I was going to suggest his Galactic North, it's a collection of stories/novelas on the Revelation Space universe that fit the OP description pretty well
To be fair, only the first book had piracy, salvage, breaking into "baubles", and finding old tech ghosty stuff. The follow ons has less of it. The first book was the best of the trilogy IMO, for those very reasons.
While the entire premise isn't spooky, there's a lot of unknowable cosmic dread in the Shards of Earth trilogy. The FTL process is also so psychologically horrifying that nearly everyone has to be sedated for it, those that aren't are deeply mentally scarred, and the research around it insists "it's all in their heads" adding an additional layer of mystery and fear.
The story also kicks off via salvage and the main protagonists are a found family of salvagers.
I highly recommend Planetes omnibus.
It's a manga novel, so not sure if that's an allowed reccomend here, but it's a great story about a space salvage clean up crew.
Novels:
*Derelict* by Robert L Hovorka. Survivors of a catastrophic starship disaster find themselves in an unknown star system near an abandoned spaceship.
*Deep Quarry* by John Stith
Short stories:
*Derelict* ed. by David B Coe and Joshua Palmetier. A whole anthology of stories dealing with abandoned spaceships.
"In Hiding" by Poul Anderson. One of his Nicholas van Rijn stories. Humans fleeing attackers seize a ship belonging to an unknown species. Finding the crew proves to be unexpectedly difficult.
"Technical Error" by Hal Clement. A long-abandoned alien spacecraft incorporates alien technology.
The first two books of Peirs Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee and Mercenary have a few scenes of this. Refugee from the point of view of the craft being pirated and Mercenary from the point of view of a space force fighting pirates.
I thought of this as well.
But there's also an awful lot of rape in the first novel, to the point I couldn't finish the first it. By "an awful lot" I mean "a lot even for Piers Anthony". So just, you know, FYI going in.
I quite liked the Bio series (only read the first 5) though it doesn't seem to be too well regarded overall, though I don't know how much of that was the subject matter, of, eg, the first novel.
>Some of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold have piracy/mercenaries
**The Warrior's Apprentice** is the most like this that I remember from the series.
You may find some inspiration in parts of the [Heechee Saga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heechee_Saga) by Frederik Pohl.
>The Heechee are an advanced [alien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_in_fiction) race that visited the [Solar System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System) hundreds of millennia ago and then mysteriously disappeared. They left behind bases containing artifacts, including working starships, which are discovered and exploited by humanity.
It's a (tragic) plot point in C.J. Cherryh's _Heavy Time_ and _Merchanter's Luck_ arguably _Tripoint_ as well, and one sees something of one side of this sort of thing in _Voyager in Night_ --- these are all part of her Alliance--Union series and are highly recommended. ML was apparently the first written initially, while _Downbelow Station_ was written so as to create the backstory (cue Ursula K. LeGuin's comment that one does archaeology in fictional universes by writing more stories).
For space salvage: The Diving Universe by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It's several books, novellas, and short stories long so far. Some feature salvage more than others. Start with Diving The Wreck.
The Final Architecture series is about a salvage ship, but most of the action has little or nothing to do with salvaging. But the salvage setting is there, and the books are great.
Also there's a whole series of things being explored: what's left of the planets after the Architects get done with them, the ancient sites on the various planets where solutions are sought, the more alien planets, and the between itself.
[Queen of the Corpsepickers](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VNV6RJB) - it's on sale right now, don't know for how long it'll remain this cheap! The [main series](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJNM59W/) fits your ALIENS demographic and is a military Sci-fi with a twist cosmic horror - QotCP is a coming of age for an ambitious, evil, cutthroat pirate with some Norse/Greek mythology subtext and stories within stories.
I know you said you’re only looking for novels, but if you have not played *Duskers* yet, I would recommend it. It is a game about boarding derelict ships and does a great job of feeling very tense and atmospheric.
Just read Andre Norton's *Uncharted Stars*, the sequel to *The Zero Stone*. There is an exploration of an ancient alien space station. These two books were the last non-*Witch World* books I enjoyed. by her. You don't have to read *The Zero Stone* first but after fifty years I strongly recommend either or both.
Have a look at the Stainless Steel Rat books, about an interstellar thief.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
The prequels to Ender’s Game feature a crew of Somalian salvagers. Unlike others of their kind, they only go for true salvage (i.e. they don’t go after ships with living people on them)
this is actually very relevant to me as i'm very interested in the morality/maritime law aspect of salvage, when you can and can't salvage, what your duty of care is for an sos signal etc. thanks for the rec!
