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

He Who Fights with Monsters #11 – Travis Deverell

Jason and his companions managed to forestall the inexorable undead, but their battle is far from done.

Both they and their enemies are scattered across a strange realm, one that someone must conquer if anyone is to get out alive. Territory by territory, factions fight to reunite their people and conquer the realm.

Jason must contend with alliances he doesn’t want, friends he cannot find, and enemies ranging from angelic despots to the power of an undead god. He must face a realm that has been warped by his own mind and find a way to save a friend whose sacrifice got them this far.

To have any chance against the enemies waiting for him, Jason will have to confront the power inside himself that he’s been unwilling to face, fearful of what he’ll become. Only by accepting the destiny that looms over him will he have the strength to face his foes, with no promise even that will be enough to defeat them.

Remnants of Empire (Ashes of Entecea #4) – edited by Kacey Ezell

A group of militants searches for ancient technology. A young boy fights to survive as his world disintegrates. A thief steals a gem that carries more than just monetary value…

Born from the marriage of nanite-driven terraforming and corporate loyalty protocols, the Entecean Empire spanned hundreds of star systems and thousands of standard years before crumbling under the weight of barbarian incursions, political infighting, and bureaucratic decay.

But the Entecean nanoterraforming safeguards requiring certain DNA sequences remained. Generations of star monarchies rose to fill the power vacuum, charged with governing and preserving the habitable worlds left in the wake of the once great empire.

From murderous plots to disastrous evacuations, to the seeds of love amidst great upheaval, the tales that remain give us glimpses into the lives of the people who call these worlds home. Step into the mists of time and memory as fifteen authors explore the complex and diverse stories that make up the Remnants of Empire.

Start Menu: New Game – Kos Play

Complete Quests. Earn Renown. Win.

Meet Alexander Krup, your average high school graduate turned video game beta tester. Working for a strange company nobody has ever heard of, he earns his pay by the achievement.

After a string of bad luck, including his girlfriend dumping him, he wakes up one seemingly average day and is suddenly faced with blue boxes of text that float in the air.

While coming to grips with the fact that he might by hallucinating, a representative of his mysterious employer communicates through the menu boxes to offer a fresh life in another world.

With nothing left to lose, Alexander takes the offer and is sent hurtling into a fantasy world both like and unlike any game he’s played before.

Now, he must choose an alignment.

Will he seek Renown or Infamy? One way or another, Alex will leave a mark… or will it be a stain?

Strings of Sorrow (The Wayward Chronicles #2) – D. K. Holmberg

The Twilight Gates call to me with a song I must ignore, as it’s nothing more than the Song of Sorrow.

No longer traveling with the Wayward, Leo learns that finding his own way is its own adventure, and one he could never have experienced as one of the Wayward.

He joins a new caravan and befriends a young girl fascinated by the Twilight Gates, travels with one of the fae and learns of a danger to their realm, and makes an enemy of the Alley King.

Surviving the journey is only the first step. The Academy is the goal. Even then, he must still gain entry to the Academy—which proves more difficult than Benjamin led him to believe.

All will be worth it if he can infiltrate the Guild and get the vengeance he seeks.

The Wayward Chronicles continues this epic journey as Leo searches for his place in the world as he’s destined to become more than Wayward. He’s destined to become a part of the Song itself.

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

All Here (The Weapon #3) – Richard Fox

The Red Man remains…

The Dead Man risked everything to rid himself of the malfunctioning cybernetic implant corrupting his mind. He failed. The Red Man will win out. The beast within grows stronger until only it remains…then a nigh-un-killable monster will be loosed on the world.

A threat to everyone around him, the Dead Man flees Los Angeles on a last ditch effort to save who he is and the soldiers he once led.

The Revenant Program cannot let the world learn of the Dead Man and must destroy him before the Red Man takes over. The Program unleashes a final sanction against the rogue cyborg: The Dead Men are All Here.

Will the Dead Man die as a monster or as a hero?

Prince Imperator (The Prince of Britannia #9) – Fred Hughes

Hazard had promised his mother that he would return and accept the crown. He just needed one last trip to the front to re-organize the Sol Fleet, then he would return home to rule. When he arrived, though, he found himself in the middle of a battle.

The fleet and empire no longer needed him at the front as a warrior; instead, they needed a diplomat. If Earth was to survive, Hazard would need to deal with a host of new alien races, and as emperor, only Hazard could do that. But, of course, he’d do it with a powerful fleet at his back.

There can only be one possible path to peace in this region of space, though. Hazard would need to confront the Zenkarr, the area’s dominant race. Nicknamed the teddy bears by the fleet, there was only one way to deal with them—head on and carrying a big stick. It was diplomacy Hazard could get behind, but will he be able to create a lasting peace, or are the teddy bears not quite as nice as they seem?

Rawlins’ Redemption (Mercenary Navy #1) – John Spearman

The Union is gone. Interstellar travel is no longer safe. Enter ex-Union Navy Officer Cliff Rawlins.

More than four years after being wrongfully stripped of his rank and decorations in a court-martial stacked against him, ex-Union Navy Officer Cliff Rawlins suddenly finds himself a free man.

The galaxy to which he returns, however, is changing.

