Showing results by narrator "Nicole Poole" in All Categories

Jacqui still remembers what it was like before the honeybee virus destroyed her world. Before children turned into beasts and men desperate for power became raiders. Before she had to disguise herself as a boy. And before her brother Dean left and never came back. "Jack" asks Fiona and Jonah Tarsis to help find Dean, and they quickly set out - along with Fiona's boyfriend, Bowen - in search of their loved ones. But Jacqui soon discovers that they've kept a dangerous secret from her: they have the cure.

Pyre is a volatile planet. Its surface belches heat and noxious gases, forcing downsiders to inhabit domes. But Pyre’s instability isn’t limited to its geology. The colonists, who were marooned in the system hundreds of years ago, have endured a tumultuous history.

Written by two experts on anxiety disorders, Anxious in Love offers easy-to-use techniques for calming anxieties and strengthening communication in your relationship. With this book, you will learn to stay centered when faced with conflict, understand your partner's perspective, and become more independent. By changing the way you react to triggers and stress, you will be able to focus on enjoying time with the one you love, without anxiety getting in the way.

I never expected a midlife crisis. Sure, I'm over 40 and married, but my kids are grown and moved out. Then my husband asks for a divorce and my whole world crashes. But I am not about to give up. I am ready to tackle my do-over; my chance to become the me I've always dreamed of. Starting with moving into my late grandma's cottage and adopting a new kitten. However, my new life is a little odder than expected. Old books suddenly appearing in my house. Neighbors going missing. A supposed lake monster and a strange man who likes to skulk around with an axe.

"Tanjiri is not for you. You are not ready to encounter what exists there." So Lezuri spoke in warning, long ago. Urban still possesses the strange gift—the impossible puzzle—Lezuri gave him that day. A needle, ultra-thin and twelve centimeters long, with a silvery surface that slices light into rainbow glints. All Lezuri's knowledge lies locked within that needle. Urban has only to discover the trick of opening it, to gain that knowledge for himself—but the needle remains an enigma.

Tensions escalate across the Imperium Empire. Dwerves hunt for new Krackus worlds to raid. The Imperium executors hope to put an end to the huge armed ship’s rampage, and they delegate the duty to those imperators with the most experience against the empire’s invaders.

When Lieutenant Iari hears screams in the night, she expects to interrupt a robbery or break up a fight. Instead she discovers a murder with an impossible suspect: a riev, one of the battle-mecha decommissioned after the end of the last conflict, repurposed for manual labor. Riev don't kill people. And yet, clearly, one has. Iari sets out to find it.

The starship Dragon, accompanied by its fleet of outriders, is faring ever deeper into that region known as the Hallowed Vasties. Here, at the shattered heart of ancient human civilization, once-living worlds were ripped apart by the dimensional intrusions of a Blade. Yet despite the apocalyptic-scale destruction, the fleet's telescopes have picked out signs of life among the ruins and the ship's company is eager to go on—but should they?

Cremsylon and his companions visited the center of the Imperium Empire. That provided an opportunity for Kreus, the first Krackus SADE, to contact the Imperium governor, an AI who controls the planet’s communications. It’s also the repository for the empire’s critical data. The visit to Imperium happens, not once, but twice. Each time, Kreus spends time perusing the governor’s records, invasions that the AI is incapable of stopping. These intrusions initiate an odd sequence of events.

The Solar League, humanity's empire, has existed since mankind reached for the stars. While the humans considered it the pinnacle of human achievement, for the subjugated alien races it seemed only to endorse humanity's worst impulses. But the worst of humanity pales in comparison to an alien onslaught that is on the verge of bringing mankind down into death and subjugation.

On a summer night in 1984, 19-year-old UC Berkeley sophomore Karen Thomas leaves her uniformed patrol job at the University of California Police Department and walks home alone in darkness. At the threshold of her apartment a man assaults her at knife point. After a soul chilling struggle she manages to escape and call 911. Police catch her assailant, she identifies him, and he is arrested. Fast forward 2014, 30 years after her assault. Why does the body remember what the mind tries so desperately to forget?

The weirdest thing about my life isn't the fact my cat started talking to me. I had it all. Awesome, blossoming business. A cute boyfriend who gave me butterflies. My kids living at home and reconnecting with me. Plus, I was a witch. What should have been the most amazing night turns into a disaster. I'm crushed, in more ways than one. When I recover, it's to find my reality has shifted. My cat can speak. Some of the townsfolk appear to be possessed by demons, and I'm supposed to be sacrificed to free magic.

Imperium executors face daunting pressure to control their territories. The assembly’s election of a presiding executor upsets the body’s balance of power. A moderate, Gaketork, wins the election, unseating Rebtar. As required by Imperium law, Rebtar is forced to trade territories with Gaketork. Rebtar inherits a territory where a conclave fleet resides. Despite the Imperium’s peacekeepers being ejected by conclave forces from there, the executor orders both patrol fleets to return. This sets up a dangerous collision between the Krackus fleets and the conclave ships.

Sienna Nealon is a member of an endangered species. One of the last remaining people with powers beyond those of a normal human, she has taken it upon herself to police the survivors and keep them in line with human laws. When trouble erupts in Atlanta, Georgia, it looks like it may be just another everyday problem for Sienna. But what starts as a normal mission quickly twists out of control, as Sienna is left questioning exactly who her enemy is - and what are they up to?

When a mission in New York City goes terribly wrong, Sienna Nealon finds herself replaced as head of the government agency in charge of policing people with powers beyond those of a normal human. Marginalized, humiliated, she ponders her place in the world now that her war is over. But it isn't long before another threat rears its ugly head, and Sienna finds herself outmatched and outgunned - against former prisoners bent on executing a scheme which will push Sienna past limits of ruthlessness even she could not imagine.

As any fan of Jo Walton's Among Others might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic rereader of books. In 2008, then-new science fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her rereading—about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems. These posts have consistently been among the most popular features of Tor. Now this volume presents a selection of the best of them, ranging from short essays to long reassessments of some of the field's most ambitious series.

Scholarship student Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor and Princess Mercedes de Arango have graduated from the High Ground and become officers in the Orden de la Estrella. Stung by Mercedes' choice of Beauregard “Boho” Cullen as her consort, Tracy is glad they are posted on battleships light years apart but soon finds that without her protection, he is nothing but a target. Meanwhile, Mercedes' posting has its own challenges, not least her unfaithful husband.

Captain Jessie Cinders faces a hazardous choice. The murderer of the governor’s nephew stands before him. But, the frightened teenager, Aurelia Garmenti, doesn’t resemble the commandant’s description of the vicious, hardened killer his security forces seek. To complicate matters, Jessie’s mind has felt Aurelia’s mental powers. The girl is an empath, who escaped the domes below and rode the El car to reach the JOS, Pyre’s orbital station. This shouldn’t be possible. The century-old agreement between topsiders and downsiders forbids the domes to knowingly admit empaths.

In a world where the human population has suffered devastating losses, a handful of survivors cling to what passes for life in a postapocalyptic, dying landscape. A world where humans wander, drugged and lulled by electronic bliss. A dying world of no children and no art, where reading is forbidden.

The conclave’s forces had reached a tipping point. Due to the vast expanse occupied by the empire’s thirty-five territories, Admiral Cordelia and Commander Tocknicka previously had to bide their time. They employed discreet tactical actions to harass the Krackus overseers and their mercenaries, the Radags. Now, Tridents in the hundreds and multiple Quadrants, with their experienced crews, were in place to deliver strategic actions against the Imperium Empire.