Showing results by narrator "Michael Richard" in All Categories

Tolstoy’s final novella, The Forged Coupon is an examination of the destructive powers of evil. In Part II, the author shows that good works have a domino effect, just as evil does in Part I.

This is the story of the labourer Emelian, who got married to a beautiful woman. When the king of the land saw Emelian’s wife, he fell in love with her. The king and his advisers thought up various schemes to get rid of Emelian, but they all backfired, so the couple lived happily ever after.

A children’s story about the origin of the Great Bear constellation. There was a drought on the earth: The rivers dried up and the trees withered, and and men and beasts died of thirst. One night, a little girl went out with a pitcher to find some water for her sick mother. On her journey, the water and the pitcher took on miraculous properties.

A Prisoner of the Caucasus is an 1872 novella by Leo Tolstoy about two Russian soldiers kidnapped by the enemy for ransom. They were held in custody for some time. They try to escape twice, but one of them succeeds the second time with the help of a local woman.

"The Emperor’s Three Questions" is a parable of an emperor who seeks out a holy man for answers to questions he believes will help him to be a great ruler. Knowing that wisdom needs to be experienced, the holy man cannot just tell the emperor. The answers that unfold in the narrative will be better remembered.

This story, also translated as "The Imp and the Bread", concerns a peasant whose piece of bread was stolen by a little demon who hoped it would make the peasant curse. The opposite happened. The devil was displeased, and the imp set out on a successful three-year plan to make the peasant sin.

A short story by the Russian author and moral philosopher Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, known as Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). The story, first published in 1912 as "Notes of a Madman", is written from the perspective of an individual who seemed to not be quite sane, and who was examined by doctors. The opinions of the doctors were divided; they argued among themselves and came at last to the conclusion that he was not mad. But this was due to the fact that he tried hard during the examination not to be himself.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. This anthology includes brand-new stories by: Tommy Moore, Jessica Breheny, Naomi Hirahara, Calvin McMillin, Liza Monroy, Elizabeth McKenzie, Jill Wolfson, Ariel Gore, Jon Bailiff, Maceo Montoya, Micah Perks, Seana Graham, Vinnie Hansen, Peggy Townsend, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Lou Mathews, Lee Quarnstrom, Dillon Kaiser, Beth Lisick, and Wallace Baine.

A heatwave in July and a tube train is discovered buried in 20 inches of snow. A Saturday afternoon in Hyde Park and scores of people are instantly frozen to death where they stand while the sun beats down from the sky. Freak weather conditions in London, and the Doctor and UNIT are called in to find the cause. Meanwhile, a street magician who was witnessed at the scene of the tragedy entertains crowds in Covent Garden. As Jo Grant and Mike Yates disobey orders and investigate alone, they discover an enemy ....

It is the long, oppressive summer of 1912. Four months ago the RMS Titanic was lost to the Atlantic. In Europe the drumbeats of war grow louder. These things have yet to touch Mr. Sherlock Holmes who, estranged from Dr. Watson, lives in reclusive retirement on the South Downs. The world’s foremost criminal investigator has turned his back on the past, hiding from the world and thinking himself immune to its excesses.

Adventurer Phil Sheridan boldly and shrewdly enlists the help of native headhunters to drive out a predatory local regime and put an end to a reign of tyranny in the southern seas of Indonesia.

Tim Beckdolt, rangy and self-reliant, is as American as the frontier itself. But after spending eight treacherous months digging $175,000 in gold out of Desperation Peak - all he has left is desperation. Two sadistic strangers have taken his gold, and now they want to take his life. He's on the run - the target of a Devil’s Manhunt.

Meet Lieutenant Flint: hard-edged and muscle-bound, radiating machismo - a bull of a soldier. In the opposite corner stands Captain Turner: with his pencil mustache and tailored shirts, he’s a Trick Soldier - smart, crisply-dressed, and always at attention. They’re fire and ice, oil and water. Ten years ago and a thousand miles away, they attended boot camp together. They didn’t get along then...and they don’t get along now. Reunited in the Haitian jungles, in the midst of a fierce rebel uprising, they confront the most dangerous enemy of all - each other.

The selections in this collection include classic short stories "Bartelby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, "The Truth About Pyecraft" by H. G. Wells, "The Angel Child" by Stephen Crane, "A Journey" by Edith Wharton, "Phyllis and Rosamond" by Vriginia Woolf, and "The Flight of Betsey Lane" by Sarah Orne Jewett.

Bertie Wooster looks pretty stylish in his new Tyrolean hat - or so he thinks: others, notably Jeeves, disagree. But when Bertie embarks on an errand of mercy to Totleigh Towers, things get quickly out of control and he's going to need all the help Jeeves can provide. There are good eggs present...

Rector “Wreck ‘em” Sherman was orphaned as a toddler in the Blight of 1863, but that was years ago. Wreck has grown up, and on his 18th birthday, he’ll be cast out out of the orphanage. And Wreck’s problems aren't merely about finding a home. He’s been quietly breaking the cardinal rule of any good drug dealer and dipping into his own supply of the sap he sells. He’s also pretty sure he’s being haunted by the ghost of a kid he used to know - Zeke Wilkes, who almost certainly died six months ago. Zeke would have every reason to pester Wreck....

Freedom is on the march as the rebellion against the Kurian Occupation of Earth takes the offensive. David Valentine has recruited an ad hoc company of former Quisling soldiers and puts them through a trial by fire with a successful raid against an enemy armory. Now, they're ready to join forces with a guerilla army planning to establish a new freehold in the Appalachian Mountains. Valentine knows that a permanent outpost near the East Coast would provide a strategic victory over the Kurians - and he believes that only his old ally Ahn-Kha could be leading the guerillas.

Ozark Free Territory, 2071: The Kurian Order has reigned for 50 years. Using the dreaded power of their Reaper avatars, the alien, vampiric Kur hold dominion over the earth and its inhabitants. Yet there are those who would rather die fighting than surrender to the unquenchable thirst of the enemy - those like David Valentine.

Louisiana, 2065. A lot has changed in the 43rd of the Kurian Order. Possessed of an unnatural and legendary hunger, the bloodthirsty Reapers have come to Earth to establish a New Order built on the harvesting of enslaved human souls. They rule the planet. They thrive on the scent of fear. And if it is night, as sure as darkness, they will come. On this pitiless world, the indomitable spirit of mankind still breathes in Lieutenant David Valentine. Brought into the Wolves - an elite guerrilla force sworn to win back Earth - Valentine leads his first command in the Kurian Zone.

"Work Sets You Free" by David Barnett is an original short story featuring the protagonist of the forthcoming novel Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl. Gideon is a young fisherman in Yorkshire, England, in an alternate 1890, who embarks on a journey to find Captain Lucian Trigger, the famed Hero of the Empire, to deal with a mystery plaguing his home village.