Showing results by narrator "Marc Vietor" in All Categories

We don't know when it happened. But somewhere an alien species built a strong artificial intelligence. The A.I. became independent, powerful, and it started killing biological infestations - life - any life, all life. It grew into a vast armada of death. Jon Hawkins and his team captured the A.I. destroyer invading the solar system. The genocidal assault should have been over, but it's not. An alien A.I. strand from the cybership survived in the distant Kuiper Belt. The strand has been multiplying and taking over by turning people into robots in order to build another supership.

The end of the colonies' fight for independence ushers in a fresh and even more glorious struggle to build the new nation. It is an epoch ripe with the energy of a country in its springtime. Two young heirs to a family dynasty turn their eyes west - the frontier beckons. It took a special breed to give up the comfortable life along our eastern seaboard. Who knew what lay beyond? But when Abraham Kent fell in love with his beautiful stepsister, he knew that leaving was the only course open to him.

Marcus Cade had to cross 800 lonely light-years to Earth so he could begin searching for his beloved wife. But he was broke, and his spaceship badly needed an overhaul. So he traded his one-of-a-kind Gyroc rifle to a stingy and half-mad mechanic for a cheap fix and a Nion XT Navigator. When Cade went to sleep during the journey, the traitorous nav performed its secret function, bringing his ship to a rift, through a vortex and into the web of an extraterrestrial conspiracy.

In a desperate fight, we captured one of the machine empire’s factory planets. Can we now defeat an interstellar superpower that has exterminated thousands of sentient races across the galaxy and slaughtered billions of us in the solar system? Not bloody likely, but Captain Jon Hawkins is on a mission. Using new warships from the factory planet, he’s searching for alien allies, more battle stations to storm, and death machines to kill. He’s buying us time to turn the solar system into a fortress...if he can stay alive long enough.

Jon Hawkins and his crew are exhausted and homesick. They've destroyed the alien machine menace, going deep into the Kuiper Belt to annihilate the secret A.I. base. From out here, the sun looks like just another star. It's a lonely existence. They're ready to go home. What they don't know - what no one could - was that the A.I. destroyer was only a scout. More alien vessels drop out of hyperspace. This is an A.I. assault. The clock to human extinction has begun ticking.

A patriot soldier in the ragtag Continental army, Philip Kent defies the rule of the British crown, fighting for the future of his adopted American homeland and the future of his wife and newborn son. And when Philip's heroism draws the attention of General George Washington, he is sent on an overwhelmingly risky mission vital to the success of the Revolution. But no sacrifice is too great for freedom . . .

The Kents' saga expands as its first heroine takes center stage in the relentless struggle to build the family dynasty opening twenty-two years after the events of The Seekers, John Jakes's fourth Kent Family novel spans the blood-soaked era of America's relentless expansion into the West. Amanda Kent, daughter of Gilbert Kent and Harriet Lebow, is one of the few women to escape the massacre at the Battle of the Alamo.

Their plans to survive the end of humanity were meticulous. Thorough. Flawed. They landed back on Earth hundreds of years after their expected return, and now the planet they once called home is unrecognisable. Warring tribes threaten their very survival, and members of Sierra team and Dr. David Anderson must work with their now-sentient AI to find a way to live peacefully with the survivors of the African facility.

Hell's Faire continues Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series, this time pitting Major Mike O'Neal against a Posleen overlord with impressive technology looking to conquer human territories.

The penultimate volume in John Jakes’s stirring Kent Family Chronicles finds America booming in its postwar prosperity. With this newly secured peace comes an opportunity for the Kent family to reconcile and to thrive, both personally and financially. Gideon Kent takes up his father’s vow to reunite the family, but when he brings his father’s widow back into the fold, the repercussions seem insurmountable.

Hailed by the Washington Post Book World as a modern classic, Robertson Davies' acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven. World of Wonders, the third book in the series after The Manticore, follows the story of Magnus Eisengrim - the most illustrious magician of his age - who is spirited away from his home by a member of a traveling sideshow, the Wanless World of Wonders.

Known as The Mayor of Castro Street even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.

This addictive John Jakes adventure blends the Kents’ ruthless push for an empire with murderous betrayal and the Civil War’s life-altering culmination. With the Civil War reaching its gory climax, the divided Kent family is pushed to the edge of complete destruction. With the advent of the transcontinental Union Pacific Railroad, the Kents continue to fight for their foothold among America’s wealthy founding families. While their private, insular war rages, young Jeremiah Kent is tempted by a calculating Southern belle into a trap of deceit, lust, and murder.

When Jephtha Kent leaves his family to go north, the Kents come under the influence of Louis, the most opportunistic son. While the nation splits on secession and slavery, the Kents nearly fall to greed and self-interest. The Civil War divided families and friends and left wounds some of which are still not healed. That the Kents survived was a miracle: that they came through with vigor intact held great promise for the rich decades that lay ahead. The Titans is the fifth volume in the Kent Family Chronicles preceded by The Furies.

The human was an expert sniper-and a psychopath. He had never failed in the past when he stalked human prey. But now he is on an enemy planet, and his prey is anything but human. The Darhel are a race with a highly developed empathic sense. Long ago, they learned that they cannot deal death to another intelligent being without being destroyed by the death agonies of their victim.

Wyatt survived the initial destruction, but he’s lost someone important to him. While he fights to distract himself from harsh realities, he ventures for the rendezvous point, eager to reconnect with his past. Blaze and his son, Luke, travel south, deeper into Mexico, in an effort to shut the remaining Rings off at the Nu-En facility. But Alan’s odd behavior and sordid past leave many questions unanswered. Luna discovers just how strong she can be and treks across the deadly country with her new friend. While reluctant to trust anyone, Luna finds she has no choice.

Long ago, much of the population of an entire planet fled their world before its sun went nova in thousands of ships, each one larger than a city. Now, the armada has arrived at the world they intend to make their new home. They regard the fact that the planet is already colonized by humans as a mere inconvenience, and their mode of communication is so different from anything humans use that they do not consider humans and their allies to be truly intelligent.

It was one of the most dangerous secret missions of the War in the Pacific: a coordinated US submarine attack against a Chinese arms shipment rumoured to be bound for Pakistan. But as USS Oklahoma City sails toward the Chinese coast, she stumbles onto an even greater threat to the West. Outnumbered, isolated and alone, with tension aboard the submarine at breaking point, the OKC and her exhausted crew must battle to outwit the Chinese navy and then finally fight for their lives.

In this startling study of human emotion, Dacher Keltner investigates an unanswered question of human evolution: If humans are hardwired to lead lives that are "nasty, brutish, and short," why have we evolved with positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and cooperative societies? Born to Be Good takes us on a journey through scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy.

The Rage Wars are over. Society has fallen. Untold millions are dead. The survivors are faced with a horrible, chaotic future. Except in the domed city of Altor, where life is safe and good. There is plenty of food and fresh water, and crime is essentially unheard of. But there is a threat to even that oasis of safety. A threat that will come from within the dome.