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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The Betrayed (Galaxy’s Edge: 24) – Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

As Chhun and his fellow Legion Adjudicators work to uncover the buried secrets of the time called the Troubles, the rest of the galaxy isn’t just standing still. Organizations both inside and out of the Republic make moves to prepare for their own futures. Planets build their own independent defense forces. Power brokers and criminal cartels arise with personal armadas. The Repub Navy seeks to prove itself just as capable even without the Legion. Piracy blooms.

For the Adjudicator and his team, the job only gets harder. Each snatch, grab, and interrogation grows more dangerous.

As stress and casualties mount, Hunter Team Ranger begins to splinter from within. Their pace is relentless, their mission seemingly unending…

… and now Chhun and his legionnaires are inserted on a hidden planet that is home to one of the Republic’s darkest secrets.

Join Chhun and Hunter Team Ranger in their mission to run the blasters, clear the corners, and keep the Republic from descending into chaos.

The galaxy is a dumpster fire, and the flames are out of control!

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Fire Forged (Ember War: Terran Expeditionary Corps #2) – Richard Fox

A battle alongside untrustworthy allies is already lost…

The Inheritors have Chief Carson. Her knowledge will endanger humanity’s only colony in Terra Nova if her captors have enough time to rip the vital information from her mind. The forces of the Terran Expeditionary Force and the Ibarra Nation must join with the alien Zies for a combined assault on the ancient space station where the Pathfinder is held prisoner.
Ely Hale thought his return to Terra Nova would mean a reunion with his family and a home he’d forgotten, but his Armor lance is called to fight impossible battles again and again against face a foe they barely understand while fighting besides allies with their own agendas.

The Ibarran Prince Eneko has his own goals, where Ely Hale and the crew of the Ajax are mere pawns to his ultimate ends. Will Ely and his team of Strike Marines and Pathfinders be sacrificed on the altar of victory, or will the fires of battle forge them into something greater than ever before?

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The Ghost of Saturn (Honor of the Fleet #1) – Felix R. Savage

Fleet Officer by day. Smuggler by night. Only he can save Saturn Station.

A junior intelligence officer in the Martian Combined Fleet, Radrick Siegn supplements his meager pay by smuggling contraband from Saturn to Mars. Someday, he’ll buy his own ship and escape the Fleet forever.

But his captain has other plans for him.

A tanker pilot has been murdered on Saturn Station. It’s up to Siegn to salvage the honor of the Fleet by finding the killer … before they kill again.

The investigation plunges Siegn into the seedy underworld of Saturn Station, where he learns this was no ordinary killing. Malevolent powers are plotting a future for Mars that will not involve humanity.

They think no one can stop them, but they never counted on facing an agent like Siegn. He knows the dark side of the solar system as well as they do and can put a cyborg in a rear, naked choke hold. Oh, and he plays Chopin beautifully.

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Pathfinder (First Colony #17) – Ken Lozito

Being blindsided is never easy, even when you’re on the right track.

Experimenting with technology that stretches our understanding of the universe, Connor and a small group of survivors find themselves stranded on a ship far beyond known space.

The answers they seek may lie in a distant star system, but Connor is about to find out that not all encounters are by chance.

With a crew size too small on a ship that is barely holding together, can Connor find a way to bring them home safe?

Pathfinder is the 17th book in the bestselling military science fiction series, First Colony. Read the 17th book in this sprawling space opera today!

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Phantom Whispers #2 – edited by Ian Nol

Spaceships, tanks fighting pig men, shapeshifting forest monsters, inter-dimensional cartoon characters, and psychic ghosts abound. Heed the whisper in your ear, step out into the void, and enjoy you’re journey into the zany, bizarre, disturbing, and otherworldly.

Phantom Whispers is back! Bigger, better, and darker for the Season of the Witch! Speaking of witches, this issue has them, along with killer gnomes, demonic video games, and many more nasties!

With continuations of Ian Nol’s The Angry Blue Planet and Rawle Nyanzi’s Shining Tomorrow series, along with new worlds, new characters, and new stories from indie talents like Alyssa Hazel, MarQuese D. Liddle, and Black Knight (of Starshatter fame), you don’t want to miss this!

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The Relic’s Secret (The Queen’s Blade #10) – D. K. Holmberg

Strange fabrications hold the key to an ancient power. The Queen’s Blade saga continues.

When Zaren finds unique fabrications throughout the city, he suspects a new danger has come to Busal, only he detects no threat from these devices. As more appear, he knows they must have some purpose, but his search finds nothing.

Until a woman with a unique power arrives in the city.

Now, Zaren must determine if she will be an enemy or ally. As creatures of power target the city, he fears he is no longer equipped to protect it. Aligning with the queen’s sister and former Blade might help, but Zaren suspects she hides secrets of her own.

As power builds, warning him to find answers quickly, Zaren thinks the danger is deeper—and closer—than he’d ever imagined.

The Queen’s Blade must decide if he wants to serve only the queen—or find a way to be something much more.

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Taken (Lost Town #1) – Nathan Hystad

A small town with a big problem.

Caesar, an undercover operative, enters Carmichael with the briefest of orders from his boss, and a countdown on his phone. What will happen when the clock strikes zero?

Deputy Amelia Miller’s dispatched from a nearby city, and a series of events keeps her around much longer than she’d expected.

In the middle of the night, something shifts, and the whole town disappears off the face of the Earth. Who caused the Shift, and what lies beyond the veil of their settlement? As the citizens grow braver, they begin to explore the mysterious borders while resisting the chaos within.

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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.