Showing results by narrator "Matthew Jackson" in All Categories

It’s an ordinary day in the Bellwoods, save for the fact that Jon-Tom the spellsinger has awoken as a six-foot blue crab. He soon reverts to normal — as normal as a college student trapped in a world of magic and talking animals can be, anyway — but the bizarre changes keep happening, affecting not just him but the whole of this strange world. His wizardly mentor suspects these are the effects of the perambulator, a cosmic being whose presence distorts reality.

At first, the job sounds easy: lead a small herd of horses across the Arkansas–Texas border to the Double-D ranch near Texarkana. No problem—at least not for a man like Perley Gates. In fact, he’s looking forward to the 150-mile journey with his old sidekick Possum Smith and young Sonny Rice, and doesn’t expect any trouble along the way. Unfortunately, trouble has a way of finding Perley Gates. This time, it’s a trigger-happy trio of horse thieves who take one look at old Possum, young Sonny, and the low-key Perley, and decide they’re three very easy targets.

San Francisco's only PI with an eye into the supernatural, is having one of those months. His bad mood drives him to his local pub where he encounters his latest client, a Leprechaun who's lost his adopted niece, a runaway Dryad, and that's where the problems begin. Some days it pours and when Landau Bain, the city's crankiest wizard, arrives on Tony's doorstep, he knows what's coming down isn't rain.

Falling for the ghosts of murdered gangsters who were your imaginary friends once upon a time? I'll admit it's a little unusual. But they're back and totally real, and it's hard to argue with their admittedly obsessive level of devotion. Unfortunately, their violent dedication isn't enough to bring down the powerful man who hurt my little sister. I have to take matters into my own hands. I just wish I had a better grip on this marshy magic I've discovered in myself.

Vampires don't exist, do they? That is a question Private Detective Tony Mandolin finds himself pondering as the evidence piles up in a case involving a string of dead redheads and the usual dose of weirdness San Francisco has to offer. To complicate things, Mandolin has to deal with the perception that he has become the latest golden boy of the fog city's crime boss. Then there's his cross-dressing friend Frankie...just another day in San Francisco.

In Tennessee, 17-year-old Breckinridge Wallace knew the laws of nature. When his life was in danger, he showed a fearless instinct to fight back. Killing a thug who was sent to kill him got Breckinridge exiled from his Smoky Mountain home. Brutally wounding an Indian attacker earned him an enemy for life...Now, from the bustling streets of St. Louis to the vast stillness of the Missouri headwaters, Breckinridge is discovering a new world of splendor, violence, promise and betrayal. Most off all, he is clawing his way to manhood behind the law of the gun.

There’s nothing like a wedding to bring families together. And there’s no place like the Sugarloaf Ranch to throw a foot-stomping hoedown — even if it turns into a gun-blazing showdown. Smoke and Sally Jensen are delighted that their son Louis is marrying the lovely widow he met during a perilous stagecoach journey through the Donner Pass. The whole family welcomes the bride and her young son with open arms. In fact, everyone is invited to the party — even the handsome stranger who rescued Louis’s twin sister Denise from a runaway mustang.

Junior year has come for the remaining students of Melbrook Hall, and it promises to be the most difficult one yet. With one of their own gone and another under serious investigation, none of the former Powereds knows how many days remain for them in the Hero Certification Program. The time they do have will be filled with more trials and classes, honing their skills as they work toward the increasingly difficult goal of becoming Heroes. Ample new challenges await them, and not all of them can be met on the safety of Lander’s campus.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. moves deep into Recluce's past to chronicle the founding of the Empire of the Legend, the almost mythological domain ruled by women warriors on the highland plateau of the continent of Candar. He tells the story from the point of view of Nylan, the engineer and builder whose job it is to raise a great tower on the plateau known as the Roof of the World. Here the exiled women warriors will live and survive to fulfill their destiny.

Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.

Auggie and his magical companions are tending to the Fabled Stables when the building shakes and shudders to make room for a new arrival: the Tattle-Tail. Auggie and friends travel through the portal to a town called Rainbow’s End in search of this mysterious creature. Auggie assumes that the Tattle-Tail is in danger, but he learns that it’s actually the town that needs rescuing...from an infestation of Tattle-Tails!

Centuries ago, when Earth's Darkfolk - vampires, werewolves, witches, and other creatures - were threatened by humanity, they departed our planet's dimension and journeyed to a shadowy realm, where they built the great city of Nekropolis. Matt Richter is an Earth cop who came through a portal to Nekropolis on a case, died, and was resurrected as a zombie. Unable to return home, he works as a private investigator on the very mean streets of this shadowy, dark city.

Join the lead character, Nick, as he continues his crazy adventure, now heading for the fabled fantasy world called Annwn, as he takes you on a diabolical journey the next of the Ten Worlds. Nick must not only survive, but he must relearn to use the magic he has forgotten if he is to survive the Ascension Quest and unravel plots so twisted and deep you would need an Albus Sorceress to help you find your way through! Fortunately, you will have one to help you figure it all out.

Matt Richter's going to pieces - literally. You've got to keep your head to survive in the teeming undead city known as Nekropolis. It's a pity crazed genius Victor Baron couldn't manage that. Now everyone wants a piece of him. Zombie detective Matt Richter and his glamorous she-vampire companion Devona are back on the case, with another wild and wonderful investigation.

More than 1,500 years after his disappearance into the mists of Avalon, King Arthur has returned. This time, he's prepared to rule the Camelot of a new millennium: New York City. Handsome, charismatic Arthur Penn is running for mayor on a platform of common sense, humor, and knightly virtues. His advisors include a gifted 10-year-old named Merlin; Percival, an immortal accountant; and Gwen, a lovely young woman with no end of problems.

Crater City, New Mexico, is a bustling mining town brimming with the stench of men hungry to get rich the old fashioned way - killing the competition. Dennis Conroy is the owner of the biggest saloon in town, and he needs a few good sharpshooters to help protect surveyors laying out a route for a spur rail lie before his rival Hugh Thornton beats him to it. Jo Buckhorn’s handy with a gun so he takes the job.

Aral Kingslayer has nothing to lose - and only justice to gain. Torn apart by the death of his goddess, he must avenge her in order to save himself from being lost forever.... It’s been nine long years since the death of his patron, Namara, and exalted assassin Aral Kingslayer desperately misses the thrill and glory of being a higher power of justice. Now he is haunted by the ghosts of the past - and by the ghost of the lost goddess herself.

Once one of the world’s greatest assassins, Aral Kingslayer has finally reclaimed his swords and his soul. But the forces that destroyed his patron Namara 12 years ago are still there, waiting, and his past as a Blade is never more than a shadow’s breadth away.

Aral has learned that one of the few people willing to help him in his darkest days has been imprisoned by Maylien’s uncle, King Thauvik. Aral knows he can’t let an old friend die, but the alternative is to return to the life he left years ago. It was the death of Thauvik’s half brother that earned Aral the name Kingslayer, and now he is thrust into a war that will see no end until he lives up to his name....

For six years, former temple assassin Aral Kingslayer has been living as a jack of the shadow trades, picking up odd jobs on the wrong side of the law. But the past is never dead, and Aral’s has finally caught up to him in the beautiful, dangerous form of Jax Seldansbane - a fellow Blade and Aral’s onetime fiancée.