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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Galaxy Under Siege (Forgotten Galaxy #3) – M. R. Forbes

Caleb Card always knew that fighting back against overwhelming odds would be a thankless slog. And with Legion forces expanding across the galaxy, his opportunities to hit them where it hurts are fast running out. When a well-played hand and an unexpected betrayal nearly put a stop to both the rebellion and his life, all signs point to a quick and ugly end.

Only Caleb’s never quit anything before, and he isn’t about to start now. Not when he still has a few more aces up his sleeve…

…and with any luck, a Queen.

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John the Balladeer – Manly Wade Wellman

In John the Balladeer, Manly Wade Wellman created one of the great characters in all of horror and fantasy literature. Armed with his silver-stringed guitar and an endless trove of folk songs, John travels the backwoods of Appalachia, battling supernatural evil with his own brand of down-home charm and endless resourcefulness. In these tales, John wanders the Southern mountains, encountering hoodoo men and witch women, strange supernatural beasts, malevolent spirits, and even George Washington’s ghost.

Edited by horror legend Karl Edward Wagner, this volume contains the complete John the Balladeer stories in their original, unaltered form, as they first appeared in magazines and anthologies between 1951 and 1987. Also featured are a foreword by Wellman’s friend and literary executor David Drake and an introduction by Wagner.

“Just as J. R. R. Tolkien brilliantly created a modern British myth cycle, so did Manly Wade Wellman give to us an imaginary world of purely American fact, fantasy and song.” – Karl Edward Wagner

“This is the real thing-a book of haunting fantasies with their roots going down deep into the American folk tradition.” – Robert Silverberg

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Light Unto Another World #10 – Yakov Merkin

Sometimes, tragedy is unavoidable. How one copes with it, however, is entirely within one’s control.

The same goes for fears. How one faces their worst fears, is within their control, and speaks volumes.

But what do you do when the object of your fear both knows your weaknesses, and is actively pursuing you?

Following a traumatic encounter with a new foe, Uriel and his team are in a bit of a dark place.

Worse, another of this world’s false gods has emerged, and is after Uriel and his team. While they’re faced powerful enemies before, this one is different, coming for them in ways they are not prepared for.

Now, it’s a race against time as Uriel and his team must try to kill her before her power becomes too great for them to have even a hope of victory.

Meanwhile Setzell, who had just recently faced a painful aspect of her past, now has to face her greatest fears, and embrace who and what she is, if she’s to overcome those who tried to turn her into a monster.

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SGT. THOR the Cunning – Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

Hunted and on the run inside the fabled and dangerous City of Thieves, U.S. Army Ranger Sniper Sergeant Thor must pull the greatest fade of his career as powerful sorcerers and conniving eunuchs dispatch small armies of deadly mercenaries and vicious hired killers to track down and take what Thor has stolen fair and square.

But other dangers await the Ranger inside the wild and untamed alleys, temples, once-mighty fortresses, and degenerate palaces of the Ruin’s greatest and most ancient of cities. Intrigue, betrayal, and mystery abound in this taut tightwire run-for-your-life dash to deceive and best the enemies who have unwisely set themselves against the lethal Sergeant Thor.

In the City of Thieves, the game doesn’t stop after the bodies hit the floor. Assassins, bandits, warriors, wizards, monsters, and gods are all out to get Thor before a fabled treasure slips through their grasp, and disappears forever.

In a fantastic city caught between its diabolical devils and the deep blue sea, legendary for its larceny, lies, and licentiousness, Sergeant Thor must be more cunning than the best the City of Thieves has to offer in order to survive and win.

The Hunters, become the Hunted.

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Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint (ACKS II) – a crowdfunding campaign from Autaurch

The Adventurer Conqueror King System™ Imperial Imprint (ACKS II) is the new edition of the acclaimed bestselling fantasy role-playing game. Within the pages of ACKS II you’ll find everything you need to enjoy epic fantasy campaigns with a sweeping scope. Whether you want to crawl through dungeons, experiment with alchemy, crossbreed monsters, run a merchant emporium, raise an undead legion, or conquer an empire, ACKS II supports your playstyle.

