The
Speculative Fiction Showcase will officially restart on August 31 with a new feature called "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 in the month in question. Sometimes a few books published the previous month sneak in as well, if I missed them the first time around. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though other retailers may be added for future editions.
However, to tide you over until August 31, here is the "Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month" feature for July, reposted from
my personal blog as well as
my Pegasus Pulp publishing blog.
On offer this month is a broad spectrum of titles, featuring science fiction, space opera, grimdark fantasy, Steampunk, dystopian fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, urban fantasy, Asian based fantasy, fairytale retellings, the ever popular vampires, the ever popular zombies, the not quite so popular selkies, dinosaurs, gladiators, superpowers, soul thieves, funeral gatecrashers, the afterlife and much more. We even have a non-fiction essay collection
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:
The Heretic by Lucas Bale
Earth is gone.
Centuries
have passed since the First Cataclysm ended life on the blue planet.
Humanity’s survivors are now dispersed among distant colonies, thousands
of light years from the barren, frozen rock that was once their home.
A
new Republic has formed – one in which freedom no longer exists. In
return for the protection of the Consulate Magistratus, citizens must
concede their rights. The Magistratus controls interstellar travel,
access to technology – even procreation. Organised religion is
forbidden. All crime is punished by banishment or a lifetime of penal
servitude on the Kolyma prison fleet.
And humanity’s true history survives only in whispers of a secret archive.
Yet there are those who preach a new religion and who want to be free.
A revolution is coming…
Wrathlight by Christopher Barrieu
The
Bathel: A race of psychopaths and murderers, consuming worlds and
cultures with terrible sadistic joy.
They have conquered every race they
have found.
Now they have found mankind.
Scott Shaw,
soldier, widower, and father, is the best warrior humanity has. He is
trained in the alien combat of humanity's new universe. But compared to
the Bathel, he is a mere novice.
The Bathel demand a ritual
combat: should Scott win, the Bathel will leave the small colony of
mankind alone. Should he lose, everything and everyone he knows will
suffer beyond the imaginations of humanity.
But no one has ever won, and Scott knows he heads to certain death on a foreign world.
Yet
the natives speak of Wrathlight, the ultimate power, the power of
judgement, wielded by powerful spirits with sky-blue eyes. An old myth,
but can a mere man perhaps embody such a thing? Can he strike back for
all the suffering races and save his own?
Scott is about to find out.
Steel and Song by Ani Bolton
Airwitch
Tova Vanaskaya's choices are few: use her magic to fly an elite
aircraft in the Grand Duchy's army or be shipped to the trenches. But
invoking too much magic can kill the wielder, and her Cossack captain
has a hell-bent-for-leather streak that pushes her to the brink. It’s a
good thing she’s not afraid to push back.
Airship captain Piers
Dashkov lost his friends, family ties and self-respect in a rash act
years ago, so it's fine by him if the odds of surviving a dogfight are
slim to none. His goal is simple: find redemption through valor and
regain his lost honor in death if not life. He needs the smart-mouthed
airwitch to achieve that impossible goal, but he never thought she would
prove to be his salvation.
While the enemy is on the move, and
whispers of revolution echo from the salons of the noble Cossack Houses
to the tenement slums of Muscovy, one reckless night of passion creates a
connection that will reverberate fatally for nations as well as for
Tova and Piers.
Degenerated by S. Elliot Brandis
Humanity is divided.
In the tunnels, beneath the city...
Flynn
was imprisoned at birth, spurned by society because of his differences.
By age thirteen he was ready to die. By all accounts he should have.
Now
he lives amongst those who'd wish him dead, struggling to understand
the affliction that saved his life. Life in the tunnels is dark and
twisted. He must find a way to make things right.
On the surface, in a sun-scorched wasteland...
Pearl
lives in a camp of survivors, learning to adapt to the hostile climate.
The mood has begun to darken. Bad habits and dangerous ideas are
infiltrating her people.
When the camp decides to attack the
tunnels, she faces a choice: will she do as she's told and stay safe, or
risk her life to save a society of people she doesn't understand.
DEGENERATED is the second novel in
The Tunnel Trilogy, following
Irradiated.
History Lesson by Cora Buhlert
The nights are long on the rebel world of Pyrs, most of the man and
women hiding out there have demons that haunt them and everybody deals
with those demons in their very own way.
For Holly di Marco and Ethan Summerton, two of the more than two
thousand rebel fighters on Pyrs, the best way of staving of the
nightmares is arguing about politics, eating sweets and getting drunk,
very drunk.
