Showing results by narrator "Ralph Lister" in All Categories

To mention the names Ernst Gombrich, Nikolaus Pevsner, Joseph Conrad, Nancy Astor, C.L.R. James and Lucian Freud is to give but a brief glimpse of the impact immigrants to this country have made on our national culture and character. Indeed, these people have been crucial to the development of recent British history and have been indispensable for the way we live now.

Captain Gordon lives like he flies - by the seat of his pants, taking on any job and all comers. Now he’s bound for the forbidding mountains along the shores of the Arabian Sea, transporting a team of anthropologists on the trail of Alexander the Great. But ancient history is about to come to dangerous life with the discovery of a long-buried map - a map leading to high adventure, untold treasure, and cold-blooded murder.

Iakhovas has caused more destruction than any force since the Time of Troubles, but his true objective has been a mystery...until now. When a young sailor's journey is complete, an aging bard's final song is sung, and a malenti priestess faces her most challenging test, the Threat from the Sea concludes in an explosive climax that will set all of Faern reeling.

Meg Pickel’s older brother, Orion, has disappeared. One night, Meg steals out to look for him and makes two surprising discoveries: She stumbles upon a séance that she suspects involves Orion, and she meets the author Charles Dickens, also unable to sleep and roaming the London streets.

Several thousand years from now, advanced humanoids known as the Makers will implant clockwork devices into our heads. At the cost of a certain amount of agency, these devices will permit us to move unhindered through time and space, and to live complacent, well-regulated lives. However, when one of these devices goes awry, a "clockwork man" appears accidentally in the 1920s, at a cricket match in a small English village. Comical yet mind-blowing hijinks ensue.

When the lucky survivors of the world’s most infamous maritime disaster were plucked out of the freezing ocean by the passenger steamship Carpathia, they thought their problems were over. But something is sleeping in the darkest recesses of their rescue ship. Something old. Something hungry.

The sea war rages up and down the Sword Coast, leaving the busy harbor of Baldur's Gate in flames. Following his mad quest, the evil Iakhovas has found a gateway into the protected waters of the Sea of Fallen Stars, and now no coast is safe from his marauding armies of the deep.

The Hierarchy, high priests of the religious order the Light, rules both the magical kingdom of Albi and its religion. Worshippers in the old ways of the Earth Mother, clandestinely scattered throughout the land, are persecuted as heretics. And when missionary student Rollo Woodbridge returns to his home in Albi, he is arrested for heresy and treason, setting off a chain of events that puts everyone’s life in jeopardy and plunges the kingdom into chaos.

Invisibility has fascinated people since time immemorial, but only a decade ago did invisibility become a serious subject of scientific investigation. This lively novel, authored by an expert in the field, takes the listener on a journey to fascinating places and - en passant - on an intellectual adventure involving some of the most fascinating subjects of optics. While enjoying the fun and action of a travel story, listeners will gain an accurate notion of the real science of invisibility, of the light and shade of the business of science, as well as glimpses into different cultures.

Five knights tell stories of ancient lands, madness, and terrifying monsters...but no one can top Knight Elric's tale of the Land of Hershel, a monstrous swamp filled with horrifying creatures and an ever-present threat. If you stop moving, you drown. "In the Land of Hershel" is a short story set in the thrilling world of SunRider.

Self-designated gods and masters of the elements and mayhem. These are they: the Star-Children. Before them the world splits and groans, and nations collapse. There can be no stopping an all-out-war. The Golden Agony’s maniacal plans are set. Anti-life prepares to cleanse Lenova. Not even the unity of millions can stop Mal’Bal. Not gods, nor kings, nor necromancy. But perhaps there is one last chance. There is a plan. It is desperate and dependent upon Finn SunRider finding the Splinter of Nullification.

The Lords of Creation rule the Nine Worlds through its control of the ultra-advanced technology that has permitted the colonization of the entire solar System. More gods than men, the Lords of Creation have cheated Death itself. But although they rule the solar system with their god-like scientific knowledge, there are even more powerful forces to be feared lurking out in the dark depths of space. And when an unthinkably terrible enemy that rules a vast network of dead stars and planets comes to the Nine Worlds, it falls to them to stop it, though entire worlds may perish.

Basil of Baker’s Street, the masterful mouse detective who studied under Sherlock Holmes, is on his way to a school reunion with his old friends from Ratcliffe College. Along for the trip is his steadfast companion, Doctor Dawson. But all is not well, as they soon learn that the dastardly Ratigan has escaped from prison in London. Could the rat possibly be planning revenge against his old nemesis, Basil himself?

Marlborough House is the home of Edward, the Prince of Wales (second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria). He lives there with various children and family members. Unbeknownst to the human royals, there is a corresponding clan of noblemice living there as well. At the moment, the human royal family is hosting the visiting royal family of Bohemia, along with that family’s corresponding group of stowaway noblemice. However, the teen noblemice of both houses have vanished without a trace, and everyone fears that one of the royal dogs may be responsible. Can Basil help?

Basil the mouse detective is called to Paris when the organizers of the Great Cheese Cook-off (an international culinary competition) start receiving threats against the event. Who could want to deprive all of mousedom of one of its tastiest nights? Basil immediately suspects Ratigan, who has escaped yet again and was seen lurking around Paris, and sets off on his investigation at the event’s location, the Parisian College of Cooking. But Basil is baffled when circumstantial evidence shows that it couldn’t have been his old enemy after all.

Listeners will discover lost and forgotten women who wrote horror every bit as effectively as their male contemporaries. They will learn about their lives and careers, the challenges they faced as women working in a male-dominated field, the way they overcame those challenges, and the way they approached the genre - which was often subtler, more psychological, and more disturbing.

Florence Maybrick was the first American woman to be sentenced to death in England - for murdering her husband, a crime she almost certainly didn't commit. Her 1889 trial was presided over by an openly misogynist judge who was later declared incompetent and died in an asylum. Hours before she was to be hanged, Queen Victoria reluctantly commuted her sentence to life in prison. In her opinion, a woman who would commit adultery, as Maybrick had admitted, would also kill her husband. Her children were taken from her; she never saw them again. Her mother worked for years to clear her name.

Isaac Wolf can travel through time. But he's also in a race against it. With tensions in Prague rising at the height of World War II, Isaac Wolf is forced to leave home with nothing more than a small backpack and a pendant in the shape of an eternity knot. His parents believe the pendant will...

Demeron, a Shinkyan stallion who can speak to humans with magic, is cut off from his master. He must find a way to return hundreds of miles to Deftnis Monastery, his master's home. To do so, Demeron must travel through the country of his birth, eluding humans who would eagerly take possession of him.

Jack Serpent is the only person to have survived the Scriver Trials. With that, he became a lore keeper for the origin of monsters, a spy, and hybrid soldier able to withstand crushing magic. Ever since a coven of Strygan murdered his family, he’s set out to discover and record what plagues the continents. It’s the sort of highly valuable knowledge that could change wars and divide kingdoms.