Showing results by narrator "Noah" in All Categories

Skeeve is just settling into his duties as court magician of Possiltum and his training as sorcerer’s apprentice to Aahz, his scaly green demon mentor, when Aahz is suddenly called back to his home dimension on family business. Skeeve figures he can handle things on his own for a while, but then King Roderick convinces Skeeve to use his powers of illusion to take the king’s place while Roderick takes a little “vacation”. That’s when Hemlock, the ruthless, ambitious queen of a powerful neighboring nation, turns up to fulfill her part in an arranged marriage with Roderick.

Provocative and controversial, socially conscious and politically charged, wildly imaginative yet deeply grounded, the thirty-two never-before-published stories, essays, and poems in The Last Dangerous Visions stand as a testament to Ellison’s lifelong pursuit of art, uniting a diverse range of science fiction writers both famous and newly minted, including Max Brooks, Edward Bryant, Cecil Castellucci, James S. A. Corey, Howard Fast, Patricia Hodgell, Dan Simmons, Robert Sheckley, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mildred Downey Broxon, and Cory Doctorow, among others.

Lucy is a perfectly reasonable person, up until she isn’t. She bottles up incidents, willing to forgive and forget, but when someone crosses the line, she becomes what her friends have affectionately called The Psychobitch. There’s one person who has it coming; from their very first meeting, Trick Johnson, CFO of Harris Toys, has been a contemptuous ass to her, but she held her tongue… Until her boss asks her to work with him for a month. Trick has a huge problem. He has a life plan – a simple, straightforward plan – and the gorgeous ball-buster his best friend employs isn’t part of it in any way, shape or form. He’s managed to keep her out of sight and mostly out of mind quite successfully… Until Carter Harris makes them work together.

Thousands of American soldiers are returning from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan with severe wounds from chemical war. They are not the victims of ruthless enemy warfare, but of their own military commanders. These soldiers, afflicted with rare cancers and respiratory diseases, were sickened from the smoke and ash swirling out of the "burn pits" where military contractors incinerated mountains of trash, including old stockpiles of mustard and sarin gas, medical waste, and other toxic material.

Mysterious alien invaders have conquered two-thirds of the earth’s surface—its oceans—and now nations are reeling from the savage attacks that have struck every shore. Los Angeles and Washington DC are war zones.

What do you say when you talk to yourself? Did you know that what you say to yourself is creating your life in every moment? Is that little voice in your head helping you win or holding you back? Dr. Noah St. John, known as “The Mental Health Coach to the Stars,” reveals his simple yet powerful method, validated by inspiring stories, real-life case studies, and more than two decades of experience being the 'go-to' coach for Hollywood celebrities, 8-figure CEOs, professional athletes, and elite entrepreneurs around the world.

In this new collection, Richard Thomas has crafted 14 stories that push the boundaries of dark fiction in an intoxicating, piercing blend of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Equally provocative and profound, each story is masterfully woven with transgressive themes that burrow beneath the skin.

No one prepared Haynes to be a king. The previous king committed treason against the Imperium. Only a mage who works for a higher being can be trusted by the Imperium leaders to be king. And only Haynes is such a person from his planet.

Andrea wants to submit but not to just any so-called Dom. He has to be tougher than the slum-bred bullies she grew up with. She's given up on finding a true Dom when her friend finagles her a place as a trainee in an exclusive BDSM club with the powerful Shadowlands Masters. Andrea's thrilled - and terrified. Forced to accept an unknown submissive into his carefully run trainee program, Master Cullen is furious. Not only is the young woman new to BDSM, but she's unsuited to her role.

Life, death, trauma, healing - the Hell’s Handlers have been through it all over the past year. They’ve conquered old enemies, acquired new ones, and struggled through devastating upheavals. So far, they’ve come out on top, knocking down challenges by focusing on one essential ideal: family above all. With Copper at the helm, the Handlers are a patchwork family of bikers who will fight to the death for what they’ve created.

