Showing results by narrator "Michael Lesley" in All Categories

No, seriously. Talon wants to know what he did to deserve this. What would make a sentient rock decide that he of all people should be the one to save the world from zombies? That’s right. Zombies. Because apparently a higher power decided that teaching magic to teenagers wasn’t enough of a challenge.

Twenty years ago, monsters rose on earth and began a new age of civilization. One where humans live in military-controlled, cramped and dirty cities along the coasts, and the majority of the United States is known as the Wastes. A lawless, desolate and dangerous place, teeming with monsters that have claimed the land for their own. Including Wyn the Soul Eater. He appears every three years, making his way across the country and slaughtering humans randomly, sucking them dry until they’re nothing but husks.

My role as Moric—ruler of a small and prosperous fiefdom in a quiet corner of the world—has always been painfully dull and stifling. Until a beautiful, otherworldly creature with pink skin and a mane of golden hair falls through a strange void that has appeared in my guestroom. I am instantly captivated by him. I have never seen anything like him. I have no idea where he came from, and what else is through that unsettling void—another world filled with soft-skinned, defenseless creatures like him? No tails, no horns, no claws, no sharp teeth. Tiny clothing, rounded ears, bright blue eyes.

I was just a boy when the monsters rose on earth, forcing humans to flee to the coastlines and live in cramped, dirty, military-controlled cities. I enlisted as soon as I could to escape. Now, I’ve been in the military for twelve years and have the scars—and missing body parts—to prove it. As a hardened soldier who’s spent his fair share of time out in the Wastes—the dangerous place where monsters roam free—I didn’t think anything could surprise me anymore.

Recently graduated at twenty-six, and two months behind on rent, Oliver Barnes is desperate. So desperate, in fact, that he applies for a job in the Greed district of Hell's Pentagram. But when he misses his train and, subsequently, his job interview, he stumbles, instead, upon a strange little coffee shop in the middle of Purgatory's barren desert—and into an unexpected opportunity. It isn't the job he came to Hell for, but maybe it's exactly the job he needs.

I've already mentally prepared myself to kill the screaming, murderous monster in the cage outside our camp. I'm used to it. It's what I do here. Kill monsters and other people. This monster, Seraph, is particularly unstable—has been since the moment he arrived from Collector Mary's monster menagerie to the west, where the military stashed him away. He's in pain. I can see it. But he's not a mindless beast. Not like some of the others think. When I start guarding him in his cage every night, I begin to see the person beneath the agony that tortures his every waking moment.

Nearly a year ago, blinded by grief and betrayal, Sam of Wilds made a desperate decision to follow the Great White into the Dark Woods. Now, he emerges to a world changed. The City of Lockes is a prison. The King has been locked away in the dungeons. The Kingdom of Verania has fallen, and the Dark wizard Myrin sits on the throne. But soon after his return, Sam learns of a resistance fighting in his name, led by a courageous knight, a defiant prince, a pissed-off unicorn, and a half-giant who wants to smash everything in sight.

A species that has no word for murder, has a murderer aboard their spaceship. Alien. Tristol lives in exile. But he’s built a life for himself aboard a human space station. He’s even begun to understand the complex nuances of human courting rituals. Detective Hastion is finally flirting back! Murder. Except that Tristol’s beloved space station is unexpectedly contacted by the galoi - a xenophobic species with five genders, purple skin, and serious attitude. They need the help of a human detective because there’s a murderer aboard their spaceship.

Catch up with the original monster-human couple, Danny and Wyn, in their Wastes-style adventures. Witness Moth and Wyn's blossoming and potentially concerning friendship. Find out all the new ways Edin has been frustrating Hunter (lovingly) since their story ended. And join Lor and Jugs in welcoming a new furry addition to their monster-world family.

In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight's account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook.

