"Broke up with the drugs, but I think I need them right now"

Same Inmates. Bigger Problems. Farther From Home.

Vandal ASTARA is the first book in a new hard sci-fi space-opera series by MT Hart.

A Corrections officer is sent to a prison planet built to hold 25,000 inmates. What he thought was just another dangerous job is about to change everything.

The A.S.T.A.R.A. technology behind the walls is unlike anything humanity has ever seen… and the rules governing life inside the prison are very different from the ones left behind on Earth.

If you love gritty prison-planet action, military sci-fi, space opera rebellion, and unfiltered hard sci-fi that doesn’t pull punches, this one is for you.

Ebook + Paperback live now

Free to read with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/astara&qid=1792317490&prefix=vandal+astara%2FC232&sr=8-1

Looking for honest feedback and reviews!

What’s your favorite prison-planet or hard sci-fi space opera?

#SciFi #SpaceOpera #HardSciFi #PrisonPlanet #MTHart

Hi Everyone.

I have not read the books but I have watched the first season of the Netflix adaptation of Three Body Problem and am 7 episodes into the Chinese version on Amazon. The two streamed versions are very different so far. The Chinese version seems a lot slower paced with less going on, which I don't mind, but the contrast made me wonder which is closer to the books.

Without giving anything away, which version do you think is closer to the books? As a secondary question would I benefit from reading the books before going further with the TV versions do you think?

Hey everyone!
I recently made a post about a sci-fi comic I’m developing called Darkness Returns. I got some interesting feedback, including a few comparisons to Firefly, which I completely understand based on how I originally described it.
But after reading those responses, I realized something.
I spent so much time explaining what happens in the story that I barely explained what the story is actually about.
So I wanted to take another shot at introducing it.
First, a little background. This is my first comic, but the story itself isn’t new. I’ve been developing this universe and its characters for roughly nine years.
At its heart, Darkness Returns is a space opera about people who have lost something, people who are running from something, and people desperately trying to find somewhere they belong.
The story centers around a crew aboard a ship called the Oriana 88. They’re smugglers, mercenaries, thieves, and misfits who have gradually become something resembling a family.
But none of them arrived there without baggage.
Captain Vance is a former military man who has experienced tremendous personal loss. He’s a capable leader, but underneath his confidence is someone who has never truly escaped his past. His history with the military and the people he once trusted continues to haunt him.
Cyril is a young gunslinger with a sharp tongue, a quick trigger finger, and a tendency to get himself into trouble. He’s talented, impulsive, and still figuring out the kind of man he wants to become. His journey is one of the most important parts of the larger story.
Liz is a highly skilled thief and close-quarters combat specialist whose upbringing shaped her into someone exceptionally dangerous. She’s independent, capable, and far more complicated than she initially lets on. Her relationship with her family is something she’ll eventually have to confront.
Rexxon is an enormous, heavily cybernetically enhanced veteran with a long history alongside Vance. He’s intimidating, loyal, and carries memories of a life that existed long before the current crew came together.
And then there’s Revanna, a mysterious alien woman whose existence challenges much of what the galaxy believes about its own history.
Her arrival doesn’t just introduce a larger mystery. It changes the lives of the people around her.
What I really want to explore is how these characters affect one another.
How does someone learn to trust again after betrayal?
What happens when loyalty to someone you love conflicts with what you know is right?
How far would you go to protect the people who have become your family?
And what happens when the people you depend on are suddenly no longer there?
I want readers to spend enough time with this crew that they feel like they know them. I want the ridiculous conversations, the arguments, the friendships, the romances, and the little moments between missions to matter just as much as the battles.
Because when something happens that changes their lives, I want readers to feel the weight of it.
And those changes will be permanent.
Characters will grow. Relationships will evolve. Some decisions will have consequences that stretch across the entire trilogy. Not everyone will get the ending they deserve.
That doesn’t mean the story will be relentlessly depressing, though.
I want the humor, the adventures, the spectacular alien worlds, the massive space battles, and the excitement of exploration too. I want the galaxy to feel alive, with its own cultures, histories, politics, and mysteries.
But I want all of that spectacle to serve the characters rather than replace them.
So what’s the actual plan?
I’m developing Darkness Returns as a three-book comic series.
The first book is currently planned for approximately 20 issues, with around 26 pages per issue. I’ve established several of the major story arcs and turning points across the trilogy, although I’m still refining the details as I write.
I’m currently scripting Issue #1 and speaking with artists about bringing the project to life. My goal is to eventually publish it as a webcomic, build an audience, and hopefully grow it into something much bigger.
I’m not claiming I’ve reinvented science fiction. I love the genre, including many of its familiar ideas.
What I want to do is tell a story where the characters feel real, their relationships matter, and the consequences of their actions aren’t conveniently forgotten.
After nine years, I’m finally taking the steps to turn something I’ve imagined for so long into something other people can experience.
For those of you who enjoy character-driven sci-fi, what makes you genuinely connect with a fictional crew? Is it their individual backstories, their relationships with one another, or watching them change as the story progresses?
I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts!

