Showing results by narrator "David Pickering" in All Categories

The history of Ukraine is a fascinating story of how cultures, political systems, religions, and power have met, intersected, morphed, and expanded. The region was relatively sparsely populated for much of ancient history, a wilderness of rivers, forests, and steppes, but that does not detract from the rich historical development of the region.

When occult enthusiast Sir Giles Tumulty comes into possession of a stone known as the Crown of Solomon, he is amazed at its startling powers. It can replicate itself infinitely, and can transport its holder to any place or time. Sir Giles and his nephew Reginald, an opportunistic businessman, conspire to exploit their new treasure. Seeking to enlist honest Lord Arglay in their plans, Arglay quickly realizes what is at stake. Unlimited power should not fall into the wrong hands...and it already had....

The redemption of the Erimocan Manaar had been incomplete. They had sought vindication, from any connections they had to the Reaping, through the eradication of the evil that they had failed to contain. But the true redemption of the Erimocans would never exist without a return to balance. The Immersion at the Windbeck County Fair was only the beginning of a struggle for that balance.

In The Boy King’s Tale, two entwined love stories, young and old, lead to betrayal, murder and the near overthrow of a kingdom in this epic story of son and bride, mother and lover, in the extraordinary true story adventure of the earliest days of one of England’s most revered kings, Edward III.

An heiress who is terrified of glass, a failed actor facing a gunman on a rooftop, a dentist up a tree, first love, honeymoon romance at the tomb of the Aga Khan, the surprising secrets of a very old lady....

Six chilling and original stories inspired by the realities of life and death on the Western Front and beyond, building to a truly poignant and revelatory climax.

Six original tales of terror to chill the blood and delight the soul. A man finds himself terrified of going upstairs. Disturbing events take place after a stranger checks into a lonely hotel. Two schoolboys learn about an unexpected horror of the battlefields of World War I. An old lady daren't go into her own garden because of what she fears is waiting for her. A birdwatcher sees something that opens the door on a chilling tragedy that is not yet over. A couple set off on a round-the-world cruise unaware that it will also prove to be their last.

When the wild Sanjeror Rastag killed her family, Maldara swore revenge. She tracks him to the Xordom of Teargarden, a mysterious city where Murks and humans live together surrounded by untrustworthy merchants and evil Sanjerors.

Celina had never meant to fall in love–certainly with a Gaelorian. As soon as she had given her heart to Gorvan, he had shattered it upon the wall of her tavern for all to see. Love was for fools, she realized, and she had become the grand jester in a court of misery. Cynical and guarded, she held her secrets close. But when the crazed monk Rogart arrived–cursed with dreams of what was to come--she realized she had been discovered. The demons of Nolagarg were close, and once they found her, she would be a slave to them once more.

As soon as Gorvan became ruler of the desolate backwater town of Teargarden, a host of new refugees flooded in—every one of them desperate, hungry, and their own unique brand of trouble.

No one knows quite what to make of Nigel Considine. He calls himself "the High Executive", and he has inspired the entire continent of Africa to revolt and make war upon Europe. Is Considine a magician, a charismatic politician, a divinely annointed prophet, or the antichrist? A small circle of London friends all seem to disagree, even as Considine's influence is tearing England apart....

Welcome to Teargarden, a town bereft of law and order. It's controlled by two individuals–the devious innkeeper Therolim, and the mysterious yet beautiful Celina. Their rivalry was about to tear the town part, but all that would change with the arrival of the Archon. Archons were supposedly celestial saviors, sworn to protect the citizens of Agarath from demons, but Celina knew better. In order to protect herself and the rest of the town, she would need to devise a way to kill an angel.

From the best-selling author of A Drive Through Time comes a time travel novella with a hint of fantasy. A down-on-his-luck historian, William, meets an enigmatic woman at a coffee shop in London. Her fascinating stories spark the beginning of an adventure that leads him to the banks of the Nile river. But his past catches up with him, and William is left to die alone in the Sahara desert. What happens next will have you wonder and second-guess yourself until the end. If you liked the Inception movie, surely you'll enjoy this book.

Avram Davidson's final Vergil Magus novel, The Scarlet Fig, continues the adventures of the wandering mage through an alternate ancient world filled with exotic landscapes, populated by creatures of myth and legend.

Inspired by medieval legends about the poet Vergil, who was revered not only as the author of the Aeneid but also as a powerful necromancer, Davidson embarked on his Vergil Magus series in the '60s with the intriguing novel The Phoenix and the Mirror. In this sequel, Vergil answers a magical summons from Averno, both the wealthiest and the filthiest of cities. The magnates there are worried about the waning and shifting of the natural fires that have fueled their industries and fouled their air.

Peregrine, bastard son of King Paladrine, thought he had trouble when he was transformed by a sorcerer into a falcon. In fact, his real troubles began when the prepubescent princess Ruby changed him back into...well, almost a prince. A bastard. Whereupon he found himself dragged off by a dyspeptic dragon, smooched by a sphinx, wooed by the weefolk, and finally appointed Sub-Imperial-sub-Legate, which is still not quite a prince, but somewhat more elegant than a bastard.

Peregrine was the bastard son of the King of Sapodilla, the last Pagan kingdom in the world to resist Christianity. Accompanied by his page and the rather time-worn sorcerer, Appledore, the prince sallies forth into the Dark Ages to find his fortune. What he finds instead is: dragons, whores, Huns, Roman legions, emperors, and a most fantastic collection of mysteries and adventures.

The Phoenix and the Mirror: or, The Enigmatic Speculum by Avram Davidson is a fantasy novel that tells the story of a sorcerer named Vergil Magus. This sorcerer was named for Virgil (or Publius Vergilius Maro), poet and author of The Aeneid. In an introduction to The Phoenix and the Mirror, Davidson claims that during the Dark Ages, people tended to forget that Virgil was a poet and instead believed he was a sorcerer. The Phoenix and the Mirror was the first book in which Davidson attempted to retell the legend of this mysterious sorcerer.

Set during the reign of the Aztecs in Mexico, two alien forces, dormant for centuries, enter a confrontation on a remote mountain that will decide Earth's fate. The great old ones benevolently ruled before the cruel Aztecs were shaped by the Huitzil, who came from the evil stars and taught the Aztecs how to conquer and demanded endless human sacrifice.

Jerrod Northi-rogue, pirate and a citizen of Pemath, was desperate enough to want to go through the transformation. It cost 100,000 units for the Craftsmen to endow him with the Seven Signs - a rather steep price even for him. But he would pay it somehow, for since the attack of the deadly leeris, he feared that the cost of missing this opportunity to find a refuge in the land of Tarnis would be even higher.