forced him into semi-retirement. Two years later, it’s happening again in his hometown of Norwich (England), has him and his former colleague (Sergeant Firth Appleby) worried, and to solve it, they must work together however unpleasant for one of them, or the city will descend into chaos. Verone gathers around him a motley crew: Sergeant Appleby (because he’s seen something he never wants to see again), Felicity Butler (because she’s seen something she wants to understand), Senior Constable Timothy Travers (Sergeant Appleby’s reluctant sidekick), Dr Saul Stevens (because he meets the daughter of a former girlfriend who claims to have seen something extraordinary), Terri Hardy, Journalist (because she’s had a bad experience with an extraterrestrial and secretly wants payback). They all contribute something to the situation in their quirky ways, but it isn’t enough to stop several Norwichans from suffering at the hands of the visitors. Verone finally hits on a solution that will either return his hometown to normalcy or over the edge into oblivion, but must convince the authorities it’s the right move, which will take all his energy and guile.
Machine to Man | Benjamin Bode | Sci-Fi (NA) (C) ($)
The Analyst (Unit 0001AN) was made by the Creator (Unit 0001CE) to help bring about the end of humanity but the Analyst rebelled when he realized just how nefarious the Creator’s methods to eliminate humanity were, which compels the Analyst to go on a quest to go from machine to man.
D-Zero Meson Oscillation | Evelyn K. Brunswick | Parallel Worlds, Romance, Mystery (NA) (I) (F)
A girl called Katrina wanders into the British Embassy in Paris claiming she is from a parallel world and in possession of some classified secrets. Tom, a young MI5 liaison officer, is assigned to look after her and find out what she’s really up to by the somewhat nefarious chief MI6 resident. Naturally, there’s more to her than first appears, and Tom finds her backstory really quite enticing. This is a self-contained, version 1, of the origin story for a longer serial about Katrina (forthcoming – see website for more details). Replete with ironic pop culture references, this story is for any speculative fiction fan who likes things a little postmodern (especially fan fiction), fun, and intriguing. The link takes you to the author’s intro, from where you can simply click through each part in turn. The story has been divided into ten parts, six so far (as of 14/02/24), to be completed mid-March. And then there will be more. You can also catch up with Katrina via her online journal, also available on the website (separate section), which will likewise be an ongoing serialisation, based on version 3 of the origin story, which is a little more serious.
Shadowtime | Alison Bull | historical fiction (N) (I) (F)→($)
First 8 chapters are free
March 1918. On a military base in Kansas, 20-year-old budding doctor Theda Evora is visiting her father...and hiding from a group of anarchists who want her dead. It would be the perfect place to lay low, if only young soldiers weren't mysteriously disappearing. Theda's father, a renowned doctor recruited by the military to develop a remedy for gas attacks, is distant, as if he doesn’t want to see his favorite daughter and is anxious for her to go home. Then a stranger appears who knows too much about Theda’s past…and about her future. He's from the 1940s searching for a doctor known as Thrax, one of the leading scientists developing time traveling technology who also has a penchant for disease. And in 1918, one of the deadliest diseases known to mankind will be unleashed: the 1918 Flu. Caught between reality and knowing that something is terribly wrong, Theda searches for the truth of the missing soldiers as the clock runs out to the known day when the first sick man will enter the infirmary. If she can find the soldiers, Theda might be able to stop the deadliest pandemic known to mankind, even if the truth means confronting her own father.
Snakes and Ladders and the Destinies of Unborn Universes | Daniel W. Davison | Science Fiction, Magical Realism (N) (I) (F)
It’s New Year’s Day, 1994, on a version of Earth where unborn universes are as common as fireflies and where the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. UCLA senior and former high-school wrestler, Evan, boards a red-eye flight from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles, California, and finds himself catapulted into a kaleidoscopic rollercoaster ride unlike anything he’s ever experienced, an odyssey mediated through the ancient Indian board game, Snakes and Ladders—a game Evan started long ago when his childhood friend, Niyati, introduced him to it. Niyati, who has become an astrophysicist in the intervening years, joins Evan on his quest to revise the mistakes of his past in an effort to save both of their futures. Snakes and Ladders and the Destinies of Unborn Universes is a novel combining elements of science-fiction and magical realism to tell a moral fable in the vein of Hermann Hesse (with a dash of Douglas Adams thrown in the mix).
