May New Releases

Mostly from the Indie Pile

It’s that time of the month: New releases.

It’s so nice when I can remember to do this at the start of the month.

Yes, you’ll notice this is almost all indie press this time out, and only one Baen… in this case, because as a review site, some days, we get books in advance, and we get the publication date too. Several of these have reviews coming.

Galen's Heart: (A Starquest 4th Age Adventure), by Richard Paolinelli

Released: April 29, 2025

Yeah. Sometimes I don’t get to hear about a release until five minutes before it happens.

Even when they write for Upstream, Richard.

Harmool's Galactic Empire has taken hold and rules the hominid's corner of the Andromeda Galaxy with an iron fist.

Galen Dwyn and the Princess Rhiannon have taken refuge, along with the rest of the resistance, on a world with an impenetrable defense surrounding it as they plan a counter-attack.

But one last betrayal threatens them all, placing Galen in danger even as he learns the full truth of his origins and his ultimate destiny.

Galen's Heart is the grand finale of this prequel trilogy set in the 4th Age of the Starquest universe created by John C. Wright.

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Beyond the Crimson Haze, by Nicholas Woode-Smith

May 1

Yes, this has already been reviewed, but it still came out in May.

There’s a voice inside my head…

And it’s demanding I become a monster…

You’d think I’d already hit rock bottom becoming a vampire without a sire, with a talking cat roommate who can’t stop making musical references.

You’d be wrong.

My home has been taken from me. Along with all my stuff. That’s left me living underground with the help of a man I’m still not sure I can completely trust. The enigmatic detective Theo Goldhaus.

But I won’t give up. My enemies are still out there. And they’ve been joined by a mysterious and brutal serial killer who is now prowling the streets of my city.

I may be biting off more than I can chew, but I can’t just let a killer roam my streets.

I’ll keep fighting for justice. Or die trying. Again.

Beyond the Crimson Haze is book 3 of the Blood Veil Series, starring the determined and tad mad Kali Black in her adventure across a secret world of vampires, the paranormal and the fantastical.

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Even After, by Mary Catelli

May 1

Mirror, mirror on the wall -- can I be safe when I am tall?

Rumpelstiltskin got the baby.

Rapunzel and her prince never again met.

Snow White still sleeps in the forest.

Biancabella, Snow White's half-sister, knows that if she is more beautiful than her mother, trouble will follow again. Her appeal to the magic mirror only gains her stories of how hard it is to fight the evil sorceresses and wizards and witches who have banded together to bring unhappy endings.

But with her mother seeking to constrain her, Biancabella knows she may have no choice to use that knowledge to attempt to escape.

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Magelight, Kacey Ezell

Release: May 6

Review: May 7

Fleeing her sheltered life, a noblewoman must trust a warrior, a forester, and a thief to unlock her true power and face her destiny.

Embrace Your Power and Forge Your Destiny

All her life, Aelys of Brionne had been weak. As the noble daughter of one of the empire’s most powerful magic-wielding families, it should have been easy for her to live her dream of bonding with a warrior protector and joining the Imperial Battlemage Corps. But when her weakness robs her of her dreams, her best friend, and the man she loves, Aelys makes the only choice she can see: she takes her fate into her own hands and she runs, leaving her safe, protected world behind.

Now she must find a way to work with three dangerous strangers—a warrior, a forester, and a thief—to escape the bandits stalking her, fight through the dangers of the untamed forest, and make her way back home, where her family and her destiny await.

Only . . . her violent protectors might be the key to the power and freedom she’s always craved. Can Aelys find the strength to choose her own destiny and become the sorceress she was born to be? Or lose herself on the path to power?

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Fae’d To Black, by Declan Finn

May 7

THE HONEYMOON FROM HELL COMES TO AN END! THE FINAL BOOK IN THE EXPLOSIVE SERIES.

Something has been hunting Marco and Amanda before they were married. It has stalked them across the country. It sits in the dark, hiding in the shadows.