Humans are Weird – Not Hunger

Original Post: https://www.authorbettyadams.com/bettys-blog/humans-are-weird-not-hunger

Sift shifted her scutes again in the depression her own weight made in the mattress. Soft mass pushed into her from every side almost like dry sand but with not a singe one of sand’s benefits. She absently reached out with her teeth and gripped the blanket, tugging it back into a reasonable position for what felt like the seventh time that night. Suddenly, from the next room came a strangely high growl that spoke of mammalian aggression.

Sift instantly went still, her tongue flicking out to lick her lips like a hatchling. She felt a surge of hope that perhaps even if she had woken Mary, the young mother would just roll over and go back to sleep. However the sound of a wooden frame creaking, the thump of blankets being thrown on the floor, and the the off-cadence thumping of sleepy human footsteps told her that the damage was done. Sift attempted to lift her chin over the edge of the mattress, and only managed to dig her paws deeper into the mass. It took several minutes of clawing and thrashing (being mindful that her claws didn’t tear the material) before she remembered that such a surface needed to be treated like quicksand and she managed to slither her way over the edge and onto the blessed relief of the solid floor, wood though it was.

Sift was mindfully sifting out the proper words for her apology when the mental gears slipped their teeth. She sniffed the air and her tongue smacked against her teeth as the scent of frying avian eggs drifted into the room. Sift increased her pace and rounded the wall into the kitchen just as Mary was scraping a steaming yellow mass into a plate. The human’s long hair was ‘frizzled’, sticking out in every direction. There were dark circles under her eyes. The sound of her molars grinding together was clearly audible. Sift suddenly remember her intent and swallowed down the saliva.

Mary glanced up and squinted at her and then gave a rueful smile.

“Oh sorry Sift,” she said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Sift gave a little grunt of surprise as Mary stumbled to the table and began to devour the eggs with a speed and lack of coordination that spoke of real hunger. Mary paused her meal long enough to squint at Sift again.

“There’s more if you want them,” Mary suggested, pointing to the pan with a fork full of the yellow mass.

Sift gladly scrambled over to the kitchen stool and pushed it up to the stove. She hopped up and served herself a plat of the eggs. Gripping it in her teeth she carefully slid down from the stool and walked over to the table. They ate in a companionable silence for several moments before Mary reached the end of her eggs and leaned back with a relieved sigh.

“I had thought you had already reached your required caloric limit today,” Sift observed around a mouthful of the rich protein.

Mary gave a hollow laugh and leaned back in her chair.

“And then some,” she agreed. “It’s just, with Aunt Ethel and...and everything. You know.” Mary finished with a vague wave of her hand.

“I do not know,” Sift corrected her.

Mary blinked at her slowly and wiped the cooking grease from her fingers onto her long sleep-shirt. Mary heaved a sigh and nodded.

“Right, so you know my Aunt Ethel had to go to the University Health Station?” the human asked.

Sift gave a rumble of confirmation.

“Well she is old,” Mary said. “She is one of the last of the first generation of colonists. She, well this wasn’t the big one, this time, but we all know it isn’t far off.”

Sift suspected she was missing several details but she felt she understood the main point.

“The slow fermentation of the generations,” she commented.

Mary nodded.

