Showing results by narrator "Michael John" in All Categories

Hansel and Gretel is the classic tale of a brother and sister who get lost in the forest with some surprising results. After being abandoned by their wicked stepmother in the forest, the two children try to find their way home. Suddenly they stumble upon every child's dream: a cottage made of candy! But inside lives a wicked witch who she is not as nice as she at first pretends to be and has an evil plan! Can Hansel and Gretel escape from the dastardly witch and find their way home?

Sunken treasure in the Atlantic Ocean! Millions of dollars in gold just there for the taking. All our hero Tom Swift has to do is find it, and recover it. He knows the latitude and longitude, but it's not that easy when the treasure lies somewhere leagues beneath the surface of the ocean. But leave it to our hero, his amazing submarine, and his faithful friends to find a way. Sail along with Tom Swift on another exciting adventure battling the forces of nature, sea monsters, and evil villains, as he searches for treasure!

In this missive Ambrose Bierce recounts two days in his life, April 6 and April 7, 1862, perhaps the two most significant days of his life. He and over 100,000 other combatants have gathered about a small church near the town of Corinth, "a wretched place--the capital of a swamp, two days' march west of the Tennessee River". The church is Shiloh, and it will lend its name to the great battle that took place there.

The eyes of a panther, or the mind of a terrified woman. Which is more powerful? Ambrose Bierce leaves you wondering and thinking in this powerful short story.

The Devil and Tom Walker is a classic short story by Washington Irving. When you make a deal with the devil you have to shake his hand. At the time Tom made his deal, it seemed like a good idea, but as Tom aged and death approached, he became very pious and even carried two Bibles with him. But a deal is a deal as Tom would discover.

Originally published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1891 as "Tales of Soldiers and Civilians" and retitled in Britain as "In the Midst of Life", this audiobook is a collection of 11 short stories from the tales of civilians. Ambrose Bierce loved to focus on the troubled, and perhaps marginally insane, citizens of his time, and the power of the mind, and love gone wrong. For example, "The Man and the Snake" is a story where the snake never attacks, but the man dies.

Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s 9-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. In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind.

When Chicago hitman Ray Dylan started out he was one more young professional struggling to get ahead of the pack. But he knows his world is about to change quickly when he takes on a job for high-level KGB elitist Leonid (The Professor) Volkov, founder of a unique Cuban-Russian spy community operating out of southern Florida. After Volkov double-crosses him and tries to have him killed, Dylan must take on the entire criminal spy operation even as a wild hurricane named Dennis ravages its way up the heart of the Florida peninsula.

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.

Lou Prophet is in mixed company these days. He doesn’t mind being close to his pretty pistol-packing partner, Louisa Bonaventure. Known as the Vengeance Queen, she has his back — and dare he say it, part of his heart. But accompanying the vile outlaw Blanco Metalious back to Nugget Town to see him hang isn’t exactly Lou’s idea of a good time.

In all his years of bounty hunting, not one injury could rival the pain Lou Prophet felt when he thought he’d lost his old partner Louisa Bonaventure. Now that he’s rescued her from the brink of death in Mexico, they’re seeking a fresh start in Juniper, Wyoming, which had once been called Helldorado before Lou’s friend, “Hell-Bringin’” Hiram Severin, cleaned it up. Or thought he had....

The labyrinth of tunnels beneath Corvis is home to some of the city’s worst criminals, but now even these hardened thugs have reason to watch their step in the dark, shadowy undercity. Death moves in that darkness, leaving behind a trail of horribly mangled bodies. The identity of the killer is a mystery, although his calling cards - brutally savaged corpses and a distinct, repulsive odor - are constants at each bloody murder scene.

"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.

In his trademark suit of black armor and skull-like helm, armed with a demon-forged axe, Corvis Rebaine twice brought death and destruction to Imphallion - willingly slaughtering countless innocents in pursuit of a more just society. But that was the old Rebaine. Before he killed the mad warlord Audriss and banished the demon Khanda. Before he lost his wife and children, who could not forgive or forget his violent crimes.

In his trademark suit of black armor and skull-like helm, armed with a demon-forged axe, Corvis Rebaine twice brought death and destruction to Imphallion - willingly slaughtering countless innocents in pursuit of a more just society. But that was the old Rebaine. Before he killed the mad warlord Audriss and banished the demon Khanda. Before he lost his wife and children, who could not forgive or forget his violent crimes.

In the realm of Imphallion, there once was a nightmare - a living nightmare known only as the Terror of the East. Nigh invulnerable in his magical black armor and aided by unholy minions, he laid waste to all in his path on his all-consuming quest to bring order to the land. His order. Then, at what should have been his moment of triumph, his will failed. And his army fell. Taking a young noblewoman as hostage, he escaped, vanishing into darkest memory.

Three years ago, an archaeological expedition led by Vatican scholar Juan Vargas discovered something unusual on the shores of the Dead Sea. Early the next morning, Father Vargas, and the artifact he uncovered, disappeared without a trace. Until now. An injured and badly dehydrated Father Vargas wanders out of the New Mexican desert, telling a wild story about a secret research installation and bloodthirsty demons hunting men through its halls.

A land of death and shadow where only the strongest survive. Yet that is where Caim must go to follow the mystery at the heart of his life. Armed only with his knives and his companions, he plunges into a world of eternal night where the sun is never seen and every hand is turned against him. Caim has buried his father's sword and found some measure of peace, but deep in the north, an unfathomable power lies waiting. To succeed on this mission, Caim will have to do more than just survive. He must face the Shadow's Master.

In a world where any act of magic could open a portal to hell, the Order insures that no wizard will live to summon devils, and will kill as many innocent people as they must to prevent that greater horror. After witnessing a horrendous slaughter, the village girl Heloise opposes the Order, and risks bringing their wrath down on herself, her family, and her village.

It is 1944. A message from Paris warns Allied Intelligence of something big in the works - something which might have serious implications for D-Day. The only way to get more information from the agent in Paris - now closely watched by the Gestapo - is to send in a personal courier. Russian émigré Michael Gallatin is picked for the job. In retirement as a secret agent since a grisly episode in North Africa, Gallatin is parachuted into occupied France, on a mission which will take him to the festering heart of the Third Reich on the scent of doomsday.