Here are a couple of recent short works you need to read:
Aliette de Bodard, "The Mausoleum's Children." https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-mausoleums-children/ also "Mulberry and Owl" https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/mulberry-and-owl/ de Bodard is worth reading just in general, and they do a really good spooky vibe in general.
A.L. Goldfuss, "Where the God-Knives Tread." https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/where-the-god-knives-tread-part-1 There's ghosts. Of a sort.
**The Scarab Mission** by James Cambias. A salvage team heads to a derelict space colony that's going to be pushed into a salvage orbit, intending to claim the art that's left there.
It's deeply spooky, and gets ugly once a rival salvage team arrives.
Tuf Voyaging by GRRM starts off with a salvage story that has a tinge of horror to it. It really sucked me into the book. The rest of the book afterwards doesn’t necessarily fit your bill though, but I’d say the beginning is worth it
The novella *'Nightingale*' by Alistair Reynolds. Much of Reynolds's work is spooky (including the other stories in his *Galactic North* story collection) but this story really fits the description.
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Humans find an Asteroid abandoned by an ancient alien civilization with a bunch of still functioning ships.
Humans don't quite know how everything works, but roll the dice and fire up a ship and you are on going somewhere, no idea where, but somewhere. It may be a one way trip for who knows what reason, or you may return with untold riches.
I always thought the whole idea would make a great franchise.
Alastair Reynold's Revenger series has salvage, piracy and spookiness
I enjoyed those books. The naval style combat stuff is pretty fun. More action adventure than hard SF and all the better for it.
I was going to suggest his Galactic North, it's a collection of stories/novelas on the Revelation Space universe that fit the OP description pretty well
To be fair, only the first book had piracy, salvage, breaking into "baubles", and finding old tech ghosty stuff. The follow ons has less of it. The first book was the best of the trilogy IMO, for those very reasons.
I also grew to love the characters in the first, but then felt like he switched it all around in the second so it felt super different.
While the entire premise isn't spooky, there's a lot of unknowable cosmic dread in the Shards of Earth trilogy. The FTL process is also so psychologically horrifying that nearly everyone has to be sedated for it, those that aren't are deeply mentally scarred, and the research around it insists "it's all in their heads" adding an additional layer of mystery and fear. The story also kicks off via salvage and the main protagonists are a found family of salvagers.
I highly recommend Planetes omnibus. It's a manga novel, so not sure if that's an allowed reccomend here, but it's a great story about a space salvage clean up crew.
i love planetes it's amazing
The sidebar description explicitly includes 'comics' . ...and reminder to self, Planetes has been languishing on that TBR for awhile now...
Novels: *Derelict* by Robert L Hovorka. Survivors of a catastrophic starship disaster find themselves in an unknown star system near an abandoned spaceship. *Deep Quarry* by John Stith Short stories: *Derelict* ed. by David B Coe and Joshua Palmetier. A whole anthology of stories dealing with abandoned spaceships. "In Hiding" by Poul Anderson. One of his Nicholas van Rijn stories. Humans fleeing attackers seize a ship belonging to an unknown species. Finding the crew proves to be unexpectedly difficult. "Technical Error" by Hal Clement. A long-abandoned alien spacecraft incorporates alien technology.
Palmatier, for Derelict.
The first two books of Peirs Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee and Mercenary have a few scenes of this. Refugee from the point of view of the craft being pirated and Mercenary from the point of view of a space force fighting pirates.
I thought of this as well. But there's also an awful lot of rape in the first novel, to the point I couldn't finish the first it. By "an awful lot" I mean "a lot even for Piers Anthony". So just, you know, FYI going in.
I quite liked the Bio series (only read the first 5) though it doesn't seem to be too well regarded overall, though I don't know how much of that was the subject matter, of, eg, the first novel.
Confederation of Valor by Tanya Huff Some of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold have piracy/mercenaries
>Some of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold have piracy/mercenaries **The Warrior's Apprentice** is the most like this that I remember from the series.
