Showing results by narrator "James Foster" in All Categories

Bearing Earth's hopes for deliverance from the alien threat, Jack Kildare and his fellow astronauts successfully complete the long journey to Jupiter. But someone on board is trying to sabotage the mission. As they approach the mysterious alien spaceship orbiting Europa, the crew fractures into rival factions. Without warning, a long-range attack cripples the human ship. Now the broken crew is the least of Jack's worries. The alien spaceship isn't a wreck, after all. And whoever is on board wants the humans dead.

Is it a hoax, or is it something unspeakably real? In this short story about evil games and spiraling secrets, whatever bargain you strike, there’s a price to be paid. Mason Brandt dropped out of seminary and found a job at a spiritual center offering guidance to troubled teens. Mason was one himself years ago - a suspect in a young girl’s disappearance. When a female student is found murdered, Mason is dogged by suspicion and flees. He hopes Merle House will offer him sanctuary once again.

July 1861. On Independence Day, the citizens of Washington, DC, are celebrating as if there isn't a war. But the city is teeming with green Union recruits while President Lincoln and his War Department are focused on military strategy to take Richmond in Secessionist Virginia in order to bring the conflict to a swift end. Manassas, Virginia, near Bull Run Creek, is in their sights. The very next morning, as Congress convenes once more, a dead body is found hanging from the crane beneath the unfinished dome of the Capitol.

Charismatic, charming, and one of the best orators of his era, Henry Clay seemed to have it all. He offered a comprehensive plan of change for America, and he directed national affairs as Speaker of the House, as Secretary of State to John Quincy Adams - the man he put in office - and as acknowledged leader of the Whig party. As the broker of the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay fought to keep a young nation united when westward expansion and slavery threatened to tear it apart. Yet, despite his talent and achievements, Henry Clay never became president.

Shocked to find corruption widespread in the ranks of their shepherds today, too many good Catholics are tempted to leave the Church, unaware that ever since the days when Jesus' own treasurer, Judas Iscariot, had his hand in the till, the Good Shepherd and His faithful followers have regularly been betrayed by bad shepherds. In this eye-opening book, Church historian Rod Bennett introduces a number of those bad shepherds, including Pope Stephen VII, who so hated his late predecessor that he had him dug up, put on trial, and flung into the Tiber....

In this twistingly beautiful and epically thrilling conclusion to the fantasy trilogy The Legacy of the Mercenary King, Michael, the infamous Kingkiller, and Serena, the Hollow Queen, race against the odds to have the future they’ve worked so hard to protect…or risk bringing about the end of the world.

Clean cut, all-American, hot as sin, and sweet enough to lick all over. That’s how my friend Skye describes Miles Blake. It’s how I’d describe him, too, if I didn’t just find out the one-night stand that rocked my world is my best friend’s fiancé’s best friend…God, what a mouthful.

Cricket Abernathy has no qualms about letting her geek flag fly. For two weeks every summer, she welcomes like-minded adults to a specially curated camp, where they release their inner children and participate in activities like Hero 101, fanfiction collaborations, and zombie apocalypse training. It’s their safe space, and Cricket would rather eat ramen noodles for the rest of her life than sacrifice the camp to the financial gods, which is exactly what she tells the big city lawyer who seems to think his client is entitled to her property.

Peace is the one thing for which the Eaglemasters never trained. Centuries of harsh conditioning made them doubt the dawn of this new era that now keeps the hordes of foes surrounding them at bay without a single drop of blood spilled. They crowned a king who proved most able to breathe life into that elusive flame. When He Who Lurks In The Shadows is finally unleashed upon the world after his thousand-year banishment, it soon becomes clear—they need worry no longer about the ghouls outside their walls. A new enemy is waiting to spring from every neighbor, every friend, every brother.

