Showing results by narrator "Ren Kasey" in All Categories

Each night, the world is overrun by bloodthirsty demons. For centuries, humanity survived only by hiding behind defensive wards - magical symbols with the power to repel the demons. Now, the rediscovery of long-forgotten combat wards has given them the magic they need to fight back. In Tibbet’s Brook, the fighting wards have brought change, but the factions and grudges of a troubled past remain. Selia Square, the woman they call Barren, has long been the force that holds the Brook together. As a terrifying new threat emerges, she rallies her people once again.

In the city of Haven, no one is safe. Hawk and Fisher do their best to enforce what law there is, but swords and battle-axes are sometimes no match for the supernatural. When an important politician dies behind a door locked from the inside, Captain Hawk and his wife and partner, Captain Isobel Fisher, must seek the truth amid suspects that include a sorcerer, a witch, the otherworldly creatures they can command and worse: the dead man’s political rivals.

Hawk and Fisher, captains of the City Guard of Haven, are assigned to be bodyguards for a Reform candidate during an election campaign. Candidate James Adamant is beset from all sides by enemies - political, personal and supernatural. Keeping him alive long enough to count the ballots could cost the lives of both Hawk and Fisher, in a deadly game where the winner takes all.

Hawk and Fisher, famous for their years of keeping the peace in Haven, are really quite happy being legends. They gave up the hero business when they decided they’d grown too old for it. Now they run the Hero Academy, training young hopefuls to be heroes. Legends never die, but it seems they cannot retire, either. Hawk and Fisher’s adult children, Jack and Gillian, have been kidnapped. They were taken by the Demon Prince, an old enemy from the Forest Kingdom who challenges the couple to one final battle for their lives.

The city of Haven has changed Hawk and Fisher from what they once were...but what, or who, were they? Discontent and a political assassination draw them to the Forest Kingdom. King Harald is dead and the kingdom is in turmoil. The King's Questor seeks out Hawk and Fisher to find the killer break some spells and help restore a kind of peace.

The city of Haven has changed Hawk and Fisher from what they once were...but what, or who, were they? Discontent and a political assassination draw them to the Forest Kingdom. King Harald is dead and the kingdom is in turmoil. The King's Questor seeks out Hawk and Fisher to find the killer break some spells and help restore a kind of peace.

Boyd Ackerman is no ordinary criminal. Trained by the US Army, commanding his band of killers with military efficiency, Ackerman has outsmarted and outfought every lawman who has tried to stop him. But he's never faced MacCallister before. Falcon MacCallister wasn't looking for a fight. Then Ackerman's Raiders kill his niece's husband - and take a young woman hostage. Falcon and his brothers ride into action.

As peace talks proceed between the Low Kingdoms and the country of Outremer, Hawk and Fisher are assigned to work with the Guard's SWAT (Special Wizardry And Tactics) team to stop a riot in Haven's largest prison. The riot turns out to be a cover for something much more elaborate and dangerous, involving a renegade sorcerer, a terrorist who will stop at nothing to undermine the peace negotiations and an ancient magical secret.

Detan Honding is determined to survive this war, even when caught between not one but two besieging armies! After rescuing the renowned engineer Nouli from the clutches of the empire, the valiant rogue has returned to his aunt’s city - to find it under siege by Thratia’s army. With Nouli’s help, they manage to turn back the tide, at least until imperial forces descend, prepared to hammer the Thratian force against the anvil of the city’s walls. Worse yet, the imperial advance is aided by an elite force of dark magicians.

As the city that produces the most selium - that precious gas that elevates airships and powers strange magic - Hond Steading is a jewel worth stealing. To shore up the city's defenses, Detan promises his aunt that he'll recover Nouli, the infamous engineer who built the century gates that protect the imperial capital of Valathea. But Nouli is imprisoned on the Remnant Isles, an impervious island prison run by the empire, and it's Detan's fault.

Amid top-level peace talks between the Low Kingdoms and Outremer, the streets of Haven are ravaged by a new drug, which brings out the vicious animal instincts of its victims. The distributors always seem to be one step ahead of the City Guard force. Someone may be revealing the Guards' plans. Could Isobel Fisher be the informant? Hawk and Fisher are pulled apart by circumstance as a political truce is threatened and the death toll climbs.

A spy has hidden himself in Tower MacNeil and ancient castle high above the city of Haven. The lord of the manor, Duncan MacNeil has died. His son Jamie is now head of the family and his relatives have gathered for the reading of the will. But not all of the heirs will survive. Hawk and Fisher go undercover to find the spy and solve the mystery of the Tower, as death comes at them from three sides.

Murders are taking place on Haven's Street of Gods - the gods themselves are being killed. Hawk and Fisher are assigned to work with a Seer, a Sorcerer, and a Swordsman, a peacekeeping team known as the God Squad. Together, their task is to bring the killer to justice before the mounting panic erupts into an all-out War of the Gods, which could destroy the city of Haven.

The crew of the US space vessel Aquila returns from a deep-space mission to find that a devastating plant blight has stripped away all civilization, its legacy a nightmarish wasteland. In what's left of the world, the only law is tooth and claw, kill or be killed. Traveling through the savaged countryside to wrest from death surviving kin and friends, the astronauts grimly cling to a glimmer of promise for a new start. Far to the northwest is Aurora, a secret base offering a way out of the decline into darkness.

The quest for Earth's domination remains the primary directive of an ancient, inhuman enemy. Challenging this alien bid for iron rule, an elite force led by former magistrates wages war against Earth's enslavers. These rebel commandos are resourceful, dedicated and possess the immutable human willpower to survive — by any means necessary....

Searching for an operational redoubt, Ryan and his companions go up against a ruthless band of coldhearts. The shock of seeing Ryan's long-lost son as the band's point man puts the group on a new mission — rescue Dean at all cost. But when Dean shoots and wounds his father in a firefight, the strange turn of events leads the travelers deeper into the shifting sands of their own destiny. And father and son, each committed to the laws of decency and fair play, will confront an uncertain legacy.

Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert remains a death pit of scorching heat, cannies, and grim odds. Ryan Cawdor and his group survive the trek there, only to be drugged, robbed, and left for the slave trade. Escaping their captors leaves them alive but stripped of their prized gear: their weps, J. B. Dix's glasses, Dr. Mildred Wyeth's medical kit and, worse, her secret codex. The companions must rely on each other to challenge their enemy and settle the score.

In the nuke-altered region of the Great Lakes, Ryan and his group face the spectrum — from the idyllic to the horrific — of a world reborn. Close to enclaves of peace and sanctuary, Deathlands' most distorted spawn of humanity, cannibals, spread terror. Against the battered shoreline of Lake Michigan, an encounter with an old friend leads to a battle to save Milwaukee from a force of deadly mutant interlopers — and to liberate one of their own.

"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.

Hawk and Fisher, famous for their years of keeping the peace in Haven, are really quite happy being legends. They gave up the hero business when they decided they’d grown too old for it. Now they run the Hero Academy, training young hopefuls to be heroes. Legends never die, but it seems they cannot retire, either. Hawk and Fisher’s adult children, Jack and Gillian, have been kidnapped. They were taken by the Demon Prince, an old enemy from the Forest Kingdom who challenges the couple to one final battle for their lives.