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

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12 Miles Below: The Frozen Realm – Mark Arrows

Icy death above. Monster-filled dungeons below. He must fight or freeze.

Extreme sub-zero temperatures suffocate the surface. Frozen structures of bygone eras span across massive ice-wastes. And the survivors closely guard any technology rediscovered within them.

The only escape from the deadly climate is beneath the surface, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe…

Monstrous machines lurk in the depths. Unhinged demigods war against them, dying over and over, treating it all like a game. The depths themselves shift over time, more contraption than rock.

When an expedition into the far uncharted north goes terribly wrong, Keith Winterscar and his father get trapped together in a desperate fight for survival. Stumbling upon an ancient war of titanic scale, the two will need to set their differences aside while they struggle against gods, legends, and the secrets of the realm that lies below.

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The Crystal Conspiracy (The Adventures of Baron Von Monocle #6) – Jon Del Arroz

Death rains from a foreign continent…

…only ancient technology can save them.

Zaira von Monocle finds herself in an unlikely alliance with Ivan, the Iron Emperor, as the evil Nightmen flood both of their people’s western shores. With the airship Liliana broken beyond repair, The Wyranth’s engineers have made a new airship, one designed as a weapon of war to stave off this threat.

But even with their air power, both countries find themselves overwhelmed. The Nightmen seem to have an ultimate advantage over our heroes, able to level cities with swift efficiency. Zaira and her new airship are helpless against such a foe. Or so she thinks.

Ivan has discovered the secret of ancient crystals which powered wonderous and miraculous deeds in the ancient past. All they have to go on are mythological texts which speak of an ultra-crystal somewhere on the Dragonmist Isles, an area left unexplored for centuries. Desperate, Zaira and her crew fly for the Isles to try to find some kind of hope to save her home from destruction and her people from slavery.

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The Exile of Zanzibar – Daniel Maidman

Claire built a device to fold space and time.

It had a flaw…

When the smoke clears, she finds herself halfway across the world, thousands of years in the past, and no device in sight.

In bronze-age Florence, war has lasted for generations. All Claire wants to do is get home, but she’ll need help from the locals. She wins an ally in Marcus Diophantus, a pickpocket turned soldier turned general, who hopes to turn into something more than just her champion. Together, they broker peace between Florence and its enemy.

If Marcus is going to help Claire, he’ll have to survive. Peace has upset the balance of power in the capital city. The king stands increasingly alone against: the Constantines, a commercial enterprise as much as a clan, who aim to profit from peace as they have from war – the warrior nobles, descended from the founders of Florence and quick to turn against a weak throne – and Reburrus, the high priest of Florence, convinced Claire answers to hostile foreign gods. As the city comes to a boil, Claire and Marcus – and Marcus’s formidable army – will have to decide where their allegiance lies.

Claire becomes a reluctant participant in a savage campaign. While Marcus leads the battles, she tries to gain control of the unimaginably powerful Ctesiphôn – a ghost tower in the heart of Florence, shrouded in magic and myth.

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March of the Dinosaurs (Mintari #3) – Daniel Arenson

Dinosaurs. Majestic beasts. For millions of years, they ruled the Earth. Today they live again on planet Mintari.

Risen from the past, these beautiful animals inspire all who see them. The titanic sauropods roam the land, devouring forests. Ceratopsians herd across the plains like living tanks. Pterosaurs fill the skies, some as large as planes. Ruling them all, the mighty T.rex reigns as king.

But powerful as they are, the dinosaurs are facing another extinction.

An army of poachers sweeps across Mintari. Killing. Burning. Even the greatest dinosaurs cannot survive their modern weapons.

Against this army stands Joe Triplehorn. A Mintari Ranger. A man broken and forged in the wilderness. Joe and his fellow Rangers are outnumbered. Outgunned. But this is war. And Joe will fight. He will defend his home, his family, and Mintari’s magnificent dinosaurs.

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Tinaree: Trial by Inferno – Nic Plume

When your enemy knows more about your past than you do, things can get complicated.

Taylor trained his whole life to be the best, and to do his part in Intergal’s effort to stop the Traverse’s forceful expansion across the galaxy. However, as the Academy drills into every trainee’s head,

‘The enemy gets a vote in every plan.’

But Taylor and his teammates did not join Intergal’s Special Forces to go the easy route.

Then the enemy voted…

The only survivors of an ambush that should not have been possible, on a mission they should not have been assigned to, the four rookies find themselves in the worst possible scenario—in enemy hands.

But all is not what it seems, and their captor is much more than he pretends to be… however, even for the enemy…

‘No plan survives first contact.’

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Tree of Aeons #2 – Spaizzzer

Being reborn as a tree wasn’t first on Matt’s wish list. It’s not all bad, though. For he’s not just any tree, but an overpowered one in a fantasy world that serves as the battlefield for an ongoing conflict between demons and the heroes summoned to oppose them.

Matt can be a great tool against the evil forces. TreeTree (as Matt comes to be known) will learn all manner of skills, gain levels and wisdom, and in doing so, build up a forest, guide young heroes, protect a village, and much more.

Matt’s journey to survive in a world filled with heroes and demons continues!

Matt now has to guide his growing nation through competing nations and kingdoms, demonic incursions, while trying to amass more power, train his forces, make more equipment, amass allies and friends, and navigate sensitive relationships with heroes and former heroes!

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Uncommon Valor (Galaxy’s Edge: Tyrus Rechs – Contracts & Terminations #5) – Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

The Last Man of a Lost Cause

On the jungle planet Red Eye, a lone legionnaire fights for survival. His Legion SOG team, sent here to put an end to the Lizzaar H8 trade, was abandoned by the House of Reason, and one by one his team members have been killed by the Lizzaar. Now only he, Sergeant Spike Riggs, remains.

Riggs valiantly continues the mission, working with disgruntled zhee colonists to do whatever damage he still can. But the Lizzaar own the jungles, the planet, the sector of space.

Until Tyrus Rechs arrives.

The bounty hunter must hearken back to his days as a Legion general as he once again leads his soldiers through combat. Together with Riggs and the zhee insurgents, he has a chance to bring the Lizzaar H8 trade crashing down… if he can survive the three deadly assassins hot on his trail.

The odds are daunting, the mission almost impossible. The situation calls for… Uncommon Valor.

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Kamen America #8 – a Kickstarter campaign from Timothy Lim and Mark Pellegrini

“Charlotte ‘Carly’ Vanders was a fashion designer whose fateful encounter with a cosmic collision transformed her into a supercharged henshin heroine! Shedding her corporate overlords and driven by good ol’ American grit and determination, she is the patriotic paladin known as KAMEN AMERICA!”

Kamen America, Volume 8 finds a fractured Kamen Corps having to reconvene in Nevada to stop a destructive plan from the Zenerengers and a mob of Dark Suit hooligans! That’s easier said that done, however, as they’ll have to coordinate their efforts while facing an onslaught from a team of Otomotons who have their own set of tricks!

It’s an all-out battle royale as the two henshin-hero groups fight for this piece of ground! Who will emerge victorious and what repercussions will this have on our heroine and her world?

This Kickstarter will remain open until 2 August, 2023.