Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

EngineMasters: Retribution – Gus Harris-Reid

A Nation divided. An endless civil war. A pilot who can end it all.

Newly graduated EngineMaster Dawn Fletcher is eager to take the fight to the rebel Islanders alongside her clan-mates. But when tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to team up with the proud, stubborn Cal Bassoli, a veteran Pilot who is no stranger to pain and loss.

With no time to prepare before the next Islander attack, Dawn and Cal must quickly set aside their differences and learn to trust one another if they want to master their battle engine, survive the engagement, and perhaps even discover what the Islanders are really up to.

If they fail, it could spell disaster for the entire Nation.

The Forgotten Ship – J. N. Chaney and Terry Mixon

Somewhere in the universe, a forgotten starship is waiting.

Drake steals artifacts so they can benefit all of mankind. They belong in a museum, after all, not hoarded by a select few in their private vaults. It’s a dangerous life, but someone has to do it.

Then he learns of a map to the location of a lost mega-freighter once belonging to the ancient royal family. Drake, like so many before him, can’t resist the siren’s call. After all, it’s the find of a lifetime.

All he needs to do is steal the map, right?

Except nothing is ever easy for Drake. The map is housed inside a super vault, surrounded by guards ready to shoot on sight, and now there’s a woman with an eyepatch and a vendetta. And all of that could end up being the easy part.

Getting the ship and keeping it will be much more difficult.

Experience a riveting, brand new science fiction saga from USA Today Bestselling Authors J.N. Chaney and Terry Mixon. If you’re a fan of the Last Hunter, Renegade Star, or Backyard Starship, you’ll love this tale of science fiction intrigue, galactic exploration, and unfathomable discovery.

Magus Reborn – Extra26 and T. C. Liyanage

A regression ritual gone wrong. A mage reborn in an ancient era. A world to rebuild.

Kai of the Sorcerer’s Tower was one of the last Mages left, barely surviving in a world contaminated with dead mana and ruled by creatures of the dark.

To save his world and fulfill his master’s last wish, he puts himself through a forbidden ritual, risking his soul being ripped into pieces to make his way into the past, to a golden era with abundant mana.

But things go wrong. He overshoots and finds himself in an ancient time thousands of years earlier, within the body of a young lord named Arzan.

All is not well, though. The young lord was murdered by mysterious forces before Kai took over, beasts are rampant, and even larger threats loom on the horizon.

There’s a lot to do for Kai to regain his former strength in this time of primitive technology. Then again, he might just be able to change that and makes things even better than they ever were.

The Masked Marksman #4 – Emile C. Tepperman

Meet Ed Race who made his trade as a vaudeville gun-juggler supreme, known on stage as “The Masked Marksman” and for handling six loaded .45s to the delight of the crowds. But when this line of work became too tedious, Race took advantage of his multi-state P.I. licenses to solve crimes across the country. This collection includes :

• Murder Misses Its Cue: Those Jordane killers set out to ruin Blountsville’s first citizen, and kill his only son, to boot, but overlooked one little detail. Ed Race, the Masked Marksman, was performing hair-trigger tricks at the local theater-and was more than willing to give those thugs a command performance!
• The Corpse Takes a Curtain Call: As the Masked Marksman, on the stage, Ed Race had been called upon to perform miracles with his .45s-but none as hair-raising as the time, in real life, when he faced a killer who blasted men into eternity before he had even fired a shot!
• Top Billing for Murder: Ten thousand dollars was what “Lucky” Linsey planned to collect from a corpse’s check-until Ed Race, the Masked Marksman, horned in and canceled that check in hot lead!

Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Apocalypse Healer – Hideous Grain

Fight. Heal. Survive.

The Integration didn’t just change the Earthen Union—it tore it apart. Monsters, mayhem, and madness turned civilization into a battlefield.

Yet, while the world crumbled under the weight of despair, David felt something unexpected: he felt at home.

Even after being forced into the [Cleric] Class, David refused to yield. He adapted, turning his unwanted gifts into tools of both healing and destruction, forging himself into a battle-hardened healer unlike any before.

