Showing results by narrator "Vikas Adam" in All Categories

Penelope Chen-Astor ran away from the stifling expectations of her wealthy family in Singapore for an independent life as a high-powered Manhattan lawyer. But familial duty comes crashing back when her grandfather’s will demands she be married for a year to claim her inheritance. She’d walk away from it all, but her mother’s assets are at stake too, and this is the only way Penelope can see to protect her.

Lacking health insurance when he was diagnosed with cancer, Shawn Speakman asked friends in the science fiction and fantasy writing community to donate short stories he could use to counter mounting medical debt. The result was Unfettered, an anthology offering tales from some of the best authors working today. Now, in Unfettered III, Speakman continues to pay forward the aid he received, raising money to combat medical debt for SF&F artists and authors.

Stan Lee was one of the most famous and beloved entertainers to emerge from the twentieth century. He served as head editor of Marvel Comics for three decades and, in that time, became known as the creator of more pieces of internationally recognizable intellectual property than nearly anyone: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Incredible Hulk . . . the list goes on. His carnival-barker marketing prowess helped save the comic-book industry and superhero fiction.

Waking aboard an unfamiliar ship missing all the attributes he spent years earning, Aren remembers little except that his sister, Claire, is in mortal danger. "Save me. Save the Empire." Those were the last words she'd said to him...or was that even her? Somehow, he's become an oath breaker, a pariah, and enemy to the throne. With the help of a fellow new recruit to his clan, Aren set's out to find Claire, all while battling new enemies far beyond his level, and piecing together his broken memory. But still, Aren can't help the nagging feeling that there's something greater at stake.

From Africa to Asia and Latin America, the era of climate wars has begun. Extreme weather is breeding banditry, humanitarian crisis, and state failure. In Tropic of Chaos, investigative journalist Christian Parenti travels along the front lines of this gathering catastrophe - the belt of economically and politically battered postcolonial nations and war zones girding the planet's mid-latitudes. Here he finds failed states amid climatic disasters.

Terry and Mike are cousins whose families are almost seamlessly intertwined. Raised as close as brothers and living happy childhoods, neither one thinks of what can go wrong. But the unexpected deaths of both their fathers catapult their lives in two very different directions. Terry finds trouble with the law, while Mike lives his life racked with guilt and sadness.

The kindness and determination of the Little Blue Engine have inspired millions of children around the world since the story was first published in 1930. Cherished by audiences for 90 years, The Little Engine That Could is a classic tale of a little engine that, despite her size, triumphantly pulls a train full of wonderful things to the children waiting on the other side of a mountain.

Here are tales of star-faring adventure, peril, and drama. Here are journeys into the mind-bending landscapes of virtual worlds and alternate realities. Here you'll also find stories of humanity's astounding future on Earth, on Mars, and in the solar system beyond - stories that always get the science right. And Bova's gathering of deeply realized, totally human characters are the heroic, brave, tricky, sometimes dastardly engineers, astronauts, corporate magnates, politicians, and scientists who will make these futures possible.

Exactly one year after the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, the very first pride parade kicked off on Christopher Street with a march up New York's Sixth Avenue and into the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. They marched to demonstrate against decades of systemic discrimination, inequality, and harassment. Fifty years later, New York City was preparing for the biggest pride celebration yet when COVID-19 struck. Undeterred, the global LGBTQIA+ community transformed this special anniversary into a global virtual celebration.

Klawde and Raj are back! As summer turns to fall, our favorite warlord cat remains in his pitiful exiled existence. But Raj has an even scarier prospect than cosmic exile: starting at a new school. If things didn't seem complicated enough, both cat and human are confronted with two figures from their past they did not expect to pop up in Elba, Oregon....

In book three of this hysterical series, Klawde faces a challenger he never imagined: a dog, who has arrived on Earth to settle the intergalactic score. He's hyper, he's loyal, he's an all-around-good boy, and he's here to bring Klawde to justice. Can our ferocious feline evade the long paw of the law? Raj, on the other hand, is faced with his own out-of-town visitor who, although from Earth, may prove to be even more formidable: his grandmother. When she plans a birthday party Raj doesn't want, will he survive the embarrassment?

I killed three men as a child and earned myself the name Bloodletter. Then I set fire to the fabled Ashram. I've been a bird and robbed a merchant king of a ransom of gold. And I have crossed desert sands and cutthroat alleys to repay my debt. I've stood before the eyes of god, faced his judgement, and cast aside the thousand arrows that came with it. And I have passed through the Doors of Midnight and lived to tell the tale. I have traded one hundred and one stories with a creature as old as time, and survived with only my cleverness, a candle, and a broken promise.

In the current period of social and political unrest, conversations about identity are becoming more frequent and more difficult. On subjects like critical race theory, gender equity in the workplace, and LGBTQ-inclusive classrooms, many of us are understandably fearful of saying the wrong thing. Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow, founders of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, are here to show potential allies that these conversations don’t have to be so overwhelming.

“There have never been as many exquisitely built stories in existence than there are now,” proclaims guest editor Lauren Groff in her introduction. This abundance led to a volume of robust stories with the nerve to push against narrative expectations. The Best American Short Stories 2024 boasts a collection of twenty stories that “buzz with their own strange logic.” Daring and resonant, the stories in this volume invite in Groff “a feeling that both the author and I were simultaneously discovering something together.”

It’s the late 1960s, and two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East-Coast American family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have come to build a new world - Auroville, an international utopian community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the future bright.

What if you were imprisoned for all eternity? The House of Always is the fourth book in Jenn Lyons’s epic fantasy series A Chorus of Dragons, which starts with The Ruin of Kings. In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed. The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed...

Aaron and Sarah have defeated the High King, but the danger of war is far from over. As they relentlessly hunt down rogue Elitesman strongholds, they know General Halcylon and the Zekara won't stay in hiding for long. Battles of terrifying proportion are imminent, and it will take the combined forces of all the kingdoms to stop the Hythariam army. Little do they know that their actions could have disastrous and apocalyptic consequences.

Farewell Yellow Brick Road is a celebration of Elton John's record-breaking, globe-spanning farewell tour—from Allentown to Auckland, from Sydney to San Francisco. Featured concerts include Elton’s dazzling performances at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium in November 2022, the finale of which streamed live on Disney+. Fans will be treated to a behind-the-scenes glimpse into every aspect of these spectacular shows, including Elton’s legendary touring wardrobe by Gucci, the set design, official photography, and more.

Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card's bestselling novel Ender's Game, humans were just beginning to step off Earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna. No one had seen any sign of other space-faring races; everyone expected that First Contact, if it came, would happen in the future, in the empty reaches between the stars. Then a young navigator on a distant mining ship saw something moving too fast, heading directly for our sun.

Anxiously awaiting news from the residency program of her dreams, dental student Harper Horowitz is laser focused. So crashing (quite literally) into Dan Craige is exactly the sort of dreamy distraction that she is trying to avoid. First-year student Dan may not have the same passion for pulling teeth that Harper does, but he's instantly smitten. When Harper makes it clear that she's not interested in trading fillings for feelings anytime soon, they set out to be 'just friends' - a plan with the best of intentions and the poorest of follow-throughs.