Showing results by publisher "Brilliance Audio" in Historical

Oliver Twist is one of the most well-known stories ever told, about a young orphan who has to survive the mean streets of London before ultimately being rescued by a kindly benefactor.

But it is his friend, the Artful Dodger, who has the far more intriguing tale, filled with more adventure and excitement than anything boring Oliver could possibly get up to. Throw in some vampires and a plot to overthrow the British monarchy, and what you have is the thrilling account that Charles Dickens was too scared to share with the world.

Aged Mother Jilo is wise in the ways of magic...but once upon a time, she was just a girl. 1950s Georgia: King Cotton has fallen. Savannah is known as the "beautiful woman with a dirty face," its stately elegance faded by neglect, its soul withering from racial injustice and political corruption. Young Jilo - fiercely independent, intelligent, and ambitious, but thwarted by Savannah's maddeningly genteel version of bigotry - finds herself forced to embrace a dark power that has pursued her family for generations, an ancient magic that may prove her salvation.

Fearless Queen Sigrid wants her twin children to fulfill their destinies: her son, Olaf, to become heir to the kingdom of Svealand, and her gifted daughter, Estrid, to secure passage to the underworld as she is promised to Hel, the Norse goddess of death. But Olaf's ascension to the throne depends on Sigrid's former husband, King Erik the Victorious, who despises her and suspects the twins are not his but Sweyn Forkbeard's, Denmark's exiled king.

In this grand saga of love, war, and magic set in the tenth century, young Sigrid is destined to be the mother of the king of the Nordic lands that would become Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and England. A devout believer in the old Nordic gods, Sigrid is visited regularly in her dreams by the goddess Freya, who whispers to her of the future. Though Sigrid is beautiful, rich, arrogant, and matchlessly clever, her uncanny ability to foresee the future and manipulate the present guides her through dangerous politics.

Rebellion has always been in the O'Reilly family's blood. So when faced with the tragic death of her brother during Northern Ireland's infamous Troubles, a teenage Nora joined the IRA to fight for her country's freedom. Now, more than a decade later, Nora is haunted by both her past and vivid dreams of a man she has never met. When she is given a relic belonging to Brigid of Kildare, patron saint of Ireland, the mystical artifact transports her back eighty years - to the height of Ireland's brutal civil war.

Expert swordsmen Basilio and Alejo have one last mission before they go their separate ways: they must recover their teacher Don Manuel's ancient fighting manual and take it to remote Cataluña in order to have it translated by the famous alchemist Paracelsus. Unbeknownst to them, however, Don Manuel has been murdered, and a host of powerful forces has come looking for the coveted book - everyone from old lovers and lifelong archenemies to the King's assassin, and the Spanish Inquisition.

King Henry, campaigning in France, receives a muddled warning of a treasonous conspiracy in Lincoln Castle, his great fortress in the center of England. His enchanters report that the letter contains both truth and lies, but cannot determine which is which. Putting little stock in the warning, he sends an eager young knight to lead a troop of men and investigate, and since the letter includes hints of magic, Henry orders him to enlist the help of Durwin, the young Saxon whose education he has been financing these last two years.

The Ryskamp family fortune is in trouble. And Arden’s gift for invisibility can’t stave off his creditors…or the shame of catastrophic courtships. His only recourse is to marry a highborn Luster girl of his great-aunt’s choosing. But when Arden goes to meet her, another woman catches his eye: the copper-haired beauty who ran away with his heart. And engagement ring.

Alysoun Rowe descends from an ancient line of cunning women—healers and hedge witches whose full power only awakens when they bond with their destined Third. But after a spell goes frightfully wrong, she discovers her familiar is no ordinary object or animal. It’s a distant kinswoman: Anne Boleyn, a brilliant young lady on the rise in King Henry VIII’s luminous yet treacherous court.

Unlike most dreamers, Celeste made it in Hollywood—albeit as a Fée Gardienne in a magical, centuries-old sisterhood. Yet her excitement is tempered by the death of the Gardiennes’ leader, making Celeste and her fellow fairy godmother Anaïs caretakers of the sacred elder staff. Charged with returning the ancient relic to Paris, they set off for New York City to catch a steamship to France. But the 1920s Big Apple roars with danger in ways Celeste and Anaïs never anticipated.