Jonas Madigan is dying. He spent his life taming towns and upholding justice across the west with no regrets. Along the way, Madigan took the measure of good men like Smoke Jensen, who has traveled to Salt Lick, Texas to pay his respects to the lawman. But when bandits gun down the small town’s current marshal—and Smoke sends the killers to Boot Hill—Madigan asks his friend to wear the badge and keep the peace until a permanent replacement is sworn in. Turns out the bandits were members of Bishop’s Mauraders, a twenty-man gang of trigger-happy thieves led by the vicious Snake Bishop.

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.

He calls himself The King. Once a respected professor, he was ruined by scandal. Now, he rules his own “country”—an area of western territory where an army of outlaws enforce his laws. Any town he claims as his own must pay “taxes,” collected from bank, stagecoach, and train robberies. When he learns that President Rutherford B. Hayes and General William Tecumseh Sherman are venturing into the far west on a tour of the nation, The King devises a plan to kidnap America’s leaders and expand his empire.

Kyle has his mentor over for dinner to catch up and introduce him to his girlfriend, Jamie, and the three have a great time. When William mentions that he’s been writing a novel, Kyle is overjoyed. He would love to read the opus his mentor has toiled over—until the novel turns out to be not only horribly written but also the most depraved story Kyle has ever read.

There’s nothing particularly unusual for a legendary gunman to be summoned to the lawless, bullet-riddled territory of Arizona. But when Frank Morgan, a.k.a. the Last Gunfighter, rides into Tucson, he finds himself ambushed and kidnapped by ruthless Mexican bandit Ramirez’s army of thugs. The only way out is for Frank’s son, Conrad Browning, heir to the vast Browning fortune, to ransom his father free. But Conrad isn’t giving up one cent. He’s got a far deadlier currency in mind.

One of Canada’s most acclaimed horror writers, Gemma Files presents a mosaic of interconnected stories about interconnected families. After fleeing Scotland, five clans settled in the fictional town of Dourvale in northern Ontario. Known as the Five-Family Coven, they are the descendants of witches and witch-children, none of whom were spared persecution in their native country. Now shamans, spellcasters, singers, and thieves, the members of the Devize, Druir, Glouwer, Roke, and Rusk families survive by trading their occult powers and talents.

To ex-Navy SEAL Mitch Granger, responsibility isn't just a word. It's his Code of Honor. But when assigned to protect Coercion Ten's latest target, she challenges his authority, defies his rules, and wreaks havoc on his personal willpower. Fighting for her isn't a problem. Giving his life for her isn't a problem. Forgetting their world-stopping kiss? Definite problem. And if he can't concentrate solely on keeping her safe, it may cost them both their lives.

X's former accomplice Leigh Ferguson is shocked to learn that her high school friend has become the latest victim of "the Skin Traders," a mysterious gang of surgically modified thugs stealing slices of flesh from their abductees. Only the resilient vigilante X can stand up to the demented plastic surgeon who leads this "patchwork" crew. Scalpels clash with swords in a bloody hospital showdown! This latest volume of Dark Horse's edgy superhero series is a perfect starting point for new listeners, but it's also packed with Easter egg references for longtime fans.

Science fiction, literary fiction, horror, urban fantasy, poetry, comedy—this collection of short stories and poetry from the award-winning creator of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter has a little bit of everything. Have Spacecat, Will Travel spans a decade of novelist John G. Hartness's career, with short stories featuring Bubba the Monster Hunter, The Dead Old Ladies Detective Agency, and a few new characters you may not have met before.

Triumph. Tragedy. The empyreal. The infernal. Even the mundane, filtered through the fantastical. Superheroes are, appropriately enough, a sort of super-genre, encompassing all other story types. This YA anthology features thirteen short stories that creatively turn superhero tropes on their head, while still paying homage to the genre that has found fans for more than eight decades. And there will be no mistake—superheroes don’t have to just be generic handsome white dudes.

Smoke Jensen has met some down-and-dirty, murdering prairie scum over the years. But this time it’s personal and it’s bloody—and going to get bloodier. First, they stole fifty of the hundred horses Smoke delivered to his old friend Big Ben Conyers in Tarrant County, Texas. Then they stole two thousand cattle from Big Ben...and killed him just for the fun of it. Now they’re going to pay.