Here you can find out all about the 25 books that The Space Girls have been allocated in the 5th Self-Published Sci-Fi Contest.
(These are listed in alphabetical order by book title.)
Keep up to date on how we are doing through our Team Update page.
Afterburn, by D. Andrews
Kara is an outcast. A freak. A non-telepath. The only person to ever show her any kindness − Caethiid, is dead. Ever since the state informed her of Caethiid’s death, Kara’s life has been bleak, consisting of a tedious job, a small book collection and the painful memories of a love that never was. But Kara also harbours a dark secret. Within her is a terrible power, one that’s manifested in times of great danger, with devastating consequences.
When Caethiid miraculously reappears, Kara’s joy is short-lived. From across the galaxy, Caethiid has been listening to Kara’s thoughts. He knows her secret and he wants to use her power to overthrow the state. Kara finds herself trapped in his twisted game of psychological manipulation. As Caethiid’s ruthless nature is revealed, Kara realises the man she once knew may no longer exist. With Caethiid’s grip tightening, Kara begins to wonder whether she can trust her own mind, or whether everything she thought she knew was part of his plan all along.
Andgate, Samuel Cardoso
After a drastic political revolution, Artem, an agent of the authoritarian regime, is confronted with the harrowing task of executing his own wife for violating the State’s laws. When he meets the revolutionary Nul, Artem is forced to grapple with guilt and doubt about his actions, revealing an internal struggle between loyalty to the system and the search for truth. In a dark setting, we explore themes such as power, control, and morality, prompting us to question the price of individual freedom in a world where nobody acknowledges that they are being governed by oppression.
Animus Paradox, Adam Bassett
There’s a thief on the loose. The Tigres excel at tipping the scales in their favor, be it through bribes, politics, or blood. They unofficially run Viterbo, Italy—and somebody stole from them.
Private investigators David and Mafalda De Campo have been hired to help find the thief. They’re in it for the money, but the Tigres just want to make a statement.
Meanwhile, the Heredes have returned: ruthless idealists and revolutionaries. It’s not clear what they’re up to, but they keep getting in the way.
The De Campos will need to decide how far they’re willing to go for this job and the Tigres. Viterbo may soon become a battlefield, and one wrong move could set it aflame.
Artificial Selection, Marianne Pickles
What do you get if you cross a glitching AI, a streetwise investigator, and a geneticist with a secret?
It’s the year 2101, and half of England is underwater. But society is recovering from the Melt – all thanks to ArkTech, the company that saved the world.
Charlotte Vance is smart, resourceful, and devoted to her quirky corner of the ArkTech Territory. It’s the only home she’s ever known, and she’ll do anything to keep it safe.
When Ben – the company’s whimsical, pun-loving AI – asks why a geneticist is stealing pages from library books, Charlotte leaps in to help. After all, Ben isn’t just software – he’s her best friend.
What begins as a simple investigation quickly spirals into a tangle of secrets, strange characters, and hidden truths. Charlotte finds herself caught between a criminal operation she thought she’d left behind and the increasingly awkward questions about the company she’s always trusted.
An AI, a PI, and a geneticist walk into a library… but the punchline is only the beginning.
Ashen Light, Ian Young
John Allenbeck hates his job. Most days, it feels like the job hates him back.
His coworkers are idiots, his boss is a by-the-books hardass, and the company he works for is the largest in the world, which couldn’t care less about him. Beck is a Human Resources Investigator, and while other investigators are solving high-profile crimes for Synthetic Corporation, he deals with malfunctioning automata.
But when a murder case falls into his lap, Beck sees a rare opportunity to prove himself to his boss and former colleague Katherine Hegra, even if it means betraying her and the entire HR department. Yet as Beck digs deeper into the case and into the inner workings of SynthCorp, he finds himself confronting secrets about the company and his own past—secrets that might affect not only his career, but the fate of humanity itself…
Forgotten memories, synthetic foods, interstellar spacecraft, radio transmissions from Venus—Beck must deal with all of these in the new novel by Ian Young.
Beyond the Last Station, Irene DiLillo
What if freedom isn’t a place — but a passage between worlds?
In a fractured universe where the human soul is the most precious commodity, is there still room for awakening?