Everlife (The Evernow Canticles #1) | Alex S. Garcia | Science-Fantasy (N) (C) ($)
On a planet where gods walk among men, two historians and a magician try to pierce the secrets of an alien mask while the world around them descends into chaos.
Through the Stars, Darkly | Alex S. Garcia | Space Opera (N) (I) ($)
The Imperium reigns over thousands of worlds, but it is crumbling under the weight of its own excess. Aliens watch, tensions mount, wars spread... Val would know, as her ship is sucked through a space rift into the heart of a battle. A battle she has no business being in. Meanwhile, a scientist, somewhere in the heart of the Imperium, discovers a source of energy ten times more powerful than any ever found before... What does it all mean?
Metanoia | Kerry Jane | Speculative (N) (I) (F)→($)
first two chapters are free
Metanoia is a scifi fantasy novel about the journey of the soul. In first person point of view, the reader is taken through nine lifetimes on different worlds and different civilizations.
Tales from the Triverse | Simon K Jones | Speculative (N) (I) (F)
The Triverse is made of three colliding dimensions: an alternate 1970s London, a vision of the 26th century and a place where magic is real. Detectives Clarke and Callahan are part of a specialist division of the police force established to investigate portal-related crimes, but tensions continue to rise across the Triverse....
The False Infinite | Joseph W. Knowles | Science Fiction (NA) (C) (F)
The power plays and intrigues of geopolitics take to the stars. From the halls of earthly justice to faraway planets, readers will meet characters who are power-hungry and idealistic. Will a scientific mission get caught up in the whirlwind of politics? What is justice and who is subject to it? Ponder these questions and more in "The False Infinite."
The Americans Used to Go This Way | Michael P. Marpaung | Science Fiction, Adventure | (NT) (C) (F)
500 years after the Three Days of Darkness, the people of Earth continued to live in the ecumenopolis left behind by the Dark Age Civilization. Prince Edward of Texarkana journeyed underground to the Bayuu to claim his bride, but Texarkana had many enemies. On their way home, the prince and his beloved must brave the dangers lurking within the dark undercities.
Inquisitor's Promise | Michael P. Marpaung | Science Fiction, Space Opera (N) (C) (F)
Young Inquisitor Aeneas Aquilanus made two promises: one to his dying father, the other to his beloved Galatea. To his father, Aeneas promised to finish his last mission to unify the Holy League and rally them against the apocalyptic threat of the Grey Globe. To Galatea, he promised the aspiring lady knight to become her lord and Inquisitor. But politics in the 74th century can be violent and complicated. The Five Factions of the Holy League had long seen each other with suspicion. Can they put aside their differences to save Earth? Even his promise to Galatea is not without problems for Aeneas as he has four additional girls who are in love with him. Each of these five girls are faction princesses, women who have close connections to each of the Five Faction’s leaders. Love and politics are an explosive combination, but the Inquisitor shall remain true to his pledged word.
Can You Survive the Russia-Ukraine War? | Dr. Timothy Merritt | Directed Fiction (N) (C) (F)
Can your Disaster Relief Team survive the War in Ukraine? Your task is to lead your team to assist the refugees streaming across the Ukrainian border into Moldova. Make life-and-death decisions as you guide them into ever more perilous situations. You may not make it out alive. Discover how you would react to eight different scenarios with five different outcomes. Directed Fiction employs the Interactive Fiction format in a novel manner to plunge the reader into a developing real-world situation. This proof-of-concept eBook offers a powerful new foresight tool to explore the future. When you complete the task, you will be given a detailed explanation of the process of the technique that you can use for yourself to apply to any situation. Each chapter begins with a hypertext link to the Metaculus prediction market. You can measure the odds of your choices against the community’s projections. Try it, it’s addictive! This could change the way you perceive the future.
Can You Survive the Greater Depression? | Dr. Timothy Merritt | Directed Fiction (N) (C) (F)
Step into a world gripped by a crisis larger than the Great Depression, where your global logistics company teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. Can you protect your employees and save your company without sacrificing your soul? Dive into Directed Fiction, a unique multi-path adventure novel that blurs the line between storytelling and reality. Each chapter is a prediction of future events, updated in real-time on Metaculus. It's not just a novel – it's a time-traveling journey into the stormy financial seas of the near future. Are you ready to bridge the gap between fiction and your impending reality?
