Mangos is the Mongoose, a skilled, boastful, and hotheaded swordsman, Kat is the Meerkat, a beautiful yet mysterious woman who favors the oblique approach to her well-chosen blade. Together, they’ll take on the conqueror of Alness to reclaim Kat’s throne. But a queen needs soldiers, and few are willing to join what may be yet another failed rebellion. And some have taken good coin to ensure Kat never reaches Alness…

In Jim Breyfogle’s “Feast of the Fedai”, found in the Spring 2023 issue of Cirsova, it is Mangos’ task to purchase the services of hardened Fedai regulars to serve as the core of Alnessi liberation. And in preparation for that particularly nasty battlefield fought in banquets and social calls, Mangos learns how the various jobs the Mongoose and Meerkat accomplished since their first meeting are connected.

Ore, from mines. Favors, from a city of smiths. Goblets made from a universal antidote.

Favors, from the underworld lord Bursa, and his ever-capable Hand.

All the while, a Wormtongue lies in waiting, sabotaging Kat’s efforts from the shadows.

The man who bankrolled Alnessi’s fall has purchased all groups of Fedai available to cut off Kat’s rebellion. Mangos has one more chance to raise an army—the personal guard of a mercenary captain. But how can Mangos outmaneuver all the plotters in his way?

The end of the Mongoose and Meerkat’s story is around the corner. And much action normally told in epics remains. Troops to be trained, battles to fought, and the final showdown. In epic and serialized fantasy, these stories would fill entire volumes. Only a short story or two remain. After all, no one expects Kat to take the direct approach. As always, what Kat intendeds remain close to her vest. Like Mangos, one expects the masterstroke to be obvious in hindsight, obscured by secrecy and misdirection.

The Mongoose has grown up under Kat’s tutelage. Not just as an observer, but from a callow and carefree brawler to a man who can fill the footsteps of the Alnessi Queen’s marshal. After all, responsibility matures, if a fighting man can survive his lessons–and the Meerkat’s lessons have been subtle indeed.

Perhaps, at the end, we will find that Kat’s real investment in Alness’s liberation was not in favors and material, but in one man.

And the North will thunder with the Mongoose’s quick strike…

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

The Backbone of Surprise (The Transhuman War #1) – C. S. Ferguson and Greg Ferguson

What do you do when the criminals are faster than the police?

Artificial enhancement of humans is illegal, especially since it makes the criminals smarter, faster, and more capable than those who enforce the laws.

Digger Stewart is a Ranger, a member of the law enforcement organization tasked with policing the transhuman trade. Raised on a backwater planet, Digger’s thirst for adventure sends him to the stars. When a mission goes wrong, though, he finds out about CARD—the Combat Applications Research & Development group—the Rangers’ secret, elite commando unit that gets called to save the Rangers when all hope is lost, and Digger gives up everything to join it.

On a normal day, the Rangers don’t have any problems taking down Biofate, the powerful interplanetary criminal organization that deals in transhuman affairs, and they can easily shut down Biofate’s illegal labs when they’re found.

But when Biofate decides they are tired of the Rangers’ meddling and builds combat mechs, Digger finds himself at the center of a growing political, cultural, and military war… a war the Rangers may not be equipped to win.

Dragon Lands (The Shadow’s Dragon #2) – Dustin Portia and D. K. Holmberg

.Treylen never thought he’d be hunting his own people. Least of all, family.

In the mines of Wetherdin, a foul plot is unfolding. Someone’s stealing dragon eggs for the Jaul, and it’s up to Treylen, Aaron, and their dragons to infiltrate and root out the traitor.

This time he’s ready. His spycraft is stronger, his bond with Rime is better than ever, and his mentor has come along for the mission. Under the guise of visiting nobility, they’ll have all the comforts of a cozy mountain lodge while untangling the mystery at their leisure.

But when Marziel disappears on the night of a murder, and his own family gets caught up in the intrigue, a dire deadline is set. Treylen is faced with a choice that the abbey never prepared him for. And the solution will take him deeper into the caves of the Dragon Lands than he’d ever imagined.

