Showing results by narrator "Jim Roberts" in All Categories

Jean Robert-Houdin was a Frenchman widely known as the father of modern conjuring. Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini later paid tribute to his skill by adopting his name. In addition to being a gifted magician and conjurer, he was the creator of a trick that became extremely popular. He called it "Second Sight". All the mind reading tricks and performances we see today came from Houdin's original inspiration. This audiobook is extraordinary in that it actually explains the secrets of many of his conjuring tricks.

The Japanese military has turned the once-thriving Chinese city of Nencheng into a reeking pile of blood and ash. And now the Japanese Rising Sun threatens to scorch the ancient - and oil-rich - Kingdom of the Silver Lake. Can the Chinese survive the onslaught? Do they have a prayer? The answer is about to fall out of the sky. He is The Falcon Killer.

Jack Glenarm never liked architecture. He preferred adventure and excitement. His grandfather adored archeticture and lived in a strange incomplete mansion he called "The House of a Thousand Candles." Jack returns from his travels just in time to hear the reading of the old man's will. Jack is instructed to live in this odd out-of-the-way dwelling for a full year without leaving it in order to inherit it. With few other options he decides to move in.

This collecton features some of Twain's best known stories as well as some lesser-known gems, such as "A Mysterious Visit", "The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut", and "The Loves Of Alonzo Fitz-Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton".

They call him Suicide, Smoke, or simply Sudden Death. His name is Kit Gordon, and from the banks of the Mississippi to the shores of the Pacific, he is King of the Gunmen. And Kit’s about to discover that sometimes it takes more than a quick draw and a sure aim to stand up like a man. Falsely accused of murder and one step ahead of a lynch mob, Kit escapes to the next county over - and a whole new identity. He changes his name and his whole outlook, teaming up with a lawman out to bring the rule of law to this untamed corner of Arizona.

Horatio Alger, was a 19th-century American author who wrote over 100 novels. Many of his works have been called "rags to riches" stories, describing how down-and-out boys achieve the American Dream of wealth and success through hard work, courage, determination, and concern for others. Because of this Alger is a a significant figure in the history of American cultural and social ideals.

A fascinating account by an eyewitness of the formation and heroic deeds of the first black regiment in the civil war.

The setting is the civil war, and the hero (or anti-hero as it seems at first) is Henry Flemming, a young Northern boy who, swept up in the patriotic tide, joins the Union Army. He is plunged into the conflict, and his courage fails him - he runs from his first battle. He finds out later that his side was victorious, and he feels that he will never be able to face himself or his comrades again. He slowly recovers his courage in time for a crucial confrontation.

Flying into action, daredevil photojournalist Johnny Brice is always looking for trouble...and more often than not, finding it. But he doesn’t know what real trouble is until he rescues the beautiful woman he calls Jinx from a sinking ship. They’re made for each other - even if they are a dangerous mix.

Young Kit Kellan has led a rough-and-tumble life - knocking around the Vega System in his youth as a tiger hunter, a brawler, and a bouncer in a bar. But his real fight is just beginning. Summarily expelled from the prestigious Terra University, he is taken into custody by an agent of the System Bureau of Investigation (SBI). Kit's crime: thinking too much and thinking too well. He’s not in custody for long, however. Snatched from captivity by the People’s Revolutionary Society, Kit sets out an epic adventure that will take him to the farthest reaches of the universe.

It is one of the greatest conflicts - and a pivotal turning point - in history...the Chinese civil war. On one side stands Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists. On the other, Mao Zedong and the Communists. And their forces are about to meet in a decisive battle...the outcome of which is in the hands of one American pilot, John Hampton, a man who couldn’t care less....

In a future where Mother Earth has cast her children to the distant starts to begin anew and colonize the cosmos, the planet remains depleted of natural resources. Its air polluted by caustic iron and belching smoke, Earth faces her last desperate days in the grip of global environmental collapse. In one final and feeble effort, Earth’s Grand President Mankin musters the dregs of his fleet and sends three separate missions to the deepest reaches of space. Their mission: solicit help from far-flung colonial civilizations, or watch the planet die.

In Mastery of Destiny, James Allen delves even farther into the themes in that famous work, the ideas that concentrations, willpower and motivation and lead to happiness and prosperity.

An obscure original manuscript of Marco Polo’s travels ... A tantalizing clue to the site of Kublai Khan’s fabled burial site ... A chance to unearth the truth behind a long-lost treasure. It’s an opportunity that would make Indiana Jones drop everything but his whip and race off to China. But he’d be too late. Lieutenant Jonathan Daly is way ahead of him. Two bullet holes and a bad case of malaria may not be enough to stop Daly, but a crew of criminals, a brood of British agents, and the entire Chinese army are all in the game ... and determined to keep him out of it.

Speed Kyle is a master-builder of the hottest, fastest planes around. Cal Bradley’s a daredevil test pilot who pushes those planes to the limit. Add in Speed’s blond bombshell daughter who fears that Cal will go too far—and you’ve got a winner. And as far as Speed and Cal are concerned, winning is everything. Speed’s company is bleeding cash, and they need money quick. They’re competing in the upcoming National Air Meet, and to the victor goes the spoils—some extremely lucrative contracts.

This story recounts the legend of Keesh, an Eskimo boy who used "brains not brawn" to defeat a powerful polar bear and save his people from starvation.

Bill Norton might be new to Ketchikan but he’s no tenderfoot. In fact, he’s one of the sharpest FBI agents this side of the Yukon - savvy, tough and resourceful. Norton’s come to this rough-and-tumble town to look into a case of a missing person - his own boss - who vanished investigating a heroin smuggling operation. What Norton finds is a string of corpses, a gallery of rogues, and a fleet of fishing boats that specialize in red herrings. He also finds himself warming up to the heart-stopping halibut heiress Elaine Halloway.

Francis Parkman has been hailed as one of America's first great historians and as a master of narrative history. His work has been praised by historians who have published essays in new editions of his work, including Pulitzer Prize winners C. Vann Woodward, Allan Nevins and Samuel Eliot Morison. Numerous translations have spread the books around the world. Be forewarned that Parkman was a man of his time and he does little to hide his prejudices, especially against native Americans.

Jack London is among the greatest adventure writers in American Literature, and The Call of the Wild is his masterpiece, a work that takes us where few tales have dared: into the mind of an animal. Buck is taken from the warmth of the Santa Clara valley to work as a sled-dog in the frozen Yukon during the Gold Rush. There he is forced to lose his domesticated ways and rediscover his natural instincts.

Joseph Conrad was a native of Poland, yet many critics regard him as one of the greatest English novelists. This is all the more remarkable, since he did not learn to speak English fluently until he was in his 20s. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1886. He wrote many books and stories, but the two that remain most popluar are Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. Lord Jim is both an adventure story and a story of tragedy and repentence.