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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Battlefield Diplomacy – L. L. Richman

A fragile alliance. A stolen weapon. A war for Humanity’s future.

Special Forces operator Matt Whitaker survived the Oniki War — but only just. Now the war is over, and a tenuous peace has been struck.

When weapons plans are stolen from an Oniki shipyard and all evidence points to human involvement, tensions flare, threatening that hard-won peace. Whitaker is the only person with the knowledge and experience to uncover the truth.

Still recovering from his injuries, he is forced to face his demons, and charge back into the fray.

His orders are clear: uncover the truth and exonerate humanity. But the mission unearths more than just stolen plans, and what Whitaker discovers is worse than anyone could have imagined.

Now, the fate of both civilizations rests on his shoulders… and time is running out. Can one soldier save humanity from a second, and final, war?

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Corporal (Conscript #4) – Scott Bartlett

He Chose the Marines Over Jail

The solar system is a time bomb

For centuries, humanity thought it was alone in the universe. Three “first contact” events later, and now the system is starting to feel a little crowded.

Po Abbato and his brothers are coming out the other side of a war that nearly destroyed the Marine Corps. But the system’s problems are far from over, and the Powers That Be have only one solution in mind:

Them.

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Reunion (Kingdom Lost #1) – Chris Kennedy

Sixteen years ago, during a pause in the Algarian War, Duke Alessio Valente implemented a coup in the Star Kingdom of Narantea, killing King Altan Kotaro and Queen Brooke Kotaro. Before he died, though, the king gave his four children, Kellye, Yoshi, Jonatan, and Jayme Kotaro, to four trusted advisors and told them to take them to where they’d never be found.

The war has continued during this time, with neither side gaining an upper hand. Meanwhile, despite the best efforts of his much-feared Enforcers, now-Emperor Valente has been unable to find the children, and they have grown to adulthood.

In order to reclaim their birthright, the children–now adults–will have to come together and take it back. Unfortunately for them, none of them know where the others are, and there are billions of stars in the galaxy…

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Starquest: Secret Agents Of The Galaxy – John C. Wright

The despotic Galactic Empire is gone, and the Dark Overlords are dead.

But from the embers new menaces arise: a Dark Sun Weapon quenches living stars; Pirate King Ahab gathers space corsairs to form warfleets of conquest; the Crime Syndicate corrupts consuls, fixes vote, paralyzes the polity to pry planets from the new Constitution.

Space Princess Lyra Centauri, exiled Shrine Maiden, employs her astral powers on behalf of the mysterious spymaster Nightshadow, and finds the shades of ancient foes alive in the dream realm.

Senator Napoleon Lone, and his illegal super-robot valet, must thread the maze of stellar politics to rouse a lethargic senate ere war clouds can crush the fledgling republic!

Patrolman Athos Lone wins the Black Badge of a Vindicator, and is able investigate without warrant and execute without trial. He seeks the Murder Mansion of Pirate Captain Liska, who slew his brother. As the iron-masked and lion-clawed vigilante called the Ancient Mariner, he seeks bloody revenge.

Shall the darkness thrive and dead devilry revive?

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Tenure #2: Social Street Justice 101 – Blaine L. Pardoe and Mike Baron

They say no one is coming to help you. They haven’t met Braxton Knox.

In Indianapolis, a candy store owner is forced out of business by online social justice warriors. They harass him mercilessly, shut down his store, and threaten his friends, until even his wife and child can’t take it anymore… and leave.

Jason Higby thinks his life is over and the woke have won.

But Jason isn’t alone.

When Braxton Knox hears of his plight, he and his team go to Indy. Their purpose: bring about the kind of justice that no one else can.

It won’t be easy. The online thugs bring real-life muscle into play, and new allies and enemies enter the fray. But Knox is heavily armed, and he isn’t looking for apologies; he’s looking for justice. He’s going to Indianapolis to set things right—with a price to be paid in blood and pain.

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Ghost in the Assembly (Ghost Armor #4) – Johnathan Moeller

A city of corrupt lords. The plots of the serpent priests. If Caina cannot find her way through the maze, she will pay in blood.

Caina has come to the ancient city of New Kyre, seeking the masters of the deadly Cult of Rhadamathar.

But the lords of New Kyre are treacherous and too corrupt to act in the face of the serpent priests.

Unless Caina risks everything, the serpent priests will win a terrible and final victory…