The two of them need a plan to drag the monster into the light. They need bait ... and they may be it.

It's time to hunt the darkness down, once and for all.

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The Strange Loop, by Robert Kroese

May 13

This is the third book in the Erasmus Keane series, after The Big Sheep and The Last Iota, both of which have been reviewed.

Los Angeles, 2039. The Disincorporated Zone teeters on the brink of civil war, but for phenomenological inquisitor Erasmus Keane and his reluctant partner Blake Fowler, that’s just the beginning of their problems. A cryptic trickster has been leading them through a maze of riddles, each clue drawing them deeper into a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the DZ.

As gang factions prepare for bloodshed and the city’s power brokers pull unseen strings, Keane and Fowler race against time to prevent an even greater catastrophe—one that threatens to unravel the fragile balance of power in LA itself. But is their unseen adversary guiding them toward the truth, or merely playing a game they were never meant to win?

In The Strange Loop, the final volume in the Erasmus Keane trilogy, nothing is what it seems, and every answer only leads to more questions.

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Torth Book 6, Empire Ender, by Abby Goldsmith

May 13

(Review of book one, May 12)

Amid supergenius schemes for an apocalyptic future, the legendary heroes of prophecy wage a galactic war for freedom, in the final book of this epic series.

Ariock is no longer an invincible messiah. In the wake of a rage beyond his control, the Bringer of Hope struggles with defeatism. Meanwhile, Thomas hides a tryst and lets his zombie minions dwindle to shambles. The gloating Torth Majority is in reconquest mode, slicing through liberated territory, and the people of Freedomland fear their vaunted heroes are on the verge of losing the galactic war.

To win, Ariock’s great-grandfather Garrett knows the book of prophecies must unfold the way the ancient oracle intended. But the next fateful vector looks ominous: all the heroes on their knees, in supplication to none other than Thomas. Why does the telepathic supergenius appear dominant over planets, stars, and everyone in the known universe?

Determined to force destiny to favor his mostly human great-grandson, Garrett—with the help of Vy, who loves her wounded Giant with equal parts desire and caution—throws all his efforts into rebuilding Ariock’s confidence. Who else is equipped to smash the emergent death cult among the Torth? Certainly, Thomas and Evenjos cannot defeat endless armadas armed with new weapons invented by enemy supergeniuses.

But soon a more immediate threat interrupts the heroes’ secret struggles and plans. A lurking rogue Torth has infiltrated Freedomland. It seems Thomas is about to meet his match in terms of both genius schemes and zombification ability

Starquest: Catburglar of the Constellations, by John C. Wright

May 13

Okay, I give. WHY IS EVERYTHING COMING OUT THIS DAY? Three books? Really?

Yearning for the pulp days, when glorious yarns were spun of great deeds?

Fret not! Grandmaster Wright here pens a triumph of Space Opera!

The Greatest Empire, defeated but not destroyed, hidden in the outer stars, grows once more, gathering might both military and supernatural.

Crime flourishes amid the core stars. The most cunning phantom thief of all, the Merry Catburglar, can walk through walls, see through security, and not be caught! But when she encounters the masked and black robed Faceless Man, First of the Four Dark Overlords, she faces a menace beyond mortal!

Nightshadow, unseen, immaterial, is a master of espionage, able to cloud men's minds. But when he encounters an adept able to cloud his, he is overshadowed.

Centurion Ansteel 3-10-ZL, loyal clone-trooper of the Inquisition, is called before the Grand Inquisitor himself, to have his heart and soul sifted by supernal arts, forbidden in the Empire. Have the warlocks and templars he spent his life hunting and harassing taken secret control of the Imperial worlds? Who are his true enemies?

Where is Arcadia, the lost world holding the sole hope of salvation against the Dark Will?

Read On! For All True Tales are but Part of a Greater!

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That’s all we have for right now.

If you have any other books coming out this month, let us know in the comments below.