Forsaken Outpost (First Colony #18) – Ken Lozito

Stranded thousands of light-years from home after a hyperspace experiment goes catastrophically wrong, General Connor Gates faces a brutal reality: their ship is failing, supplies are dwindling, and home is an impossible distance away.

Their only hope lies with a manipulative alien prisoner who offers a dangerous bargain. Freedom in exchange for guidance to an ancient outpost with technology that could save them all… or doom the galaxy if weaponized.

Every step deeper into uncharted space reveals new perils. The massive alien station they discover—a relic adrift in the void—hints at a universe far grander and more treacherous than humanity ever imagined.

Meanwhile, across the stars, a dormant threat awakens—silently calls to those who can hear it. The Vemus nearly exterminated humanity once. Their return could mean the end of everything.

As Connor races to unlock the station’s secrets before time runs out, he realizes the true danger may not be the vast emptiness of space, but what followed them into it. Some enemies are too dangerous to leave behind, even five thousand light-years from home.

In this gripping space epic, betrayal is almost certain, but survival demands risk. Ancient technologies beckon with salvation and ruin in equal measure.

Can humanity’s scattered defenders outsmart beings who think in centuries rather than moments?

Iron Blooded – Reece Brooks

A dangerous new fantasy world. A soldier in an eternal war. A champion rises.

Thrust into a new world filled with monsters and magic, Will’s life has become a war for survival. He has nothing more than a class called “soldier” and a strange leveling System he’s never seen before.

When he stumbles across a dying stranger, a mysterious questline activates.

Now Will must head to the front lines where humanity wages war against a ruthless Goblin Horde. There he will join the standing Kadian Army and forge his name from the fires of legend.

He’ll have to face goblins, hordes of the undead, cultists, and demons from Hell. And that’s just before breakfast…

Reversal (Kingdom Lost #2) – Chris Kennedy

The lost children of King Kotaro are reunited!

Well, Hellen, Andrew, and Jayme are together again, although the fourth child—Jonatan—remains an unknowing captive of Duke Alessio Valente, who has unjustly usurped the throne after killing the previous king and queen.

Now, however, isn’t the time for them to take back the kingship, as the war with the Algarians still rages. Worse, the Kotaro children have discovered that the war previously was a sham arranged by Valente and the Algarian queen… but now, it’s very much for real, and the Algarians are making a concerted effort to destroy the Narantean Kingdom.

If the children try to recover the kingship now, it will only lead to a civil war that will ensure the downfall of the kingdom. The war must be won first, and the siblings have found a way to do so—a secret wormhole that will give them access to the Algarian domain.

Can the siblings take the group of mercenaries they’ve amassed behind the lines to hit the Algarians from behind and win the war? If they can’t, the kingdom and their lives will truly be lost forever! Read More

The Bluecoats are Sergeant Chesterfield, a squared away NCO trying to do his best, and Corporal Blutch, who will do anything to survive the Civil War. Blutch is a bit harder to handle as he is not a coward or a sad sack or even a shamming E-4. There’s no risk of desertion here, but Blutch is not opposed to playing dead right before the cavalry charges. The old saw about the only brains in the cavalry are in the horses’ heads is not going to die any time soon.

Half the book is gag and contrivance, bouncing Chesterfield and Blutch from one branch of the army to the next, failing out of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, until they fall as far as any soldier can go:

They end up in the Navy.

The gags are rather innocent and bloodless, a sort of Looney Tunes meets Beetle Bailey innocent good humor that plays on dumb officer stereotypes with a real 20th Century Sunday Comics feel here.

And then, a shadow moves across the waves in pursuit…

It is the Merrimac, the Confederate ironclad. An unsinkable ship that claims three of the Bluecoats’. And then Sergeant Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch get assigned to the USS Monitor.

At this point, the goofy gags get shelved for the historical sea battle. Chesterfield and Blutch drift through the ship on their duties, allowing the reader to see the events and decisions made on the USS Monitor that day. These are played straight, with an admittedly Union-centered view, and the heroics of the real men unmarred by silliness. It is only after the two ships slink away from their stalemate that the humor returns.