Eye Of The Storm (White Ops #5) – Declan Finn

Those of the planet Renar have one rule regarding the local mafia: They do not exist.

When White Ops leader Sean Patrick Ryan uncovers its existence, he finds a world of political intrigue and corruption that stretches back years. The Mafia has cast a shadow that has touched every member of his team. Now, the Mafia wants to emerge from the shadows.

Their first target: Sean Ryan. Despite Sean being held back by local politics and diplomatic niceties, he’s still the most dangerous man in the universe.

They underestimated him.

Mad Master Alchemist – Seth Ring

Alphonso Richt— Expert botanist. Genius chemist. Recently unemployed.

Burning down the lab will do that. But every cloud has a silver lining, and after being let go from his most recent job for unsanctioned experiments, Alph is given the chance to blow off a little steam with a cutting edge new game that isn’t even out of beta.

It’s called Nova Terra.

Logging into a fully developed fantasy world, Alph discovers a new field of study called Alchemy that instantly captivates him, allowing him to bring his unique insights and scientific knowledge to bear as he explores the wonders of magic. Plus, no one really cares if his potions explode in the game.

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.

The Awoken City (Rites of Resurrection #3) – Marshall J. Moore

The Dead Are Waking Up.

For three hundred years the Republic of Albastine’s dead have been resurrected as mindless servants who labor and wage war so that the living may focus on higher matters. Yet these Attendants are no longer the unthinking, unfeeling slaves they once were.

Called from the duties of new parenthood to examine reports of malfunctioning Attendants, necromancer Cassius Calvus discovers that his actions the previous year have inadvertently called the spirits of the dead back into the bodies of the Attendants, resulting in self-aware revenants. Led by the silently charismatic being who calls himself Wraith, these Awoken threaten the Republic’s orderly society with their very existence.

But the Awoken are not the only undead in the Pale City who are more than they appear. Throughout Albastine, a sinister force has been quietly gathering power in the shadows, corrupting the Attendants to its own ends. Hounded by an enemy long thought vanquished, Cassius and his allies are drawn into an epic battle for the fate of the Republic—and every soul within, living and dead alike.

The Bloodless War (Blade and Bone #4) – D. K. Holmberg

War comes. Magic can either save them—or destroy everything.

The team has splintered, but they still fight the same war.

Honaaz and Lily sail north, where they find a dangerous new threat that threatens more than the coast.

Finn and Morgan make their way to bring a warning to the king so that what happened in Sanaron does not happen in Rayend.

And Kanar travels into the Alainsith lands where he learns the truth of the war, and that it might be already too late to stop.

Defenders Rise (Four Horsemen Sagas #10) – Mike Jack Stoumbos

The once-prosperous Planet Haven has become a warship graveyard, its landscape littered with ship carcasses and craters. Though dangerous, these remains are worth fighting and dying for. And, for the employees of the Salvage Mill—toiling under the watchful gaze and disciplinary claws of the ruling Pushtal—dying is all too common.

Rev, an elSha engineer with no ties to the many species on the surface, works for his own survival and the opportunity to escape. Before he can put his plans into motion, though, an encounter with a ravenous predator forces Rev underground where he discovers a long-buried find: a crate of CASPers.

Though the suits of oversized armor might be better used as bargaining chips than weapons against the Salvage Mill, witnesses to the find have other ideas in mind, and to protect his interests, Rev enters a symbiotic arrangement with several past and current Mill workers. As Rev gathers more unlikely allies and learns to operate the machines, the new community grows stronger… strong enough to draw the notice of the Pushtal rulers.

And, for the first time in years, Rev has something other than salvage that’s worth fighting and dying for.

Read More

A recent word from Vox Day, Chief Editor of Castalia House, regarding customer service.

While Castalia House has repeatedly demonstrated excellence with regards to the content and manufacturing quality of our books, our customer service has been essentially nonexistent. What people may not understand is that this was not simply the result of indifference, but was more to the fact that we had absolutely no control over when a book was shipped out to a buyer.

