Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 19 October 2024
Saturday , 19, October 2024 Uncategorized 1 CommentEvery week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.
Ilus Found (The Four Horsemen #3) – Michael Chatfield
Plunged into the heart of Vedra, the Abyssal Plane of Etera, The Four Horsemen connect with Limos once more.
Having reestablished their connection with the cunning Limos, their quest is singular—Desari has found Ilus, her long-lost home, now ensnared in the Fire Region. But revelation comes with its own perils; Ilus is embroiled in a war it is losing, threatening to extinguish its legacy forever.
Conquest leads the charge, with Famine, War, and Death in her relentless wake. Together, they ride not just for survival, but for the salvation of Ilus. Four of them against three nations—will they be the saviors of Ilus, or will its ashes be their final resting place?
Embark on a journey where the line between hero and conqueror is as thin as a sword’s edge or the side you stand on.
The Lost LegionEven the dead long for home…
They are the Lost Legions. Famed warriors in the annals of military history, made famous when they struck out for the stars to fight a Savage invasion… never to return or be heard from again.
Until new evidence is uncovered that a Lost Legion sleeps in the pocked craters of a distant mining world.
Sergeant Carson Metzger, a replacement pilot for a Republic HARD HK-PP mech unit, is sent to act as security for the science team seeking to confirm the discovery of the fabled missing legion.
But when the local miners object to the arrival of Republic forces, tensions simmer to an all-out boil. Caught in a hostile revolt and stranded from the rest of their unit, Metzger and his fellow mech jockeys must survive against overwhelming odds…
… or suffer the same fate as the Lost Legion that came before.
On the Milky Way Rivers (A Prayer for Earthrise #6) – Daniel Arenson
The final battle is here. The final showdown between man and monster.
Years ago, the aliens hit us hard. Tentacled aliens. Bloodthirsty aliens. They burned our cities. Devoured our children. Conquered our world.
It ends now.
We lost in space. We lost on land. We lost our world. But a few rebels still fight. A few brave souls still stand tall.
Einav Ben-Ari. Marco Emery. Addy Linden. Names that will echo through the generations. Heroes of Earth. Rebels. They lead a last, desperate assault.
This is our final stand. We must liberate our world.
Or Earth will be lost forever.
Shadow Wired: Doomsday – Gustavo Bondoni
Akane is gone!
She disappeared in the middle of the night without even leaving a note, and Sked is back in the game.
When he tracks her from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, through Kyrgyzstan to India, Sked finds that she is working for his old enemy, the terrorist criminal group Technihilism.
Even though he knows Technihilism wants him dead—and he should stay as far away from them as possible—Sked accepts a job working for Indian nationalists to stop the terrorists from knocking out India’s anti-missile shield, which would leave the country open to nuclear attack.
As Sked races against time, picking up unexpected allies along the way, he comes to realize that he might have to choose between saving Akane or rescuing billions.
But then again, there are no good choices on Doomsday.
An Unexpected Hero – Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle
Some men are born heroes. Others have heroism thrust upon them…
Sorry… Really? Thrust? Anyway, Danny Kendrick was a down-on-his luck performer who always struggled to find his place. He certainly never wanted to be a hero. He just hoped to earn a living doing what he loved.
That all changes when he pisses off the wrong guy and gets sucked into a fantasy realm straight out of a Renaissance Fair.
Getting used to a new world is tough. It’s even tougher when you’re surrounded by axe-wielding barbarians, super hot elf assassins, strange magic, and a System AI that seems as interested in causing trouble as helping… or maybe just wasn’t interested in being assigned yet another companion in the first place.
Danny must adapt fast, turn on the charm, and learn to embrace his given Class if he hopes to master it and survive this dangerous new place.
But he has a knack for finding trouble. Gifted what seems like an innocent ancient lute after making a questionable deal with a Hag, Danny becomes the target of mysterious factions who seek to claim its power.
It’s up to him, Screenie, and his new barbaric friend, Curr, to uncover the truth and become the heroes nobody knew they needed. And maybe, just maybe, Danny will finally find a place where he belongs. Perhaps, even where he’ll thrive.
Wild Stars VII: The Gold Exigency – Michael Tierney
Following the bombing of the galactic summit on Ansa, the Artomique Corporation has become the dominant political power on Earth and throughout the rest of the galaxy! However, the immortal princess Phaedra has amassed a planet-sized hoard of gold, causing the value of the precious metal and any currencies backed by it to crash!
Unusual economic problems require unusual solutions: the Phileans are a race of bird people with brilliant gemstones growing on their skin–simply exterminate the aliens, harvest their skin gems, and corner the market.
Of course, all of this needs to be kept hush-hush. It would be bad if anyone found out Earth’s government was in league with the notorious space pirate queen Nefarimor or, worse, the vile lizard-like Black Star Reavers to engage in trafficking and genocide.
Enter Constable Conrock, who has been investigating abductions and disappearances of Philean women. In the principle of keeping one’s enemies close, the Artomique leader Achilles Hister deputizes Conrock to find the remaining Phileans to “place in protective custody,” look into the origins of the excess gold flooding the market, and track down a pair of wanted criminals.
Conrock, however, is too clever to merely be an unwitting pawn in the Artomique’s secret war against the Wild Stars… Keeping his cards close to the chest, the retired space cop will stop at nothing to uncover the truth and put an end to vile machinations of the Artomique Corporation!
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.
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.
Thanks for these updates, as always, Nathan!