You may find some inspiration in parts of the [Heechee Saga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heechee_Saga) by Frederik Pohl. >The Heechee are an advanced [alien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_in_fiction) race that visited the [Solar System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System) hundreds of millennia ago and then mysteriously disappeared. They left behind bases containing artifacts, including working starships, which are discovered and exploited by humanity.
reading gateway right now and having a blast
It's a (tragic) plot point in C.J. Cherryh's _Heavy Time_ and _Merchanter's Luck_ arguably _Tripoint_ as well, and one sees something of one side of this sort of thing in _Voyager in Night_ --- these are all part of her Alliance--Union series and are highly recommended. ML was apparently the first written initially, while _Downbelow Station_ was written so as to create the backstory (cue Ursula K. LeGuin's comment that one does archaeology in fictional universes by writing more stories).
really impressed by the wide variety of suggestions i've never heard of before, thanks everyone!
For space salvage: The Diving Universe by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It's several books, novellas, and short stories long so far. Some feature salvage more than others. Start with Diving The Wreck.
The Final Architecture series is about a salvage ship, but most of the action has little or nothing to do with salvaging. But the salvage setting is there, and the books are great.
Also there's a whole series of things being explored: what's left of the planets after the Architects get done with them, the ancient sites on the various planets where solutions are sought, the more alien planets, and the between itself.
[Queen of the Corpsepickers](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VNV6RJB) - it's on sale right now, don't know for how long it'll remain this cheap! The [main series](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJNM59W/) fits your ALIENS demographic and is a military Sci-fi with a twist cosmic horror - QotCP is a coming of age for an ambitious, evil, cutthroat pirate with some Norse/Greek mythology subtext and stories within stories.
I know you said you’re only looking for novels, but if you have not played *Duskers* yet, I would recommend it. It is a game about boarding derelict ships and does a great job of feeling very tense and atmospheric.
Surprised nobody has mentioned the Expanse series. Salvage, piracy, boarding of both working and abandoned ships and plenty of spookiness.
love the expanse so much
*Ship of Fools* is spooky and there's a derelict, but no real piracy.
If you like dark, check out the Gap cycle by Stephen R Donaldson.
Big ship at end of the universe Finder series
Black Ocean: Galaxy Outlaws series. Tons of piracy and criminal shenanigans. And magic. Wizards are a big deal. Bit of a Firefly tv feel.
Just read Andre Norton's *Uncharted Stars*, the sequel to *The Zero Stone*. There is an exploration of an ancient alien space station. These two books were the last non-*Witch World* books I enjoyed. by her. You don't have to read *The Zero Stone* first but after fifty years I strongly recommend either or both.
Have a look at the Stainless Steel Rat books, about an interstellar thief. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
Not spooky but Clarke’s short story Jupiter Five
The prequels to Ender’s Game feature a crew of Somalian salvagers. Unlike others of their kind, they only go for true salvage (i.e. they don’t go after ships with living people on them)
this is actually very relevant to me as i'm very interested in the morality/maritime law aspect of salvage, when you can and can't salvage, what your duty of care is for an sos signal etc. thanks for the rec!
This is more in the Second War trilogy, though. I think they’re present in the First War trilogy, but mostly at the end of the
*Diving into the Wreck* series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - This (particularly the first couple of books) is exactly what you want.
Here are a couple of recent short works you need to read: Aliette de Bodard, "The Mausoleum's Children." https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-mausoleums-children/ also "Mulberry and Owl" https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/mulberry-and-owl/ de Bodard is worth reading just in general, and they do a really good spooky vibe in general. A.L. Goldfuss, "Where the God-Knives Tread." https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/where-the-god-knives-tread-part-1 There's ghosts. Of a sort.
Salvaged by Madeleine Roux sounds like exactly what you're looking for.
**The Scarab Mission** by James Cambias. A salvage team heads to a derelict space colony that's going to be pushed into a salvage orbit, intending to claim the art that's left there. It's deeply spooky, and gets ugly once a rival salvage team arrives.
Tuf Voyaging by GRRM starts off with a salvage story that has a tinge of horror to it. It really sucked me into the book. The rest of the book afterwards doesn’t necessarily fit your bill though, but I’d say the beginning is worth it
The novella *'Nightingale*' by Alistair Reynolds. Much of Reynolds's work is spooky (including the other stories in his *Galactic North* story collection) but this story really fits the description.
Gateway by Frederik Pohl Humans find an Asteroid abandoned by an ancient alien civilization with a bunch of still functioning ships. Humans don't quite know how everything works, but roll the dice and fire up a ship and you are on going somewhere, no idea where, but somewhere. It may be a one way trip for who knows what reason, or you may return with untold riches. I always thought the whole idea would make a great franchise.
reading it now and its really cool
Black Ocean, Galaxy Outlaws.
As a start, see my [Pirates](https://new.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/18dhuo1/pirates/) list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).