Showing results by narrator "Ryan Burke" in All Categories

A mysterious race of North American giants. An ancient Hebrew inscription in a Cherokee burial mound. A blood oath made by blindfolded Freemasons. Are these three historical oddities the reason the CIA is trying to brainwash historian Cameron Thorne and his fiancee Amanda Spencer-Gunn? The answer lies buried in the legends of the Knights Templar, within the rituals of the secretive Freemasons and, most significantly of all, inside the bowels of the Smithsonian Institution

Innovation used to be seen as a game best left to entrepreneurs, but now a new breed of corporate managers is flipping this logic on its head. These Corporate Explorers have the insight, resilience, and discipline to overcome the obstacles and build new ventures from inside even the largest organizations. Corporate Explorer is a guidebook to the practices that enable these managers to go from idea into action. This actionable and proven framework explains how managers can become successful corporate innovators.

Captain Nolan destroyed the Void Wraith factory and the fleet guarding it, but every victory comes with a price. The destruction of the Helios Gate in the Ghantan system stranded Nolan and his crew months from the closest Gate. Dryker and Khar have been imprisoned by the Primo, forced to remain idle.

In the United States, members of a Louisiana VFW fight back, and an Illinois gun shop employee overcomes personal loss to find a purpose. In the hollers of West Virginia, a cagey man holds a secret to an upstate New York nuclear facility, while a hunter becomes the hunted in Washington state. Disabled veterans spring a surprise in South Carolina, and in the mountains of Wyoming, a rustic cabin holds more than it seems.

Efrem "Coleslaw" White is a video game tester and college student. He was on a tropical vacation with a diverse group of strangers, classmates, and friends when disaster struck. The next thing he knew, he was standing before a huge, floating man introducing himself as the god Dolos, and being given a second chance at life. There was a catch, though. There is always a catch.

On a distant planet outside the reach of the Confederation, Garret Cushing finds himself in dire straits. Struggling with a guilty conscience and his life in the balance, he decides to do the unthinkable: turn himself over to the Confederation in exchange for protection.

Hawke Moonsnow is a brilliant alchemist. He's a prodigy of his time. He knows it. Everyone else knows it. There's just one problem… He has the common sense of a golden retriever. After an accident leaves his old shop in smoking ruins, Hawke takes a loan from the Adventurers' Guild to open a new location in the town square. Now, he has to work to pay back that loan despite charging lower prices to guild members, inventing new cures, and trying to catch the attention of the fetching waitress at the tavern—all while continuing forbidden research into a dangerous plague.

When a salvage job on an old battlefield goes awry, Kril's left with no crew, no food, a suspiciously absent client, and far too many enemies. Fortunately, it's a big universe, and he's got a fast ship and the best pilot in twenty light-years to watch his back. His journey to keep 'er flying and get a crew back together will take him from rescue operations in collapsing freighters to fighting dinosaurs in the sewage canals of pirate paradises and to points beyond. The odds are stacked against him, but Kril keeps it simple.

Vexx White is a down on his luck apprentice mage, recently expelled from Fallanden Magical Academy for experimenting with necromancy. With nothing to lose, he becomes a dungeoneer for hire — taking odd jobs in his home town of Cloudbury for pocket change. Nine out of 10 dungeoneers die in their first 10 quests, and to survive Vexx finds himself teaming up with a clumsy elf and a crazed succubus. When they’re not busy trying to kill each other, the dungeoneers drum up all the work they can get, from raiding dungeons to hunting down thieves.

We expected Mars to be an escape, not a trap. A crimson, blasted, frigid trap. Maybe humans were lucky to leave Earth as cowards...or maybe they should have died trying to save it from the aliens. Because what's now arrived on this red rock may be worse than death. Aliens destroyed humanity and seized Earth. Now they have sent a terrible, unstoppable disease to the last human outposts on Mars. The doomsday clock is ticking and only criminal archaeologist Ozzy Mack can decipher the clues buried in the ancient Martian ruins...clues to the cure and the salvation of humankind.