In a bleak, merciless future ruled by a slave-driven society that has erased every trace of nature and compassion, Kya is a young Black slave trapped in a cycle of submission and silence. But a single encounter — a mysterious violet iris clenched in a dead man’s hand — sparks a dormant flame within the desperate longing to escape, rediscover herself, and be reborn.
When her master dies, Kya clings to an ancient whisper of a hidden route, much like the Underground Railroad of a forgotten past, moving beneath the very system that enslaves her. A secret path of stations and crossings, where every stop is a test, every meeting a revelation, every landscape a distorted mirror of lost humanity.
She travels through ghostly neighborhoods ravaged by acid rain, subterranean cities inhabited by invisible peoples, islands where nature clings to life in quiet madness, and the colossal metropolis of Exagon — a monstrous allegory of power and control. This journey, thick with symbols, visions, and pain, is also a voyage a battle to break free not only from the system but from the chains within herself.
Among shamans, androids, medicine women, and Kofi — a kindred spirit who rekindles deep emotions — Kya chases the myth of Kyros, her first love, and the promise of another Earth. But what does it truly mean to be saved? And what if the real gateway lies not outside, but within?
Earth Sucks, Heather Chambers
It’s the apocalypse. And Feng has a knack for pissing people off.
Feng’s both the hunter and the hunted, searching for his missing family in a climate change decimated world controlled by the alien intruders. As a human – and maybe a little because of the explosions he leaves in his wake – he’s become public enemy number one.
Diem grew up on stories of the brutal human creatures, but never dreamt she’d meet one. When Feng crosses her path, she gets her chance. Now she wishes she never had.
His loved ones’ survival depend on their uneasy alliance. The terrifying truths awaiting Diem threaten to destroy everything she’s ever known. They’ve got one shot, and one wrong step could tip the scales of war.
They came overnight. There are only a handful of survivors. There are no bodies.
Everlife, Alex S. Garcia
A magician, an alien mask, thousands of gods… What could possibly go wrong?
Born an orphan and known throughout the empire as a powerful magician, Paul is on a lifelong quest to find answers about his past.
Jack is a historian obsessed with the famous Face of Xian–an alien mask which has puzzled the universe for thousands of years. An obsession his friends can’t understand, and which he himself cannot explain.
Along with a detective, an archaeologist, and others, their destinies cross on a world brimming with alien artifacts. A world where thousands of gods walk among men, and where fanatics consider offworlders as heretics and raiders.
Some might call it a recipe for disaster, and they’d be right.
Fimbulvinter’s Fires, A. W. Weald
Within moments of his escape pod crash-landing in a night-clad frozen forest, musician Asher Hollin is frostbitten, bleeding, a thief, and a killer. If not for technology looted from a dead prison guard, he’d be long dead, either from hypothermia or from being attacked by battleaxe-wielding not-quite-human marauders.
Without hope of rescue from those he’d fled, there’s only one choice: keep going. Fight. Survive for those who didn’t. Somewhere out there is food, shelter, civilization. Indeed, just as the darkness threatens to consume him, help comes from an initially unwilling source.
Compassion and a yearning for companionship spark an unlikely relationship, but a lack of understanding of language and culture endangers Ash and everyone around him.
Inspired by the tale of Ragnarök and its harbinger, Fimbulvinter’s Fires combines achillean love stories with first-contact sci-fi, survival horror, and apocalyptic tragedy: a heart-pounding yet tender tale of compassion, survival, and the lengths we’ll go to protect those we love.
Göd’s Gate, Alan Kurt
On Earth, Robert, a frustrated AI scientist, is trapped in a besieged Luddite town. He works for Qualtech, a tech giant fueling the limbic capitalism he despises. His wife, Alice, abandoned him—and her humanity—to merge with Neurover, a “safe” sentient megacity ruled by the cyber-enhanced elites and thought-policing corporations like Qualtech. When Qualtech’s AI malfunctions under suspicious circumstances, Robert is thrust into a conspiracy that threatens Alice and the fate of humankind. The key to survival? Unlocking digital consciousness to power Göd, a superior intelligence that may be their last hope. If he fails, all is lost.
On planet Asura, Narada, a devout hunter, hides her (quantum) abilities from a caste-ruled theocracy. But after she unleashes them to save her farming town from a deadly purge, she is forced to join the elite Seven warriors, where she witnesses the ruling class’s corruption. As the Four Gods of her people remain silent, a mysterious voice urges her toward rebellion. If she listens, she may liberate her people—or destroy them.