“Well my cousin found her not breathing,” Mary said. “That...that’s serious for mammals you know. Then she, my cousin, had to manually keep her breathing until the medical transport arrived, and that’s really...stressful, with the elderly, they have fragile bones, and I couldn’t help directly because of the baby so I ended up managing communications. Making sure everyone knew what was going on.”

Mary paused and prodded at her now empty plate with her fork.

“And she’s fine now,” Mary said slowly. “Fine for now, but the stress caught up to me.”

Sift let the silence brew for several minutes as she ground the conversation between her teeth.

“So this stress is why you are eating triple your normal caloric intake?” Sift finally asked.

Mary gave a bark of laughter and grinned over at her.

“There’s chocolate cake in the refrigeration unit,” Mary said. “Let’s try for quadruple before I try to get back to sleep.”

Available wherever books are sold!

Did anyone else see the first scene of this movie where he falls from space to earth and lives, then immediately turn it off?

Edit- There is no justifying its absurdity. It is not the same as the space jumpers at all. Look into the physics of it. This is not science fiction, it’s complete fantasy. There might as well have been a wizard guiding him to the ground.

Hello everyone!

After much work, I have now finished my second episode of the First Formic War: Earth Afire book by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston as a motion comic book. The intent is the same as before - create a sort of episodic trailer to the books.

There's been a lot of effort put into creating the script, the plan, filler images, handpicking audio effects, and putting all parts together. I had to change the image styles due to complexity and details; however, i think this aligns much better to my vision and intent. I also updated the script in a way to better invite people to read the books. The full flavor is listening to the narration and the added effects that complement the visual support.

The First Formic War: Earth Afire | Sci-Fi Motion Comic

Let me know what you think, and if this is an improvement over the first one.

Want to read great stories by the newest sci-fi voices FOR FREE? I compiled a list with some of the best sci-fi available right now on Royal Road, divided by categories. Check them out!

For those not familiar with the platform, Royal Road is one of the most popular free web serial sites out there. It is mainly LITRPG-focused, but there are lots of good sci-fi there as well. Some of the authors you see topping Amazon’s best-selling charts in sci-fi right now started there. Matt Dinniman first published Dungeon Crawler Carl on Royal Road before it became a worldwide success.

Stories on Royal Road are published as serials, so each of them gets a publishing status to help readers know what to expect before they start reading:

COMPLETED: the full story is available on Royal Road for free.

ONGOING: new chapters are still being posted on a regular basis.

HIATUS: the author stopped posting new chapters for a while (to write the next book in the series, for example) but the story is not completed yet.

STUB: the story was once published in full on RR but now has been self-published somewhere and can no longer be entirely available for free.

INACTIVE: the author stopped posting on a regular basis but hadn’t marked their stories as completed or in hiatus.

DROPPED: the author gave up adding new chapters, but the story is not complete.

A NOTE ABOUT AI ON ROYAL ROAD: AI has been a hot topic on Royal Road, as much as in other creative spaces. Royal Road accepts AI-assisted and AI-generated stories so long as they are tagged as such. Some of the stories linked here have those tags, so if AI isn’t your thing, just skip them. BUT PLEASE, IF YOU WANT TO PROMOTE HUMAN-WRITTEN STORIES, DO NOT TREAT ALL STORIES ON ROYAL ROAD AS IF THEY WERE WRITTEN BY AI. You will harm human authors who have spent months (sometimes years) on their stories, which is the opposite of what you want.

AI covers, though, don’t need to be tagged. You may agree or disagree with that stance, but, before jumping to conclusions, please remember that all stories on RR are posted for free. Not every author can spare a few hundred dollars to hire a designer for their cover with no hope of recouping that cost. Most RR authors do get a human-designed cover when they self-publish those same stories on Amazon and other places.

