Showing results by narrator "Scott Aiello" in All Categories

With the ACA and Hive invasions successfully thwarted, Tranquility's newest colonists are struggling to rebuild. Peace has finally come to humanity's furthest colony, and life is finally starting to return to normal. The peace was not meant to be. After receiving a distress call from a distant scouting mission, Lander and the newly formed military find themselves deploying to a dead alien world, where the heart of the Hive lies in wait.

In keeping with the Akashic Noir series tradition, each story in Boston Noir is set in a different neighborhood of the city - the impressively diverse collection extends from Roxbury to Cambridge, from Southie to the Boston Harbor, and all stops in between. Lehane's own contribution - the longest story in the volume - is set in his beloved home neighborhood of Dorchester and showcases his phenomenal ability to grip the heart, soul, and throat of the reader.

Contains books one, two and three of the Star Lawyers series, an action-packed deep space adventure filled with humour, romance, and adventure.

Assembled here are stories new and old, spanning from 1960 to today. Meet the death-defying motorcycle trick riders in the carnival's Devil's Tub, a man who keeps an alligator in his bathtub, a Chinese launder in Coney Island in search of love, a frontiersman who saves himself from a mauling grizzly bear by hiding in a beaver dam, three men from a circus looking for trouble at a rodeo, a washed out boxer trying to hang onto his career, and dozens of others rich characters.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

Ezra Barker is a traitor. When the Merg invaded Earth, he didn’t fight or even hide. He cooperated, helping them as they seized control of the planet and began their pillaging of its resources. While others toil away in mines and quarries, Ezra works an office job, helping his boss, The Senator, rule over the swath of territory given to her by the Merg. Sergeant Hayes is a brutal enforcer of the Merg’s rules. As an officer in the Health and Safety Department, he follows Merg orders, arresting, interrogating, and executing at their command.

Professor Viktor Pendrake is a legend in his own time and is the foremost expert in extraordinary zoology. His research demands he place himself in peril to directly observe and interact with his subjects, a peril his assistants must endure as well. Bookish Lynus Wesselbaum is the picture of a scholar-in-training whose days are often spent sifting through the vast stacks of tomes within Corvis University. Yet Lynus has earned his place as Professor Pendrake’s senior assistant professor, having accompanied his mentor in the field and survived countless encounters with the most dangerous flora and fauna of western Immoren.

Years after suffering the tragic loss of her husband, Ethan, which left her alone to raise their young daughter, Clare Murray still holds the last letter he wrote with the words "When You're Ready" written in his familiar messy handwriting, unable to break its weathered seal. Ready for what? He was her entire world, and Clare had accepted a life without him, without love. Until years later, fate brings her to an emergency room, and face to face with a stormy-eyed doctor intent on changing her mind.

Five months after the horrific accident that left him near death and worried that he'd never fly again, master-pilot Alex Romanov lands a new job: captaining the sleek passenger vessel Mirror. Alex is a spesh - a human who has been genetically modified to perform particular tasks. As a captain and pilot, Alex has a genetic imperative to care for passengers and crew - no matter what the cost.

Star Lawyers Corporation must defend a known criminal in Pirate Court to prevent ancient technologies from falling into the hands of expansionist star nations, which will lead to a new era of galactic war. Only pirate Captain Flavio Tavares, who faces terrible judgment by his peers, can lead Tyler Matthews to a derelict starbase abandoned by the collapsing Galactic Empire long ago.

Death stalks Corvis by night, and only an unlikely group of heroes known as the Black River Irregulars can put an end to the terror. 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.

This is the story of Pierre Tradivel, a scientist, and his complex battle against deadly illness, and ex-Nazi war criminal still hiding in the U.S., a crooked insurance company, and a plot to make Pierre and his wife the victims of a bizarre genetic experiment. Frameshift is hard science fiction at its best, full of complications and neat surprises.

The zombie apocalypse rages on. In the small town of Clayfield, Kentucky, survivors attempt to carve out new lives for themselves. There is hope that eventually Clayfield can be secured, but first the undead must be eliminated and law and order must be restored. Unfortunately, the survivors might not ever get to implement their plan. Gangs of looters continue to strike the town and news filters in that something worse could be coming.

Stranded on the moon after a global economic crash, Nick Morrison and his friends must take decisive action to secure their supply chain before they starve to death. The capture of a space station wins them some breathing room. But the powers that be on Earth cannot tolerate an independent, thriving lunar colony. Amidst a high-stakes arms race, Nick and his friends struggle to hold off the entire might of Earth. At the same time, Nick must also fight his old nemesis, Joe Massad, for control of the lunar base.

Hank is walking home from the bar when the Model T pulls alongside him. It's been decades since he saw a car this old, and the sound of it takes him right back to his 20s. The door is open, and when he climbs in, the car takes off - without a driver. Before he knows what's happened, Hank is right back at Big Spring Pavilion, where he spent his youth drinking bootleg whiskey and chasing pretty girls. He will find the past is not quite as he remembered it, but still a lovely place to go for a drive.

Lunar prospecting is the next big thing, and companies are raking in the bucks. Nick has a plan to get a piece of the action—but he’ll first have to overcome the agonizing difficulties of surviving up here. To do that, he must work with Joe Massad, who nearly killed Nick two years ago. Joe seems to have put aside his ambitions to conquer the moon and Earth, but has he really changed?

Noah is a kidnapper, hired to buy a baby from a human trafficking ring and smuggle her across the Canadian border for a cool half a million dollars. Eve is a teenage runaway, who takes the infant—and the sack full of cash—away from him. Hester is an outcast, living alone in a backwoods cottage, harboring secrets of her own. When their paths cross, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll come out on top.

Tales of blood, magic, and steel by masters of the craft!

Detective Mike Palazzola of Detroit’s Third Precinct is good at catching the bad guys. But after several mishandled criminal cases, he becomes increasingly frustrated with the judicial system and its prosecutors. The alleged murderers he worked so hard to capture and indict are either dismissed on a legal technicality, exonerated, or given lenient sentences by the court system.

Detective Philip Dorian of the 16th Chicago Precinct is called to investigate the serial killing and mutilation of retired, former pedophile priests in the Chicagoland area. It becomes later discovered that Monsignor Joseph Kilbane, chief of staff to the Cardinal, had previously approached his childhood friend, Anthony "Little Tony" DiMatteo to lend him a "hit man" to commit the murders of these pedophile ex-priests for their insurance money. Although the plot sounds interesting, Little Tony isn't interested, and the Monsignor abandons the idea.