I may be too cynical to review this, coming from the age of PVT Murphy’s Law and Terminal Lance, an age where it is not the officers that will ruin a soldier, but the whole ludicrous system that is the military. But with this look at American history from the Land of Asterix and Obelix, it may be that outsiders are doing a better job preserving American history than ourselves.

This isn’t my first encounter with such an inclination, as Japanese pop science fiction like Mobile Suit Gundam and Space Battleship Yamato actively homage long neglected American writers like C. L. Moore, and the tie between H. P. Lovecraft and Chuunibyou (8th Grade) Syndrome is worthy of a Connections episode. But it strikes me with more than a little melancholy that something of 1940s and 1950s American innocence is preserved in French comics as well as the history.

The Bluecoats: Navy Blues may be too innocent for some veterans, but younger readers may enjoy it. Be warned that The Bluecoats as a series won’t shy away from controversial aspects of the Civil War, such as military prisons and the draft riots, though.

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Apocalypse Arena: Mortal Gauntlet – J. Pal

The multiverse is watching. He’ll be damned sure to give them a show.

Saving an innocent from a drug-crazed superhuman should’ve left Nil broken. Instead, it wins him the Nexus’ attention.

Nil is done feeling small and watching his family scrape by. He now has the opportunity to make a difference.

Apocalypse Arena holds the key; where the multiverse’s champions battle and keep the Scourge at bay. Pain, death, and heartbreak await all who run the gauntlets, but Nil has what it takes to grapple his way to the top.

The stronger his opponent, the harder he hits. Perhaps even knock out a God.

Battlestations (The Iron Fleet #1) – Daniel Gibbs

Lt. Colonel Arthur Hanson suffers from imposter syndrome. While grateful for promotion to second-in-command of the CSV Margaret Thatcher, he’s still a nerdy engineer at heart. The CDF’s presence in the Orion Spur is to project strength and maintain peace among the former League-held settlements. Confronting minor skirmishes is a cakewalk compared to open war.

But freedom demands a price.

Without warning, coordinated terrorist strikes across the Spur leave the fleet limping on life support. The Margaret Thatcher herself narrowly escapes destruction—at an unspeakable cost.

With the fleet decimated and backup stalled behind political power plays, Colonel Hanson is forced into shoes he feels ill-qualified to fill. But as ranking officer, survivors look to him to lead the charge against terrorists who wantonly rape and murder with no regard for the innocent.

Now Arthur must steel his spine and rise to the challenge of his namesake ship.

Because the Iron Lady does not turn from the fight.

Commerce Emperor #3 – Maxime J. Durand

The Devil is purchasing godhood, and Robin has to outbid her.

The Lord of Wrath Belgoroth lays defeated, but his fellow Demon Ancestors proceed with their own plans. The Devil of Greed, wealthy from her hoard of damned souls, now schemes to forge a divine crown that will allow her to rule the world; all while the Shadow of Envy plots behind stolen faces.

Only the chosen Heroes stand between the world and its destruction, but they are far from united. The Archer and the Assassin are at each other’s throats, the Monk struggles with her own demons, and the Wanderer is not to be trusted. Robin Waybright now faces the difficult task of uniting and leading them into their final battle. It is a race against time, but a Merchant always has a plan…

This will be his final sale, and the world his prize.

The Primal Hunter #12 – Zogarth

With only one Challenge Dungeon Left, Nevermore is quickly winding to an end…

The Nevermore Leaderboards competition has gathered more attention than perhaps in any era prior, with gods getting both directly and indirectly involved to see who will eventually come out on top.

Jake, who has so far been performing above all expectations, enters his final Challenge Dungeon before it’s time to meet up with his party once more. Together, they’ll make a final push to try and climb as many floors as possible before time is up and, hopefully, in the end, find their names atop the Nevermore Leaderboards.

However, the competition is tough. Jake and his party aren’t the only ones performing far above expectations. Ell’Hakan, the self-proclaimed rival of Jake, has set himself up to rival or even shatter all records prior, aiming for the top spot himself.

In the end, who will prove themselves the top C-grade of their generation?

And, perhaps more importantly to Jake, will there be a forced after-party following the Leaderboards reveal?