Showing results by narrator "Richard A. Smith" in All Categories

When a mat-trans malfunction strands Ryan Cawdor and his friends in a gutted redoubt in the West Indies, the crystal waters offer them a tantalizing glimpse of untouched splendor. But the oasis is abruptly shattered by violent and ruthless pirates, and Ryan has to barter with a young guide, a teenage boy on a blood quest against a sadistic local warlord, to navigate a land teeming with predators-mutie, human and animal. The race is on to find a second redoubt, buried deep in the inhospitable heart of Monster Island.

Bartering their expertise to a nautical band of brilliant technomads, Ryan's group finds trouble waiting in the steaming, fetid swamplands of the Louisiana Gulf. Merciless storms and pirates strand them in Haven. But the barony's inviting name masks a ville hijacked by fear, territorial conflict, and monstrous horror. With the gravely injured Krysty Wroth's fate uncertain, a desperate Ryan aids the strange but hospitable Baron Blackwell in his effort to save Haven from a genetic blood curse. He'll succeed, provided his luck - and his options - don't run out first.

Songwriter, broadcaster and award-winning entertainer Sir Richard Stilgoe goes out, about and around Britain in this amusing musical revue, which finds him taking a wry look at the pastimes and professions of our wayward island. In the company of a troupe of star guests including Sandi Toksvig, Emma Thompson, Kathryn Tickell, Pam Ayres and John Hegley, he visits locations ranging from the Boat Show to the City of London to perform a unique themed comedy show full of fun and laughter.

Inflicting Christian names like Jefferson Youll on a young lad already saddled with a surname like Patbottom is a sufficient handicap for anyone, but if you have the misfortune to be educated at Watlington County Grammar and end up as thick as a plank, life gets very tricky indeed. Settling for Jyp and braving a succession of dead-end jobs, he finds sanctuary in a government statistics department dealing with figures.

Recuperating from his past mission, disturbed but driven D.I. Jack Austin returns to work amid a personality clash with a retired colonel - who happens to be his new Chief Constable. When the Constable is kidnapped - and returned in pieces - DI Austin’s hapless hunt for the culprit begins. He investigates a string of cryptic murders including a beheaded minister, a drowned woman in a Hijab, and a band of terrorists with explosives. Meanwhile, Austin battles a grievous inner conflict. Will he thwart the perpetrator, or become a conspirator himself?

Two classic tales set in the Middle Ages come alive with characters that will steal your heart. The timeless plots become believable and all too real, and will leave listeners captivated until the end.

When Vivienne Le Faye, a girl with profound intuitive powers, inherits a priceless family amulet, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Unaware of her hidden heritage, an ancient family curse suddenly haunts her and in her dreams, a mysterious young man with blazing golden eyes and supernatural gifts appears to protect her. Convinced he's real and positive she has fallen in love with him, Vivienne begins a dangerous inter-dimensional journey to a destiny in a mystical world of wizardry and magic.

In good times and bad, in times of economic downturn and times of wartime peril, we as Americans have shown our mettle. There is something in the historical DNA of this people - a resilience, a power, a talent for innovation, a unique and empowering bravery - that has carried us forward as a nation and a people for nearly 250 years. This audio book is about this history, this inheritance, this people.

Clifford Odets’ masterpiece, starring Mark Ruffalo, Jane Kaczmarek, Richard Kind, and Ben Gazzara, brings to life the struggles of a working-class family aspiring to the promise of the American Dream. Even as they endure the country’s worst economic nightmare, three generations of an immigrant family are crowded into a Bronx tenement, fiercely determined to stay afloat, no matter what the cost.

This audiobook is written for great leaders, parents, coaches and mentors who want to become great teachers. The Seven Laws of Learning examines why people like Confucius, Nelson Mandela, Jesus, Winston Churchill, Evita Peron, Mahatma Gandhi and other extraordinary leaders were able to teach new ideas in ways that not only engaged people but persuaded them to use their free will to bring about personal and global change.

With Tyvian Reldamar feigning his death, the forces that still carry his banner are left to fight a vicious battle against the warlord Banric Sahand and the noble houses that flock to his side. Led by Myreon and Artus, this band of freedom fighters and angry rebels is faced with an enemy the likes of which they’ve never faced before: one who will do anything, no matter how brutal, to secure victory.

With Tyvian Reldamar feigning his death, the forces that still carry his banner are left to fight a vicious battle against the warlord Banric Sahand and the noble houses that flock to his side. Led by Myreon and Artus, this band of freedom fighters and angry rebels is faced with an enemy the likes of which they’ve never faced before: one who will do anything, no matter how brutal, to secure victory.

Forged in the fires of conflict, the Iron Kingdoms is a fantastic realm where the combined power of magic and technology thunders across a landscape shaped by war. Dominating the field of battle are rare individuals who have mastered both arcane and martial combat and who boldly lead mighty armies in the ongoing struggle to claim victory over these ancient lands. In the Undercity of Corvis, where mercenaries and criminals blur the lines between them, a ruthless crime lord has made a bold move to establish a stranglehold on Corvis’ underworld and make it his own.

The labyrinth of tunnels beneath Corvis is home to some of the city’s worst criminals, but now even these hardened thugs have reason to watch their step in the dark, shadowy undercity. Death moves in that darkness, leaving behind a trail of horribly mangled bodies. The identity of the killer is a mystery, although his calling cards - brutally savaged corpses and a distinct, repulsive odor - are constants at each bloody murder scene.

Back in London, Gideon and his colleagues: journalist Aloysius Bent, airship pilot Rowena Fanshawe, and Maria, the mechanical girl to whom Gideon has lost his heart, are dragged into a case that is confounding the Metropolitan Police. For the city is on the edge of mass rioting due to the continuing reign of terror by the serial killer known only as Jack the Ripper, who is rampaging though London's less salubrious quarters.

Jane Candia Coleman is a natural storyteller whose characters come from the lands between the southwestern valleys of Arizona and the Gila Mountains of New Mexico. The night Billy the Kid died is hauntingly depicted in "Corrido for Billy". "Lady Flo" is a memoir, based on historical fact, of the black wife of an Irish nobleman. "Moving On" depicts a young girl abandoned by her family who finds her way with an itinerant Jewish peddler. And "Are You Coming Back, Phin Montana?" is the winner of the 1995 Spur Award for Best Western Short Fiction.

Shaw's forte was her ability to create interesting casts of characters through whom and between whom she was able to develop a suspenseful and unpredictable interplay. This story is a good example of her character driven Western fiction.

Two young men in the gold fields of California spend a last evening together as one of them, very sick, confronts his own imminent death. The tenderness between them may seem idealized, but you understand by listening to this story how premature death from accident and disease haunted the lives of far more westerners than death by violence.

Bill Ash, an escaped convict returns to find his father murdered.

A quick-draw tale from the wild west. T. T. Flynn has long been popular with listeners as a master of the Western story.