Science Fiction Action Novels That Are Better Than the Borderlands Movie

Humanity has finally reached the stars, only to find that all the best spots have been claimed by other races. The people of Earth find themselves working as the colonist version of crash test dummies. They're dropped onto empty planets deemed too dangerous or inconvenient for other races and left to see if habitation is possible (and if they can even live long enough to make that happen.) Ramon Espejo ran from the poverty on his home planet, hoping to find a brighter future, but this sure ain't it. 

After a high-profile murder sees him flee into the wilderness of a mysterious planet, he discovers a highly advanced alien race in hiding who possess secrets that could change the very balance of power in the universe.

When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, space travel was invented. A century later, a plantation in the flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby, a wannabe space traveler who works on automatons in her spare time. Being raised on the Martian frontier by her Martian nanny, the proud tomboy Arabella has no desire to be a proper young lady, so her mother sends her to London, Earth, to straighten up. 

However, she soon must find a way to return and save both her brother and their home. To do this, Arabella must pass as a boy on the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company, and survive a mutinous crew who have no time for women on their vessel.

The Dark Tower saga might just be Stephen King's crowning glory: a multi-part, genre-bending, meta sci-fi Western thriller that incorporates decades' worth of lore and one of his most unforgettable protagonists: Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. The series started with this deceptively simple story of Roland, a loner traversing the desolate plains as he rides towards the mysterious dark tower. Trailing him is the Man in Black, and along the way, he encounters parts of this post-apocalyptic world where nothing is quite as it seems. 

Karl Bender is your typical 30-something guy, a bar owner who just wants to have a quiet life and find a nice girlfriend. When he stumbles upon a time-travelling worm hole in his closet, Karl and his best friend Wayne decide to turn it into a hot new business opportunity. For the right price, you can access the hole and travel back in time to listen to your favorite bands. It's a pretty ingenious plan, until Karl, intending to send Wayne to 1980, transports him back to 980 instead. He'll need help to get his friend back from the 10th century, a place where everything is out to kill him and there's no music to be found.

Hard Luck Hank is a thug with a unique ability. He's able to withstand intense amounts of physical pain, so he decides that the best use for his genetic gift is to become a classic crook and take on the galaxy with a big-ass gun. The space station Belvaille, located in the remotest part of the entire Colmarian Confederation, is teeming with criminals trying to come out on top and rule the roost. 

As a negotiator, it's Hank's job to try and keep the peace, mostly because you can shoot him in the face and he’ll be totally fine. But even that skill won't be enough to help him deal with his latest job offer.

The invention of Quantum Teleportation revolutionized intergalactic space travel, making it something that anyone could do. The downside is that there isn't much work out there for the good old-fashioned space hero. One unlucky ex-adventurer decides to disguise himself as the famous pilot and pariah Jacques McKeown, just so he can make a few dollars. But then he finds himself sucked into an ever-deepening spiral of corporate, political, and gun-heavy drama. 

Maybe if he saves the galaxy, he'll get a free meal out of it.

Space pirates are an absolute nightmare to deal with. Brad Mendoza and Jessica Lin have signed up to hunt them to earn a few bucks, but all they're armed with are a couple of pistols and a ship with no weaponry. Frankly, they really don’t know what they’re doing, but they'll need to figure it out quickly or risk becoming the latest victims of these marauding criminals. At the end of the day, Brad and Jessica will need each other (and a whole lot of luck) to get out of this mess.

You can’t talk about comedic sci-fi and intergalactic antics without paying respect to the king of the genre: the late great Douglas Adams. Having started life as a BBC Radio show, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy became a novel in 1979 and inspired several sequels, adaptations, and at least one Radiohead album title. Decades later, it’s still one of the funniest books ever written. 

Arthur Dent is a hapless Englishman who has to deal with both the destruction of his house and the annihilation of the human race on the same day. Saved by his best friend, the alien and intergalactic researcher Ford Prefect, he finds himself travelling space with a two-headed politician, a depressed robot, and the last remaining human woman in the universe. 

Needless to say, shenanigans ensue.