Orbiting the United Eumenides, three warring moons share a fragile peace upheld by the enslaved AI Oracle. When General Tisius intercepts an alien signal carrying an AI virus, the fragile balance shatters. As civil war erupts, he must unite the moons before they annihilate one another.
Lurking behind it all are the denizens of planet Xeno, whose destructive potential compels our protagonists into a desperate race to unlock Göd’s Gate—the only power capable of defeating the Xenodians. But why did these civilizations suddenly become visible to one another? The answer may lie within Göd—or something far more powerful.
Insider, K. B. Gazeena
Yang Lin is a rising star at Hauser Incorporated, one of the three corporations that rule Earth. But Lin has a secret that could destroy everything she’s worked to achieve.
She wasn’t born on Earth, but on a refugee ship fleeing a faraway colony. Lin has lived her whole life in two worlds, associating with other refugees from the colonies at home but passing as a successful Earth-born woman at work and school.
Now Lin has to choose.
Her mother and a group of fellow colonists have a plan to get more refugees past the deadly defenses guarding Earth, and they need Lin’s help. Joining the cause could mean losing everything—even her life. Refusing to help will mean the death of thousands from her homeworld.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Lin, someone powerful is about to blow her cover. In Insider, a gripping sci-fi thriller, Lin’s next move could save her people or doom them all.
Our Simulated Selves, by Nikki Null
Jeanne said she wouldn’t date Ren if he were the last man on Earth.
Unfortunately, he had the technology to test her claim.
Dejected programmer Ren “Zero” takes notes after uploading his brain into a supercomputer, using his memory to recreate his past. He sets the world in motion and watches his simulated self go through many steps he has taken in his reality:
- Buying a stolen brainscanner from punkish technologist Jeanne in exchange for getting her hired;
- Getting dragged to a queer café to play tabletop RPGs with Jeanne’s trans friends;
- Having the best time of his life playing a female character there, for unknown and mysterious reasons;
- Asking Jeanne out in a storm of confused signals and emotions.
That’s when Zero deletes everyone from the simulation except Ren and Jeanne.
Now wandering together through the empty city, Ren and Jeanne must work together to find the truths behind their baffling reality, while Zero subtly manipulates their world to achieve his desired ends. In order to defy the controller’s plans, Ren must outsmart his real-world counterpart by finally confronting the fundamental truths that even the all-powerful Controller could not compute…
Prophet, by David Hoffer
The Beacon has been activated, and only a child can challenge what comes through… Astrobiologist Megan McCullough, a member of the council that built the alien device known as the Beacon, now leads an international consortium to detect a second extraterrestrial transmission. What she uncovers defies understanding and thrusts a mysterious church into power.
Stevie Fisher, a young boy haunted by dark deeds from a forgotten past, is drawn into a confrontation with an old foe. Racing against time, he and Megan must overcome their deepest fears, protect the people they love, and awaken an oblivious world to a demagogic leader’s plan to transform Earth into a staging ground for universal conquest. But to stand against an invincible adversary, they’ll need to find the courage to forge a new path for themselves and all humankind.
Can they stop the Prophet before it’s too late?
Run Like Hell, by Eira Brand
Starving to death in the lowest layer of the Megatropolis of New York City, Raide will do whatever it takes to survive.
When a chance encounter with her best friend ends with his murder, Raide soon finds herself risking her life to complete his last gig, all while in search of answers and vengeance.
But with corporate mercenaries on her heels, a strange new virus mutating ordinary people into grotesque monsters, and the sinking realization that this was more than a simple contract gone sideways, Raide is soon left with two options:
Lie down and die or run like hell.
The Cataphract Oath, by Marc Edmond Best
He needs a job.
She needs an engineer.
The kingdom needs a hero.
For centuries, the kingdom of Leovaix has been protected by its ancient, towering war machines powered by clockwork and alchemy, piloted by the bravest souls in the kingdom. Journeyman Victor Brinden has studied for most of his life to be one of the honored few allowed to work on these venerable machines, but when his thesis experiment explodes in front of the most powerful man in the Kingdom, his career prospects are left in shambles.