But one long night of arguing about politics reveals some unexpected
truths about the history of the Fifth Human Empire… and also about
Holly and Ethan.
This is a novelette of 13000 words or approximately 40 print pages
in the
Shattered Empire universe following
Mercy Mission.
Zombie Town by Griffin Carmichael
From
city to suburbia, zombies are all the rage as they rampage on their
quest for sustenance, taking down strangers, friends and neighbors
alike, without pity or remorse.
Here are nine short stories about the times when the dead walk and the living fear.
MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: What better place to be when the dead rise than the local fitness center.
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT CAROL: Suburban life can be deadly dull. Or maybe just deadly.
FIGGY
PUDDING: Holidays are known for feasting and jubilation, but one
restaurant manager comes to regret keeping the doors open one Christmas
eve.
NEITHER RAIN NOR: Public servants are said to be a dedicated
lot, but carrying on with business as usual after the zombie apocalypse
is taking it a bit too far.
SILENT: Little children look forward
to a visit from Santa with great anticipation, but there’s nothing good
coming down the chimney this year.
DARKNESS FALLS: Even a sturdy
fallout shelter isn’t any protection when the super flu everybody’s been
predicting lays waste to the world.
FLASHLIGHT: All she wanted
was a flashlight so she could see what all the ruckus outside was about.
Sometimes it’s better to remain in the dark.
IN THE MEADOW: Winter has come to a small Nebraskan town, bringing huge snowfalls. But nobody is in the mood to build a snowman.
RITUALS FOR THE LIVING: Long after the dead have risen, the survivors learn to cope with new ways of living and dying.
Selkie by Claire Chilton
She just lost her heart to the ocean...
Ex-hacker, Cassie Easton, has just made out with her boss—mistake #1.
And he's just told her he's engaged—mistake #2. She thinks her heart
might have just been shredded for good.
The idea of going back to
work with him after that is humiliating enough, but things just keep
getting worse. Sean's not acting like the man she knows and loves. She
barely recognizes him anymore. Something fishy is going on, and Cassie
reverts to her criminal ways to find out why sexy Sean O'Callaghan is
dating an old trout and running scared.
When it turns out to be
the mystic forces of the ocean that’s screwing up her love life, she
wonders if she’s finally lost her mind. If she can just survive a wasted
wizard, a jealous sea witch and Selkie lore, maybe she'll get to fall
in love, assuming she doesn't get arrested first.
Selkie is the first book in
The Celtic Witches series.
Hidden Intentions by Stacy Claflin
Fun-loving Clara is keeping a dark and deadly secret from William, the love of her life.
Not because she wants to hide things from him, but because her story is so unbelievable he will probably think she’s crazy.
If she tells him, she could lose him. If she doesn’t tell him, she will.
This is a standalone novel loosely connected to
The Transformed series. And yes, it's speculative fiction.
Hunted by A.J. Colby
Vampires, werewolves, and serial killers, OH MY!
Eight
years after the attack that changed her life forever, Riley Cray is
confronted with something she never thought she’d have to face again:
Samson Reed, the werewolf who nearly killed her, has escaped from
prison. With the help of Special Agent Darius Holbrook, Riley is racing
against time to stay one step ahead of the crazed werewolf. But Reed
isn’t the only monster with his eyes on Riley and as the bodies are
piling up she’s beginning to wonder how long it will be before she’s one
of them.
Fight or Flight by Chele Cooke
A single secret might change a war, but a lie can destroy those fighting it.
Georgianna
Lennox’s biggest fear has become reality: she has been sold as a slave.
Caught in the middle of the brewing war between the Adveni oppressors
and Belsa rebels, she is recruited to be the rebels’ eyes behind enemy
lines.
As the Belsa make bolder attacks against the cruel Adveni,
Georgianna finds that the lies she is tasked to tell her owner are
nothing compared to the secrets she must keep from her friends – secrets
that could change the war in their favour, and lies that might destroy
them all.
Part 2 in the
Out of Orbit series, following
Dead and Buryd, which is free right now.
The Girl Who Believed in Fairy Tales by Heidi Garrett
Heidi
Garrett has written a lyrical collection of short stories woven with
the threads of three very poignant fairy tales that pull this literary
tapestry together to create a shimmering picture of love and acceptance.
THE GIRL WHO WATCHED FOR ELVES desperately needs to find her elf--it's her only hope for happiness and, ultimately, survival.
THE
GIRL WHO DREAMED OF RED SHOES is slowly dying inside until she learns
that nothing is right until it's the right fit--and in vivid, living
color.
