Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for July 2019

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some June books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have epic fantasy, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, YA fntasy, paranormal romance, paranormal mystery, science fiction romance, science fiction mystery, space opera, military science fiction, YA science fiction, science fantasy, dystopian fiction, postapocalyptic fiction, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, time travel, werewolves, vampires, zombies, dragons, aliens, space pirates, space marines, superheroes, spell speakers, crime-busting witches, Nazi-punching witches, undead detectives, telepathic dogs, dragon fight clubs  and much more.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Crossfire by Lindsay Buroker:

For the first time in his life, roboticist Casmir Dabrowski is headed to another star system as an advisor for the Kingdom space fleet. He’s being given a chance to prove himself to King Jager by helping find the ancient artifact he inadvertently lost. It’s best not to think about what might happen if he fails...

But with technologically advanced astroshamans after the artifact, not to mention the deadly mercenary captain Tenebris Rache, it’s not long before the mission collides with disaster.

Soon, Casmir and his friends are caught between warring factions, and he must choose between what the king would want and what he knows is right.

Pursuits Unknown by Ellen Clary:

Amy and her kelpie-shepherd mix, Lars, work with a search team that specializes in finding lost people. Despite his average-mutt appearance, Lars is no ordinary dog. He and Amy have a telepathic connection. While Lars has a lot to learn about human language, their bond allows them to communicate in unusual ways and is a boon to their success rate.

When Amy and Lars find a missing scientist suffering from the Alzheimer's-like disorder "Disorientation," Amy and her support team realize this is not a typical lost-person case. Instead, this assignment appears to be an attempt to steal this man's highly sensitive research on nanotechnology—which, in the wrong hands, could be used to wipe out undesirables from their overpopulated world. Forced to go undercover to seek out the truth, Amy will have to confront—and surpass—her own limitations.

Witch Hunt by L.R. Deney:

Strange kidnappings are taking place throughout Seattle. In the wake of a problematic election in America, the crimes seem to be racially motivated. Left behind at the scene of each disappearance is the symbol of the Black Sun, a symbol that is connected to Naziism.

It's up to Staci Drenvauder, a witch and mistress of the Dark Arts, to investigate the kidnappings. But the Nazis appear to be infecting everything, even the secret, magical city of Azramoas seems to be affected with strange happenings taking place on the ruling Council. To complicate matters further, a demonic force from Staci's past makes itself known once more.

Snark, gloom, and romance intermix within this riveting tale. Join Staci in her quest to punch Nazis.

A Dark and Stormy Day by Charon Dunn:

3748 crashes to a halt as Sonny Knight visits Times Square to ring in the New Year.

He’s a little sad because his girlfriend – one of the terrorist clones holding his family prisoner (but she’s one of the nicer ones) – has dumped him. Or maybe she’s being held prisoner by a different band of terrorists, and would appreciate being rescued?

Sonny’s going to have to pull himself together if he’s going to help her. He needs to deal with his grief issues, residual anxiety from everything that happened to him in the last two books, and a blossoming substance problem. Then there’s his fresh anxiety from all the new and exciting dangers that befall him in this one.

Which include more pliosaurs, explosions, avalanches, crowds, true love, assault, battery … the usual.

This is the conclusion of the Adventures of Sonny Knight trilogy.

The Heisenberg Corollary by C.H. Duryea:

A radical new technology. A horde of homicidal aliens. A snarky would-be girlfriend. Science never used to be like this.

Zeke Travers is a brilliant theoretical physicist on the verge of a breakthrough: a prototype drive capable of transporting a spacecraft to parallel universes. His place in the annals of scientific history seems all but assured. But when an alien warship materializes in Earth orbit and commences blasting everything in its path to atoms, Zeke and his team must make a choice between annihilation--or becoming test subjects in their own interdimensional experiments.

As they careen from continuum to continuum, some ruled by technology, others by magic, Zeke and his band of geeky, over-educated scientists will have to discover their inner ass-kickers if they’re going to survive the perils of the Multiverse.