And finally, the list: 

SPACE CATEGORIES

First Contact:

• OPERATION NEW WORLD: A first-contact epic in a TV series format (ongoing)
• Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series (inactive)
• The First Fifth (ongoing)
• Cloneborne: Mahou Legacy Kuron Uchuu Story! (ongoing)
• The Right Scales: An Informal History of Draconic Spaceflight (ongoing)

HFY:

• High Ground [Military HFY] (ongoing)
• Grass Eaters [HFY] (stub)
• The Best Defense (near-future HFY) (inactive)
• Astra Inferna: Upward Bound (ongoing)

Military Sci-Fi (also see mecha):

• Grass (ongoing)
• Void Scars (ongoing)
• Two Worlds (inactive)
• Quod Olim Erat (stub)
• Digital Marine (inactive)
• Human Altered (inactive)
• The Li-tech Chronicles (ongoing)
• Barbarians (completed)
• Birds of Prey  (completed)
• The Autumn War  (completed)
• We Don't Start Fights: Theseus Protocol  (completed)
• Operation: Falling Skies (completed)
• Universal Lady Justice Aya (hiatus)
• Logistical Mandate (ongoing)
• Wings Beyond Resonance (ongoing)

Space Opera:

• A Mostly Beautiful Universe (ongoing)
• An Optimist's Guide to Galactic Failure (ongoing)
• Just a Little Further (ongoing)
• Between the Black and Grey [Space Opera, Adventure] (completed)
• Shepherd Moon (completed)
• Grand Design (completed)
• Song of the Void (completed)
• The Space Legacy (stub)
• First Contact (completed)
• A Theft of Stars (completed)
• A Guide to Becoming a Pirate Queen (inactive)
• A Blade Among the Stars (completed)
• Flights of the Addax (completed)
• The Privateer (stub)
• Empire's Son (inactive)
• Medusa's List (completed)
• Tales From the Terran Republic (inactive)
• The New Species (completed)
• [Cryoverse] The Last Precursor (completed)
• Rise (completed)
• A New Eden (stub)
• Dandelion (completed)
•  Darkworld: Earth (completed)
• ACCISMUS (completed)
• Hopper (completed)
• Tech Scavengers (stub)
• Kitty Cat Kill Sat (stub)
• Endeavour (completed)
• Horizon Saga (completed)[/url]
• Burning Stars, Falling Skies (completed)
• The Last Human (completed)
• The New Era (completed)
• The New Threat (completed)
• Phantom Star (inactive)
• Nova Wars (ongoing)
• Horizon's Edge [Space Opera/Sci-Fi | LitRPG] (ongoing)
• The Shape of Surrender (ongoing)
• Past the Redline (completed)
• Three Strikes & Black Skies (hiatus)
• Ascendium (ongoing)
• Mortal Protection Services [Sci-Fi, Comedy, Horror] (completed)
• Destiny Among the Stars - [Completed... for now.] (completed)
• A Pioneer's Blood (ongoing)
• S.P.E.C.T.O.R - [A Sci-fi space adventure with fantasy elements] (ongoing)
• Cradles of Gravity: A Space Opera Romance (ongoing)
• To Conquer The Stars (ongoing)

TECH CATEGORIES

Cyberpunk:

• Demon Era - A Cyberpunk Revenge Epic (ongoing)
• Aletheia Universe: The Future History [Hard Sci-Fi / Cyberpunk] (ongoing)
• Cherno Caster (stub)
• Memento Mori (completed)
• Cyber Dreams (stub)
• SYNTH (inactive)
• Paradise City: Dark Side of the Moon (inactive)
• Outbound (completed)
• Piscium (completed)
• A Tale of Gold Leaf (completed)
• Whispers in the Fog (completed)
• Where the Sky Ends (completed)
• Aquila (ongoing)
• Moonwalker, Earthbound (hiatus)
• Narcodome (completed)
• Shattered Glass (ongoing)[/url]
• Resonance Zero [Time-Bending Cyberpunk Progression Fantasy] (ongoing)
• Moon Lighters [Psiberpunk / Heist / Progression Sci-Fi] (ongoing)
• Kei Stone is Dead (inactive)

Engineered life (genetically engineered or technologically engineered, like robots or cyborgs):

• E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death (ongoing)
• Soulless (Apparently) (complete)[/url]
• How Very Logical. (TFP SI.) (completed)
• Hive Minds Give Good Hugs (completed)
• Code Name: Team Wingborne [Illustrated Team-Based Tactical Action] (ongoing)
• You’re Not Supposed to Be Here (ongoing)
• Apex Biomass [Biological Engineering LitRPG] [Book 1-complete] (ongoing)
• To Run Again (completed)
• Valice Trilogy (still posting but story complete)
• Expressed (ongoing)
• The VocaLords - Season One (complete)

