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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Monster Farmer – D. B. King

Some farmers grow corn. Some grow grain. He grows monsters.

Erron plans to retire from adventuring to a little farm and live out his days raising crops in peace.

Little did he know that fate had other plans for him.

When he purchases cropland of his own, he finds that the things he places in the soil don’t become plants.

They become monsters.

With this new revelation comes a new purpose. The life of a farmer just got a whole lot more interesting.

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Ruins of the Prime Ones (Sentinels #1) – James David Victor

If you’re gonna save the galaxy, you might as well get paid for doing it.

Captain Melias Volery is a Sentinel, a warrior who travels the galaxy protecting those that can’t protect themselves. If they can afford to pay for his services. Whether you call them mercenaries or heroes, there’s no denying their effectiveness, but even these experienced warriors may be in over their head in the ruins of the Prime Ones. Can Melias and his crew unravel the secrets of this long lost race and save the galaxy from an ancient alien power trying to destroy the galaxy?

Ruins of the Prime Ones is the first book in the Sentinels series. If you like sci-fi adventures, space battles with complex alien invaders, and unexpected twists in humanities exploration of the stars, this could be your new favorite series.

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The Tiger’s Fight (The Stiger Chronicles #7) – Marc Alan Edelheit

Ben Stiger, legate of the lost Thirteenth Legion, a nobleman from an infamous family, and born fighter, has defeated the enemy army before Lorium and raised the siege of the city.

Stiger has finally accepted the mantle of Champion for his god, the High Father. He has come to accept being made emperor, a job he never wanted, and being seen by his men as gods blessed. But has he truly been blessed? Or has Stiger been cursed to a terrible destiny?

The empire is surrounded by enemies, all vying for blood. The situation seems hopeless, but Stiger is not one to give up, not ever. The fight ahead is his fight…the Tiger’s Fight.

The final battle to save the empire and the world has begun!

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The Wall – Adrian Goldsworthy

AD 117: BRITANNIA. Roman centurion Flavius Ferox is trying to live a quiet life of dignified leisure, overseeing his wife’s estate and resisting the urge to murder an annoying neighbour – until someone else does it for him.

Dragged back into a life of violence, Ferox finds himself chasing raiders, fighting chieftains and negotiating with kings. Under the new emperor, Hadrian, the whole world seems to be changing: old friends are now enemies, enemies claim they are friends, and new and deadly threats lurk in the shadows.

When Hadrian himself comes to Britannia to inspect his great wall, war erupts suddenly. Ferox is the only one who can save the emperor – but with his family, and his own life, in danger, he must first decide whose side he is on…

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Waybound (Cradle #12) – Will Wight

Years ago, Lindon left his home as a powerless Unsouled. Now, he goes to war with the most powerful beings in the world over the future of Cradle itself.

The Weeping Dragon has a grudge to settle, and Lindon intends to take out the Dreadgod with his friends by his side. But rival Monarchs know his plans, and they won’t let things end so easily.

If Lindon does win, he will ascend to the heavens. But he may not find a safe haven there either.

In the worlds above, Suriel and Ozriel face off against the Mad King to determine the new shape of the cosmos. The victor will decide the fate of countless universes.

Whether he wins or dies, Lindon will soon leave this life behind.

The time has come to say goodbye to Cradle.

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Death Flex – a crowdfunding campaign by Pilum Press

The headsman of Nuremburg, Franz Schmidt put an end to hundreds of convicts, each of whom merited a line in his ledger:

“Schober was beheaded by favour; Marti was hanged, and the bleachers made him a pair of very white hose, a doublet and stockings of Cologne linen.”

Introduced by the best-selling author, Brian Evenson, Pilum is proud to publish four new writers who take us into the forgotten reality behind these laconic entries in Schmidt’s fascinating sixteenth-century execution records. Brian Renninger, JB Jackson, Lester Glover, and John Daker rescue final truths only fiction can properly deliver. The back half of this beautiful, yet lugubrious volume examines the reality principle at play in the fiction of Jack Vance by leading Vance critic, Paul Rhoads. Further fictions from Messrs. Alexander Palacio and CD Crabtree transport us to settings uncomfortably proximate and movingly legendary. Finally, Jeffro Johnson meditates on the significance of death, ludic and otherwise, among players of D&D.

The crowd-funded campaign will close on 19 June, 2023.