One of the reasons I have been so reluctant to provide dates, and why I have been so unapologetic about missing those dates that we did provide, is because until now, there was never anything at all that we could do about them. For example, I was told by the bindery that THE JUNGLE BOOKS would be shipped to our newly-established shipping center on March first. However, we did not receive them until April 7th.

Fortunately, we are now in physical possession of our entire stock of leather books, and future books will be shipped from the bindery to the shipping center as soon as they are bound and boxed. We also will not consider any books “ready to ship” until we have received them and are ready to send them out. We have a new email address that anyone who has not received a book of any kind can contact (1), as well as an email address (2) for those who want to check on the status of their Library/Libraria/History subscription.

• (1) shipping-at-castaliahouse-dot-com
• (2) library-at-castaliahouse-dot-com

We have also recently discovered a bug in the WooCommerce system that has permitted a few people to order books that were officially out of stock, but still had books listed in the inventory. Apparently, it’s not enough to declare a book out of stock, but the inventory also has to be set to zero or the system overrides the out-of-stock status. So, for example, eleven customers have not yet received their leather Junior Classics set because we did not realize they’d been able to buy them since we’d declared the set to be out-of-stock more than a year ago.

Fortunately, we always keep a reserve to cover shipments that go awry, so we have enough books to send everyone. But in at least some cases, if you haven’t received a leather book yet, it may be because we didn’t know you’d bought it due to this WooCommerce bug. Now that we know about it, we will get the books sent out to the appropriate addresses.

And yes, we will permit new orders of the Junior Classics leather sets once books 7 through 10 are printed and being bound. We printed 500 copies of Vols 1 through 6, but only bound 250, so we can produce another 250 sets whenever we decide to pull the trigger.

Please send queries about your orders to the appropriate email(s) mentioned above.

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

Advent of Eternity (Shattered System #1) – Actus

A ruthless tactician. A pantheon of traitor gods. A quest for revenge.

The Gods were believed to be immortal. To exist so far outside the natural laws of the universe that their crimes were unpunishable. Countless had tried to break free of their rule, but all were left broken.

A clock hung over the head of every mortal, counting down from their birth to the inescapable day that the Goddess of Death claimed them.

Knell Coda was never born. He came into the world outside the reaches of the gods, to a family who had committed the cardinal sin of defying their rule. Had they left him alone, perhaps the world would have remained as it was.

Instead, their meddling wound the hands on a new clock – one that hung above the heads of the gods rather than mortals. Because of their blunder, Knell learns the one secret that they desperately wanted to keep.

The Gods can be tricked. They can be defeated. They can die.

To most, seeking the head of a goddess would be the actions of a madman. To Knell, it is an inevitability. Together with his loyal crew, he will use his deadly cunning and grow strong enough to claim his revenge – no matter the cost.

Children of the Fall (The Fallen World #19) – J. P. Chandler

Kelly Ansen—“Princess” to her friends—brokered an agreement to resolve the growing strife between factions competing for control of her beloved Eureka Bubble.

Before her plan could be implemented, though, her estranged father, Ansen Pringle, kidnapped her sisters, Chelsea and Nicole, to force Princess to join him on a trip to Hawaii. The voyage across the wild oceans is long, with little hope of making it there safely… and even less of returning. Kelly has no choice, though. To save her sisters, she must go.

Kelly’s friends and allies will stop at nothing to rescue her, especially her brother Scott and her boyfriend Morgan Campbell. While Morgan completes his mission at home, Scott goes to bring her back. Ansen Pringle and other dangers in this Fallen World must be reckoned with, but the question remains… are they ready for an angry Scott?

Dragon Unity (Blood of the Ancients #12) – Dan Michaelson and D. K. Holmberg

One herald has been stopped. Rob must progress to stop them all.

With the Eternal now captive, Rob wants answers. A greater danger is coming, and it’s one he knows nothing about.

But the Eternal refuses to tell him anything.

Rob knows other heralds will come. As the borders of his realm are attacked, his mastery of unity is key to stopping them—only this time it’s not strong enough.

He needs more power. He needs to progress.

But how can he progress when he doesn’t know what comes next?

And can he do it before this overwhelming power reaches his land? Read More