The Rich Mans War (Artefacts of War Book 1)

50 Must-Read Books Set In Space

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War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why. But when a pair of fugitive terrorists gain access to the Ananke, Althea must draw upon her heart and soul for the strength to defend her beloved ship. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years.

In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him? The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist.

They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up. People brought their old prejudices with them—and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams.

These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame. A sentient AI, a Medusa unit, rescues Oichi and begins to teach her the truth—the Executives are not who they think they are. Oichi, officially dead and now bonded to the Medusa unit, sees a chance to make a better life for everyone on board. All three books are out right now; go forth. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress.

As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao—because she might be his next victim. I know I already recommended a Scalzi series; you should consider both of them. Then he joined the army. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF.

He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine—and what he will become is far stranger. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war.

Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown. She must free their thief from a prison planet from which no one has ever returned. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented—something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show.

The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny—they must sing. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock. Vaughan, Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds.

Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean. She had no memory of how she died. That was also new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died. And when a long relationship devolved into silence and suffocating sadness, she found work on a frontier world on the edges of civilization. Then the virus hit…. Until a garbled message from Earth gives her hope that someone from her past might still be alive.

But their dream will pit them against those desperately clinging to the old ways. But in so doing, he leaves behind his devoted wife, Lenka, whose love, he realizes too late, he has sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions. Over philosophical conversations about the nature of love, life and death, and the deliciousness of bacon, the pair form an intense and emotional bond.

Will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth for a second chance with Lenka? Urza and Mishra are two brothers, born on the same year, though Urza on the first and Mishra on the last.

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Urza is the kind of older brother who knows he's the smarter and wiser one. He's also ready to remind his younger brother he's the older one. Mishra lives in his older brother's shadow, and is always quick to remind his brother that on the last day of the year, they're the same age.

Urza and Mishra are sent away to a camp as little kids where they look for relics of an ancient civilization thought to have been much more advanced than theirs. Urza develops into the braniac, spending his time in the library and researching, while Mishra develops into the brawn, spending his time out in the sun and searching for buried relics. The two are inevitably set on a collision course that will change the world.

The world building is what stands out the most to me in this book. They spend a lot of time searching after relics from this old civilization. So inevitably when they have interesting moments about them, you become really interested in them. World building is really huge in books and it's probably the thing I enjoy the most.

Having some mystery in the book and uncovering it is really enjoyable for me.

The Brothers' War

Jeff definitely does a good job at getting you hooked on it and giving you just enough to keep you interested while keeping you wanting more. For any MTG fan, this is probably the first book I'd recommend for you to read. It's absolutely amazing and it's a good book regardless of whether you're a fan or not. For those who've spent ages on Dominaria or playing the game while Urza was the man, it's certainly going to fit right at home. I don't want to spoil too much but you'll definitely see some familiar things and have a trip down memory lane. More importantly you'll learn some of the backstory to the cards you've been playing with and the storyline the cards have been following.

It's everything you could want or expect. Sep 09, Travis rated it really liked it.

Of the or-so magic books I own, this is probably my favorite. In a way it parallels the cold war. Mar 11, Sammy rated it it was ok. Grubb's writing is poor. I did find myself enjoying it more and more towards the end, however, i do not recommend it, even to a fan of the card game.

May 23, Albert Meadows rated it it was amazing Shelves: As such, this is crucial to the story even if you don't care to keep up with the 'Oldwalkers' storyline. The book stars Urza and his brother Mishra. They are the main protagonists throughout the book, and are both entwined with each other. This is also the first and to my knowledge the only book , that stars Urza without his planeswalker spark. Characters- I love them all. Most of the book has a small cast which is already something I adore. I was actually hesitant to read the first in forty considering the already ballooning cast of characters from set to set, but I found the dozen at best or so characters to be memorable.

Their mannerisms are memorable and are very easy to spot and understand. Setting- The setting of this book is in Dominaria, just before the 'Ice-Age'. The only negative about this book, is the amount of kingdoms you have to keep up with is ludicrous. Thankfully, if the title of the book didn't give it away, that number will quickly drop. It is large and expansive, despite the book being 'short' by my standards.

Plot- The plot and the characters are very closely tied. It is always moving, and the characters help move it. I can't unfortunately speak about the plot itself due to spoilers, but it does twist and nudge in very subtle directions with the characters. I read through this in three days, a rare accomplishment even for me.

I finished the book in about six hours. I usually am a very slow reader, but this was a fun read that had me turning the pages. Strengths- Even after nearly 20 years and the anniversary of the book being published coming up, it has aged rather well. Easy to read, easy to finish.

Characters are memorable, and even if you don't play the card game you can still enjoy this novel. Due to the age of this book and how the wiki is never updated, I was kept on my toes and the lack of spoilers made this even more enticing. Alot of this book is characters interacting with eachother and the environment, so the infodump is not here thankfully.

Even if you don't play the card game, you will be fine.