The Union of Free Planets is on the verge of dissolving. Many of the shadowy political players working behind the scenes to end the Union are the same people who sent Cliff away. Yet, in the coming political upheaval, Cliff glimpses an opportunity.

For centuries, people have relied upon the Union Navy to act as the policeman of the shipping lanes. With the end of the Union will come the end of the navy. Interstellar commerce is about to become fraught with danger.

Cliff has a way to use his expertise to provide secure transport across interstellar space. A mercenary navy to defend settled space and get rich doing it. After all, he deserves it for what he went through.

But there are enemies old and new who want him to fail. And this time, they want him 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.

Bright Red Line (Backyard Starship #22) – J. N. Chaney and Terry Maggert

When a running battle brings the Fafnir home to earth, it ends with the death of a trusted friend—and a new focus on what comes next for Van and his crew.

The Guild is rotten. It must be changed. It must be healed. But to do that, Van will have to marshal resources on a scale he’s never considered, and that means calling in favors from friends.

With the Schegith fleet in training, and the Conoku itching to get back into the fight, Van has a clear plan for what he has to do—which is the one thing he doesn’t want to do.

The time for war is here. The time for change is now.

A new leader is needed, and Van will discover if he can take control of Yotov’s criminal empire—and save the victims across known space.

Bureau 42 (The Four Horsemen Universe: The Phoenix Initiative) – edited by Kevin Ikenberry and Mia R. Kleve

Peacemakers. The Galactic Union’s most capable enforcers and resolute negotiators, their name alone elicits fear and awe among the Union’s citizenry.

It doesn’t happen often, but when a Peacemaker can’t solve a case, it goes to the Peacemaker Archives, as all Peacemaker cold cases reside within “Bureau 42,” as it’s also known. Cases dealing with ghost ships, missing Peacemakers, mysterious killers, and even a few cases that aren’t even really cases can all be found in the files of Bureau 42.

Fourteen authors present thirteen all-new stories from the depths of Bureau 42. Take a look into the forgotten files of the Peacemaker Guild and find never-before-seen secrets, some of which herald the future of the Peacemaker Guild and even the Galactic Union itself.

These stories honor the threat, set the terms, and walk the knife edge between standing or falling. Step inside, Candidate, and see what our files hold…

Go West: Frontier Adventures #1 – edited by Spenser Rudolph

The Western. Truly the American genre. Far away are the days where it dominated print, film, television & comics, yet there seems to be a longing among the public for it. A longing for the frontier spirit. A longing for heroism, adventure, romance, horror & grit.

We look to the past for inspiration. Specifically to the pulp writers that laid down the foundations for the mid-century Western explosion in American culture. We look to writers like Robert E. Howard, Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, H. Bedford Jones, & Max Brand.

Taking those same foundations that were laid a century ago we hope to unleash a new wave of Western pulp.

Action, adventure, romance, mystery, wonder! All of this and more can be found in the inaugural issue of Go West: Frontier Tales.

It doesn’t end there, the magazine is also filled with to the brim story illustrations, pin-ups, photo splashes, and articles on real history. 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.

The Burned Book (Arkwright Cycle #1) – Brian Niemeier

An outcast boy with a terrible secret …

A disillusioned priest seeking release from fate …

The restless son of a fading race seeking his destiny …

Thrown together by chance, their historic quest will span a continent. And change all worlds forever.

Zebrin wanders the human-dominated mainland, having fled his people’s rigid island refuge.

Alone in barbaric lands, he yearns to find himself in those his race shuns.

But when an ambitious emperor drafts him for a harrowing mission to the farthest ends of the world, will he discover and embrace his divine calling? Or will the kingdom he was ordained to save fall?

The answer lies in The Burned Book.

The Last Ship (Galaxy In Flames #2) – Nicholas Sansbury Smoth

Held captive by Dark Horse Company, Captain Axel Finn is faced with a mission to humanity’s ancestral home after all contact with the planet is lost. Learning his mother might be hiding there, Axel agrees to help his adversaries, and deploy on Vengeance, the last Steward ship. But his decision might lead to his downfall if the Wrath have already arrived on Earth.

On the treacherous Wooly planet of Dari, bounty hunter Rangnar Soki becomes the prey, finding himself the target in a deadly game of survival. His path to rejoin the Axel’s crew hinges on passing a test of Dari’s most revered guardian. Meanwhile, the surviving crew of the Trash Squid faces their own struggles to repair their damaged ship and leave Dari to find Captain Finn.

At the Citadel, Sergeant Jax Brito returns from her harrowing mission on Corinnia after drilling into a construct brimming with alien embryos. This grim discovery sends shockwaves through the CANDF ranks, and reality dawns on them all: the countdown to the Wrath invasion was wrong, it has already started, and no part of the galaxy is safe.

Shield of Darkness (The Shield War #2) – Johnathan Moeller

War is coming between the Shield Knight and the Exarch. But neither sees the dark power manipulating the battle from the shadows.

To drive the Exarch from her stronghold on the Isle of Kordain, Ridmark is gambling on a bold strategy – to reach the Isle through the twisting caverns of the Deeps.

But the caverns of the Deeps are filled with deadly dangers and deeper mysteries.

And disturbing one of those mysteries might wake a darkness to dwarf even the Exarch herself…

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