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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Artifact (Starship Jericho #1) – Toby Neighbors

There’s something out there. We’ve known about it for a long time. No one knows where it came from or who sent it. But one thing is certain: it wants us to find it.

The S.D.F. Jericho is a new ship, built from a new design, with a single purpose — to retrieve the artifact. She’s still in the early stages of shakedown cruise when the call comes in. The artifact is at the far end of the solar system beyond Saturn’s orbit. Only one ship has ever been built to travel that far, and once they pass Jupiter, they will be completely on their own.

Like every Fleet vessel, the Jericho has a platoon of Space Marines. They are all combat veterans, special forces, and Black Ops commandos. The Senior NCO, Master Sergeant Steel, is fresh from winning the Medal of Honor, but nothing in their training or experience has prepared them for what’s to come.

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Flamespitter (Elemental Gunslinger #1) – Jonathan Smidt

A gunslinger with four affinities is a myth.

It’s the kind of story whispered in frontier saloons one drink before closing and around campfires in the dead of night. For the heroes and villains in those tales, that impossible power is a boon, a gift.

For Mr. Jones, it’s a curse.

Of course, that’s not his real name. He’s had many.

Changing names is necessary when you possess a power that every lawman and outlaw would kill to obtain. To survive, you keep your head down, kill when you must, and never stay in one place too long. It’s a life governed by rules and hard lessons, drilled into him from a young age after his parents were murdered because of his ‘gift.’

Since then, the trail of bodies has only grown longer.

But all that is about to change. After years of chasing two-bit bounties, honing his skills, and growing his core, he’s finally caught the scent of the man he’s been searching for—the first of four bodies that will end this carnage once and for all.

Now, it’s time to put his cursed powers to use.

It’s time for revenge.

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Forsworn (The Forsworn Oath #1) – David Estes

Do not fear the shadows, but what lives inside them.

When Ludo Vica was only eight years old, he lost his twin brother and his eye when a horrific fire turned his village to ash. The last thing he remembers is a dark figure, wreathed in flames, stalking toward his childhood home. His brother, Gado, was still inside. Then came the explosion, the burning pain where his eye should’ve been, followed by blessed oblivion.

The man deemed responsible for it all was Cainan, a dark sorcerer known as the Fire Eater, who was brought to justice and imprisoned in the legendary fortress known as Comman Dur. In the two decades that have passed since that fateful night, Ludo’s every waking moment has been focused on the only thing he has left to live for: revenge. So when the Fire Eater escapes, Ludo is determined to hunt him down and avenge his brother’s death, a path that leads him into the shadows and mysteries of Lostwood.

What awaits him in the shadows will change everything.

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Starquest: Space Pirates Of Andromeda – John C. Wright

Space Opera must be Great! Gallant! Gigantic! Grandiose!
This tale told by a Grandmaster vows to return the glory that was lost!
Remember the days gone by, when science fiction was fun?
Now new hope is here!
If you are weary of weak, wan, woke and wasted works, your wait is ended!
Here is an epic, as grand as any tale of old — here you will hear wonders told!

Of course there is a Space Princess, and Space Pirates galore, and an Evil Galactic Empire.

Of course there is a super-weapon known only as the Great Eye of Darkness!
Here meet Athos Lone, Ace of Star Patrol, in his one-man mission of vengeance!
The Ancient Mariner, like an iron ghost, when slain, seems to rise again!
The mysterious spymaster called Nightshadow walks in dark worlds but serves the light!
An Imperial Deathtrooper must reverse his loyalties, and fight his own clone-brothers!

Fate has set these unlikely heroes against the Four Dark Overlords
An utmost evil the unwary galaxy thinks long dead!
Can Darkness fail and Light prevail?
Read On! For All True Tales are but Part of a Greater!

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The Unknown (The Convergence War #2) – M. R. Forbes

A starship lost. An enemy revealed. A galaxy on the precipice of extermination.

Soren hasn’t found his daughter, but the terrifying truth of her disappearance has come to light, and with it knowledge of a threat beyond imagination. With the Federation woefully unprepared and the Wraith and her crew grounded, nothing can slow the coming storm.

Like his father, Alex refuses to give up, and he’s not about to let anything stand in his way. He’ll do whatever it takes to see Soren and the Wraith back in the fight.

Otherwise, there won’t be anything left to fight for.

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The Dream Lords 50th Anniversary Omnibus – a Kickstarter campaign from Cirsova and Adrian Cole

Mankind and its empire spanning the Nine Worlds are ruled by a powerful triumvirate of long-lived dreamers: the Dream Lords!

The Dream Lords project a vision of utopia to obfuscate the alien hostility of Zurjah, the world long claimed to be the true seat of humanity. A vision that grows hazy as the power of the Dream Lords wanes.

Destroyed by ancient wars, Earth has become a backwater prison colony, and its native inhabitants are called “Barbarian” and enslaved to perpetuate a myth that Mankind came from the stars.

Galad Sarian, son and heir of one of the Dream Lords, discovers not only the truth behind the crumbling Zurjahn empire and faltering of the powers that maintain humanity’s grasp on alien worlds but also a plot by Daras Vorta, the Warden of Earth, to overthrow the Dream Lords with the aid of demonic forces.

Cirsova Publishing is collecting Adrian Cole’s Dream Lords in omnibus for the first time to celebrate its 50th Anniversary and to set the stage for the collection of Adrian Cole’s new Dream Lords adventures he’s been publishing since 2016!

This campaign will be open until 31 October, 2024.

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Kamen America #10 – a Kickstarter campaign by Timothy Lim and Mark Pellegrini

Charlotte ‘Carly’ Vanders was a fashion designer whose fate was changed the day a cosmic collision transformed her into a supercharged henshin heroine! Shedding her corporate overlords and driven by American grit and determination, she is the patriotic paladin known as KAMEN AMERICA!

The Kamen Corps are in Texas-sized trouble! Finding themselves in a precarious situation, the team must confront Kamen Unity during a tense standoff with a rancher and his land. Zener Ecto and Zener Psycho are on the scene — but what do they want with his patch of land, and how does it fit into Cynthia Prestige‘s greater scheme? Slowly but surely, answers are given as we proudly celebrate our 10th volume in just under 4 years of publication!

Find out why Kamen America, the underdog independent comic that could, has set the gold standard for crowdfunded American comics!

This campaign will be open until 13 November, 2024.