Legend of Dreamwalker by Timothy Ellis:

Chris Ecclestone has had a full on day. And it isn't over yet!

He’s done the impossible, been promoted, called a legend, and now he’s alone with his girlfriend and about to get the reward he really wants.

Tomorrow is another day, and a badly needed boring one at that.

But there’s a war on, and romance has to wait when allies call for help, and boring is what happens between battles and exhaustion.

Combat awaits, and this time, he’s a senior officer contemplating how fast he’s failing upwards.
The Imperium is spread too thin, and the Trixone are attacking in too many places.

When your war comes down to you and your fighter pilots, what must be done to survive?

And when survival includes the fate of the Imperium, will his lack of senior officer skills be a help, or their downfall?

Fate has been messing with Chris all his life, and all he wanted to be was a fighter pilot.

Instead, he’s the Legend of Dreamwalker.

And he doesn’t have the time to not like it.

Lee Shores by Rachel Ford:

Sometimes still waters are the most dangerous.

Murder turns a quiet month of shore leave into a nightmare for Chief Engineer Kay Ellis and Captain Magdalene Landon of the Black Flag. When a member of their crew is implicated in the killing of a young woman, the privateers find themselves pawns in an interplanetary diplomatic struggle that predates any of them.

With little evidence to support their claims of innocence, an alien government eager to make examples of the human visitors, and the eyes of two superpowers watching their every move, every passing day brings them closer to ruin.

If they don’t find the real killer soon, they’ll swing for a crime they didn’t commit. And the Union will be hung out to dry with them.

Incarnation by Kevin Hardman:

Jim (aka Kid Sensation) is no stranger to difficult and dangerous tasks. Having faced down everything from ruthless aliens to sadistic supervillains, he’s shown that he can more than hold his own under almost any circumstances. But now he’s facing a situation unlike anything he’s ever encountered before.

Recruited by a colleague for a mysterious mission and transported to a realm beyond space and time, Jim finds himself thrust into the company of Incarnates – individuals with powers and abilities so vast that they can do almost anything, including warp reality. But these esteemed personages are plagued by a dark issue, for which they turn to Jim for help: one amongst them is a murderer.

Charged with finding this killer, Jim soon realizes the inherent folly of pursuing an individual who is power personified and able to alter reality with the wave of a hand. With the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, he must find a way to defeat a murderous, nigh-omnipotent foe who can not only match his powers, but also negate them - fully and permanently.

The Day I Died by Aya Knight:

She had to die, to find the truth.

Oshin Fletcher lives by three rules: obey authority, don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself, and above all else, never leave the city walls.

Some say that rules are meant to be broken. For Oshin, her world shattered on the day she was betrayed. A secret meeting leads her beyond the safety of her city. Lured by the ignorance that comes with being lonely and hopeful, Oshin was about to discover just how severe consequences could be. Lost and alone, she waited; no one came. But they did. The infected, the decaying, the undead.

Oshin wakes to find herself in an abandoned house, deep within the forest. Her body was changing, her desire to feed, uncontrollable. She was a marionette—her hunger, the puppeteer. She pivots on a line between life and death. They say the undead are mindless, but Oshin was very much aware. She sets out in an unknown world where the worst evils aren’t the undead, but humanity itself. With only days before the effects of the disease take hold and decay sets in, Oshin must race to find a way back home for a cure. She soon discovers that home is not everything she thought it to be. Dark secrets have been in play since the moment she was born.

An emotionally intense zombie survival story.