Lastly, THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T SING has to step out into her dream or she's going to die with her song hidden inside her heart.
Anyone
who misses these tales, will miss the experience--no, transformation of
a lifetime. It's time for everyone to get their real on!
The Wish by Judy Goodwin
Jodi
is in love. The problem is that she's in love with her best friend,
Tanya. And her best friend is in love with Roger. Even worse, they're
getting married. As her friend prepares for a big wedding combining her
Japanese and American traditions, Jodi finds herself praying to a long
lost Japanese goddess for help.
When the goddess answers, Jodi is
faced with a terrible choice. She can either have passion and heartache,
or she can have friendship and loneliness.
Wishes always come with strings attached.
Bonus short story: Reflections of Chi
Geneva
Lin runs a respectable interior decorating business. Her orderly world
turns to chaos when a woman barges in, insisting that her house is
rearranging itself. Geneva only hopes a little Feng Shui will solve the
problem.
The question is, what do you do with a house that may want to kill you?
Warbound: The Shield Maiden by C.P.D. Harris
A LOST CONTINENT. A LEGION IN PERIL. THE FATE OF TWO EMPIRES.
In the Domains of the Chosen magic is power.
The
Grand Championships are over. Two Gladiators have joined the ranks of
the immortal rulers of the Domains. As Gavin and Sadira learn their way
as Chosen, their friend, Vintia sets sail with an expedition that will
reshape the future of the empire. Chosen Brightloch has found the way to
Ithal'duin, a continent lost since The Reckoning. New allies, and new
dangers await. Fortunes will be made and the balance of power will
shift. It is up to Vintia and the Ninth Legion to safeguard this
expedition. Yet, while the Legions faces strange foes, the politics of
the Chosen might present an even greater danger.
This is the third book in the
Domains of the Chosen series, following
Bloodlust: A Gladiator's Tale and
Bloodlust: Will to Power.
The Abnorms by Gregory Hoffman
The world thinks they are useless.
Society thinks they are freaks.
They are Abnorms.
People
born with special powers that set them apart from normal humans.
Abnorms with useful or dangerous powers are snatched up by the
government and never seen again, those with powers deemed useless are
set free, back into a population that hates and shuns them. This is a
story about a group of so-called useless Abnorms but these teens must do
their best to make their useless powers useful as they try to rescue
one of their own from the clutches of the government, and maybe fall in
love along the way.
Heir's Revenge by Patty Jansen
If
Miran had princesses, Ellisandra Takumar would be one. Smart, pretty,
engaged to a high-profile man, everything a high-class Mirani woman
should be. But things are not well in Miran. Many years of boycotts have
taken their toll on society, and the regime becomes more desperate to
keep its citizens under control. Revolt is brewing. As director of the
state theatre, Ellisandra has been asked to stage a violent traditional
play which stands stiff with threatening political messages for the
populace. She hates it, but speaking out would risk that she'd be cast
out from the only world she's ever known.
Next to her house is the
burnt ruin of the house of another high-class family, the Andrahar
family. They fled Miran for political reasons when Ellisandra was a
little girl and the house has lain untouched ever since. One night, she
spots a mysterious young man walking around the yard, putting out pegs
and pieces of string. He's re-building the house. That makes no sense,
because the family is no longer welcome in Miran, and who is he anyway?
She
is curious and investigates. He seems too good-natured and naïve for
his own good, so rather than telling her brothers, she tries to shield
him from her own society. And so starts the slide that leads to her
being cast out from the only life she's ever known.
This is the final book in the
Return of the Aghyrians series, following
Watcher's Web,
Trader's Honour and
Soldier's Duty.
Mission: Flight to Mars by V.A. Jeffrey
Bob
Astor is a Quality Assurance agent working at Vartan Inc. Lately his
days have been stressful, to say the least. Butting heads with upper
management has put his career on life support. A surprising change in
circumstance has Bob going on a business mission to the moon city,
Langrenus. On the way, he meets one of the delegates on board the
Starbird, a desperate man with a dark past and a very dangerous secret.
Through a mysterious series of events Bob finds himself in the middle of
an interplanetary crises that no one knows about. These secrets could
change - or destroy - all human life on Earth. The key to the answer of
the crises is on the Red Planet, Mars. It's up to Bob, the burnt-out Q.
A. agent to rise to the occasion and stem the dangerous tide coming from
beyond the solar system.
The Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones
They came for the coffee and wound up in the Cretaceous.
A
ticking sound fills the air as Tim MacGregor enters The Daily Edition
Café, hoping to meet his new girlfriend for coffee. Moments later, the
café is transported 67 million years back in time, along with everyone
inside.
