Showing results by narrator "Dave Cruse" in All Categories

The complete Battleborn saga in one volume! An imperfect hero for an imperfect time. For generations, the Riker men have been the best of the best. For the Battleborn, that comes with a cost.

It’s odd the way some things work out. You expect to wake up dead, and instead, you wake up to the beautiful face of your wife. I was understandably confused. I had died…or at least I sure as heck thought I had. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’ve been alive for a number of years now, and to be honest…I’m quite fond of it. I just didn’t understand "how" I was alive. My name is Fleet Admiral Jeremy Riker…but my friends call me Dog. This is my story.

When Kase and Brell agree to track down a thief they didn't expect it to lead them into the middle of a war. What was supposed to be a quick visit to the Teck world quickly spins out of control when a crime lord blackmails Brell and Kase into hunting down the unfortunate thief who stole his valuable shipment. Crossing paths with old friends and older enemies, they follow a string of clues deep into the wastelands and a mysterious graveyard of ancient machines.

Opportunities there are few and far between...that is, unless you're willing to put on a uniform. For ace-pilot Deborah Allen Riker (aka “Admiral Dare”), life had never been easy. She's defended Earth against countless enemies, both alien and human alike. Now she's retired. Committed to a life of solitude and studying the aliens she spent a lifetime fighting...until she finds herself dragged into a new conflict. A conflict she never saw coming.

The 1950s marked a transformative period in postwar American history. In baseball, one dynasty was the story during the decade. The New York Yankees played in eight World Series from 1950 to 1959, winning six of them. Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio retired following the 1951 season, but a new superstar, Mickey Mantle, took over in Yankee Stadium’s center field in 1952. Mantle, the powerful switch-hitter who blasted tape-measure home runs, often tortured by leg ailments, was the number one box office draw in baseball.

Like a long night's slumber disturbed by disquieting dreams, 20 years have passed since Morlan Stormgarden's exile. The realm of Myriad waits in uncertain peace, for the Gray Hour Massacres remain unsolved. Tempted by the lure of adventure, High King Lochlan Stormgarden begins to ponder his royal destiny. A daring plan is hatched, the high king's throne is left vacant, and Lochlan meets Ariana Kurtz, who might be the love of his life if she doesn't kill him first.

Something wicked has made its home in Yewland's famed Blackwood Forest. Dozens of Queen Illaria's finest soldiers have ventured in, only to meet hideous, violent ends. Now, it's up to Nock and Mallik to hunt down the threat that lurks among the dark trees. But they will soon discover that they are not the only hunters in the Blackwood.

Hotshot astronomer Rick Tagler thought terminal brain cancer limited his options—until a celestial cataclysm hurls him and other Outcasts into Illdari, a perilous new universe where survival is just the beginning. Join Rick, his pet turtle Gams, and a spitfire Fae named Gail as they navigate monstrous beasts, mercurial storms, sinister guilds, and rule-breaking overseers. In Illdari, the odds aren't just stacked against you; they'll stomp you into jelly and spread you on toast.

You know, there are some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. This was one of those days. My head hurt. There was blood everywhere. My ship was shot full of holes and leaking more gases and fluids than a 1976 Chevy Vega...the one with an aluminum block. I should have just pulled the sheets up and rolled over when I had the chance....

Ebenezer Krow is a relentless man who charges through life, holding himself and everyone else to the letter of the law. Krow’s nephew, his employees, his business associates - even mankind in general - all feel the castigating burn of Krow’s glare. One night, on Christmas Eve, Krow is visited by his long-dead business partner, Marley Chastain. The ghost warns Krow that three spirits, one of them a devil, will assail him throughout the night. But will the harrowing experience be enough to tear the scab from his sin-scarred soul?

I watched as the alien weapon’s neutronium hull fractured and then exploded. The antimatter-driven explosion engulfed the remaining three ships. Even neutronium is not impervious to antimatter. In one final act of love, my wife had saved us. A piece of my heart died that day in the Paradise system. In a way, the wound never healed. I learned to live with it. I raised our son as best I could. I carried out the mission. But I missed the woman who represented everything good in my life.

Suddenly on the far side of the Milky Way, Admiral Deborah Allen Riker and her crew find themselves neck-deep in trouble...again! It turns out the galaxy is a very dangerous place. Threats come in all shapes and sizes. For Admiral Dare, peace and protecting the innocent is the price of being human. It is a precious commodity that must be paid for with the blood and tears of those willing and able to fight for it.

An imperfect hero for an imperfect time. For generations, Riker men have been the best of the best. For the Battleborn that comes with a cost. I spit out the blood in my mouth. I had to give the other guy credit. That was a fine right hook. Every bit as good as my mom used to give me. Of course, the best right hooks were the ones I landed on the other guy rather than the ones the other guy landed on me. My dear departed mother had always taught me it was better to give than receive.

It’s odd the way some things work out. You expect to wake up dead, and instead, you wake up to the beautiful face of your wife. I was confused. I had died...or at least I sure as heck thought I had. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’ve been alive for a number of years now and to be honest...I’m quite fond of it. I just didn’t understand "how" I was alive. My name is Fleet Admiral Jeremy Riker...but my friends call me Dog. This is the rest of my story.

Fateh’s world was changed forever when the Shadows invaded. What makes it worse? The betrayal by people he once thought of as friends and the loss of his mother. Who is truly to blame? Tabor was there before the Shadows and when every tragedy happened.

Through cursed battlefields and crumbling ruins, relics of sorcery and lost machines resurface, each with the power to destroy kingdoms. Across the centuries, an ageless dark sorcerer has been weaving rituals of death and control that now threaten to consume both sides of the Rift. To stop him, Kase Hamerson must outwit rival guilds, risk tombs guarded by lethal curses, and battle demons born of another world. Every discovery draws him deeper into a mystery that harbors a terrible secret. Every victory comes with a cost.

Eighth graders discover a dragon egg on the beach, a unicorn in their pasture, and follow Bigfoot through the portal the creatures have come through, along with a government agent and a poacher who’s after all the magic he can accumulate.

Three centuries after the Calming, the System is alive, but it’s not well. All that remains of the once-omnipotent AI are the book it left behind, and the itinerant professors charged with keeping its wisdom.

The Nightmare Lord has been thrown down, but his throne is no longer empty. Rigby Thames has taken up the evil mantle with Kara Windchil as his queen. Now the only living dreamtreader, Archer Keaton finds himself on the outside of two worlds looking in. Dream Walking Inc. is taking the world by storm, allowing Rigby to build an unstoppable empire. Worse still, Rigby has unleashed the Tendrils, shadow people who can cross over into the waking world. As Archer’s family and friends begin to disappear, unexpected help comes in the form of the Wind Maiden.

Fifteen-year-old Archer Keaton has the ability to enter and explore his dreams. He is a Dreamtreader, one of three selected from each generation. Their mission: to protect the waking world from the Nightmare Lord who dwells beyond the Slumber Gate. But as Archer’s dreams become more dangerous and threatening, so too does his waking life. In this fast-paced conclusion to the exciting fantasy trilogy, the dream world and the waking world bleed into each other when a rift is formed between the two.