This week’s roundup of fantasy and adventure stories features dragons and trains, Texas Rangers, an interstellar romance author over his head, and, most fearsome of all, a murder of manatees.

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Dread Mechanicals (The Iron Horses of Sesp #1) – Alice Ashton

When Essylt is forced to leave her mountain home with her young dragon, Cai, she needs to earn enough to take him to a land where he will be safe. But the city of Sesp – which is the place to earn riches – has wiped out its dragons. Will she be able to achieve her aims while keeping Cai out of harm’s way? And can she trust the inventors, Rot and Wisdom (of Dread Mechanicals), to keep Cai a secret?

Essylt becomes drawn to The Nit – Sesp’s central railway station – where she is awed by the wonders of this incredible cathedral-like building. Not to mention the gleaming steam locomotives that are the beating heart of the Sesp economy. Working on the trains will bring her the cash she needs but with violent strikes on the line, she also needs to protect herself.

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High Adventure #158 – presented by Adventure House

A Texas Rangers Double Issue!

Law On the Winter Range by Jackson Cole
Rampaging, raiding outlaws and land-grabbers, whose greed for empire knows no bounds, ride roughshod over the range until the Lone Wolf Lawman takes a hand in their game!  Follow a fighting Ranger as he challenges evil despots.

Loot of the Wolf by Jackson Cole
When a mysterious cache of outlaw gold leads to a reign of lawlessness and death, the Lone Star Ranger rides into the Big Bend with his six-guns primed for a roaring showdown!  Jim Hatfield pits himself against a chieftain of owlhooters dedicated to slaughter and terror!

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Kingsbane (A Soul Stones sidestory) – T. L. Branson

Some things aren’t meant to be found.

Ocken’s life has been a constant battle for survival, from the harsh desert lands of his youth to his service as one of Sunbury’s royal guard, sworn to protect the king.

Khate is a woman shrouded in mystery. Rumors abound that she’s the king’s personal assassin and she’s all too happy to spread them. The only companions she desires are her blades.

When pregnancy complications threaten to take the life of Sunbury’s queen, the king embarks on a impossible quest to obtain a legendary stone rumored to have the power to heal any malady. As loyal servants to the crown, Ocken and Khate find themselves on a harrowing adventure fraught with pain and destruction.

Each day that passes is one less for the queen’s survival. Time is running out.

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Making Peace – Adam Lane Smith

Interstellar romance author Belkan Candor has had a string of bestsellers, and his latest hit, My Mech, My Love, is flying off store shelves. When he takes a job as an embedded journalist with a peacekeeping organization, he expects a plush assignment with a big payout. What he gets is an exposé into human trauma and psychological pain, and a twisted conspiracy on an entire planet looking to stay off the grid.

Swords are swinging and magic is flinging, and Belkan is right in the center of it. Assassins, serial killers, prostitutes, and obsessed romance novel fans collide in a web of intrigue and violence which threatens to tear his world apart.

Will he survive, or will this novel be the death of him?

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A Murder of Manatees (The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent #2) – Larry Correia, performed by Adam Baldwin

When half your galaxy is unexpectedly sucked into a black hole – when a hitherto-unknown species of space aliens lays waste to your home planet – when disaster rears its ugly head (or heads) – who can you call for faster-than-light appraisals and best-in-the-multiverse customer service? Just one man – Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent.

In this latest chapter of his interstellar exploits, Tom is about to deliver a crushing performance evaluation to Jimmy the Intern when the unimaginable happens: The beloved Wendell the Manatee has been kidnapped! Armed with his battle mechs and his elite corps of junior associates, can Tom find Wendell before he’s canned in oil? And can Jimmy, at long last, channel his inner agent?

A Murder of Manatees will make you quiver with fear, laugh uncontrollably, and wonder whether your deductibles are too high.

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Pawnbrokers of Eternal Blight (The Twilight Patrol #3) – Stuart Hopen

To the world at large, The Twilight Patrol is a high-flying band of scrappy patriots, ever alert for trouble and always willing to lend a hand.

To the sinister foes lurking behind the Axis horizon, they are a force to be reckoned with in the onslaught against freedom.

To their fans, The Twilight Patrol is the bravest assortment of adventurers ever brought together to confront the dark forces threatening our mortal realm.

Also features the short story “The Visions: What is Telling and What is Tolled” by Stuart Hopen.

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The Warrior Mage (The Lost Prophecy #2) – D. K. Holmberg

The world prepares for war. Creatures out of a nightmare press south. And only a few will be able to stop it.

Roelle leads the Magi north to discover the secrets of the northern warriors known as the Antrilii. What she discovers forces her to question the role the Magi play in the world as she begins to realize how far they have drifted from their Founders. Rumors out of the north are much worse than she could ever imagine and her Mage Warriors might be key to stopping a threat the world hasn’t seen in a thousand years.

Jakob has reached Avaneam with the mysterious trunk only to learn that his journey has just begun. What he discovers in the Unknown Lands will be the key to the upcoming battle, if only he can survive it. His visions continue and Jakob learns there is more to them—and him—than he had known. Can he understand his growing abilities in time?

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The Vengeance of Mirickar – Stuart J. Whitmore

Mirickar is on the hunt. His quarry: An age-old foe that others deny are even in the kingdom. Mirickar knows better. The kurakvin murdered his parents and he couldn’t even give them a decent burial. But Mirickar grew up on a farm and doesn’t know much about combat.

His mission of vengeance is complicated by not being the only survivor of the kurakvin raid. Sraikura, the adopted girl from the neighboring farm, just wants to run and hide.  Before they can agree on a plan, a tragic accident takes Sraikura away from him, leaving Mirickar to question all of his actions and decisions.

A chance meeting with an old warrior seems to open an opportunity for Mirickar to learn to fight. To be successful in his hunt. But the old warrior thinks it’s folly, and he presses Mirickar with troubling questions. Can he really find any kurakvin to fight? If so, will he prevail? And to what end?

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The Runner (From the World of Vale) – Brian D. Anderson

Drake Sharazi, disgraced former captain of the Royal Guard has spent the past seven years chasing fugitives as a hawker. He has never failed to complete an assignment. And this new runner will not be an exception. But being able to do a thing, does not mean you should. Now he is forced to question the world around him as never before.

Enjoy this action packed adventure which prequels the upcoming series, The Vale, due for release, March 2018.