Classic Space Opera

Jan Kulozik was one of Earth's privileged elite. A brilliant young electronics engineer, he enjoyed all the blessings of a twenty-third-century civilization that survived global collapse and conquered the starts, unaware of the millions who slaved or starved to maintain his way of life. Then Jan met Sara, a beautiful agent of the rebel underground dedicated to smashing Earth's rigid caste system. Through her he discovered the truth behind the lies he'd been taught.

Jan Kulozik is in exile: sentenced to service the machines of Halvork, the farmworld that grows crops to fill the holds of Earth's grain-ships. This Wheelworld, baked by eternal summer, is a world of peasants enslaved by a handful of powerful families.

Chthon was Piers Anthony's first published novel in 1967, written over the course of seven years. He started it when he was in the US Army, so it has a long prison sequence that is reminiscent of that experience, being dark and grim. It features Aton Five, a space man who commits the crime of falling in love with the dangerous, alluring Minionette and is therefore condemned to death in the subterranean prison of Chthon.

Kate Archer returns home in search of her missing grandmother Bonny, and to serve as guardian of the town's amusement park until her return… only the carousel animals are really exiles from the faerie world. And not the nice kind of exiles either - no, these are hardened criminals.

In the year 2135, dangerous alien life forms freed in the destruction of Saturn's moon, Enceladus, are making their way toward Earth. A task force spearheaded by Lt. Cmdr. Shaila Jain is scrambling to beat them there while simultaneously trying to save crewmember Stephane Durand, who was infected during the mission to Saturn and is now controlled by a form of life intent on reopening a transdimensional rift and destroying the human race.

She was Dion the Wolfwalker, and through her telepathic bond with the Gray Ones, she could hear the packsong and run with the wolves. But now, as fate ripped from her almost everything she held dear, her wolfbond became her only reason to live, for she could not deny the Call of the wolves to help them.

For nearly one thousand years, the Core Empire has held together thousands of star systems and billions of citizens. But a coup attempt has broken the empire into pieces. Some planets and systems have survived and still have law and order. Others have fallen to barbarism and piracy. For young Hugh Cascade, this is but a history lesson, even if the nightmares of kinetic weapons exploding have followed him through most of his childhood. Ten years later, the war finds Hugh, now a military cadet.

The Patrol has a strict policy of pushing any star ship infected with unknown plagues straight into the sun, no questions asked. When the crew of the Queen start dropping like flies with no explanation, rival traders start crying, 'Plague Ship!'

Mysterious blackouts left Kira with precious few memories of events in her life, never mind those worth sharing. Somewhere in those blank spots she acquired skills - skills she was hard pressed to explain. But those skills got her a job as the new navigator for the Rented Mule, a transport ship that plied the Rim Systems at the very edge of human civilization.

Within a space opera landscape, Harmony explores the spirituality of a different human culture bound by a rigid caste system. Laudae Sissy, the new High Priestess of the world called Harmony, reaches across all seven castes of her society, seeking a new unity that will protect their isolation from the rest of the galaxy. But other cultures and races are testing their borders, searching for the most valuable commodity in civilized space.

In a war room in Washington, William Tecumseh Sherman and General Robert E. Lee huddle together and plan their next, joint military operation. In the jungles of Mexico, Ulysses S. Grant is locked in brutal combat with the best of the British Army. And in the heart of the new American South a fragile peace is threatened...

Meanwhile, on another side of the Universe. . .Meet Gem ser'Edreth, a wizard with electronics -- and a freelance thief. Deliberately solitary, unencumbered by family or friends, he immerses himself in his profession, rising to a pinnacle of skill so exalted that the planetary crime boss seeks him out with a commission to steal. Refusing the commission, of course, is his first mistake.

Henghis Hapthorn is the foremost penetrator of mysteries and uncoverer of secrets in a decadent, far-future Old Earth, one age before Jack Vance's Dying Earth. A superb rationalist, he has long disdained the notion that the universe has an alternative organizing principle: Magic. But now a new age is dawning, overturning the very foundations of Hapthorn's existence, and he must struggle to survive in a world where all the rules are changing.

During the peacekeeping operations in the Kosovo region of the Balkans, a group of vampires are discovered by the American forces. The report of the discovery attracts the interest of the commander of the elite and highly secretive organization; the United States Special Operations Command, who sends in his own personnel to investigate. When the General learns that the creatures actually exist, his team, led by Navy Commander John Reese, devises a method of capture and brings the vampires back to the United States.

Thousands of years from now, the human race has expanded throughout the galaxy, colonizing millions of worlds and creating myriads of bizarre new religious cults and sects. One of these worlds is Stohlson's Redemption, where the human settlers raise dinosaurs for their religious ceremonies. When the ten-year-old Kerryl Ryson creates an unseemly incident that upsets a visiting Important Person, his father is fed to a dinosaur - as an object lesson in politeness - and his remaining family are sold into slavery.

As a lifer in the Imperial Navy, fighting in a war that has lasted generations, Lieutenant York Ballin's only hope for an honorable discharge is the grave. Neither the Empire nor the Directorate seems to care that millions have died or that millions more are doomed as hostilities continue. Ballin's only option is to hunker down, keep his crewmen and women in top condition, and try not to get them all killed.

While the universe was still young, vambraces were forged, giving their users extraordinary abilities. A brutal war was won through the blood and sacrifice of patriots. Soon, the vambraces faded to legend. Now, Frank and Marine Space Corps-1 find themselves across the galaxy, where an ancient evil is growing. From exploratory crew to the front of enemy lines, Frank will have to decide whether to play the part of hero or to be the Marine needed to win the war.

This is the second audiobook in the "Mars Series". After the long exile on Earth, John Carter finally returns to his beloved Mars. But beautiful Dejah Thoris, the woman he loves, has vanished.

After a 10 year absence, John Carter returns to Mars and seeks to be reunited with his wife, the princess Dejah Thoris. Along the way, he both befriends, and often combats, a fantastic array of alien creatures and humanoids, while discovering the true nature of the Martian religions.

A Princess of Mars is the first novel in Edgar Rice Burroughs's famous "Barsoom" science fiction series. John Carter, a Confederate American Civil War veteran is mysteriously transported to Mars, called "Barsoom" by its inhabitants. Carter finds that he has great strength on this planet, due to its lesser gravity. Carter soon falls in among the Tharks, a nomadic tribe of the planet's warlike, four-armed, green inhabitants.