Showing results by narrator "Nick Podehl" in All Categories

They are just children when they first meet: Charlotte, daughter of the French ambassador, and Hiroshi, a laundress’s son. One day in the playground, Hiroshi declares that he has an idea that will change the world. An idea that will sweep away all differences between rich and poor. When Hiroshi runs into Charlotte several years later, he is trying to build a brighter future through robotics.

On an isolated Texas ranch, Dr. Lucy cares for abandoned animals. The solitude allows her to avoid the people and places that remind her of the past. Not that any of the townsfolk care. In 1959, no one is interested in a woman doctor. Nor are they welcoming Calvin and Justin Bell, a newly arrived African American father and son.

On the young world of Dezrel, brother gods Karak and Ashhur, fleeing their own failed world, recreate mankind in an attempt to make amends. The fledgling race of humanity is guided by the First Families, men and women who will not age so long as their hearts remain devoted to their deities. But quickly the realms are thrown into chaos by the construction of the Temple of the Flesh, built by exiled children of Karak in the unclaimed land of Haven that lies between the two kingdoms.

In How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, veteran journalist Chris Taylor traces the series from the difficult birth of the original film through its sequels, the franchise’s death and rebirth, the prequels, and the preparations for a new trilogy. Taylor provides portraits of the friends, writers, artists, producers, and marketers who labored behind the scenes to turn Lucas’s idea into a legend.

Even though the cancer should be far behind him, Jeffrey still worries that it will return. He’s got normal teen stuff to deal with, too - friends, parents, girls, school. Normally, he’d ask his older brother, Steven, for advice. But Steven, always the trusty, responsible one, is finally rebelling and has taken off to Africa to join a drumming circle and “find himself”. Jeffrey feels abandoned. Meanwhile, his best friend, Tad, is hatching some kind of secretive, crazy plan involving eighth-grade graduation.....

Isabella Rodrigues has been blessed with an abundance of charm and perseverance. She needed both to convince her fellow Georgia Institute of Technology students that storming Area 51 was a good idea.

In this bone-chilling digital original story set in the world of Madeleine Roux's New York Times bestselling novel Asylum, a Louisiana teen tries to make tuition money working for a sinister organization but finds that leaving comes at a terrible cost. When Dan, Abby, and Jordan meet Oliver in...

Christian teens care very much about their connection and relationship with God, but they are also experiencing all the ups and downs of teenage life, with the attendant joys and sorrows of growing up. This book, filled with stories written by Christian teens for Christian teens, helps teens who care about their faith navigate their teenage years.

It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths - for good and evil - of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies.

Egil and Nix have retired, as they always said they would. No, really - they have! No more sword - and hammer - play for them! But when two recent acquaintances come calling for help, our hapless heroes find themselves up against the might of the entire Thieves Guild. And when kidnapping the leader of the most powerful guild in the land seems like the best course of action, you know you’re in over your head....

From a smelly watering hole deep in the heart of the Serengeti to the ferocious clamor of the Colosseum, join Julius Zebra and his motley menagerie of friends as they gear up to be...GLADIATORS! Only if they win the love of the Roman crowds will they win back their freedom. But do Julius and his pals have what it takes to succeed in a world where only the meanest and toughest survive?

A great war encroaches following the turbulent events of patch 17, casting a menacing shadow over both Demon Grounds and lands of the light races. Roused from a millennia-old slumber, dark gods seek to exact vengeance for their past defeat. Max finds himself at the epicenter of it all - with the lives of his woman, his friends, and all his people in the Wild Wood dependent on him. Two unlikely heroes must stand - and endure - against all odds: one a Black Demon from an ancient prophecy, the other a fabled Gray Lion....

Sebastien Ranes’s single mom and her feckless boyfriend can’t be bothered to take care of a stuttering 12-year-old. Banished to live with his grandmother on the far side of the country, the boy can barely understand a bus schedule when he gets dumped at the Greyhound station in Stockton, California. Given $35 and a one-way ticket to Altoona, Pennsylvania, Sebastien must cross the country - alone, without a clue how to fend for himself. Filled with youthful anger and naïveté, Sebastien heads out into the "Morning in America" of Ronald Reagan’s 1980s.

For the past seven years, Kellan Caufield Thorne has been caught up in a celestial power play of epic proportions. The final act began in an Atlanta alley by forever removing the scales from Kellan’s eyes to reveal a world of Creation, Destruction, gods, angels, demons, and Mantles. Now the last scene begins to unfold as God’s unchecked hand on the world must traverse a perilous and narrow path if he has any hope of saving our universe from Perditor, the very incarnation of destruction.

Rigel has found a new home and new love in the Starlands, the magical realm responsible for his half-human, half-elfin heritage. But despite ridding the kingdom of horrific monsters and using his unequaled swordsmanship to help a new queen ascend to the throne, he has no time to savor these early victories.

Jack Rybicki is a high school senior who loves his girl, likes to party, and doesn't have much of a plan for his life. Then fate plucks him from obscurity and Jack, now renamed Jack Noble by his management team, becomes one of the most famous people on the planet. A teenager who likes to indulge himself with limitless resources is not the best recipe for a successful life. But, it's never too late in Middle Falls.

Of the six Montgomery brothers, Zach has always walked on the wild side. He rocketed to fame playing a hero in a movie, but off screen he’s living in the shadows. Zach’s dark secret: He leads a double life as a CIA operative. When a mission to stalk a terrorist goes horribly wrong, Zach’s cover is blown. He’s on the run and fighting to stay alive long enough to discover whom he can trust - and who betrayed him. Jenna Walters thought she’d married the perfect man - until she unearthed his terrible secret. Now, desperate to escape his crosshairs, she and her son take refuge in Zach’s secret hideaway.

Corn is king in the Heartland, and Cael McAvoy has had enough of it. It's the only crop the Empyrean government allows the people of the Heartland to grow - and the genetically modified strain is so aggressive that it takes everything the Heartlanders have just to control it.

Against all odds, - A God has returned - to Earth. Chance Kyrien is turning seventeen, and on this day he will be confirmed as a Puriman and learn the shape of his life to come. Young Chance is ambitious, rebellious, but also fiercely devout, and his only thoughts are about farming and wine-making - and marrying the girl he loves. But in a shocking burst of violence, Chance's dreams are shattered. Now he must survive against hellish forces to face his ultimate foe: a long-forgotten god whose destiny is intertwined with his own.

Aryc Tal Venn was supposed to be the savior of the universe. But a fateful decision left him blighted, unable to cultivate the primal Aether into the life-empowering energy of the Quintessence. With nothing but hope, Aryc undertakes a desperate quest to reverse his blighting. But when a terrible truth challenges everything he believes, Aryc is forced to question whom he fights for and why. Destiny comes for Aryc Tal Venn, and the fate of the universe rests in his hands.