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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Ashes (The Ascendant Wars #3) – Rhett C. Bruno and M. B. Vance

Humanity’s fate is in their hands…

The Lucians have faltered in their fight against the cruel Ascendant overlord, Cef. Now, a handful of survivors from a failed liberation campaign have been called to a Final Challenge in a madman’s arena.

For Rylan, Geeta, Scott and Aila, this may be their only opportunity to make peace with those they love. It will certainly be their last, best chance to save mankind from an endless cycle of genocidal slaughter.

Cef, of course, has saved his worst surprises for the war’s finale. Among them is a specter of the hated Lilith who offers a deal that the Soondarian Empire’s leader, Enri, can’t refuse. Whatever else happens, she’ll ensure everyone learns the price of spiting the devil. The only question is whether or not they’ll have the courage to pay it and free humanity.

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The Hedge Wizard #3 – Alex Maher

Scarred by the Remnant Realm, Hump must reclaim his soul…

Hump and his companions return to Sheercliff City to find a region plagued by monsters—bad news for most, but for a hedge wizard, it’s just good business.

With the gorger dead, and the bond with his unhatched dragon growing quickly, Hump looked forward to some ordinary adventures. Yet trouble finds him as the Inquisition arrives, accusing him of his master’s murder. It seems there is more to the old man’s death than he believed.

Countess Daston offers him a way out—in exchange for her protection, his party is enlisted to fight the monster surge. Warlocks walk the city streets, and newly spawned dungeons threaten the city’s existence. To survive, Hump must consolidate his strength and delve deeper into the potential of the Book of Infinite Pages.

The White Flame will be born.

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Homeworld Lost – J. N. Chaney and Scott Moon

During a test flight for the world’s first warp engine, Major Noah Gantz is set to go down in the history books.

Despite years of training, the mission goes sideways, and instead of a quick trip to the moon and back, Noah’s ship is transported across the universe to stars unknown.

Stranded in space and on the brink of death, Noah is rescued by a sentient starship and its captain. To save his life, the ship’s own biomatter must replace his failing cells.

Now , Noah is different. Stronger, faster… and there’s a voice in his head.

The voice of the ship itself, and its name is Kayan.

With no way to return home, Noah must adapt and rebuild his life in this unfamiliar corner of the universe. And as he does, he discovers a looming threat in the far reaches of space, growing in power, and set on capturing Noah and his ship.

Worse still, this new enemy knows about Earth. . . and it has big plans.

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Mrythdom: Game of Time – Jasper T. Scott

In a battle over an ancient elven relic, two powerful wizards accidentally abduct an “Elder” from the past.

While fleeing system patrollers in his ship, Aurelius flies through a temporal anomaly and crash lands on Meridia. This planet is nothing like the one he remembers. It’s full of strange, magical creatures, and peppered with the ruins of cities he once knew.

Armed with nothing but his damaged ship, Aurelius joins the wizard Gabrian on a dangerous quest to recover the stolen relic so that he can return to his time. Along the way, he encounters the greatest danger of all, one with the power to consume his mind, body, and soul.

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Perry Rhodan NEO #13 – Leo Lucas and Bernd Perplies

Aescunnar is dispatched to Bradbury Base, a human settlement on Mars aided by Ferron technology, but quickly finds that not all is as it seems. Meanwhile, the Tosoma has begun its voyage to the Arkonide Empire with Thora at its helm, but when disaster strikes, Rhodan must try to save not only the ship and its passengers, but his very mission.

Across the stars, Eric Manoli finds himself a stranger in a strange land after arriving on the Topsidan homeworld. Sheltered in a dangerous city where the locals have little love for offworlders. Can he find a way to leave the confines of his gilded cage and search for his friends?

Back on Terra, intrigue is brewing as dark facets of Bai Jun’s past come to light. When a shadowy group starts to blackmail him for their own ends, he is faced with difficult decisions.

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Gemini Man: The Complete Series – a Kickstarter by J. D. Cowan

The Gemini Man stars young adult Matthew White and teenager Jason Vermilion as they find themselves attached to bracelets named Castor and Pollux, both of which give them strange powers unlike anything on Earth . . . or other planets! The trilogy starts with the two escaping an experiment and landing in a whole new world where magic lives and an unknown people roam. Can they escape their pursuers, or are they destined to be fuel for some warped alien being? The trilogy traces their journey from captives to free men, in more ways than one.

The crowd-funded campaign will close on 2 June, 2023.

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Ghost of the Badlands – a crowd funding campaign by Razorfist and George Alexopoulos

Who is the Ghost? Man or myth? Flesh or phantom? Is he a ghostly stranger who wandered out of the Arizona desert to deal divine judgment upon the modern Gomorrah of Canyon Diablo? Or is he a survivor of godless effrontery… plucked from his grave by beings unknown, to visit upon evil men the ravages to which they subject the weak? Whatever his origin, the result is the same: Gunfight after gunfight, body after body, coffin after coffin, legend soon grows of this phantom of the high desert.

The badlands swirl with whispers of a lone pistoleer. A one-man vendetta ride, wielding a mechanical weapon of the Old World, to cleanse the heathen with hails of gunfire. Rumors soon circulate of an entire army, cloaked in shadow, his faceless foot soldiers. Eventually, folk find a name for this mute, masked missionary of death…

THE GHOST OF THE BADLANDS.

Inspired by storytelling traditions both East & West, the team will be pleased to release TWO versions of this first edition: A Softcover inspired by manga, and Hardcover inspired by Bande Desinee.

The crowd-funded campaign will close on 21 May, 2023.

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Misha Burnett’s Small Worlds – a Kickstarter from Cirsova

Ours is a culture that adores the elephantine, the cyclopean, the Brobdingnagian. Bigger is better, we are told, and the biggest is the best. People love big stories, with a cast of thousands, and Vista-vision widescreen special effects. Heroes must be larger than life, and devils blacker than they are painted, and entire worlds must be set aflame to create an ever-growing hunger for spectacle.

Oh, says I, that’s interesting. But that’s not what I do.

I write short stories, about little people in small worlds. That’s what you’ll find in this collection. In a couple of cases, they are literally small worlds, flyspeck heavenly bodies far out in space. In others the constraints are more metaphysical, worlds bounded by the vision of their inhabitants, an event horizon close enough to almost touch.

But one mustn’t suppose that the Lilliputian character of these stories means that nothing of significance happens in them.

Small worlds need saving, too.

The crowd-funded campaign will close on 31 May, 2023.