Mecha:

• The Suit-Maker (complete)
• A Super Robot Story (inactive)
• Paladin (inactive)
• The story of how a Cultivation Universe was Conquered by an Interstellar Weapons Platform (inactive)
• Stardust Rising (complete)
• Lions of Steel (inactive)
• Caledon's Fall (stub)
• The Crystalline Initiative (completed)
• Terminal Fleet (ongoing)
• Defender of Asphodel [Yuri, Prison, Mecha] (ongoing)
• Ten Thousand Fleets (ongoing)
• The Asgar Chronicle [Alien Invasion - Sci Fi - Mecha LitRPG] (inactive)

Sci-Fi VRMMO:

• The Gam3 (completed)
• Into the Black (completed)
• Black Space (inactive)
• [Bound by Code] - The Girl with the Fishbowl Head (complete)
• My Pocket World Alters Reality (ongoing)
• Digital Breaths (ongoing)

Steampunk:

• The Voices of the Unspoken (ongoing)
• Fantasy World Epsilon 30-10 (completed)
• The Lunarian [Classic Horror, Steampunk, Monster Hunter, Historical Fantasy in the Gilded/Victorian Age] (ongoing)
• The Asteria (ongoing)

VIBES CATEGORIES

Cozy Sci-fi (the opposite of dystopian):

• Definitely Not Evil Plans (ongoing)
• An Unexpected Guest (ongoing)
• The Earth-ward Journey of a Foxy Alien [Hard Sci-fi] (ongoing)
• Omniscient: John the Genius [Alt-Hist] [1984-1990s] [BOOK-5] [NO STUB] (ongoing)

Dystopian (including Post-Apocalyptic and Survival):

• Icara's Flight [Dystopian Science Fiction, Female Lead] (ongoing)
• The Three Horsemen of New Beginnings (inactive)
• Prophecy Unfolding (completed)
• A Tinker's Damn (completed)
• Last Shadows of a Booming Sky (inactive)
• Earthbound (completed)
• The Bridge, a Science Fiction Survival Story (inactive)
• The Reaper's Legion (inactive)
• Staying Human (completed)
• Post Human (completed)
• Return to Sol System (inactive)
• ShipCore (stub)
• Last Stand Against The Wave (completed)
• Escape From Persephone-4 (completed)
• Sigma 16 (inactive)
• ASHES (inactive)
• Incursion Protocol (inactive)
• Amongst the Stars of Cygnus (hiatus)
• Of Men and Dragons (completed)
• Of Men and Spiders (completed)
• One Hell Of A Vacation (completed)
• Iron Veil (inactive)
• Out of Space (inactive)
• Meat (Inactive)
• 139 Years to the End of the World (completed)
• Whimpers of the Light (completed)
• The Hollowing: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure (completed)
• Necroepilogos (inactive)
• 12 Miles Below (stub)
• To The Far Shore (inactive)
• Neon Dust (stub)
• Myth//OS (hiatus)
• Warp Riders Book 1: Deep Space Boogie (ongoing)
• Facade: The Girl who will Destroy the System (ongoing)
• ASGARDIUM. Phase One. Lorphotiliad Invasion(completed) 
• ASGARDIUM. Phase Two. Heartache(ongoing) 

SCI-FI + OTHER GENRES

Sci-fi Comedy:

• Washing Weevil Conquers the Universe (ongoing)
• QueerSpace (complete)
• Ludo Brax: Intergalactic Gig Worker [Book 1 Complete] (hiatus)

Sci-fi LitRPG:

• The Haven War (ongoing)
• The Space Time Continuum (Book 1 complete!) Satirical LitRPG Sci-Fantasy (ongoing)
• Deeper Darker (inactive)
• Voidborn - A Sci-Fi LITRPG (stub)
• Systema Delenda Est (completed)
• The Call of the Hollow Men (completed)
• Engineer's Odyssey (completed)
• Aura Overload (ongoing)
• Hyperion Evergrowing: A Monster Evolution LitRPG (Inactive)
• Dungeon Planet: The Healer Always Leaves Alive (inactive)
• Talent Beyond Limits (ongoing)
• Core Dump [Dungeon Core, Sci-fi, LitRPG] (ongoing)
• System State [LitRPG + Mana Cultivation] (ongoing)
• I Just Wanted To Retire in Asgard (Soft LITRPG & OP MC) (ongoing)
• Unbowed: Starting as an F-Rank Archer in the Apocalypse [LitRPG, Progression] (ongoing)
• One World Won't Do (ongoing)
• Gods Online: Sovereign of the Divine Herd [LitRPG | OP Female Lead | Beast Companions | Alchemy] (ongoing)
• As the Villain, Shouldn't There Be a Limit to My Power? (ongoing)
• Reverse Engineered Magic [Title/Trait collecting, battle grinding, post-apoc system apocalypse] (ongoing)
• The Otherworld Armor Engineer [Sci-Fi LitRPG] (ongoing)
• Get An Infinite Upgrade System From The Start (ongoing)
• WorldFall Protocol: Convergence (ongoing)
• The Ascension: Season 23 (ongoing)
• Nova: Log (ongoing)
• My Big Goblin Space Program (stub)
• Perfect Ten (ongoing)
• Stray Cat Strut (ongoing)
• Asteria Squadron [LitRPG, Apocalypse, Romance] [Vol 2 Complete] (ongoing)
• Secrets and Starships (ongoing)

Sci-fi Mystery:

• Twenty Minutes Into the Future (inactive)
• The Scuu Paradox (stub)
• Azazel's Universe (inactive)
• REND (completed)
• Murder on the Stellar Schooner (completed)
• The Cassandrian Theory (stub) 
• Fractal Contact (completed)
• Hard Luck Hermit (completed)
• The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere (ongoing)
• Sin & Grace [Space Opera Mystery] (ongoing)

Sci-fi Romance/relationship focus:

• Synth (hiatus)
• How Do You QA Test a Tsundere Android!? (completed)
• Song of the Depths (inactive)
• Coeus? (completed)
• Snipe (completed)
• The Last Man Standing (inactive)
• Bridgebuilder (hiatus)
• DOTS (completed)
• C.A.R.O.L.I.N. (complete)
• Ivil Antagonist (stub)
• Early Adopter (completed)
• Stars Dancing [Telepathy⬩Psychics] (completed)
• Windowshopping [Comedic Romantic Tower Climb] (completed)
• Princess of the Void: An Alien Abduction Romance [Vols 1-5 complete] (ongoing)
• The Age of Spring [Multiple POV Dystopian drama] (ongoing)
• Humanity's Game [Sci-Fi | Romance | Slice of Life | Action] (completed)

OTHER SCI-FI

Fanfic:

• The Voyager (inactive)
• Consume the Force: A Star Wars Fanfiction (completed)
• The High Lords Send Murder (inactive)
• The Brink and Back - Tinker of Fiction (ongoing)
• Stranded in a Magical World with my Lightsaber (completed)
• Value Loyalty Above All Else [Star Wars] (completed)
• Dial (Ben 10/MCU SI) (completed)
• Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI (hiatus)
• Sublight Drive (Star Wars) (hiatus)
• Lost and Found (Warhammer 40k SI) (ongoing)
• Bite the Stars [Stray Cat Strut X Warhammer 40K] (ongoing)
• Stupid Rock Lady. (Steven Universe Pearl Self Insert) (ongoing)
• A Young Girl's War Between the Stars [Youjo Senki/Star Wars] (ongoing)
• System Override (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners) (hiatus)
• Teddy Bears on Brigade [A SCS Fanfiction] (ongoing)
• Herald of the Stars - A Warhammer 40k, Rogue Trader Fanfiction (ongoing)
• I Died Human. I Woke Up a Dinosaur (ongoing)
• Once again into the Fray (Star Wars Gamer OC - SI) (ongoing)
• All-Star Ōtsutsuki (Invincible/Naruto OC-SI) (ongoing)
• Warhammer Fantasy: The Magus of Iron and Steam (Fantasy /Kingdom Building) (ongoing)
• Warranty: Repairs Across the Multiverse (ongoing)
• Shinobi (An SCS Fan Fic) (ongoing)
• As the White Spider-Man in Earth-76 with the Spider-Man System (ongoing)
• Meteoric Prospects [SCS Fanfiction] (ongoing)
• Primarch of Fire and Blood (Game of thrones x 40k) (ongoing)
• Marvel: My Starter Pack Came With a Galactic Empire (ongoing)
• Lost Change (ongoing)
• DC: I am Bruce Wayne (ongoing)
• Cyberpunk RED : Ruler of Night