I write software at a San Francisco startup. I have my dream job, but I also have a secret. We are not alone. The last time I was taken I was 14. Three weeks ago I celebrated my 21st birthday, and I know that the grey men will soon come again. I devoted my life to technology so I'd be ready when they returned. Others have prepared too, and I will find them. Together we will harness the abilities they have given us. We are Project Solaris. It's time to fight back.

The game has devoured Earth. Players have gotten down to business as usual—farming, taking out monsters, leveling up their items, and wiping out dungeons. All the NPCs can do is accept their unenviable fate and try to survive in this complicated new world. But will they all be content to sit on their hands and accept it? Michael, a Universal Combat Mage, is one of a number of people who refuse to let fate lead them passively along. He wants to decide his own fate.

Make a high-speed run of Septimus, the Borwyn home planet, but the Malibor have a different idea about where the battle will be fought. Who is the predator, and who is the prey? The Borwyn find their new friends can be both a hindrance and helpful. Liberate Septimus and free the Borwyn. It takes all of Jaq’s willpower to focus the crew on their singular goal.

The Solus Hegemony is an empire without borders, an insidious force of undisputed power with limitless resources at their disposal...and their sights are set on one man. How can one man make a difference against such a dauntless enemy? The mysterious ramblings of a young woman point to an answer; one that is buried deep within the folds of a conspiracy the enemy will stop at nothing to protect. Noah’s attempt to pierce the veil results in a gauntlet of destruction that sets the galaxy ablaze.

Danielle is the prime suspect in her billionaire husband's murder, and now defense attorney Andrew Morrison must face his dark past with her as the trial nears a verdict.

Historians Cameron Thorne and Amanda Spencer-Gunn uncover a stolen painting which the Nazis believed was a secret map to the Holy Grail and the lost treasure of the Knights Templar. Hitler planned to weaponize the Holy Grail and monetize the treasure as part of his campaign of world dominance. Cam and Amanda just want to find the legendary artifacts. The Nazis failed because they were unable to decipher the secret Templar clues left in the painting. Cam and Amanda may fail—perhaps fatally—because a group of modern-day Nazis remain obsessed with finishing Hitler's work.

A dying millionaire hires historian Cameron Thorne to help raise what he claims is a Roman-era ship wrecked off the coast of Massachusetts' Plum Island. Roman coins and artifacts scattered around New England and the Ohio River Valley appear to confirm legends of early Romans crossing the Atlantic. It seems like a harmless assignment until a sultry Mossad agent threatens Cam's life. Why would the Mossad care about ancient Roman artifacts? The answer, it turns out, could destabilize the Middle East for generations to come.

An elderly recluse informs historian Cameron Thorne that he has discovered the secret at the core of Freemasonry. The next day, he is killed. Thorne quickly focuses on a mysterious stone tablet, given to Moses by God along with the Ten Commandments, purportedly passed down to the Freemasons by the medieval Knights Templar. When a sultry Mossad agent joins the search—claiming that the tablet contains ancient scientific equations and formulas lost to mankind—Thorne becomes certain of one thing: He needs to locate the tablet before he becomes its second victim.

Religious fanatics inform historian Cameron Thorne that a medieval stone tower in Newport, Rhode Island is a secret portal—built by the Knights Templar—through which the Antichrist will appear. A group of Native Americans share this belief, claiming that the shape of Turtle Island, their name for North America, was revealed to them by ancient aliens passing through this same portal centuries ago. It all seems utterly ridiculous, until Cam's teenage daughter Astarte is kidnapped and dragged into an occult ritual designed to bring about the Apocalypse.

The activation of the runes has the Osuna fleet mobilizing. They’re closing in, and thanks to a new class acquisition, the timeline to Judgment Day has sped up. After thousands of years in hiding, Governor Cullen refuses to believe the Cipher chose him just to watch his people lose everything. He races the clock to find and destroy the portal with the greatest loot. Problem is, every portal he opens cuts down his time to prepare. With his people’s future on the line, Cullen’s up against a war on two fronts—from the streets to the mystical beyond.