Showing results by narrator "Kevin Collins" in All Categories

Another chapter in the story of the heir to the Morozov mages. It takes place in a cruel world where ancient bloodlines with magical abilities enjoy power and influence, while Normals devoid of magical gifts are of no use to anyone. This depressing fate was in store for our hero, Ivan, too—he was condemned to death by his father, who was sure that he was as magic-less as a puppet. But Ivan was rescued and brought up by an old warrior, and the head of the Morozov bloodline was able to transfer his gifts to Ivan just before his death—leaving an impostor soul from another world in his body.

The Challenge continues, and there is no end in sight to the bloodletting. It doesn't matter whether you are a "Brahmin" or a disenfranchised piece of meat, a popular top dog or the lowliest loser. You still don't know squat, and if anything, the questions just keep piling up. Yet, the new tier is also different, at least for some. You can go hard, or go easy, but the harder the going, the higher the loot. If you are lucky, you may even get a respite from feeding on your own kind. Instead, you'll be eating right. But don't rejoice finding yourself all alone on a deserted shore.

A tournament to name the best mage in the empire. What could go wrong when everything is carefully planned down to the last detail, and only the best of the best are invited to participate? The answer is obvious: everything! Once again, Maximilian Valevsky will have to save everyone to preserve the integrity of the empire. This time, however, forces far more powerful than anything he has encountered before have taken an interest in his affairs.

Sometimes the good guys win and the bad guys end up dead. But that isn't how it always goes down. In the ZOO, you are either fast and lucky or you are dead. Heavy Metal has a few videos that are out gaining attention in parts of the world, and that doesn't bode well for them. Some people are noticing that Sal and his team have someone extra-special working with them, and they want a piece of her...or all of her. This time, it's back to basics for Heavy Metal with just Sal, Madigan, and Courtney. Are they enough to save their friend?

Torn between two men... When I woke up after the accident, I couldn't remember anything from the last year - including my relationship with Max Hallowell or anything about Nate Crane. Now my memories are returning, but instead of answering my questions, they're leaving me with more. The man who broke my heart and wants to be my future... Max is all I ever wanted, and now he wants to marry me. He'll do everything he can to fill my life with love, family, and security. I need those things now more than ever.

Sara Adams awakes blind, unable to remember the most basic details of her life, but her darkness seems a blessing when she discovers the terrors of The Light. Stella Montgomery investigates the news from the mean streets of Detroit, where she's noticed a disturbing trend: Young women are vanishing. When her best friend disappears, Stella digs for answers - despite warnings from her police detective boyfriend - following a twisted trail that leads her through the city's most dangerous and forsaken precincts.

Lieutenant James Shelley and his squad of US Army soldiers were on a quest for justice when they carried out the unauthorized mission known as First Light. They returned home to America to face a court-martial, determined to expose the corruption in the chain of command that compelled their actions. But in a country still reeling from the nuclear terrorism of Coma Day, the courtroom is just one battlefield of many.

Michiko Nakatomi has led the Dark Council for over a century, maintaining the uneasy truce between humanity and the supernatural. But when an ancient enemy returns, the delicate balance is shattered, and vampires start dying. Now, Michiko must fight for her life and the survival of the council. She has no one to trust. Her inner circle is destroyed, the council is on the verge of collapse, and her only hope lies with Simon and Tristan.

James Shelley has left his lover, Delphi, and his companion-in-arms, Jayne Vasquez, with a fortune acquired from a fallen oligarch. They believe him to be dead, and he doesn't try to set the record straight. His long-running question has been answered: There are other soldiers like him who have served the purposes of the Red - and he has accepted his place among them.

In a universe full of interstellar intrigue and burgeoning commerce novice Terran trader Jethri Gobelyn, adopted by a Liaden clan after an ill-directed bow of honor insulted the scion of a major Liaden house, is alive and whole to tell the tale. Convinced that the adoption has saved his life and made his future he settles into a comfortable and even elite routine, a Trader's Ring his goal.

The new, detached setting is teeming with "land mines"—highly unusual ones. Plenty of other, deadlier things would be happy to reach out and touch someone anywhere, be it the roof of a skyscraper or a subway tunnel deep underground. Tons of somnambulant extras could swing either way: cut your throat or help you, purely on a whim. Weapons are as deadly as they are improbable. Deliberately imposed multiple handicaps make any attempts at camouflage meaningless.

Maximilian Valevsky quite unexpectedly finds himself with spare time on his hands-time he can even devote to studying. Learning all the intricacies of runecraft, becoming Magister Meram's best pupil, and making his statement to the world! It all sounds like a dream, but reality is quick to put him in his place. Padishah Bayazid the Third wants to personally meet with Maximilian and our hero will have to do unprecedented things just to survive. But could a former doomed soldier do it any other way?

Maximillian has been given the chance to avenge his family's death: the Duke of Odoevsky has conspired in a plot against the emperor, and if Max plays his cards right, he'll be able to destroy the man who read out his family's execution order with such ecstasy. But one small mistake topples his plans, and now thousands of people caught in the clutches of terrible monsters are counting on him to save them. What choice must he make? Revenge or salvation?

Nine months ago Sara Adams awoke with no memory. The man holding her hand told her she's a member of The Light, a tight-knit religious group led by the terrifying and charismatic Father Gabriel. As a woman in the community of The Light, her duty is to be unquestionably obedient and to submit to the will of her husband. But as Sara's memory starts to return and she remembers her past, she sees that everything she's been told is a lie. The Light is an insidious and dangerous organization.

To many, the brain is the seat of personal identity and autonomy. But the way we talk about the brain is often rooted more in mystical conceptions of the soul than in scientific fact. This blinds us to the physical realities of mental function. We ignore bodily influences on our psychology, from chemicals in the blood to bacteria in the gut, and overlook the ways that the environment affects our behavior, via factors varying from subconscious sights and sounds to the weather.

E. A. Smithe is a borrowed person. He is a clone who lives on a third-tier shelf in a public library, and his personality is an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is a piece of property, not a legal human. A wealthy patron, Colette Coldbrook, takes him from the library because he is the surviving personality of the author of Murder on Mars. A physical copy of that book was in the possession of her murdered father, and it contains an important secret, the key to immense family wealth.

The desert has been left behind, but Sinner's troubles have not. He finds himself in an elaborate trap—him, and everyone else who failed to go north early. Now he has two options: accept his fate and die along with countless other losers or escape from the trap and pull his friends out. Except to do that, he will have to fight the most terrifying animal ever. Man.

When Tom is invited to the reading of a will of a great-uncle he’s never heard of, there’s no way to know what to expect. But on the long list of possible things to inherit, a travelling carnival ghost train is the very last on the list. To get his full $10 million inheritance, all Tom has to do is run the antique ride until his 18th birthday. Easy. Except for a strange caped-creep he’s never met, who’s trying to con him out of the money...and the actual ghosts and ghouls who call the ride home.

There has never been a mage this powerful before. And yet, what use is power when bad things happen while you sleep? For most people, the question is: "How do I go on?" For Bud, the question is: "How do I fix this?" The problem is determining why it broke, so it won't happen again. But fixing things is easy. It's the consequences of your choices which are difficult. And what of the other things which need fixing? Once you start fixing things, where does it end? He's worked for Kali, Ganesha, and Shiva, across two galaxies. Now, he's Destiny's Spacemage.

Theo has been bested. On the hunt for missing children, he encounters a man who has more magical weapons than Theo could ever believe existed. Their confrontation may have ended with Theo managing to wound the abductor, but it leaves him spelled in the shape of a goat.