To Spell With It by Amanda M. Lee:

Hadley Hunter thinks she’s seen everything – okay, maybe not everything but a lot of things – but she’s never seen a cupid convention.When her good friend Booker’s fellow cupids descend on Moonstone Bay, she thinks it’s going to be fun and games. Instead, it’s mayhem and mystery when a rash of suicides and attempted suicides hit random island residents.That means it’s off to the races to solve another mystery.Hadley has been doing a lot of thinking about her life. She wants a career, not a job. She also wants to uncover a murderer. Even though her boyfriend Galen tries to keep her out of the case, she’s bound and determined to be in the thick of things.Galen’s fears come to fruition when something starts calling to Hadley in her dreams and he’s convinced whatever creature convinced the others to try to kill themselves is now after Hadley.Between egocentric cupids who are at war with each other, a big mystery regarding the origin of some of Hadley’s favorite paranormal friends, and her own determination, Hadley isn’t giving up without answers.She’s used to having magical backup at every turn. This time, she’s going to have to fight the ultimate battle alone.Is she up to the challenge? She’d better be. Everyone she loves is in danger and she’s the only one who can save them.It’s time to witch up … and she’s ready.

The Spell Speakers by Day Leitao:

He was raised to resist them. Now he has to join them.

14-year-old Darian was raised in an isolated village in Whyland, among people who resisted the oppression of the King and his army. When his life takes a tragic turn, he ends up living in the King’s castle, forced to train in the military academy, closer to his enemies than he has ever dreamed. His only solace is Cayla, a girl he befriends at the castle, who helps him smile and feel whole again, with whom he slowly falls in love, whose identity he ignores at his own peril.

But the castle holds more dangers than expected. Darian has to thread carefully if he wants use his position to help Whyland find freedom and remain alive.

Spell Speakers is a coming-of-age fantasy novella introducing characters featured in the upcoming series Portals to Whyland.

Of Dawn and Embers by Kyoko M.:

It's been six months since Dr. Rhett "Jack" Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali had their dragon cloning project shut down by the government. Just when they think they've gotten their lives back together, an agency within the government hits them with another suckerpunch: a criminal organization has cloned dozens of dragons in order to hold vicious dragon fighting rings. The government recruits Jack and Kamala to help them track down the organization. Jack and Kamala set out to put a stop to the illegal fights before any more dragons die…or worse, escape.

Of Dawn and Embers is the third novel in Kyoko M's sci-fi/contemporary fantasy series, following Of Cinder and Bone and Of Blood and Ashes.

Apatura Iris by Jon Messenger:

Magic is an abomination—one that has grown tired of being hunted.

The Inquisitors have hunted magical creatures for a dozen years, striking fear into the monsters that dare to escape the Rift. In the swamps in Northern Ocker, however, a new evil arises—one that's not afraid of Inquisitors. One that's hunting Inquisitors.

One that's killing Inquisitors.

Still reeling from the pain of recent events, Simon is more than willing to walk into danger. But now he and Luthor must hunt this new evil into the very house of madness: The Sanitarium. And the madness seems to be catching…

Apatura Iris is the fourth book in the Magic and Machinery series by Jon Messenger.

The Gathering by Vanessa Nelson:

Scarred by a brutal past, she has sworn to help those in need.

As one of the Hundred, Yvonne cannot ignore a plea for help, even if all she wants is a quiet life, somewhere safe for her adopted children to grow into adulthood.

Safety is in short supply. Young people, some of them children, are going missing in large numbers, leaving bewildered and grieving families behind. It’s not something she can ignore.

She finds an unexpected ally in an arrogant goblin lord, who seems intent on following her from place to place. With her skills in magic, and his resources, can they track down the kidnappers and return the children home?

The Gathering is the first book in a new fantasy trilogy series. If you like your fantasy with plenty of mystery and magic, and a strong heroine, you’ll love this new trilogy by Vanessa Nelson.

Get your copy of The Gathering now, to start reading Yvonne’s story.

Memory Aether by Reesha Rugroden:

Earth is at war, and a secret mission depends on Alexia modifying her boyfriend Michael’s memory, erasing herself completely from his mind. She holds onto his memories in the hope that someday she can reinstate them. But something goes wrong and Michael is captured as a prisoner of war, held on a distant moon. Alexia must work with old friends to decode the memories she extracted. A government agent with his own agenda shows up at just the right time, equipping them with what they need. Alexia doesn’t trust him, but working with him is the only way she can save Michael.

