Every month, 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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1-800-STARSHIP – J. N. Chaney

CALL NOW. BECOME A NOVA SLINGER TODAY.

Those are the words Mark Allen reads inside an old 80s comic book buried in the back of his uncle’s retro 80s arcade.

Between playing Galaga and Pac-Man, he decides to pick up the phone and give it a call, only to discover that the number still works.

It doesn’t take long before an old man shows up at his doorstep, dressed in strange clothes, driving a Delorean, and calling himself “The Recruiter”. Mark thinks he’s won a prize from some old contest… but the reality is far stranger.

The old man has come to take Mark to a faraway space station—to train him for an impossible fight against an enemy that threatens everything.

Because, as it turns out, the comic book is real. And so is the war.

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Blade of Flames (Blades of Ruin #1) – Jonathan Moeller

In an hour of darkness, a new hero awakens.

Talembur awakens alone in a forgotten catacomb, his memory lost.

Sinister enemies wielding dark magic pursue him, seeking to claim the sword he bears.

Yet while Talembur might have forgotten his past, his skills have not left him.

He will make his enemies beware, for he knows how to wield the deadly sword that he carries…

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Foray – Toby Neighbors

Second chances don’t come around every day.

Regenerative Therapy can reverse aging, but the costs are staggering. Staff Sergeant Zane Taylor has served for eighteen years, putting his life on the line for the Western Alliance in their ongoing conflicts around the world. But a training accident has derailed his plans for the future and left him without many options.

Willing to do just about anything to get the Regen Therapy that would heal his shattered hip and give him a second chance at life, Zane Taylor took the only option he had left. But no one foresaw what would happen when he joined Exsol, a private security firm offering services to corporate interests on foreign worlds.

There is a secret war brewing. Few know what’s happening, or who is really behind the events shaping life in the Sol system. Join former SSG Zane Taylor as he discovers the alien agenda that is threatening the future of the human race.

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Oaths (Oaths, Blood, and Coin Book 1) – J. M. Clarke

Challenge the world. Take it for all it’s worth.

Betrayed and left with a life-crushing debt by a treacherous business partner, Wurhi is left with little choice — break into a palace haunted by sorcery and plunder it’s mysterious riches for all they’re worth.

Wurhi has the lock picking and burglary down as an experienced Rogue, but it’ll take more than that to survive. Wits, speed, and a tumultuous partnership with a penniless, hellfire-wielding, demon-slayer named Kyembe the Spirit Killer.

From burning desert city-states, to ogre-infested forests and haunted mountains, Wurhi and Kyembe will face a world of tyrants, monstrous cultists, power-mad merchant princes, and ambitious wizards to win an ever growing pile of treasure.

Wealth beyond wildest dreams awaits.

…and woe to any enemy that stands in the way, as long as they can find a way to work together, that is…

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Pathos (Link #2) – Nathan Hystad

Ethos is real. The crew of Excursion Two made it safely to the colony planet, but where are the colonists?

Jane’s ancestor has recovered from nearly three centuries in a damaged cryochamber, but Linus Vanderbilt is holding onto secrets. He warns them never to use the Link, then disappears with his trusted robot assistant, Atticus.

Captain Calvin Brooks, loyal to the Diplomats his entire career, begins questioning everything he’s ever believed. When he learns of a distant war, he must choose his allegiance, if humanity has a chance of survival.

Luke Dalton, won’t stop until he finds his family, even if it means venturing into a conflict they don’t belong in.

Pathos continues the epic, galaxy-spanning alien colonization story that began with Ethos.

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The Sheriff And The Space Marine (Forgotten Heroes #1) – M. R. Forbes

When Sheriff Hayden Duke steps through a portal hunting the mysterious arms dealer known as the Marquise, he quickly realizes he just voluntarily entered Hell.

Trapped in a deadly maze with Space Marine Caleb Card, they’ll need to rely on all of their individual strengths—and each other—if they want to survive. Demons stalk the corridors. Shifting walls hide deadly secrets. And somewhere in the darkness, a powerful enemy plays a game where the stakes are higher than anyone realizes.

The legendary lawman who never gives up and the marine with the unbreakable will must lead an unlikely team through trials that have claimed countless lives before them. But in a place where reality itself can’t be trusted, even legends can be broken.

Some battles are fought with guns. Others require something more.