Showing results by narrator "John Pirhalla" in All Categories

In a not-so-distant future, Earth is at the mercy of a rogue quantum AI, with the power to manipulate time, space, and reality. This once-benign creation has gone off the rails, turning our world into a chaotic, dystopian landscape straight out of a video game. Amidst this madness, Liam, an ordinary man, is thrust into the role of Earth's unlikely savior. Tasked with rebooting the entire planet, he must navigate a world where the rules of physics are as malleable as the whims of the AI that controls it.

The Celestial war has come to its peak. After two years of open war with the all-powerful Dominion, the Splinter rebellion has been driven into its most bitter dregs in a century. Their colonies falling one after another, it seems as if its just a matter of time before the noose closes around their necks. Vaughn Donovan, the wearer of the all-powerful Eye, still lurks as the greatest force in the galaxy. His plots to build new armies to hunt his enemies threatens the meager rebellion like the tick of a time bomb.

A new crime lord has risen, claiming control of Marquithe's underbelly. Ruthless and powerful, this man demands Jerrell join his ranks. Jerrell refuses, preferring his independence, but soon realizes he cannot face the entire thieves guild on his own. With a gorgeous and conniving partner at his side, he acquires a new client willing to pay an outrageous sum if he can execute the impossible: steal a ton of silver from a mine controlled by a powerful wizard and guarded by an army of soldiers. Action, intrigue, and betrayal await in this outlandish conclusion to Jerrell's solo adventures.

Town marshal Elias Faust thinks that he can make any problem go away if he throws enough lead at it. The living’s easy for a lawman. Bloody, but easy - that is, until Magnate Gregdon arrives with his undead syndicate to tear the town of Blackpeak, Texas apart. When a shootout with a pair of outlaws goes sideways, Elias Faust accidentally draws the Magnate’s attention. As if dealing with arcane sorcery, reanimated corpses, and the Magnate’s personal vendetta aren’t enough, Faust finds himself at the center of a power-struggle for Blackpeak’s eldritch secrets.

As a war journalist, Jonah Wall saw enough of humanity’s horrors to last a lifetime. He wrecked his marriage, alienated his two sons, and escaped by working on an oil rig in Alaska, as far from civilization as possible. But when he finds a spacecraft that was buried for millennia under the tundra, he is suddenly and reluctantly thrust into an unbelievable adventure. As the ship is being unveiled to the world, it mysteriously comes to life, taking Jonah, his estranged son, and a disparate group on a terrifying journey.

I never asked to be Blade Mage. My fellow wizards weren’t exactly thrilled about my selection, either. Unfortunately, those weird old druids have a strict no returns policy. So I left, and for the past few years, I’ve managed to hide from my responsibilities and former life. But I always knew one day the Cabal would come looking for its precious sword. And so they have, but only because a heinous crime has occurred.

To escape political intrigue in the capital, Sir Jared and Mage Madeline D'Abrac settled in a remote barony on the outskirts of the kingdom. Soon after, a baby in a basket appeared on their doorstep under mysterious circumstances. Fearing a connection to dark and powerful magic, they endeavor to raise him into a non-magical life as a warrior.

At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small American community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Decades later, author Matthew Rozell tracks down over thirty survivors who fought the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. Rage is instantaneous. He's looking at me from a crawling position. I didn't shoot him; I went and kicked him in the head. Rage does funny things. After I kicked him, I shot and killed him. ~Thomas Jones, Marine veteran, Battle of Guadalcanal

Huon has less than one week to save those he cares about most. But in the world of Temtoria, time moves at a different rate, and those days are turned into months. Though Huon has managed to defeat a High Celestial, he still isn't ready to face the Everlasting King. But he has a plan. Reunited with people from his past, he has to teach them all he knows—whether he wants to or not—as when the time comes, they'll only have one chance to defeat their enemy.

While investigating the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, a team led by Dr. Maracot is cut off from their ship and hurled to the bottom of the ocean. There, they find themselves in the remnants of the ancient civilization of Atlantis.

It begins at night. People vanish from parks and city streets. Then in broad daylight, they’re dragged screaming into the woods, into the water, into the sky. People take refuge in their homes, but still the invisible creatures come, ripping people away from their horrorstruck loved ones. Spouses. Parents. Children. Nowhere is safe and no defense can stop them. Because nothing can save you from what you can’t see.

Ian Kelly rents a cottage on the water to pull him and Samantha away from the heat. Now, he's hearing rumors that his landlord, Walter Ponce, may have chained a man to the riverbed.

After he’s fired from the Department of Domestic Counterterrorism, former agent Blake Jordan heads to DC for President-elect Keller’s inauguration. But there are men in power who won’t let that happen.

TBC

High up in the fog-shrouded mountains, a secluded resort has been infested by the ultimate evil. A powerful demonic entity has claimed a teenage girl as its lover. And its tendrils of corruption stretch through the town, infecting the icy ground with its foul taint.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

Tales of blood, magic, and steel by masters of the craft!

The story of Angela Hanson, a girl from the grim NYC public housing projects, a beautiful, complex woman whose sweetly innocent ruthlessness powers her rise into the billionaire class by her early thirties. She rocketed to the top of advertising with the help of legendary adman Jack Price, her mentor-turned-lover and the married man who dumped her. Returning as the executive charged with firing Jack and hundreds of others, she destroys his career in order to make him a pawn in her high-stakes game with a flighty heiress and her billionaire septuagenarian father.

Isabelle Berger has little interest in men. So when a boorish hunter proposes, the timid girl begs her protective father to decline on her behalf. But after her beloved papa is killed tracking a wolf with her would-be husband, Isabelle flies into a rage and sets off in pursuit of the fiendish creature. Thrown from her horse while hunting the beast, the bookish young woman is quickly drawn to the mysterious stranger who rescues her. But when her rugged savior loses his temper, Isabelle is terrified by the dark secret he’s hiding.

In a time beyond the Parting, the team known as 50-Out have passed their initiation and are taking their show on the road. Dedicated to solving the problems of their failed nation through corporate team-building activities and good ol’ fashioned training-the-trainer exercises. The introduction of 50-Out to the political gamesmanship of the Paramilitary Institute or (PI), ends in backstabbing, treachery, and Byte being set up for trying to overthrow the system.