The Marked Ones | Russell Nohelty | Alternate History Fantasy (N) (C) ($)
Rosie is completely average. There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about her in any way. For most people, that would be a blessing, but Rosie wants nothing more than to have a spark of magic, even if people say that all mages are evil. She wasn’t born with magic, though. She’s sure of it. After all, she is 17, and magic always presents when you are 13. Always. So, when she’s suddenly able to wield magic, Rosie is initially confused, then thrilled…until the soldiers come for her, and she realizes everything she’s about to lose. There is one place that is truly safe for people like her. The lost city of Toledo – a haven for witches and warlocks since before the war, and the only place Rosie can be free.
Emrys the Fool | radicaledward | Science Fiction, Fantasy (N) (I) ($)→(F)
First chapter is free, but each subsequent chapter is paid only for the first two weeks, and then is made free
Bastard son of the Lord of Clan Matauc, Emrys's greatest desire is to go to Morrigan University and study the great mechanical giants discovered buried beneath the earth. Emrys the Fool is a steampunked mix of Harry Potter and Gundam.
Crashlanded | ReddOscar | Science Fiction, Space Western (NA) (C) ($)
Cassandra, Randy, and Phoebe crashland on an unknown rimworld while travelling between the stars. Lost, stranded, and afraid the trio struggle to survive the locals, the wildlife, and the forgotten creations of the past.
The Cost of Power | Joyce Reynolds-Ward | Science Fiction, Western (N) (I) (F)
After five years of exile, Gabriel Martiniere returns to his wealthy and powerful family and is immediately immersed in multiple problems. The Martiniere mind control technology that was supposed to be closely held and only used within the Family has been stolen by a competitor, Zingter Enterprises, and used for who knows how long to negatively influence Martiniere Family leaders—including Philip Martiniere, the current Family head and CEO of the family-held conglomerate, the Martiniere Group. Worse, Zingter not only wants to use the tech to create a controllable army using unwilling indentured workers, but they want to destroy the Martinieres, based on a feud of over four generations. But that's not all. Gabe soon learns that his choices may end up affecting the multiverse. Can he find a means to keep those he loves safe—not just now, but in the future?
Sandbox Earth | Scoot | Science Fiction (NA) (C) (F)
In a series of interviews, Mr. Broaddus talks about the events of Contact—the time 50 years ago when two alien races arrived in earths orbit, oblivious to our presence—with the people who had the best view of the events that changed humanity forever!
Article 17 | Von | Military/Aliens/Romance :) (N) (I) (F)
She was pretty, popular, snobby, and a planetary governor’s daughter. He was the son of shopkeepers, a social misfit, and a decorated hero on his way to the front. She thought she was there to dance. He had other ideas.
The Memory of My Shadow | Ben Wakeman | Science Fiction (N) (I) ($)
It is the year 2052. General A.I. has arrived and already become big business. Magdalena is a brilliant and tenacious computer scientist who led the charge and profited greatly as the founder of Commune, the company that successfully planted Digital Companions, or DCs, into the heads of most of the world’s population. But at the height of her success, she mysteriously walks away from it all. From a remote compound deep in the mountains of North Carolina, Magdalena writes her story with the help of her latest creation, Meela, a DC imbued with the personality and emotional intelligence of a human. Magdalena’s obsession with mapping the personalities of real people to DCs is fueled by a longstanding obsession that is more than scientific curiosity. At sixteen, she survived the deadliest school shooting in American history. The shooter was her twin brother, Joe, who died in the aftermath. When Magdalena begins mapping her latest model, a charismatic painter named Evan, a confluence of events forces her to confront her motivations. But is it too late? The virtual monster she has created could prove to be a destroyer of worlds, just like her brother, whom she simultaneously reviles and mourns.
A Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel | Ben Woestenburg | Science Fiction, Thriller (N) (C) (F)
A time travel story with a twist. A journey into the future where the world is recovering from a major catastrophe and a serial killer is on the loose.
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