Two young women. Heirs to altogether different hereditary burdens. Yet bound by a monstrous threat to their village. Gabrielle is the first woman in Alveus to carry the mantle of Hunter, which comes with an obligation to kill the faery beasts murdering travelers in Brimmond Wood. Wary of the power she wields as guardian of her people, Gabrielle is summoned by her first love, a seductress who shattered her heart into pieces a decade ago.

Cādra is on the brink of war. With their king in a coma and rebellion spreading across the lands, the winged Volari and horned Süra gather for tense peace negotiations. But beneath the momentary fragile truce simmers unrest—the mixed-blood Mütra rise, demanding the freedom denied them for centuries, as the gods themselves seem poised to intervene.

It may be impossible to alter the past, but Irish revolutionary Nora O'Reilly is determined to try. Armed with a relic given to her by the goddess Brigid and joined by immortal Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, Nora is hurled back through time to the sixteenth century. There Nora and Fionn seek the infamous pirate queen Granuaile - Grace O'Malley - the one woman who may be fierce enough to stop Queen Elizabeth I's tyranny over the Irish people.

SideQuests are stand-alone stories that chronicle The Foreworld Saga across numerous eras and ages. As Mt. Vesuvius rumbles ominously, Pompeiian Councilor Valerius needs assistance in performing rituals to protect the city from the wrath of the fire-god, Vulcan. But his agenda is far from benevolent, as he cares less about quieting the volcano than taming it and taking the power for himself. Now it’s up to Horatius, a former legionnaire and gladiator, to prevent Valerius’s sinister rites from coming to fruition.

Sir William the Marshal, legend in his own time, has promised to go on crusade, a vow made to his Young King as he lay dying. But when the Oliphant, legendary war horn of Roland, is stolen by the lethal Assassins, he's charged with returning the relic in order to stop the very thing he'd vowed to undertake - a crusade; this one engineered by the thieves. With his small band of trusted companions - Sir Baldwin, his tourney compatriot; Eustace, his squire; and Henrik, the giant Norseman - William sets out to take back the relic.

SideQuests are stand-alone stories or novellas that chronicle the heroes, villains, and adventures in The Foreworld Saga across numerous eras and ages. They can be listened to in any order with or without prior knowledge of The Foreworld Saga. In this quick-witted and action-packed addition to The Foreworld Saga series, the leader of the Shield-Brethren has dispatched two of his men northward to secure land for a new citadel. When Tyr and his companion come upon the perfect spot, they discover that it is owned by Voldrun, a northern king with a questionable sense of justice.

For the first time, these three stand-alone SideQuest adventures, set in the alternate history world of the popular Foreworld Saga, are collected in a single volume!The Beast of Calatrava, by Mark Teppo, is an intriguing alternate history tale in which both a battle-scarred former knight with a blood-soaked history and a monk with a mysterious past face the encroaching Templar crusade and the war coming to Iberia.

When a merchant appears at the Catalonian chapter house of the Shield-Brethren, seeking to hire guards for his caravan, young Andreas is suspicious. Knights with his martial prowess are above protecting mere cargo wagons. Yet Andreas’s wanderlust outweighs his concern, and soon the group is headed to the merchant’s mountain village - and into great danger. As the caravan approaches, a woman suffering from terrifying visions feverishly paints her latest revelation - in her own blood. The image horrifies her fellow villagers, who fear an imminent attack, or worse, the return of the brutal Inquisition.

Raphael of Acre, a young initiate of the Shield-Brethren, becomes a war hero during a vicious battle for control of a Muslim stronghold. One of his companions, Eptor, is wounded in the battle and falls under the influence of strange hallucinations. When a superior plots to manipulate Eptor’s visions into war propaganda, Raphael struggles between duty to the cause and duty to his faith. Unable to reconcile his roles as Christian and soldier, Raphael seeks out an unlikely source of counsel - Francis of Assisi.

Sigrid is a Shield-Maiden who yearns to break free of the restrictions of her father’s home and join the Sworn Men in an actual raiding expedition. When a small diplomatic party that includes members of the Shield-Brethren lands at her family’s holding on Göttland, the party’s second in command, Halldor, sees in Sigrid a vision of beauty and power that might challenge - and even destroy - many men.