The Best Space Battles: Science Fiction Space Opera
Explore the greatest space battles in science fiction with our top picks from space opera books. Dive into epic interstellar conflicts, legendary fleets, and thrilling combat scenes that define the genre.
Book
The Armageddon Inheritance
by Weber
JOB PRESSURE Colin MacIntyre’s life as a NASA astronaut might not have been exciting, but at least it was orderly. Unfortunately, he’s been tapped for greater things, and he isn’t too sure he likes it. First he was kidnapped by an ancient, self-aware starship masquerading as Earth’s moon. Then he was drafted as its captain to suppress a five-thousand-year-old mutiny. And then he had to mobilize the planet against the attack of an eons-old ancient menace dedicated to the eradication of all intelligent life in the galaxy! It’s hard to blame him for feeling a little stressed, but there’s something Colin MacIntyre doesn’t know about all the things he’s had to do. They were the easy part.
Book
The Lost Fleet: Fearless
by Jack Campbell
Captain John “Black Jack” Geary tries a desperate gamble to lead the Alliance Fleet home through enemy-occupied space in this novel in the thrilling Lost Fleet series. Geary is convinced that the Syndics are planning to ambush the fleet and finish it off once and for all. Realizing the fleet’s best (and only) chance is to do the unexpected, Geary takes the offensive and orders the fleet to the Sancere system. There, a multitude of possible routes home give the Alliance fleet a better chance of avoiding their pursuers—and an attack on the Sancere shipbuilding facilities could decimate the Syndic war effort. Weary from endless combat, the officers and crew of the Alliance fleet can’t see the sense in charging deeper into enemy territory—prompting a mutiny that divides them, and leaving Geary with the odds higher against him than ever before...
Book
The Lost Fleet: Dauntless
by Jack Campbell
The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series! The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief.... Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics. Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance’s one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic “Black Jack” legend....