Showing results by narrator "Matthew Lloyd Davies" in All Categories

Stephen and his friends spent their teenage years immersed in the fantasy gaming worlds of wizards and warriors, undertaking quests to fight evil occultists, vanquish terrible monsters, and rescue damsels in distress. Now, 20-something years later, there is a real-life quest. Life as a monk has hardly prepared Brother Stephen for the mission ahead. Demon Rutspud is definitely not a damsel, but he is in distress. The evil occultists are real and if Stephen doesn’t rescue Rutspud from a fate worse than death, no one will...

The bundled edition of the first three books in the popular Ambassador series. 1: Seeing Red - Cory Wilson is about to start his new job as representative to gamra, the alien organization that controls the network for wormhole travel, when a political murder may well end his career before it starts. In Coldi society, you can get killed for looking a superior in the eye. Never mind accusing him of murder. 1A: The Sahara Conspiracy - Cory is asked to deal with the alien mafia on Earth, and stumbles across a plot that endangers Earth's fragile peace.

The second-quickest way to get yourself killed when dealing with Coldi people of the planet Asto is to look a superior in the eye. The Coldi people possess an instinct that demands the formation of hierarchical networks in which every person has a prescribed place. These networks provide stability. They also place one person at the top. Ezhya Palayi is that person. After having been released by his previous employers, Cory Wilson not only depends on Ezhya Palayi for his income, but he has developed an unusually friendly relationship with this man whom people on Earth would call an absolute dictator, but whose reign is benign.

Daniel Day-Lewis is an actor regarded by many as the finest of his generation. His portrayal of cerebral-palsy sufferer Christy Brown in My Left Foot won him his first Oscar in 1990, and in 2008 another Oscar followed for his role in There Will Be Blood. His roles in The Age of Innocence, The Last of the Mohicans and In the Name of the Father further cemented his reputation as well as grossing millions at the box office, making Day-Lewis one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.

With fox hunting banned, is hunting humans the next best countryside sport for the most wealthy and ruthless thrill-seekers? Rumours of the "Wild Chase" have circulated for years but Sam Applewhite refuses to believe them, until she is invited to a party at the opulent estate of country gent (and alleged Russian oligarch) Elgin Jubilee. It’s not her usual scene, but Sam can’t resist a brightly coloured cocktail. Also, this party is her chance to come face to face with the man responsible for stealing her father’s fortune.

When Jeremy Clovenhoof decides to set himself up as president for life of his own breakaway country, he knows he’ll need money, lots and lots of money. That might be a bit difficult, particularly since the Inland Revenue has just presented him with an enormous tax bill and Heaven and Hell have sent Joan of Arc and Rutspud of the Sixth Circle to bring him under control.

King Edward IV did not like that Simon was thrice removed from some long-forgotten ancestor who was somehow related to the owner of the cow that gave milk to King Henry V. Or something like that, Simon was not very good at genealogy. But now, the Lancastrian lordling has fled to the far reaches of the world to brood on revenge. He's stranded in these strange waters with money-hungry Captain Aldo Mitacchione, his halfwit first mate, Neno, and a crew of starving Italians. Things are about to get stranger.

How does an immortal deal with death? What kind of person makes the best companion? Why does the Doctor say he and Freud "got on very well"? How do the Daleks and Cybermen reflect concerns about losing our humanity? And what can looking at an ancient Time Lord teach us about real human nature? Doctor Who Psychology: A Madman with a Box explores these questions and many more.

Grace Ashman has lost everything: her mother five years ago, and now her father and her home just a week before Christmas. She lives on the streets until one kind man invites her inside for a meal before the holiday. What she couldn't know is that his kindness will change her life forever.

Elfland is an intimate, sensual novel of people—both human and Aetherial—caught between duty and desire. It is a story of families, and of Rose Fox, a woman born to magic but tormented by her place in her adopted world.Led by Auberon Fox, a group of Aetherials—call them the Fair Folk, if you will—live among us, indistinguishable from humans. Every seven years, on the Night of the Summer Stars, Lawrence Wilder, the Gatekeeper, throws open all gates to the Other World. But this time, something has gone wrong.

After centuries locked in an endless cycle of poverty, persecution, and barbarity, Europe has finally emerged into the Age of Enlightenment. Scientists, philosophers, scholars, and poets alike believe this to be a new era of reason and hope for all. But the forces of darkness haven’t completely dissipated, as Spain hunts and butchers any who dare to defy its ironclad Catholic orthodoxy. Only one nation can fight the black shadow that threatens this new age, and that is Britain, now ruled by a brilliant young Queen Elizabeth I.

Only his daughter, Poppy, knows that behind his prickly exterior, Mitchell Fisher is deeply lonely. He may have sworn off romance, relishing his job cutting off the padlocks that couples fasten to his hometown’s famous ‘love story’ bridge...but underneath it all, he’s still grieving the loss of Poppy’s mum. Then one hot summer’s day, everything changes when Mitchell bravely rescues a woman who falls from the bridge into the river. He’s surprised to feel an unexpected connection to her, but then she disappears.

Ben who rides dragons is twice a hero. He's defeated all kinds of demons and learned how to transform into a chimera. That's powerful stuff for a mere cat. Oh, how proud his ancestors would be if they saw him today. In fact, he's far too powerful for Astravar, the mighty warlock and Ben's nemesis, who can't stand the thought of being defeated by a mere moggie. But now he has allied with the other warlocks and together they have a plan to destroy the kingdom.

The aristocracy abide by a different set of rules...or so it seems to Sam Applewhite when her job brings her to Candlebroke Hall, the stately home. The burglary definitely wasn’t what it appeared to be, and the subsequent accidents suggest that it’s a dangerous place to spend time. Sam is caught up in events as she tries to protect the interests of young Hilde Odinson, part of the local viking family. The Odinsons insist on doing things their own way though, with scant regard for the law.

There’s something very wrong at the Otterside care home. When Sam Applewhite tries to help a friend who’s lost a beloved pet she finds that it’s just the first in a series of seemingly unconnected deaths. Is it her imagination, or do all of them somehow point back to the same residential home for seniors? Sam’s skills are in demand elsewhere however, as she must orchestrate a safety drill with animal actors, cook dinner on an abandoned oil rig, and keep an eye on those vikings who are building a longship.

In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron: 100 nested tales told by a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence while waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 million people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fables. In March of 2020, the editors of The New York Times Magazine created The Decameron Project, an anthology with a simple, time-spanning goal: to gather a collection of stories written as our current pandemic first swept the globe.

After Jason's world falls apart when his young daughter is brutally murdered, a demon offers to give him another life where she is alive and well, but there’s a horrifying catch.

Aodhan clutched uselessly at his head, groaning. He knew it was useless, because the voice was not inside his head. It followed him, skimming across buildings and land. It had followed him since he was sixteen, and it still followed him today, like a memory too horrific to be forgotten… Aodhan is a shadow-demon, hardened and cold after years of being alone, after his love, his Entwined, was cruelly taken away from him.

A sensuous, suspenseful modern fantasy of love, betrayal, and redemption. Decades ago, in a place where the veil between our world and the world of the Aetherials - the fair folk - is too easily breached, three young people tricked their uncle by dressing as the fey. But their joke took a deadly turn when true Aetherials crossed into our world, took one of the pranksters, and literally scared their uncle to death

In the height of summer, it’s not just holidaymakers who are drawn to the seaside town of Skegness. Desperate thieves and callous killers are searching for a hidden treasure, and they don’t care who they hurt in their quest to claim it. The most important question of all is if Sam can get to the bottom of this mystery before those closest to her are put in further danger?