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 Red Wrath (The Storyweaver Saga #3) – D. K. Holmberg

Legends claim the gods watch over their people, protecting the faithful. That’s only part of the story.

Lan spends his days serving the Taihg—and the Raven Queen—searching for the dangerous magic users that nearly destroyed him. He’s come close to answers, but has not yet found what he’s looking for. The borders have been strangely quiet.

While Sophie studies sorcery and has grown skilled, she longs for a greater challenge. When the Raven Queen tasks her with a strange assignment, Sophie thinks it’s her chance to finally earn the Raven Queen’s trust so that she can study alongside her.

Evidence of new attacks threatens the safety of the realm—and reveals a new target for Darius’s quest for power. It’s one few understand, and even fewer can stop.

Sophie and Lan must come to understand the truth of their magic before Darius reaches his goal. As they work together to protect the realm, their power might not be enough, and it might already be too late.

How can they stop the power of the gods?

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Silence & Starsong #1 – edited by Joseph Knowles

The inaugural issue of Silence and Starsong Magazine contains stories in a variety of genres from science fiction and horror to fantasy and action/adventure. There are authors you already know and love as well as promising newcomers. All share a common goal: to inspire wonder and awe through stories of high strangeness and other modern fairytales for grown-ups.

Decades of religious war have forced friends and foes under one roof for the night. Will bonds of friendship and fragments of a common faith be enough to protect them from a supernatural enemy?

American missile silos promise annihilation by the heat of a thousand suns. In Czarist Russia, however, even more sinister weapons lurk beneath the ocean.

In the world of espionage and counterintelligence, the men who secretly guide the ships of state will take whatever advantages they can get. When Joseph Cartwright is dispatched to CIA headquarters, he discovers just how far the agency is willing to go.

…and more!

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Swain Kingsbane (The Saga of Swain the Viking #3) – Arthur D. Howden Smith

“Three kings make for weakness in the land; the folk fall apart; there is endless bickering. Two kings would be forever wrangling amongst themselves. One king—ah, with one king we shall see the old days return when Harald Haardrada made Norway feared by all!”

In Norway trouble breeds apace. Three kings divide the land, three brothers who are in no wise brotherly. It is Swain’s goal to end the turmoil and unite Norway under King Ingi, whose brothers King Sigurd and King Eystein continually intrigue against him. Furthermore, Swain’s arch enemy Olvir Rosta, a man completely devoid of honor, has thrown his lot in with King Sigurd. Before one man alone can wear the crown, blood will be spilled, battles will be fought on land and at sea, and Swain will earn the name Kingsbane.

In addition to the title novella, Swain Kingsbane includes the stories “Swain’s Outlawing” and “Swain’s Inlawing,” plus the novel Swain’s Folly.

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The Wild Adventures of Sherlock Holmes #2 – Will Murray

Sherlock Holmes confronts the unknown in ten baffling tales that test his formidable mental powers, as well as his unshakable conviction that the world is a sane and rational place.

From the enigma of spontaneous human combustion to the possibility that coins minted during the era of supposedly mythical Atlantis survived into Victorian times, London’s premier consulting detective is tested and tried as never before, as his investigations cross the path of Algernon Blackwood‘s famed psychic physician, Dr. John Silence.

Will Holmes’s firm belief in an exclusively scientific reality hold––or must he at last give ground to the detested possibility that supernatural forces operate at will, unseen and only suspected?

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Anvil: Iron Age Magazine – a crowd funding campaign by IronAge Media

In this age of derivative and propagandistic mainstream media, creators across mediums and genres have begun pushing back. ANVIL celebrates and highlights those artists and authors drawing inspiration from the roots of comics and pulp. Heralding the rediscovery and refocus on quality over ideology which is already underway, and gaining momentum.

ANVIL is the first official step into the world of publishing by IronAge.Media, a site focused on connecting Iron Age creators with new fans. The dedication and growth from the community surrounding this site has allowed me to pull together a fantastic team to bring this magazine to fruition. Daniel P. Riley, of Whimsyland as Editor and Jacob Calta of 365 Infantry as Designer. Together with the fantastic Iron Age authors and artists we’ve collaborated with, the first issue is over a hundred pages of pure talent guaranteed to blow you away.

Catch an early glimpse of RazörFist and George Alexopoulos’ upcoming Hellfire and Brimstone Western comic!

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

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Babylon Black – A crowd-funded campaign by Kit Sun Cheah

Yuri Yamamoto is back.

After two years of self-imposed exile, the disgraced operator turned street samurai has come home to Babylon.

Just in time for the country to tear itself apart.

The armies of the New Gods are on the march. Monsters in human skin await activation orders. Spies and deniable operatives wage a war of assassins. Minority communities are forced to choose sides—or be destroyed. With every act of aggression, the New Gods bring mankind closer to ruin.

As the world races towards the apocalypse, what can Yuri and his team of battle-hardened guerillas do?

Team Black Watch can’t fight the New Gods head-on. Even with Yuri’s divine gift, their numbers are few and their resources scarce. They must make new allies, carve out safe havens, turn their enemies against each other, and attempt to stave off the inevitable.

They can’t save the world.

But they’re going to try.

The crowd-funded campaign will close on 8 April, 2023.

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Kamen America Volume 7 – A Kickstarter by Timothy Lim and Mark Pellegrini

“Charlotte ‘Carly’ Sasha Vanders was an aspiring fashionista whose life was changed after being fatefully impacted by cosmic debris! Now a human battery, she uses her supercharged status to rebrand herself as a henshin-heroine. However, she quickly learns that sometimes doing what’s right isn’t always fashionable as she battles the forces of evil as the patriotic paladin known as KAMEN AMERICA!”

Kamen America, Volume 7 takes place in a world divided between light and dark. As the Kamen Corps is split across the United States and the world in a desperate attempt to fend off the Otomotons, the Zenerengers are plotting their next move by targeting specific power stations!

To this end, Cynthia Prestige takes advantage of the situation and enlists the help of Zener Ecto and Zener Psycho to enact the last part of her nefarious plan. But what devastating and revealing repercussions will this have on the Kamen Corps? Find out in this penultimate chapter of the second Kamen America saga!

This Kickstarter will remain open until 6 April 2023.

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Michael Tierney’s Sky Dance of Winter Fire – a Kickstarter from Cirsova

For Michael Tierney, it was nothing more than moving a stack of firewood; for Wallflower, one of the insects living in the pile, it was the beginning of the adventure of lifetime.

A few years back, author and artist Michael Tierney was out during a bout of surprisingly good winter weather, restocking his firewood. Huge waves of winter fireflies rose into the sky in an explosion of light.

This fantastical spectacle stuck with Michael, and sent him on flights of fancy. He envisioned the miraculous flight within context of an epic adventure and struggle. He wondered how those bugs that had been in the woodpile might have envisioned him: a giant; a monster; an out-of-this-world alien being?

Michael initially put the story of the sky dance to paper, but that was not quite enough. He also wanted to capture the essence of those moments in art and imagery. Sky Dance of Winter Fire was born as a digital mixed-media storybook that Michael Tierney and Cirsova Publishing would like to bring to you now…

This Kickstarter will remain open until 6 April 2023.