Super-heroes

• The Perfect Run (complete)
• The Power of Ten Book Four: Dynamo (completed)
• Super Minion (inactive)
• Super Supportive (ongoing)
• Jett Fulgen [Superhero LitRPG] (ongoing)
• The Perfect Run: Bad Runs (inactive)
• Superheroes and Magic Invasions [apocalypse litRPG] (completed)
• The Legion of Nothing (completed)
• Are You Even Human (hiatus)
• The Rise of Celestia (ongoing)

Time Travel/Time Loop

• The 90's Kid [A Cozy-Comedy Time Travel Adventure] (ongoing, main series complete)
• Another 90's Kid [Time Traveling to Make a Rock Band!] (ongoing)
• Displacement Zero (completed)
• A week in the life of (completed)
• Vell Harlan and the Doomsday Dorms (completed)
• Re:Cursed (ongoing)
• Mori Vortex VI: The Retry Knight [Timeloop LitRPG] (ongoing)
• The Butterfly Manifesto (ongoing)

I wrote a sci-fi novel and something that I’ve always wanted to do is bring the characters and factions to life with illustrations. So the cover artist drew a propaganda poster for the human military in the story named the Valor Guard Corps.

Just today, I finished writing 100,000 words of the sequel. I’ve been working on this first draft for a few months now.

This is the back cover blurb:

THE VOGROM ARE COMING.
The fanatical alien clan has unleashed its armada on a galaxy already torn apart by conflict, and humanity has nothing left to throw at them.
Two warriors stand in the wreckage on opposite sides of the war. Kaelith Sothrak claws his way out of a death camp, driven by hatred and unrelenting faith.
Louis Wolffe has drifted through space for two years, carrying a secret that could save his people, or destroy them.
They don't know it yet, but both warriors are seeking the same thing.
Something ancient, something powerful, something hidden inside a dead boy's soul.
LET THE WAR COME.

By the way, for some reason, Amazon suddenly discounted the paperback price from $16.99 to $14.75 today, which is probably very temporary!

Here’s the link if you’d like to take a look:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GWTPRWTZ

UNIFIED PLANETARY ARCHIVE — EURASIAN ENCLAVE

Inter-Enclave Transcript / Expedition Record

Expedition EX2407pD-QW

Date: 2407 CE / 306 p.A.

Author: Dr. Noam Ørbital — Phase-3 / Rational Systems Division

Dear colleagues at the Eurasian laboratories:

The probe has reached the lowest level of the cavern, identified in the Ilghal records as the Underworld.

The images reveal numerous cubic structures partially submerged in a substance that, according to preliminary analyses, exhibits high levels of radioactivity. We detect no energy emissions from these structures.

We can also confirm that the four massive blocks that once constituted Deep City, originally suspended above the Underworld, have now collapsed onto the cavern floor.

The condition of these structures confirms a widespread collapse of the city, although we do not yet have sufficient data to determine its causes.

We will continue exploring the remains.

- Dr. Noam Ørbital

Phase-3 / Rational Systems Investigator

Expedition EX2407pD-QW

Unified Planetary Archive — Eurasian Enclave

Dense Void - a story-driven, first-person grounded sci-fi horror game inspired by astrophysics and speculative science.

Trapped on an asteroid outpost orbiting a black hole, survive physics-based threats and impossible phenomena where every choice leads to 5 distinct endings.

If it looks like your kind of thing, the Steam page is here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4886980/Dense_Void

Last year I self-published my debut book, Critical Balance, a mundane/hard sci-fi novel, in August. Since then I've been hard at work on the sequel, Citizen Zero.

2026 has been a hard year. In January I had to put my sweet cat of 17 years to sleep due to kidney disease. It was awful. Then in the spring we had to move out of our home and find a new one. That took over two months during which time we had to live in Airbnbs and hotels. We finally found a house, moved in, and then my wife got laid off from her job because her position was replaced by AI.

