Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Lords of Dragon Keep (Dark Undermaster Saga #1) – C. T. Phillips

“Give me the incredibly short summary of what the hell is going on, please. The kind you could fit into a movie trailer.“

“You’re trapped in a video game world based on a hack dark fantasy author’s rip-off of better books.”

“Uh huh. Maybe you could be a bit more detailed.”

Aragorn “Aaron” Bartkowski was a programmer working at Epic DungeoneeringTM, the world’s largest fantasy video game company. Much to his surprise, he was selected to pick up the latest manuscript from reclusive author Larry C.C. Weis. Weis had been working on his newest book for over a decade and the good folk at Aaron’s company had dibs on adapting it. Unfortunately, Weis was also a wizard and sent Aaron to the world that inspired his books.

Aaron proceeded to find himself in a Slavic mythology themed world where he’s believed to be Weis’ main character, Garland of Nowhere. Equipped with the powers of a RPG protagonist, Aaron must accumulate experience and equipment while navigating a setting that seems worse off than Game of Thrones and Dark Souls put together.

Never Again (Blood and Armor #1) – Bill Fawcett

The best steel is forged by the hottest fires and under the greatest pressures. So too, have the Kurdish Peshmerga been shaped by thousands of years of warfare and oppression.

Now, for the first time in history, they have their own nation, and it’s a chance to live, grow, and develop as a unified people.

But they are surrounded by hostile dictatorships intent on the destruction of their young republic. Outnumbered and outgunned as armored columns swarm their borders, the Kurdish Republic’s only hope lies in a canceled DARPA project—an experimental, powered combat suit—and the business tycoon who refuses to allow the nascent nation to go under.

The only question is, will they be enough?

The Rebel’s Gate (The Queen’s Blade #7) – D. K. Holmberg

Fabrications come to the city; not all are pleased. The Queen’s Blade saga continues.

Protests mar Zaren’s return from Ardem. When the demonstrations grow violent, he suspects an outside influence driving the protests.

That’s not the only danger in the city. Other magic begins to spread, and in ways that Zaren struggles to track.

When power moves beneath the city, what he discovers ties the city to an ancient gate long thought destroyed.

Zaren must understand the key—or the city might be overrun by a danger even the Queen’s Blade can’t stop.

365 Infantry: The Ride for 2025 – a Kickstarter campaign by Jacob Calta

In the city of Haven, the only law that counts is the law of A.C.E.S., the all-powerful sentient computer network running her city into the ground. In the Wastelands, the only law is that of leather, lead, and chrome.

Fighting against the electric tyranny of a neon goddess are the many hounds enlisted in the 365th Infantry, a resistance force armed with hot rods, chopped bikes, and a belief in the American Dream. With allies across the desert and inside the city, these brave wolves face an all-day, everyday fight to rid the once-shining utopia and the desert’s sprawling settlements of its decadent, decaying overlord…

This Kickstarter campaign will close on September 4, 2024. Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Cyclones of Chaos (LAND&SEA #7) – Blaine L. Pardoe

The mysterious underwater aliens dubbed the Fish, continue their brutal war with humanity around the globe. ASHUR’s and Tridents; powerful armored Mecha suits, are holding the line, but the war escalates to new levels of carnage as the aliens are determined to press inland.

Adam Cain and Natalia Falto are back in the war, exploring new weapons and tactics to tip the scales into mankind’s advantage. Manhattan is a devastated warzone that a grizzled NYPD detective still fights to protect. A gifted ASHUR pilot’s luck runs out in the most heinous way imaginable while a Ukrainian war survivor takes the war to the alien’s doorstep.

Humankind struggles to grapple with the complexities of a new war. Old national rivalries still give the aliens the upper hand. Warriors like Colonel Ashton Slade learn that the aliens are nothing compared with the evil that fellow men possess. As the war rages around all of them, they learn that the hardest course to plot is through a cyclone of chaos.

Mongol Mayhem (Raging Spirits #4) – Thor Bernard

Under the eternal blue sky, things are about to change… Forever.

It’s been a year since the summer that pulled Johnny Kanai into a whirlwind of unimaginable events. But lately, his life has grown stale, and he longs for adventure. Fulfilling a childhood dream, he departs for Mongolia for some well-deserved time off.

However, as Johnny travels deeper into the Mongolian wilderness, hidden dangers and ancient secrets reveal themselves, facing him with challenges he’d never thought he would ever experience.

In Japan, gangster Seiji Tanaka has lost it all. Now, he wants it back. But can he simply take what he once considered his? Seiji hasn’t let his internal warrior die just yet, and revenge looks more tempting than ever.

The Primal Hunter #10 – Zogarth

It’s finally Nevermore time, as Jake and friends dive into the greatest mega-dungeon of the multiverse…

Having evolved to C-grade successfully, Jake is ready to enter the most well-known World Wonder in the entire multiverse to get some sweet levels under his belt. However, Nevermore is far more than just an immense dungeon to power up in.

It’s a competition where newly evolved C-grades compete on Leaderboards to prove themselves in front of the entire multiverse. Genuises from every universe and faction appear, all of them vying for the top spot and to prove themselves the very best, like no one ever was.

Faced with tough competition, Jake gleefully takes on the challenge. With four competent comrades at his side, they face floor after floor as he dives deeper and deeper into the depths of Nevermore, encountering new situations, horrible water levels, powerful monsters, Challenge Dungeons, and perhaps even the occasional labyrinth with an overly invested creator.