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Weaknesses Some of the few kingdoms are shallow. The names are easy to mix up minus a few. Overall, I highly recommend this book to fans and non-fans alike. Lucky for most, the book is very complete, and with a very 'thin' hook at the end for those who want to read the second and beyond, you can leave satisfied with just this one book. Dec 30, Chip Hunter rated it it was amazing. The infamous brothers, Urza and Mishra, battle for dominance of Dominaria, creating enormous armies of extremely destructive artifacts and creatures, eventually leading to the cataclysmic final battle in which an entire continent of Terisiare is essentially destroyed.

Jeff Grubb does an excellent job of relating this rather well-known story in a way that will keep you interested the whole time eve 'The Brothers' War' relates one of the most important and well-known events from the lore of MTG. Jeff Grubb does an excellent job of relating this rather well-known story in a way that will keep you interested the whole time even though you know from the beginning what the final outcome will be.

This is the longest MTG book at least through , and the story it tells is so epic that it really could have been divided into two or three individual books. A few of the scenes could have been expanded on, and Grubb was forced to skip years at a time in order to get the whole story in a single volume.

It does make for an exciting read though, so I'm not complaining too much. Many of the cards from the Antiquities expansion and the standard editions are used in the story, mainly the artifacts and artifact creatures. It doesn't seem forced however, with Grubb doing a great job of working them into the story in a way that seems believable and natural. Tawnos and Ashnod play major roles in the story and they, along with Mishra and Urza, are very well-developed characters with unique and consistent personalities.

The most interesting aspect of the story to me was that you don't really have the good-vs-evil story found in most fantasy books. The war between Urza and Mishra results from fatalistic chances and misunderstandings rather than evil intentions by one side or the other. At some point during the book, Mishra does become the 'more evil' of the two, but both brothers are destroying land and lives to fight the other.

Bottom line, this is one of the best MTG books and tells one of the most important background stories of the MTG universe. The tale apparently continues in 'Planeswalker', which I look forward to reading. Dec 08, Alexander Faria rated it liked it. No se que pensar.. Hay cosas que no explicaron lo suficiente.. Par No se que pensar.. At first it was quite interesting, but I have problems with the end in 2 chapters and in the end I was not clear exactly what happened. There are things that did not explain enough I started reading the next cycle book and some things are clarified, but again situations appear from nothing..

It seems the explanation of why the Oracle changed skin in Matrix.. I will continue reading.. Feb 22, David Thomas rated it it was amazing. This book has a special place in my heart, as it was the first Magic: The Gathering novelization that I read, around 20 years ago. It's essentially the origin story of probably the single most important character in MTG lore, Urza Planeswalker. The thing that surprised me is how much I'd forgotten, only remembering the main story beats. Despite being part of a franchise with the word "magic" in the title, there is almost no magic in the book.

The main magical resource in the card game, mana, is This book has a special place in my heart, as it was the first Magic: Another thing that surprised me was the presence of several strong female characters, and the book passes the Bechdel test. Also, Urza himself comes off as borderline autistic, caring only about his machines and artifacts. He only marries a princess because he had an eye on one of the books in her dowry. Love your local library, guys. Story that defined past, present and future of Dominaria, most popular realm across the MtG multiverse.

Reading this, almost 20 years after i started playing Magic, made me remember some of the best moments from my childhood, and once again my passion for MtG was fully reignited. Those who play MtG and are at least somewhat interested in it's history should read this gem without second thought. They consider humans as a part of a "balanced breakfast" and are even known to have celebrity chefs showing how to best butcher a human.

They became a serious problem for the CDF after acquiring technology from the Consu to predict the trajectory of a vessel's skip drives, a feat that was previously considered impossible. The only physical description of them is a mention that they have a head and limbs and "muscular bird-like legs". They are a few decades behind the CDF in terms of technology and weaponry, but nonetheless, still considered a threat to the CDF.

The skip drive detection device given to them by the Consu enabled them to wipe out an entire fleet of CDF ships without any casualties to their own. The Whaidians are an alien species that have an appearance similar to that of a "cross between black bear and a large flying squirrel. They are artistically gifted and are nearly as technologically advanced as the CDF. Old Man's War sits in the military science fiction genre but themes of the ethics of life extension, friendship, marriage, the significance of mortality, what makes one human, and individual identity are present within the novel.

Scalzi took what he learned about Heinlein and produced four lessons on how to create a novel centered on characters. These lessons are that a story should only exist for its characters, make room in the characters for the reader, make the characters talk like people, and make the characters act like people. His novel's themes were based on the four lessons in which to make a character as connectable as possible while still keeping his theme of space military. A character can be seen reading the book in an episode of the science fiction television series Stargate Universe , [18] as a shout-out to Scalzi in his role as creative consultant on the show.

Netflix is planning to make a movie based in the OMW's universe. Old Man's War was well received both domestically and globally. Many readers thought it to be a well-written and original piece of literature that avoided the major cliches of the science fiction genre.

Old Man's War was ranked 1 on a Tor. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Learn how and when to remove these template messages. This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. January Learn how and when to remove this template message. This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.

Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. Archived from the original on Retrieved 23 October Retrieved 21 October New England Science Fiction Association. Retrieved 2 November Retrieved 30 October Retrieved 11 November John Scalzi's Old Man's War".

Not to worry, sir. He holds up a paperback book. Retrieved 11 Dec Top Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books". Lock In Unlocked: Retrieved from " https:

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