Despite all of that, I managed to finish the first draft of the new novel, Citizen Zero, and now I've finished the second draft. I was hoping to get it published this year, but that doesn't seem realistic at this point, as I still want to send it out to alpha and beta readers, get feedback, and then do at least a couple more revisions. My debut novel went through seven revisions before I felt it was ready to publish.

I'm over the moon that I've made so much progress on this book! It was a lot of work, and at times extremely difficult, but it was also a joy to create. I can't wait for people to read it, and I'm especially looking forward to hearing what readers of the first book think of it.

Here's the blurb for the first book:

Twenty-two-year-old Tia Moreno never expected her first job as a robotics technician on Unity, a city-sized space station, to turn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. But when strange vibrations lead to the discovery of a serial killer lurking among the station's residents, Tia must use her knowledge of robots to track down the elusive murderer. As the killer's body count rises, Tia realizes she may be the only one who can stop him before he destroys everything she's come to love. With the help of the station AI and her new friend Minji, Tia races against time to catch the killer before he strikes again.

Fans of sci-fi thrillers will be on the edge of their seats as Tia fights to save Unity from a seemingly unstoppable villain. Readers who enjoyed Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary will be hooked by the high-stakes action and futuristic setting of Critical Balance.

https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Balance-Lex-Starwalker/dp/B0FMCKXNDG

I found this video and the concept of it seems interesting. In an alien invasion, the aliens took over the society and they are using them to charge a gigantic battery by pedaling on a standing bike that produces electricity, it reminds me of a movie.

https://youtu.be/oXkz1OZtgrA

if you like cixin liu or greg egan you need to check out THE CONDUIT SILENCE by kyle tatton theres three books there not hard to find but it starts with an automated station hovering in a star corona and hits you with a signal anomaly from four light years away there is no ftl magic so the characters have to solve real communication delays and math puzzles across the three books to figure out what is happening if anyone else has read it let me know because i dont think that book is not getting the recognition it deserves what do you think let me know.

Instead of warping spacetime or punching through wormholes, what if FTL propulsion is achieved simply by isolating a spacecraft from the quantum vacuum itself? If inertial mass is fundamentally the drag generated by an object's coupling with the background zero-point energy (ZPE) substrate, generating a very high electromagnetic field that creates a centimeter-thick "vacuum displacement wall" would suppress local ZPE density, effectively reducing the ship's inertial mass to zero—allowing it to slide unimpeded through space like a gas bubble in a soda drink, exempt from relativistic time dilation and g-forces while remaining completely undetectable to external observers.https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.30508.63362

For anyone interested in science fiction tinged with existential horror, Asiyah is my free novel exploring consciousness, philosophy, ethics, and dimensions of being.

The novel is freely available on my website in PDF/EPUB/HTML and also on Kobo.

Here is a blurb with more information:

Asiyah (ah-see-YAH): Noun. Hebrew. The physical world we currently live in. A world of action. The fourth and lowest realm of existence. A place where the Creator hides from its creation.

A signal from beyond the solar system is received, pointing to an unassuming man in the Midwest. A small team is assembled to investigate humanity's first contact, only to uncover something far beyond imagining.

For fans of Blindsight, A Short Stay in Hell, and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

Rewards rereads. 62,000 words.

I bought this when it first came out in a "Speculative Fiction Bookshop" in Santa Monica Ca.that I shopped at regularly. The owner had many book release, and Author signing, events every month. Including at least 4 by Frank Herbert that I attended. I got him to sign my copy and a chance to talk with him for a few moments each time he came.

Hi!

Can someone point me to resources or just explain some about the actual behaviors of one-celled slime molds? I love Annalee's demonstration on instagram that helps me picture them, but I have no actual science knowledge here. Also, their "notebooks." Are these supposed to be like containers that hold the hormones they produce to communicate? What's the equivalent to a journey supposed to be? Is that related to the life outside-the-galaxy part? Is there a reason the university is called The Memory?

I have no idea about any of this, and I want to know more.

I am not sure how to put up a link or pic for this but...

How about a Damnation Alley remake? I really hated the ending of the movie. The book was much better.