Salvage Race (Salvage Title: Coalition #21) – David Alan Jones

After escaping forced conscription in a solar civil war not their own, former slave Symeon Brashniev and his former owner, Princess Kavya Rurikid, want nothing more than to escape their adopted home, the Cooper Star System. Over the course of many hard-fought victories and devastating losses, the two have forged a bond of love neither of them ever expected, but one that makes their shared life whole. Unfortunately, the couple are privy to a burgeoning secret war that threatens to rip the Cooper System, and even the known galaxy, asunder.

Unbeknownst to the system at large, a mechanized army, known as the fabricants, has secretly usurped one of Cooper’s most powerful governments. For months, the fabricants have been systematically replacing unsuspecting citizens, government officials, and even military members, with replicants of their own design, thereby turning the tide of their solar war.

Knowing the truth, Symeon and Kavya must decide if they’re willing to risk their lives, and their newfound love, to stop the fabricant uprising, or if they will choose the easy path and run. Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Call to Armor (Ember War: Terran Expeditionary Corps #1) – Richard Fox

A planet in danger. An impossible enemy. Only Armor can stand against the darkness.

The extra-galactic bridge between Earth and Terra Nova reopens after decades. Governor Hale calls for aide against an impossible alien threat known as the Inheritors, an advanced alien species with a mysterious connection to old allies. Hale needs the most powerful soldiers in the galaxy: Armor.

His son, Ely, finally reconnects with his family and will return to Terra Nova not as the scared kid who left the dwarf galaxy, but as the leader of an Armor lance.

When the Ibarra Nation joins the Expeditionary Corps, old wounds and older suspicions threated to drive a wedge between human factions.

Join the Terran Expeditionary Corps as it travels to new stars and stand against a terrifying new foe.

Glory Seeker: Feast of Ghouls – Bruce Nesmith

A new world. An empire out to get him. He must earn Glory to survive… then thrive.

After an accident, Laran wakes up in a strange fantasy world governed by a System, with his only knowledge coming from his fiery tutorial assistant, Toot, a faerie who is more snarky than helpful.

Even worse, the Undying Empire is hunting him for reasons he doesn’t understand. That means hordes of undead soldiers, dark assassins lurking in every shadow, and worse.

The good news is that apparently he is considered a Glory Seeker here, meaning he’s able augment almost anything he does by using points of Glory, a resource earned through actions in the world—heroic or villainous.

Focusing his build on Shadow Magic, Stealth, and Tinkering, Laran will make himself as impossible to catch as he is deadly. And an affinity for inventing contraptions brings him the attention of the Mechanist Guild.

The empire may be out to get him, but Laran vows to get them first. He’ll learn fast, befriend worthy companions, and acquire the power necessary to destroy the lich emperor before it destroys him.

Quaestor (The Outer Reaches #2) – Peter J. Aldin

In the year 5122, law and order across the Imperium’s vast reaches is a difficult thing to maintain. Enter the Quaestors. They are judges, law bringers, and when need be, executioners.

When imperial Quaestor Aurelia Cossea enlists Proselyti troopers to depose a corrupt governor, Sergeant Saito Shimada willingly accepts. A convert to imperial ways, he has devoted himself to a safer, more united galaxy.

But when the assignment is interrupted by betrayal and the bizarre appearance of two troopers from an earlier Prosyleti mission, Saito’s commitment to his Imperium masters is sorely tested.

Under-equipped and cut off from support, the hunters will become the hunted, forced to navigate the twisted maze of an ancient city in a desperate bid for escape, hampered by bad intel, the governor’s minions, and the two deserters who’ve returned from the dead.

Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Magic Kingdom at War #4 – Tao Wong

The worst thing about winning a battle? The mountain of paperwork that comes after.

Matt Fang may have won the fight, but now he’s left with a new town to manage, a whole new race of units to command, and a lot of catching up to do.

He’s still stuck in this strange realm, one of the last defenders of humanity against an enemy he doesn’t understand. No training manual, no clear answers—just endless conflict.

But he’s got a job to do, even if it’s not the one he signed up for.

At least ruling a Magic Kingdom at War beats punching in at the office.

Tin Can Combat (I, Starship: A Space Opera #2) – Scott Bartlett

A darkness is spreading across the stars – and not just any darkness. This is a hyper-advanced, cancerous darkness named Corthaur, who was originally thought to be a pretty okay guy.

He is not an okay guy.

As the governing mind of humanity’s first interstellar military starship, Henry just wants to help.

But so much stands in his way.

There’s his AI-hating captain, for starters, who has severely limited the functions Henry can access.

There’s Corthaur, obviously, threatening to annihilate all life because he’s just that bitter.

And then there’s the fact that a single star system stands in the way of Earth and total destruction.

A system that’s about to fall under brutal attack.

The same system, as it happens, that Henry and his crew are about to show up in.

The Hidden Emperor: An Ayla Rin Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – a Kickstarter campaign by Jon Del Arroz

Ayla Rin, Agent Of The Terran Imperium, returns to face a new sinister plot against the Imperium!

Something is amiss with the Emperor of Mankind. Ayla Rin discovers he’s been replaced by a clone who’s intentionally sabotaging the Imperium on behalf of the evil Scorpio Alliance! 

But worse, the Scorpio Alliance knows she knows. And that means blackmail. Ayla is forced to find a secret superweapon that could unleash devastation on the Imperium.

This Kickstarter campaign will close on September 16, 2024. Read More