Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can Read for $5 or Less

The acclaimed actor makes his fiction debut with this enthralling urban fantasy in which a holy warrior must convince a doctor with no faith to help stop a powerful demon and his minions from succeeding in creating hell on earth—a thrilling adventure of science and faith, good and evil, damnation and salvation.

The Warcage: two hundred worlds harnessed to an articial sun in a feat of unprecedented stellar engineering. Built to travel through space as a monument to peace between alien species, now its voracious rulers have turned it into a nightmarish wasteland, capturing new planets for slaves and resources, then discarding the old.

Now, when a verdant agri-world is pulled out of its orbit, the captain of a smuggler ship must journey into the Warcage to rescue his crew.

India, 1606. Jahangir, the triumphant Moghul Emperor and ruler of most of the Indian subcontinent, is doomed. No amount of wealth and ruthlessness can protect him from his sons' desire for power. The glorious Moghul throne is worth any amount of bloodshed and betrayal; once Jahangir raised troops against his own father; now he faces a bloody battle with Khurram, the ablest of his warring sons. 

Worse is to come. Just as the heirs of Timur the Great share intelligence, physical strength, and utter ruthlessness, they also have a great weakness for wine and opium. Once Jahangir is tempted, his talented wife, Mehrunissa, is only too willing to take up the reins of the empire. And with Khurram and his half-brothers each still determined to be their father's heir, the savage battle for the Moghul throne will be more ferocious than even Timur could have imagined.

Kenna, a destitute teenager with dreams of advising the cosmic elite, wins the dinner of a lifetime at The Sol Majestic, the galaxy’s top restaurant. Yet there’s no such thing as a free meal: Kenna discovers that The Sol Majestic risks bankruptcy if the planned soirée doesn’t attract enough intergalactic billionaires to pay or it. With a motley gang of newfound friends, Kenna must concoct a scheme of grandiose scope—and learn lessons of the heart, mind, and palate—in order to save the restaurant he considers home.

Can history be changed? Can the South still win the War Between the States? Colonel McCulloch thinks so... and his gold, his gun, and some very special blueprints stand behind him to help him prove it.

Sergeant Harmon is a black man who hopes not... and only his readiness, ingenuity, and withstand behind him to help him stop it. In the corridors of contemporary Washington and on the fields where Civil War battles have yet to be fought, these two men take each other on--and the winner will determine the course of history.

As Gavin Ennock pilots his airship, the Lady of Liberty, to China, his fiancée, Lady Alice Michaels prays they make it in time. The Clockwork Plague consumes Gavin’s body and mind, driving him increasingly mad—and driving a wedge between him and Alice. Their only hope lies in China with the Dragon Men.

But a power-hungry general has seized the Chinese throne, intending to conquer Asia, Britain, and the world. He has also closed the country’s borders to foreigners. Meanwhile, the former ruling dynasty is plotting to return the throne’s rightful heir to power. Seeing their opportunity, the two travelers dive into a political power struggle where one false move could spell doom for Gavin and the entire world.

Timeless, beautiful, and haunting, spirals connect the four episodes of The Ghosts of Heaven, the mesmerizing new novel from Printz Award winner Marcus Sedgwick. They are there in prehistory, when a girl picks up a charred stick and makes the first written signs; there tens of centuries later, hiding in the treacherous waters of Golden Beck that take Anna, who people call a witch; there in the halls of a Long Island hospital at the beginning of the twentieth century, where a mad poet watches the oceans and knows the horrors it hides; and there in the far future, as an astronaut faces his destiny on the first spaceship sent from earth to colonize another world. 

Each of the characters in these mysterious linked stories embarks on a journey of discovery and survival; carried forward through the spiral of time, none will return to the same place.

As a young pre-med student, Elizabeth Fletcher is excited to follow in her father's and grandfather's footsteps. But her life changes beyond imagining when she meets Damien, a pit bull with remarkable abilities who is the subject of lab research on campus. As Elizabeth is increasingly drawn into Damien’s fate, she finds herself torn between her growing love and respect for him and her loyalty to her family and the medical profession.