The Girl from the Sea by Jessica Rydill:

When Aude steps out of the sea, she changes three lives; her own and that of a brother and sister born under a curse.

Exiled from her castle home in the far north, Aude is a Doxan, follower of the Mother Goddess, Megalmayar; Yuste and Yuda are Wanderers, a race the Goddess cursed to live without a homeland until the return of her Son.

But the twins are also shamans, destined to wield remarkable powers when they come of age, a time that is drawing near.

Together, the children face a terrible enemy that rises from a lost city under the sea. Will they survive the perils of adolescence in their world, and defeat the threat from beneath the waves?

Canticle of the Midnight Moon by Val St. Crowe:

An uneasy alliance between the former vampire king, Viggo Heathcote, Camber Fordham, and her new mate Landon Bowie, has been formed to search for those stolen by the powerful dark figure.

Viggo claims to love Camber’s sister Desta, and says he will do anything to rescue her, but Camber doesn’t trust him, and Landon straight-up hates him. This doesn’t make it easy to deal with attacking bloodhounds and faulty blood magic, even in the best of circumstances.

But then the three of them are captured by the dark figure as well. Now, in order to save the people she cares about, Camber must also escape. And there is no way out.

Refuge by Glynn Stewart:

A dying world, shattered by a broken machine
A desperate flight, their only hope for refuge
A robotic race, ally and destroyer alike

The Republic of Exilium has grown in strength and confidence at the far end of the galaxy from the rest of mankind, sending out scout ships to survey the worlds around them as they try to learn more about the mysterious Construction Matrix AIs.

Finding one of the genocidal rogues of that mysterious “race” in the process of destroying an inhabited world, Captain Octavio Catalan takes his ship into a desperate battle. He is victorious—but he is too late. The world of the strange aliens he has encountered is doomed.

The distant Republic can barely help, but the honor of their leaders will not permit them to stand idly by. Ships and crews are set into motion to commence a desperate evacuation of their newfound friends, and debts with the strange Matrices are called in.

One branch of Matrices destroyed the planet. Another may well save it—but the AIs have their own agenda and the price they ask may be beyond the Republic and its new allies…

Jane Bond: Dark Side of the Moon by V.R. Tapscott:

In this sequel to Jane Bond, Jane finds some very interesting things in the basement left behind when Kit went away. Among them is a fully operational space ship.

Of course, the catch is, how can Jane fly it? Once Jane overcomes that hurdle, she and her friends are on the way again - and a new friend by the name of Olive comes along to pilot the ship - and make pancakes.

Who knew pancakes were so important!

But - will pancakes be enough to deal with what lies on the Dark Side of the Moon?

New Enemy by James David Victor:

As if one unstoppable alien force isn’t enough.

Jack and Sam have made it back to the fleet, but have not received a warm welcome. Treated as traitors and scientific curiosities, they must fight to free themselves from their own kind. And if the internal enemy isn’t enough, there’s a new enemy on the horizon that even the Devex fear. Can Jack free himself from his own kind and save humanity from two deadly alien forces?

New Enemy is the fourth book in the Jack Forge, Lost Marine series. If you like fast-paced military science fiction, you will love watching Jack fight for the freedom of all.

The InBetween by Dick Wybrow:

Painter Mann is a one-of-a-kind private investigator. He may even be the world's best, but mainly that's because he's dead.

Assisted by his "Temps"— a select few of the very old who are so close to death they can actually hear him— Painter has sworn to help the murder victims stuck in The InBetween by revealing their killers so they can move on.

But, a new mass murder case threatens everything after Painter recognizes the killer's face as the person who murdered him.

Exposing them will free dozens of ghosts but will also clear Painter, leaving no one to help the souls trapped in The InBetween.

Also, he's really into the whole private investigator thing. When alive he was never really good at much. Dead? He's a hell of a PI.

Is Painter willing to risk it all to save those he's sworn to help?