Showing results by narrator "Nick Podehl" in All Categories

The next prophesied Calamity was one of Civil War. Even without the presence of seditious groups such as the Order of Extinction and the Followers of Calamities undermining the unity of the world, the many disparate Kingdoms were barely cooperative at best. Meanwhile, Sungchul becomes increasingly exposed to the legends of the ancient dungeons hidden away by the Lesser Gods, which held the key to immortality. With the many factions hell-bent on power, it seems all but inevitable that these long-forgotten Dungeons of the Gods return to the forefront of the world.

Despite his youth, Declan Idrys knows of the evils of the world. He knows of the bastards and brigands who plague the King's lands, of the monsters skulking in the wooded depths of the realm. Together with his companion, Ryn - a beast of rather peculiar talent - he has spent the last decade of his life beneath the bloody banners of a half-dozen mercenary guilds, hunting precisely such festering wickedness within the borders of Viridian.

After a congressman’s tortured body is found dangling from a Portland bridge, the FBI joins the Oregon State Police to investigate the case - and FBI Special Agent Ava McLane, still recovering from a bullet wound, hunts the twisted killer alongside the man who captured her heart, police detective Mason Callahan. But once a third body appears and all evidence points to a serial killer, the public furiously clamors for answers - and the couple’s relationship grows fractured under the pressure.

Contains three complete, novel-length books in the Middle Falls Time Travel series: The Empathetic Life of Rebecca Wright, The Successful Life of Jack Rybicki, and The Many Short Lives of Charles Waters.

A mysterious incident in Russia, a blip buried in the news - it’s the only warning humanity receives that civilization will soon be destroyed by a single, voracious virus that creates monsters of men. A lawyer, still grieving over the death of his young wife, begins to write as a form of therapy. But he never expected that his anonymous blog and journal would ultimately record humanity’s last days. Governments scramble to stop the zombie virus, people panic, so-called Safe Havens are established, the world erupts into chaos; soon it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves.

Zack Cooley is a genie. He found out on his 10th birthday, and life hasn't been the same since. Life has been amazing! It doesn't matter if Zack's twin sister, Quinn, is the one with all the friends at school. Zack is the one with all the magic - plus, he has new friends in genie school, which he secretly attends twice a week. But Quinn is having some strange symptoms, and it looks like Zack may have to share genie status with his sister.

It's been over a year since the System came to Earth, bringing blood and monsters in equal measure. Having left Whitehorse, John and his team travel down to British Columbia, running into new dangers from aliens and humans alike. Faced with new challenges and new enemies, John and his friends seek to free human settlements from Galactic control in North America.

The last few months of the moontide - when the bridge connecting East and West rises above the sea - has come, and in the West Emperor Constant prepares the final phase of his plan to conquer the East.....

At long last, the reason for the blessed Adept race's decline has been discovered: powerful beings known as Malorin'athgul are disrupting the Balance and preventing Alorin's Adepts from awakening to their gifts. Who are they? Where are they? And how can they be stopped when they wield a power meant to unmake the universe itself? In T'khendar, Prince Ean val Lorian has forsaken his companions in blood and battle to join the traitorous Fifth Vestal in T'khendar in the hopes of gaining some insight into the tragedies that plagued his return.

Powerful beings from the fringes of Chaos have come to the realm of Alorin. Fate bends to their will, and their will is set upon Alorin's destruction. Alone in understanding the threat they pose, Alorin's Fifth Vestal, Björn val Gelderan, has launched a desperate plan to stop them: a "great game" played upon the tapestry of mortal life. Now, in Paths of Alir, Björn's Players have taken the field.

In this chronicle of the early history of Valdemar, Mercedes Lackey's best-selling world, a 13 year-old orphan named Magpie escapes a life of slavery in the gem mines when he is chosen by one of the magical Companion horses of Valdemar to be trained as a Herald. Thrust into the center of a legend in the making, Magpie discovers talents he never knew he had - and witnesses the founding of the great Heralds' Collegium.

Rukh Shektan and Jessira Grey struggle to reach the OutCaste city of Stronghold before winter's snow bars all passages. Their travels test Rukh's will and hope as Chimeras hound their footsteps, but the most difficult challenge proves to be Stronghold itself. The city is not as Jessira described.

The end of the world has come not with a bang or a whimper, but with the guttural snarl of walking corpses hungry for human flesh. The "lucky" survivors flee an unstoppable virus spreading death and societal collapse across the globe. As the rules of civilization crumble, a lawyer, a pilot, and a nurse become comrades-in-arms in the fight against extinction. But not every enemy wears a rotting face, and anyone who doesn’t have your back just might have your head. Humankind’s twilight is at hand, and these are indeed... dark days.

Bill is a dedicated young lawyer working at his family’s prestigious New York firm, who leaves everything he trained for to follow his dream and become a minister in rural Wyoming. Jenny, his wife, is a stylist whose heart and soul are invested in fashion. She leaves the milieu and life she loves to join him. The certainty they share is that their destinies are linked forever.

Arriving in the capital, John finds a world just as unfair to its citizens as it was to humanity. Now, the retired Adventurer has to choose if he’ll return to battling for those who are unable to fight themselves or if he’ll pursue the System Quest quietly and peacefully. Either way, people are going to get hurt. Includes three books in the System Apocalypse, a post-apocalyptic series that combines modern day life, aliens, science fiction and fantasy elements along with game mechanics. Does not include harems.

When John sets out for a weekend camping trip in the Yukon, he never could have imagined the world would be plunged into chaos by the System–a mystical energy wave that destroys electronics and grants game-like powers to humanity. Suddenly, animals are evolving, monsters are spawning, and John finds himself equipped with a character sheet and incredible, physics-defying skills.

You're never too young to start! In Escape the Rat Race, you’ll find out: How "working to learn, not to earn" paves the way to money-making opportunities. The basics of making money by creating assets. How to make money work hard for you, so that you don't have to work so hard for money.

Mags returns to the Collegium, but there are mixed feelings--his included--about him actually remaining there. No one doubts that he is and should be a Herald, but he is afraid that his mere presence is going to incite more danger right in the heart of Valdemar. The heads of the Collegia are afraid that coming back to his known haunt is going to give him less protection than if he went into hiding. Everyone decides that going elsewhere is the solution for now.

My parents named me after an angel. That was a mistake. My words and actions remind them of this on a daily basis. My father disagrees. He is the Sentinel of Order, God’s unchecked hand on the world, but I’ll always be his little girl. Da may be biased, but he’s not deluded. The angel for whom I was named is beautiful, brave, and temperate. Da says two out of three isn’t bad. I cannot take credit for my beauty, and will not attribute bravery to things that simply must be done. As for temperance, I have none. I come to my lack of temperance honestly.

Infinite Worlds is the most popular VRMMORPG on the market. Its maps are so vast, developer Hard Rock Data utilizes a network of highly advanced artificial intelligences to control it. But it’s not without problems. That’s why Game Masters like Jeff Driscoll have jobs. The downside? He’s not allowed to play the game. Something about conflicts of interest and favoritism. His very boring and tedious job is to help players deal with the occasional bug that slips through the cracks and ensure they enjoy their time playing enough to give a five-star rating.