At 30 years of age, Susan Jennings has long been considered a spinster. Exceptionally intelligent, she has little tolerance for London and the dreaded Season - if that’s how one is expected to find love, it’s not for her. But when an invitation arrives that cannot be ignored, Susan leaves her comfortable life in the country and enters the fashion and frivolity she most despises. She quickly discovers, however, that there is more to loathe in London - and his name is George Kendall.

Despite living at her father’s inn her entire life, Elizabeth Doyle has always managed to avoid involvement with the smugglers who frequently gather there. Until now. When a handsome smuggler is brought to her with dire injuries, Elizabeth risks everything to hide him - completely unaware that the wounded man is not who he appears to be. When an opportunity arises to infiltrate the notorious smuggling gang he believes caused his father’s death, Jonas Ainsworth, the Viscount Langton, pretends to be one of them.

It was the perfect solution - put highly connected Captain Willard Phule in charge of the worst dregs of the Space Force. Sure, Phule's Company may be a band of rejects and misfits, but they did manage to save the day with their unorthodox methods. Embarrassed, the Space Force may have found the perfect equation for disaster: Assign Phule's pack of oddballs to save the Fat Chance Casino from a criminal take over. Phule's Company may stop the mob...but who will save the casino from them?

A war fueled by the dark powers of forbidden sorcery is about to engulf the Ascendant Empire. Asho sees his liege, the Lady Kyferin, and her meager forces banished to an infamous ruin. Beset by tragedy and betrayal, demons and an approaching army, the fate of the Kyferins hangs by the slenderest of threads. Asho realizes that their sole hope of survival may lie hidden within the depths of his scarred soul - a secret that could reverse their fortunes and reveal the truth behind the war that wracks their empire.

Dean Archer has meticulously curated his life to include his family's global art and antiquities empire and a fiancée who is his intellectual equal. When he arrives at a luxury resort in Kauai for a vacation with his new fiancée's family, the last person he expects to find cleaning his room is Elika Hamlet—the woman who once set his world, and his bed, ablaze. And since the universe has a wicked sense of humor, she's also his fiancée's cousin.

It was just an innocent game of dragon poker. But soon Ogres were high, unicorns wild, and the pot was half a million! Skeeve bluffs his way into a high-stakes game of dragon poker - and wins! But now he's left with Markie, a pint-sized IOU left by a player who went broke. She conjures up a house full of trouble every time she tries to cast a spell. And now the dragon poker champion has challenged Skeeve to a game - with a pot of half a million.

After six months caring for her terminally ill mother, Kori is shocked to learn the identity of her father. Armed with the name of a man she's never met, Kori sets off across the country to meet the person responsible for half of her DNA: the president of the No Prisoners Las Vegas motorcycle club. Raised as the stepdaughter of an MC member, Kori has one rule when it comes to dating: no bikers. That becomes a challenge, however, when she meets Lucky, a member of her father's club.

As the successful owner of multiple railroad lines, Diana Barton is all too accustomed to fending off suitors seeking to stake their claim on her wealth. In order to keep the wolves at bay, Diana has contrived the perfect plan: appeal to the most notorious rake in London, the Baron Lord Bryant, to ruin her reputation and scare off the worst of the time wasters. The ruse will be no hardship - she’s secretly been fascinated by the man for years.

After a decade of captivity, Darcy MacCormac escapes the corrupt, clandestine organization called the Scythe, leaving family and friends behind. She must find a way to rescue them. Discovered by other shifters, the brand-new cougar gets two mentors. Blademage Gawain is an easygoing blacksmith with a steel-hard core. His brother, Owen, is a deadly warrior. Grumpy. Rude. And he doesn’t like her.

After decades of concealing the full account of her experiences, Holocaust survivor Beatrice Sonders (Basia Gadzuik) writes her story of survival and courage in the face of ultimate horrors.