Showing results by narrator "James R Cheatham" in All Categories

Science fiction masters Larry Niven (Ringworld) and Gregory Benford (Timescape) continue the thrilling adventure of a human expedition to another star system that is jeopardized by an encounter with an astonishingly immense artifact in interstellar space: a bowl-shaped structure cupping a star, with a habitable area equivalent to many millions of Earths. And which, tantalizingly, is on a direct path heading toward the same system the human ship is to colonize.

Jilted lovers, cheating spouses, treacherous business partners . . . All bread and butter that pays the bills for this dysfunctional Investigation team. Unfortunately, the past is catching up with one of them. Vengeance with a capital V is as rare as it is dangerous and doesn't pay. Except that is what both of them want. What choice do they have when a federal agent promises to turn the pair into his personal sock puppets if they don't comply with his game?

History is written by the victors, and the powerful rewrite the rules in their favor. These are simple facts that the dysfunctional have decided to accept, if not embrace. After all, what's the point of fighting something as fundamental as gravity? The end result is always a fall. When it comes to Pain and Agony, conforming is just not an option. Challenges to these age-old proverbs will be taken on as the powerful, shifting on top of the pile, seek to stamp out any nonconformity. There's nothing left for Pain and Agony to do but punch hard enough to bring it all down.

New alliances and of course new betrayals are at hand as the tectonics of the black ops world shifts and rumbles. Who is working for who, who is hunting who, and will have the decency to simply shut up and die? Our favorite misfits must avoid being strangled and stabbed (and run over, and shot, and blown up, and, well, you get the point) in this latest cloak-and-dagger escapade. Can the pugnacious pair emerge from the intrigue in one piece? Dive into another adventure with the world's most dysfunctional duo, where murder, intrigue, and a stolen Pomeranian are just the tip of the iceberg.

Pain and Agony are two madcap masters of mayhem, but even they need friends. What are friends for? Companionship, support, and a helping hand when your luck is down. But the cost of friendship becomes something altogether different during their latest escapade. If you aren't going to help when things get rough, then what are you but a traitor? When longtime allies are at odds, and enemies new and old close in, the answer has lethal consequences.

In the finale of the That Was Before series, Randolph Spiers and Sheila Backe team up with redemption, forgiveness, and the possibility of second chances at stake.

If no good deed goes unpunished, what will a lifetime of doing Uncle Sam's dirty work cost a person? Pain and Agony have hardly cemented their new partnership as "investigative problem solvers" when SISTER comes poking around and raising all kinds of hell. Accusations flying left and right, the dysfunctional duo are back at it. But can they solve a murder, a kidnapping, and a matter of national security, all in the space of one week? Murder, mayhem, and a societal meltdown are all in a day's work for our pair, but to top it off, they get hit in the room and board department.

Pain is a burned ex-mercenary. Agony is a burned ex-cop. Together, they might just find out. The only problem? They can't stand each other. Trust, it seems, doesn't come easily between a black-ops mercenary and an ex-police detective. What could make it worse for her? He doesn't like using guns. Will Pain and Agony be able to dodge the criminals trying to take them out and avoid killing each other in the process? Will the criminals be able to handle the two of them together?

Petite, Chinese, and pretty; an improbable Warrior. Her fierce determination plus her exceptional speed and strength earned her the respect of jarheads twice her size and the attention of "The Agency." She buried her name with her parents, lied about her age, and became an authentic G.I. Jill. But when the love of her life died in her arms, her world was shattered. Revenge is an act of passion, vengeance one of justice.

Is it wrong to doubt? Many Christians assume that doubt is faith's opposite and that wandering among the hard questions of faith will lead us further and further away from God. True believers, the assumption goes, never waver in their confidence in the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. Professor and philosopher Travis Dickinson disagrees. Instead, he says, our doubts and hard questions about the faith are actually an important way we can express our commitment and love to God.

The enduring influence of the New Testament does not lessen the dispute over the events and factors leading to its adoption. Five Views on the New Testament Canon presents five distinct ways of understanding how the New Testament came to be. Each contributor addresses historical, theological, and hermeneutical questions related to the New Testament canon. Contributors also include a chapter each responding to the other views presented in the volume. The result is a lively exchange suitable for students seeking to grasp the best canon scholarship in biblical studies.

Stories of the miraculous abound in the Bible: the parting of the Red Sea. David and Goliath. Daniel and the Lion’s Den. Nebuchadnezzar’s Fiery Furnace. Jonah and the Whale. Many of us learned of them in Sunday School class, and might know them so well that we have subconsciously relegated them to the realm of myth and fairy tale. But have you ever considered what it might have been like to live through those incredible stories—without knowing how they end? These stories and more are brought to life in All Things Are Possible, told through the eyes of the main character.

Donald Trump won the election; climate change isn't real; America is a color-blind country. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, why do so many of us refuse to admit the truth? Denial is so much a part of our lives that we deny its existence all the time.

Clint Hastings dreams of creating a commercial hunting operation on his family’s ranch. But his oldest brother, Graham, refuses to let his dream come to fruition. That is, until Clint convinces Graham to finally give him a shot. Everything goes according to plan, until his path crosses with restrictions, violations, and overly competitive neighbors. He strives to surpass these challenges, but realizes his only help and hope falls in the hands of one woman: Bailey Keller.

PI Steve Rockfish's father loses part of his retirement savings in an online romance scam while partner Jawnie McGee handles the firm's newest client, who spins a tale of alleged spousal infidelity. Rockfish becomes fixated on tracking down those responsible for the fraud. Restitution is coming in the form of cash or broken bones. At the same time, Jawnie's surveillance of the cheating spouse reveals more acts of kindness than sex. Unbeknownst to the partners, each investigative path leads to the Church of the Universal Nurturing II, where the fraud is on a cryptocurrency level.

When Aaron Johnson takes his married sister back to her home in Trade, Tennessee, he gets caught in a blizzard in the Appalachian Mountains on his return trip to West Virginia. Finding a remote cabin, he arrives frostbitten and needing care.

God is a covenant making, covenant keeping God. From the dawn of prehistory, God’s dealings with mankind can be understood through the lens of covenant: A binding agreement of unending loyalty and faithfulness. His early covenants with mankind were one-sided, requiring very little from men in return. All of that changed with the birth of the nation of Israel, and her deliverance from slavery in Egypt through Moses. The Mosaic covenant, also known throughout the Bible as “the law”, encompassed the rest of the Old Testament books through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In Pop Masculinities, author Kai Arne Hansen investigates the performance and policing of masculinity in pop music as a starting point for grasping the broad complexity of gender and its politics in the early 21st century. Drawing together perspectives from critical musicology, gender studies, and adjacent scholarly fields, the book presents extended case studies of five well-known artists: Zayn, Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, and Take That.

In the follow-up to That Was Before, Randolph Spiers barely has time to breathe and recover from the con that changed everything - and he's not alone. Sheila Backe has vanished, and the chase is on. Foes become friends as Randolph and Benji Griffin team up as the most unlikely of partnerships goes international, following the trail to the South Pacific island of Fiji.

Jackson Young brings the woman he wants to marry home to Kentucky to meet his parents, but Helen doesn’t act like the same woman away from Boston. As he reacquaints with people he hasn’t seen in five years, he notices Wylene Ward and remembers the time he rescued her from a group of bullies when they were in school. Suddenly, Jackson finds himself courting one woman, but thinking about another. How can he remedy the situation and find his place as a new lawyer? Will it be in Boston as he’d originally thought, or in Green Knoll, Kentucky, the place that still feels like home?