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 Dragon’s Breath (The Shadow’s Dragon #5) – Dustin Porta and D. K. Holmberg

Escape the past or protect the future?

Treylen and his dragon, Rime, have left the assassin’s life behind them. Now, ambassadors to far-off lands, they’re ready to settle down and take it easy.

Old habits die hard, though. Treylen makes a dangerous promise—to teach the king’s daughter to bond with a dragon of her own. To do it right, she must put aside her royal ego and survive the deadly training. And the whole city is watching their every move. If Treylen succeeds, he will have a powerful ally in the war. If he fails, the alliance is broken.

When things go awry, Rime and the princess gamble on a plan of their own, launching a quest to the hellcaves, where horrors lurk and lost secrets await.

For the others, this is the journey of a lifetime. For Treylen, it’s just nice to be out of the public eye. But, nothing ever goes to plan. When old friends come knocking and enemies show up in the most unexpected places a hidden plot will unfold, and a race against time will begin.

Which bonds will be broken? Which will be reforged? And what dark histories will be uncovered in the bowels of pentearth?

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Fortunes of War (Gladius Leagues #3) – Michael LaVoice

Defrocked, disgraced, and desperate, the Warhawks are humanity’s last hope. But first, they’ll have to survive their own allies.

Foundry has been saved, but humanity’s war effort is in shambles. The Solarian Planetary Council needs someone to blame, and they’ve found their scapegoat: the Warhawks.

Nick “Warhorse” Landry, once the fearless leader of the Warhawk Battalion, has been forced out of the fight—until his team walks out in protest, refusing to leave him behind. But the real threat is at Earth’s doorstep: the alien Onslaught is closing in, faster than anyone expected.

Branded as traitors, hunted by former allies, and stalked by a god-like AI that once tried to wipe out humanity, the Warhawks must now navigate a deadly race against time. Their mission: save Earth from destruction in an all-out running battle through the streets of LA. While the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, Warhorse has a secret weapon that could end the war… but only if he survives long enough to use it.

Will Warhorse and his team stop the Onslaught in time?

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Smoke and Thunder (The Buzzer War #4) – Kevin Ikenberry

Captain Mike Sandhurst and the 157th Tank Regiment have redeployed to Mars and are stuck in unrealistic training environments designed by those without combat experience and frustration mounts.

Lieutenant Vivian Llewelyn’s Thunderbolts find themselves in a similar situation compounded by their newly assigned Commander Air Group. The loss of the planet Haven speeds the creation of Task Force Victory, combining armored ground forces and dedicated air support, but not before a devastating accident shakes the Thunderbolts to their core.

After a brazen, unprovoked attack on a critical Earth colony planet, Earth Maneuver Forces are without their second largest logistical hub and must respond in force. Task Force Victory deploys forward to the Haven system and a mysterious, barely hospitable planet named Honalee. Given the mission to take and hold a massive island named Paradise, Sandhurst and his friends discover the alien world, while capable of supporting life, is a very dangerous place. Confronted by a dedicated enemy force, complete with a newly discovered variant they name a Brute, Task Force Victory must overcome all of the challenges to establish a beachhead on the island and press the attack forward.

Will Sandhurst and Llewelyn succeed in bringing their units together to take Paradise, and what mysterious secrets are to be found there? What happens when the Task Force gets the attention of the rest of the galaxy?

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Sons of Perdition – Toby Neighbors

What if you could do anything you dreamed of?

Imagine if you could persuade people to do whatever you wanted… anything at all, even things they would normally never do, all with just the power of your voice.

Jude Olson doesn’t have to imagine it; he’s lived with the power of supernatural persuasion since his early teenage years.

Anyone within the sound of his voice is his to command. It’s an awesome stroke of luck in an otherwise tragic life. But it’s more than just the power of persuasion. Lately, he can do more. He can command even the involuntary functions of a person’s body to do what he tells them.

When tragedy takes the thing that Jude loves most in the world, he goes looking for revenge… and finds it.

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Travel By Star – Paul Scott Grill

Travel of the Ruelands has sworn he will never make another run through the wilds. He has fought his share of desperate fights out there, and come nearer to death than any man should. But when Nichole Littlestar, a woman bearing unspoken burdens and impossible hopes, asks him to guide her to the almost mythical city of Archewood, he finds himself drawn into the most dangerous venture of his entire life.

The two companions must now make a journey they could never have prepared for, fighting monsters ahead and demons behind. And hard at their heels is a terrible hunter intent on killing the last faith of a darkening world…

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Kamen America Alpha: The Manga – a Kickstarter campaign from Timothy Lim

When Kamen America Volume 1 first debuted in 2020, no one could have predicted how successful it would be, or even if it would make it past one volume. The story had to be condensed to fit into 56 pages, with very little room to breathe.

If given enough time and pages, what story would have been told? What would be the quintessential adaptation of the original work? That question is finally answered in Kamen America: Alpha.

Charlotte “Carly” Vanders had high hopes of becoming a fashionista. On the advice of her agent, she joins the USO as a seamstress and entertainer with the promise that this would open up new opportunities for her.

As fate would have it, Carly’s destiny rested among the stars: literally, as her transport vehicle was impacted by cosmic debris.

Carly soon finds out that doing the right thing isn’t always fashionable: discarding her corporate overlords and the fast track to fame and fortune, she rebrands herself into a self-made, self-reliant henshin heroine known as KAMEN AMERICA!

This Kickstarter campaign will be open until June 3rd, 2005.