As Tim and the others try to find out what caused the
disaster and how to get home, one survivor plots to keep the group
trapped in the past, in a world filled with prehistoric monsters.
Dark Legion by Paul Kleynhans
Once a Prince, now a slave. Once a torturer, now a liberator. But still his transformation is nowhere near complete...
Saul
Baz Sharmoun has been holding onto something lost to many of his fellow
slaves: hope and a desire for justice. A fire was set ablaze within
him, growing brighter with each of the twelve years since the Emperor
slaughtered his family, and he knows the time to escape his shackles -
and to free his people - is now. With his hunger for retribution fueling
him, Saul begins an epic journey, searching for his brother and looking
to rebuild a world that would allow the crown in his family's name to
rise from the ashes.
But the road to justice is never a straight
one. Saul and the uncertain allies fighting alongside him find
themselves up against a much greater enemy than they could have
imagined. If he is to emerge victorious, he must fan the flames in his
heart, and never allow himself to forget that he will stop at nothing to
see this done...no matter how much blood must be spilled along the way.
She Who Fights Monsters by Kyoko M.
Jordan
Amador. 23. New Yorker. Waitress. Investigator for souls with
unfinished business, also known as a Seer. Michael O'Brien. 25. New
Yorker. Lead guitarist. Commander of Heaven's Army. The dynamic
supernatural duo is in the middle of trying to solve a deadly case.
Someone is methodically hunting down and murdering Seers one by one.
After six months with no leads on the killer, Jordan and Michael are
forced to work with their worst enemy—the archdemon Belial: a
self-professed Prince of Hell who is dead set on stealing Jordan for
himself. However, with the archdemon’s help, they pick up on the trail
of the serial killer and plan to stop him no matter what the cost. When
the shocking truth behind the murderer’s identity is revealed, Jordan
begins asking herself if she is still fighting for the good guys or has
she become one of the monsters she is desperately trying to stop?
This is the third part in a series, following
The Black Parade and
The Deadly Seven.
Masque of Shadow by T.A. Miles
Heartbroken
over the premature death of her young sister, Estelle conceives a dark
plan to recover Lunette's innocent soul from the thief she witnessed
taking it. The price is higher than she anticipated, reaching far beyond
the loss of her own innocence when she enters voluntarily into the
realm of the Lord of Shadows, into a theater of madness constructed by
the souls of the dead.
This is a short story. Contains violence, mild gore, sexuality, and thematic elements
A Brief History of the Future - Collected Essays by Sunny Moraine
As
an author, scholar, and essayist, Sunny Moraine has mused on a variety
of things in a variety of ways. In this collection, spanning over two
years of work, they make their way through thoughts on the form and
business of writing, the nature and meaning of games, the interweaving
of society and technology, and the anxieties, awkwardnesses, and hopes
of the everyday.
Gently humorous, self-deprecating, and
occasionally painfully honest, these essays offer a journey through a
process of body, heart, and mind, and hints of what waits beyond.
The Commons: Book 1: The Journeyman by Michael Alan Peck
“Paul
Reid died in the snow at seventeen. The day of his death, he told a
lie—and for the rest of his life, he wondered if that was what killed
him.”
And so begins the battle for the afterlife, known as The
Commons. It’s been taken over by a corporate raider who uses the energy
of its souls to maintain his brutal control. The result is an imaginary
landscape of a broken America—stuck in time and overrun by the heroes,
monsters, dreams, and nightmares of the imprisoned dead.
Three
people board a bus to nowhere: a New York street kid, an Iraq War
veteran, and her five-year-old special-needs son. After a horrific
accident, they are the last, best hope for The Commons to free itself.
Along for the ride are a shotgun-toting goth girl, a six-foot-six mummy,
a mute Shaolin monk with anger-management issues, and the only guide
left to lead them.
Three Journeys: separate but joined. One mission: to save forever.
But first they have to save themselves.
Strangers at a Funeral by Phronk
Brandon
notices them at his grandpa’s funeral first: a pair of men in
sunglasses who nobody seems to know. They’re not family, they're not
friends, they’re just … there. No big deal, until they show up again at
the next funeral. Drawn into a world of funeral selfies and burial
crashers, Brandon needs to know what these strangers want from the dead.
Only
problem is, nobody gives a crap except him, and his school frowns upon
skipping classes to watch people get buried. His sanity can’t take many
more funerals, and those bulges under the strangers’ coats probably
aren’t concealing anything pleasant.
Strangers at a Funeral is a 5500 word (22 page) short story.
