Joe Vasicek
1) Desert Stars
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A tale from the fringes of an interstellar empire that has forgotten its holiest legend: the story of Earth.
He was the sole heir to the Najmi camp, a young man raised by tribesmen after falling to the desert from his home among the stars. She was the sheikh's most beautiful daughter, promised his hand in marriage-if she can convince him to stay.
Together, they must travel to a land where glass covers the sky and men traverse the stars as easily...
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This is the first volume of the collected short stories by Joe Vasicek. It contains: The Gettysburg ParadoxThe greatest battle of all time, secretly fought by time travelers.(Gallery of Curiosities, June 2018; Bards and Sages Quarterly, July 2019) Utahraptors at DawnA duel to the death with dinosaurs. Killing Mister WilsonEvery time traveler wants to kill Hitler. Only one actually stopped him.(Uprising Review, September 2017; Unrealpolitik, November...
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Will AI herald the death of human creativity, or its startling rebirth?"Quantum Worlds" is a science fiction story about Robert, the editor-in-chief of a struggling science fiction magazine. In a last ditch effort to save the magazine, he and his wife come up with the idea of using AI to help with the submissions. The idea proves to be a game changer. As the magazine becomes successful again, Robert and his wife face challenges from the science fiction...
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Two brothers, one starship. A girl frozen in cryostasis. A galaxy on the verge of war.This omnibus edition contains the complete Sons of the Starfarers series, including:BROTHERS IN EXILEIsaac and Aaron are nothing if not survivors. Their homeworld lost and their people scattered, all they have left is each other. Then, in the Far Outworlds, they find a dead colony with a beautiful young woman frozen in cryostasis. She is also a survivor-and she needs...
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The ultimate redemption can only be gained after you confront the past.When the scientists at Heinlein Station punched a wormhole through the stars, they created a temporal paradox with dire ramifications for the future of humanity. Now, Estee and Khalil are trapped in the product of that paradox: an ancient, alien ghost ship that has wandered the stars for millions of years, biding its time for the final day of reckoning.Her family broken and her...
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War brought them together, but only hope can unite them.
War has come to the Outworlds. An Imperial expeditionary force has taken the frontier systems and threatens to strike at the heart of the New Pleiades. The only thing standing in their way is a ragtag flotilla of starfarers and merchanters, their motives as varied as the stars from which they hail.
Aaron Deltana can barely speak the same language as his Outworld comrades, but he isn't about...
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The future of the Outworlds now lies in uncertain hands.
The war for the Outworlds is on. The Imperials may have lost the first round, but they're back-and this time, a ragtag flotilla isn't going to stop them.
When Aaron recieves a captain's commission in the new Outworld Confederacy, Mara is his natural choice for second in command. But Mara never expected to live past the first few battles. She only joined the resistance to avenge her father,...
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There ain't no such thing as a free voyage through a trans-dimensional pocket singularity!
Hello, friends. Christopher Columbus Jackson here. After my last adventure, I set out to make my fortune as a treasure hunter. Unfortunately, I crossed paths with some very bad people, and only my trusted starship, the Millennial Falcon, and a friendly warrior monk of the Church of Jesus Christ of Post-Millennial Saints, Orthodox kept me from falling into their...
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From captive slave to star queen.Zlata always yearned to see the stars, but when a raiding party of starfaring nomads carries her off captive, she can't help but wonder if this is more than she bargained for. When their captain, Lord Khasan Valdamar, shows an unusual interest in her, Zlata quickly finds that she can leverage that to her advantage. But the more time she spends among his people, the less she wants to escape. Determined to save herself...
10) Edenfall
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The ultimate truth requires you to sacrifice your innocence.
Sixteen years ago, Estee's parents abandoned their scientific mission to the planet Icaria and made the new world their home. They thought it would be decades before anyone else came to this rugged, edenic paradise. They were wrong.
Young, fearless, and free, the only other people Estee has ever known are her own immediate family. So when a military expedition arrives from Earth, she is...
11) The Sword Keeper
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Only those who rise to their calling discover why they were chosen.
A thousand years ago, an order of twelve magic swords kept the world at peace. Each sword had a personality, a mind, and a memory. Through the bonds they shared with their bearers, the wisdom and skill of generations was preserved.
But the swords became corrupted. They turned on each other, shattering the order and plunging the world into war. The twelfth sword went into hiding...
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A woman needs a man like an authorized cyborg bounty hunter needs an AI familiar.Meet Gini, a petite raven-haired femme who weighs all of 105 pounds galactic in a dripping wet shirt-before her carbon-fiber bone implants, of course. As one of the few authorized cyborgs still alive after the war, she's a bounty hunter now, taking down hardened criminals with the help of her most trusted friend, a class 4 artificial intelligence named Henry.But when...
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To boldly go where no Earthfleet Academy Xenolinguistics major has gone before.
Jane Carter never thought she'd be the first human in the galaxy to be sold at an alien slave auction. As a xenolinguics major, she always wanted to explore new frontiers, but not like this.
As the bid price rockets to staggering heights, it becomes increasingly clear that only one man can rescue her: the one who sold her out. Thankfully, there are alternatives to being...
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Fate has brought them across time and space, but war will drive them farther.
For countless ages, Reva Starchild has slept in perfect cryostasis. Frozen in secret to escape a catastrophic death, she awakens only to find herself the sole survivor of a people whom history never remembered. Light-years from her homeworld, among a culture she finds both perverse and obscene, she must somehow build a new life for herself where misplacing her trust could...
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They called him a lone wolf. Now, he has to lead them across the stars.
Five years have passed since the Hameji conquered James McCoy's homeworld. The yoke of occupation has grown unbearable, and unless he can help his people throw it off, everything that he fought for will be destroyed.
Light-years away, in the heart of the Good Hope Nebula, there is a place where they can start over. But the dangers are many, and the way is unclear. Only a strong...
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There is no escape beyond star's end.
The deadliest pirates in the galaxy have stolen the technology that will transform it. Now, on the edge of known space, they are poised to start an empire of their own.
Isaac and Reva are running out of time. Neither of them knows the extent of Gulchina's plans, or whether the madwoman will keep them both alive after she achieves them.
But an unexplored planet beyond the Far Outworlds holds an ancient alien...
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Not long from now, in our own Milky Way...
The name's Sam Kletchka. Perhaps you've heard of me: captain of the Star Runner, military contractor for Earthfleet, and interstellar privateer. But before all that, I was a hired gun, freelancing across the galaxy one gun slinging job at a time.
This, my friends, is how I went from being stranded in the armpit of the galaxy to becoming the luckiest human being in the universe. Not that it was easy, of...
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A chilling glimpse of an all-too possible future.
"In cases where there may be severe deformities... I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."
This story is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license...
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Hard times bring out the greatness in men, and those who give all are changed forever.
When James got stuck with dockyard duty while Ben and Stella get to go planetside without him, he never thought he might never see his older brother and sister again. But shortly after they leave, a Hameji battle fleet invades the star system, turning it into a deadly war zone.
As James flees with his father on the family starship, he can only look on powerlessly...