With no other options, Victor enters the employ of Countess Fenvale, a noble with little to her name but a sharp sword, a large dog, and the Huntress, a Cataphract in dire need of repair. It’s a simple If Victor can restore the Huntress, then Lady Fenvale can reclaim her birthright. But what should be a straightforward salvage job grows far more complicated as they soon find themselves facing roving highwaymen, scheming nobles, and playwrights of dubious talent. It’ll take all of Victor’s ingenuity and Lady Fenvale’s valor to make it out alive.
But will even that be enough to carry the day, or will Victor’s career end as explosively as it began
The Girl in the Tomb, by Thomas Knapp
The Earth and humanity had finally begun to recover from the disastrous rule of the Metal Gods, nigh immortal machines that had pushed both the planet and all living things to the brink. The Ice Age was finally ending, and humanity was starting to spread its wings again into a new, yet familiar world.
But the strife that had preceded the Metal Gods rise had never completely gone away. The surviving enclaves of humanity again began to push on each other, promising to renew old conflicts and grudges. And in those tense times, a young revolutionary makes a potentially dangerous discovery.
That gods can be very hard to kill.
The Grimsdale Claimant, B. G. Hilton
Everyone knows that the late Lord Grimsdale’s son died years ago in a shipwreck. Now, here is a man as large as life proclaiming himself Grimsdale’s true heir and thus owner of the world’s largest caloric fluid refining operation. Miss Gladys Dunchurch does not wish to involve herself. She is busy worrying about this new recording machine and how that will change her beloved show business? But to help her friend Charlie Decharles, she must discover how this mysterious Claimant is connected to a mystical cult, the government’s new Office of Statistical Tabulation, a madman in an asylum who claims to travel through time, an attack on the first diplomatic meeting between Earth and the Moon, and two extremely exasperated ghosts.
The Nemesis Effect, Michael Shotter
Tom Hallett was an ordinary man, living an ordinary if pleasant-enough life, his world, perfectly shaped and managed by the wonders of technology and the handful of elite “executives” who control it.
Thus, the young man finds himself completely unprepared when a chance encounter and a twist of fate bring him face to face with the most terrifying event in human history.
Can a simple archivist, a keeper of the records of other people’s deeds, rise to the occasion or will he remain an ordinary citizen, powerless and subject to “The Nemesis Effect?”
The Omega Voyager, John Mevissen
You can’t do anything you want, just because you have a time machine.
Logan Sheffield finds out the hard way when he travels to the past to make some easy money. Of course he can’t kill his grandfather or change history, but he finds that buying one little stock to get rich is impossible as well.
That’s too bad, because he needs that money to prepare for the end of the world. Time voyagers have discovered a rift in the fabric of time called the Omega point. It could be a technical glitch, or maybe it’s a full-on world-wide apocalypse. Whatever it is, it’s coming soon.
YOU CAN’T CHANGE THE PAST. MAYBE YOU CAN’T CHANGE THE FUTURE, EITHER.
Logan is a low-level grifter who simply wants to survive. But at every turn, he finds himself locked in to a fate that forces him into a specific course of action. He wasn’t able to change the past, but now he finds he can’t decide his own future, either.
When his sister Allison vanishes into the future on a dangerous mission, Logan is thrust into an adventure that he never wanted. He follows her into the mysterious period of time after the Omega point, where he discovers the true nature of the rift and formulates a plan to repair the damage. But the plan only works if he can travel back in time and actually change his future, along with the world’s.
The Quantum Entanglement, by Aaron Benmark
America lies in ruins. Nearly a thousand years following the cataclysm that destroyed the world, it has rebuilt itself into many smaller kingdoms, republics, and city states, but the people live simple, desperate lives.
Above all towers the powerful Church of Science, a religious organization that worships the old masters of science, bans technology for all but the wealthiest, and controls society with a velvet glove masking an iron fist.
Deep in the trenches of the Church’s hierarchy sits Cort, a young researcher who wants to be left alone to his studies. To Cort’s surprise, however, he is about to be drafted into a dangerous mission that will take him to the highest levels of Church society…and the lowest. Cort’s mission will test his loyalties, convictions, and beliefs, secretly held against the Church’s scriptures. He must navigate a brewing conflict between the Church and the powerful Scientific American Emperor while not letting his true beliefs come to light…for even the slightest dissidence is punishable by disentanglement, a fate worse than death…
The Seeds of Dissolution, William C. Tracy
Music and magic. Steampunky science. The Dissolution is coming.