If you spend enough time in online RPG communities, you’ll have seen someone post something like “They need to make a game that… has mass combat mechanics that work at every scale / keeps fighters competitive with mages / has figured out how to make thieves fun / has an economy that makes sense / could actually simulate my game world.” And someone will inevitably respond: “ACKS already does that. ” And it’s true.

Now, with ACKS II, we’re doing it even better.

This crowdfunding campaign will remain open until 22 November, 2023.

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Black Hops #6 – a crowdfunding campaign from Timothy Lim

It’s Iconic Comics X Antarctic Press as heroes from both worlds are recruited to fight evil!

CRYPTIQ and its leader, APEX MOTH, seeks to create, capture, and weaponize CRYPTIDS for nefarious means. In his latest bid for power, he’s sent some of his echelon to make a deal with Japanese gangsters while he hides out in the mysterious and deadly port of LONGHARBOR.

To fight CRYPTIQ on two fronts, the BLACK HOPS and SPEC HOPS teams find themselves enlisting some serious muscle:

• KAMEN AMERICA and the Kamen Corps: a quartet of henshin heroines imbued with elemental abilities that include lightning, fire, and water. 
• SOULFINDER 79: the youngest recruit of the Vatican’s order of combat exorcists, trained to fight evil in the valley between the physical world and the world of the supernatural. 
• VERSEMA: Bestowed with the abilities granted to the Daughters of Hercules, Jesse McGrath has the power to alter her physical appearance and is endowed with superhuman strength, flight, and durability. 
• Regina “RAGS” Ragowski: A battle-hardened Marine who finds herself in strange situations with coincidental wardrobe malfunctions. Rags is paired with an unusual tactical unicorn onesie whose power limits have not been fully reached.

This crowdfunding campaign will remain open until 22 November, 2023.

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The Burned Book (The Arkwright Saga) – a crowdfunding campaign from Brian Niemeier

An outcast boy with a terrible secret …

A disillusioned priest seeking release from fate …

The restless son of a fading race seeking his destiny …

Thrown together by chance, their historic quest will span a continent. And change all worlds forever.

Zebrin wanders the human-dominated mainland, having fled his people’s rigid island refuge. Alone in barbaric lands, he yearns to find himself in those his race shuns.

But when an ambitious emperor drafts him for a harrowing mission to the farthest ends of the world, will he discover and embrace his divine calling? Or will the kingdom he was ordained to save fall?

The answer lies in the Burned Book.

This crowdfunding campaign will remain open until 2 December, 2023.

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Michael Tierney’s Wild Stars: Orphan of the Shadowy Moons – a Kickstarter campaign from Cirsova Publishing

He led Mankind on its first exodus to the stars when Atlantis fell 75,000 years ago, but who is the Ancient Warrior? Old beyond reckoning, his true identity has been forgotten by all, on Earth and in the Wild Stars—including himself!

While on the run from the fleet of Artomique Dreadnoughts, Daestar and Bully Bravo take the Ancient Warrior to one of the Extragalactic worlds where his memories can be unsealed. At last, the origins of the Ancient Warrior can be told!

Abandoned on a savage flooded planet as an infant to die of exposure, a young golden child is found and adopted by a powerful warlord and raised to be his heir. The orphan boy is given the name Strazis—same as the Shadowy Moon under which he was found.

Growing up in the household of the most powerful man on the planet, Strazis finds himself at the center of countless intrigues and machinations of both the Worldlord’s biological children and a mysterious faction of assassins who are somehow connected to the strange appearance of abandoned golden children, including Phaedra: the most beautiful girl young Strazis has ever seen.

When Strazis narrowly escapes raiders who murder many of the Worldlord’s other heirs, he must quickly grow and learn what it means not only to be the Worldlord’s son but be a Worldlord himself.

This crowdfunding campaign will remain open until 6 November, 2023.