Once upon a time, the wizard’s apprentice, Sam of Wilds, got his happily ever after in the arms of his cornerstone, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart. A year has passed, and while Sam’s been captured five or six more times since then, things are pretty great. Until they're not.... Because Vadoma, the leader of the gypsy clan and Sam’s grandmother, has come to the City of Lockes with a dire prophecy written in the stars.

Despite growing up in a family of villains, I’d rather curl up and read than commit crimes. When I get coerced by my brother into helping him rob a bank, I run into August, my childhood crush, also known as Chrono, the city’s greatest superhero. He’s sexy, sweet, and suddenly, he’s asking me to Thanksgiving with his parents.

When a strange woman shows up outside our camp in the Wastes with monsters chained up to her RV, it feels like I’m the only one who actually wants to help them. That big, grey-skinned monster with the cage on his head and the chain hanging from his back—something is telling me I need to help him. I need to free him. But I have absolutely no idea how I’m supposed to do that, especially when he can’t even talk to me to tell me how. Collector Mary is finally leaving our camp to head back to her monster menagerie, so I do the only thing I can think of to help him: I go with her.

I swear I was only looking for a roommate. Just someone to watch TV and eat dinner with. Nothing… romantic. No way. But when I see all these humans gazing at me with open adoration and blatant lust and other things that make me wildly uncomfortable, I realize what a terrible mistake this is. Until I spot the one human woman in the group who is definitely not pleased to see me. In fact, she's scowling at me. She looks really, really annoyed. I'm kind of into it.

As the rightful heir to the Maryno family dynasty, Toni grew up with clear expectations of who he was supposed to be, and more importantly, who he wasn't. Growing up a constant disappointment isn't a childhood experience he recommends, but he's come a long way from the little boy who could never measure up to his family's toxic standards. At twenty-nine, he's finally proud of the man he's built himself into, and while the routine of his life is simple and, sure, sometimes lonely, he's content. Or so he thought.

Life as a raider in the Wastes, where monsters roam and the military lurks, is as easy as it sounds. I’ve been out here for a long time, and the fear that courses through my blood every time I step outside our camp walls to scavenge never fades. No matter how many monsters you face—and have to run for your life from—it doesn’t ever get easier. But when I come across a bound and injured monster in an abandoned military base, I can’t leave him behind.

Like the "Dark Continent" of Africa, the dark island of Madagascar holds many chilling secrets. One of them is a long-thought extinct species of dinosaurs living at the country's core. A massive earthquake rocks the mountain range within the Andringitra National Park. The splitting Earth reveals a network of tunnels, hidden away for millennia. Responding to the series of violent upheavals, a pack of hypersensitive predators flee their subterranean home; frenzied and hungry, they head for the surface.

A scandalous ex-porn star demon and a morally shady billionaire vampire walk into a bar… But this is no joke. It's opening day at the SOS Hotel and that lust demon? He's my business partner. I know. What was I thinking? The sexy, suave vampire, however? He's something else… Creating a sanctuary for the supernaturals left here when the tear in the veil sealed was always going to be difficult, but it's all I have, and I'm going to make it work. Despite the murders, the missing humans, and the psychotic real estate mogul who wants to bulldoze the hotel.

It's probably our fault your world is doomed if I'm honest. Sorry about that. Sticking with honesty, we're not great at saving people, or ourselves. You should probably pack a bag and head for the hills. You know, just in case... My name is Adam Vex, and I'm definitely not the hero we all need, but along with Zee and Victor, a whole bunch of s*x demons, one shadow beast, a sassy AI bartender, and some uncontrollable gremlins, we're all you've got. Welcome to the end of the world at the SOS Hotel.

I am a monster. A ghoul. A demon. The bogeyman. I have been called all of them. Most creatures fear me but humans are repulsed by me. They are terrified of me. They have created legends about me ever since they became aware of my existence when the tear between our worlds grew and we—the monsters from their nightmares—flooded through in our droves. There is only one human who isn’t afraid of me, the only one who matters. I will destroy anyone who tries to hurt him or take him from me. Danny is mine.