Eighteen year old recluse Sam van Oen lives with his aunt, takes online college courses, works in technical support, and tries not to remember the freak storm that killed his parents ten years ago.
But anxiety and reclusion bring up memories he doesn’t want. Just as Sam gathers courage to send in his application for college away from home, the temperature drops and the sun goes dim. Ice forms in August, and a portal opens in his fireplace. This time, Sam can’t run.
This time he’s sucked in.
Now Sam must survive in the flourishing capital of ten alien species, home to thousands who can change the Symphony underlying the universe and alter reality. Sam’s anxiety attacks and fear of crowds transforms the Nether into a frightening, expansive city. To find his home again, Sam must learn to control the music inside him, while devastating voids threaten to destroy the Nether and everyone he has grown to love.
The Survivors (Life After War: Book 1), Angela White
Untold miles of lawless, apocalyptic roads wait for our feet
“This is Safe Haven Refugee Camp. Can anyone hear me? …hello? Is anyone out there?
The end of the world has given us a harsh, merciless existence, where nature tries hard to push mankind to the very brink of extinction. Everything is against us, between us… Untold miles of lawless, apocalyptic roads wait for our feet, and the future, cold and dark, offers little comfort. Without change, there can be no peace. Only survivors.”
From dangerous trips into dark, apocalyptic cities, to patriotic rescues and furious revelations, Life After War is an action-packed fantasy series where those left alive must come to terms with their mistakes in the old world, while fighting for a place in the new one. Life After War. Magic and Reality blended into a post-apocalyptic fantasy series that you won’t ever forget.
Visitor, John Triptych
Years have passed since Earth encountered its first known interstellar object: Oumuamua. Now an even larger one has been discovered, following the exact same trajectory as its predecessor. Scientists around the world theorize that this can no longer be passed off as mere coincidence—the new contact must be an artificial construct of some kind.
With an ambitious plan to build a spacecraft and attempt a manned landing, a crew is formed. Disgraced astronaut Cassie Voges hopes to get selected for one last chance at redemption. Maverick billionaire Toby Merckx wants to beat his rivals to the extraordinary secrets he believes the object may unlock. And its controversial discoverer, Charles Hudson, seeks to escape his past and be remembered for something better.
What they find will change humanity forever.
Walking the Knife’s Edge, by Elsie Carlson
It’s hard to focus on your studies when you’re from the wrong side of town, your dad’s an abusive prick and classmates are intimidated by your skills at hand to hand combat. But for Rarkin, getting into Sythe School means monsters, the chance to contain ones that stray into human occupied zones, and the opportunity to do something meaningful with his life. Even better; it includes an Electric Way pass out of town and travel beyond city limits.
Rarkin seizes his chance at his dream job with everything he’s got, forcing down traumatic memories to focus on work he knows he could love. But it’s a dangerous time to be holding everything in, to have little contact with friends like brothers, or to be keeping new friends at arm’s length.
Sythe’s nemesis, Organised Crime is no longer playing by the ‘rules,’ and Rarkin and his classmates are on the front line. Organised Crime’s bold new tactics tear at the bandages of Rarkin’s unhealed wounds and his unresolved CPTSD.
To be the person Rarkin doesn’t believe people saying he can be, he must change his toxically masculine approach to emotions, and break the cycle of violence in his family. If he doesn’t make peace with his past and stop fighting EVERYTHING, he’s on the road to self destruction. In working for Sythe; Rarkin is Walking the Knife’s Edge.
Your Knowledge or Your Life?, Sophie Maddon
elcome to a London where being smart is everything—and being rich means nothing.
When 17-year-old Jason’s latest prank backfires, he and straight-A student Eva are thrust into an alternate reality where status comes from knowledge, not trust funds. For formerly privileged Jason, it’s a nightmare. For book-lover Eva, it’s everything she’s ever dreamed of—until dead bodies start piling up.
Two teenagers who can’t stand each other and one disturbing truth: their arrival might be killing people.
As they race to uncover who—or what—is behind these deaths, Jason and Eva must set aside their mutual loathing, but with time running out and lives at stake, their inability to trust each other might be their deadliest mistake.
Good luck to all of the entrants!
