Showing results by narrator "Adam Sims" in All Categories

Roderick Hudson and Rowland Mallet are like two sides of the same coin: while the whimsical and egotistical Roderick recklessly follows his passions in the name of art, altruistic Rowland lives with restraint and measure. The two are bound together almost immediately when Rowland is shown a striking bronze statuette in his cousin's garden, which moves him to meet and support its creator, Roderick. They abandon their provincial New England lives for Rome, where the young sculptor perfects his craft and flourishes among Italy's great masters.

Wealthy and privileged, Alex has an easy path to success in the Parisian elite. But he and his domineering father have never seen eye to eye. Desperate to escape the increasingly suffocating atmosphere of their apartment, Alex seeks freedom on the streets of Paris where his new-found friend Sami teaches him how to survive. But everything has a price - and one night of rebellion changes their lives forever. A simple plan to steal money takes a sinister turn when Alex's father is found dead. Despite protesting their innocence, both boys are imprisoned for murder.

When Martin's raiding guild join the latest virtual reality MMO, they discover a challenge like no other. Strata Online is a 100-floor mega-dungeon, filled with an ever-shifting ecosystem of monsters. Martin's team soon find themselves in a race against the world’s strongest guilds, all competing to be the first to reach the unbeatable game's lowest depths. But unlike other games, Martin will need as much courage as skill to progress. Because the deeper he goes, the darker Strata gets.

For 11 years the clock has been ticking for Russell Gaines while he's sat in Parchman Penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta. His time now up, and believing his debt has been paid, he returns home only to discover that revenge lives and breathes all around.

In the wake of their aunt Amity's suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline's return to the childhood home they once shared.

The Fighter is a brilliant novel set against the dark and desolate backdrop of the Mississippi Delta, where Jack the Jaw, a washed-up bare-knuckle fighter, battles against decades of booze and drug abuse as he returns home to try to save all he has lost. The acres of fertile soil, the 200-year-old house, all gone. And so is the woman who gave it to him, the foster mother who now rests in hospice care, her mind eroded by dementia, the family legacy she entrusted to Jack now owned by banks and strangers.

The kobolds’ Core has been destroyed. The Grotto is safe once more, and the gnomes are finally beginning to regroup. But when a greater threat rises, their only hope of survival is to embark upon a monumental exodus, abandoning everything they’ve built and striking out across the surface in search of a new home. As the god of gnomes, Corey must place more faith than ever before in his denizens - and a few unexpected allies.

Taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, a decade after the Civil War, The Bostonians tells the story of two cousins who battle for the affections of and control over an enchanting prophetess. While visiting his cousin Olive Chancellor, a fierce feminist deeply involved in the Suffragette movement, Basil Ransom, a Confederate Civil War veteran turned lawyer, attends a speech by the talented young orator Verena Tarrant. Basil quickly falls in love with Verena, although he disagrees with her politics; Olive, however, sees her as the future of the women's rights movement.

Dr Rick Tower is a mild-mannered English professor easing into middle-age at a medium-sized New England college. A genial blur, he thinks. Even his vices are unremarkable. But it wasn’t always like this. Not until they changed his name, altered his looks and told him: ‘pretend you were never different’. Because, decades earlier after a very bad day at high school, he was committed to a secret government facility with three other kids, Cat, Jack and Stephanie, each special in their own way. Tested, tutored and trained, this extraordinary quartet were then told to save the world.

Herschel Caine is a master of the universe. His hedge fund, built on the miracle of machine learning, is inches away from systematically sapping profits from the market. His SoHo offices (shoes optional, therapy required) are ready for desperate investors to flood through the doors. But on May 12, his mind is elsewhere-at his Cobble Hill townhouse and the dinner party designed to impress his flawless neighbors. When the soiree falters, Herschel concocts a prank that goes horrifically awry, plunging him into a tailspin of guilt and regret.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe's only full novel, is one of his most unusual works. A riveting story, toldl in the first person, it tells of a disastrous sea voyage involving storms, mutiny, starvation, thirst - and a mysterious conclusion. Jorge Luis Borges and Baudelaire were among those who rated it highly. This recording was timed to mark the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth.

A blistering rebuke of religious hypocrisy, Elmer Gantry is the story of a charismatic and manipulative social climber who rises to power within his church, despite his insincerity. Though he preaches against immorality and temptation, Reverend Dr Elmer Gantry can’t seem to give up his own vices, and he leaves a trail of broken people behind him in his pursuit of pleasure and power, betraying anybody and doing anything to get ahead.

Martin and Iron Riot have made their mark on the Dungeons of Strata, slaying the first of the nightmarish Archdukes faster than anyone could have hoped. Yet the dungeon has left its marks on them, too. Scarred with wounds that will not heal and changed in ways that he cannot comprehend, Martin must contend with the mysterious true nature of the game and the lengths that the Masters who made this world are willing to go to keep their secrets.

Ashleigh and Danny Orchard are twins, not that you'd ever tell by looking at them - Danny distant and shy, Ash beautiful and accomplished. But there's a secret in the Orchard house: Ash is a monster, a psychopath who can feel only through bringing others pain. When Ash and Danny are caught in a fire on their sixteenth birthday, both of them die. But only Danny comes back. Since then Ash has haunted Danny, denying him any form of normal life...or love.

Karna was just like any other comic book fan. He dreamed of fighting alongside colourful heroes and taking down dastardly villains. In Titan Online, the most popular VR MMORPG going, he finally got the chance to live out his cape-donning fantasies. That is, right up until he was killed by the game’s number one ‘hero’. A man who serves only himself in a constant grind for money, fame and adoration. Forced to start from scratch due the harsh game mechanics, Karna finds a new mission: bringing balance back to Titan Online.

Things are going well for young filmmaker Evan Casher: until he receives an urgent phone call from his mother, summoning him home. He arrives to find her brutally murdered body on the kitchen floor and a hit man lying in wait for him. It is then he realises his whole life has been a lie. Evan's only hope for survival is to discover the truth behind his past.

Some people think I’m jealous of my sister, but it isn’t true. I love her confidence; her free spirit. She’s the reckless one in the family, always wearing skimpy clothes and posting her life on social media. I prefer reading, walking my rescue dog and early nights in my New York apartment. It’s not that I meant to keep her a secret from my boyfriend, Bradley, but she just didn’t come up in conversation.

After the collapse of her marriage to an illustrious German prince, Baroness Eugenia Münster arrives in America with her brother, in search of wealthy New England relatives. The duo have an immediate impact on their American cousins, the Wentworths. The Baroness captures the eye of young Clifford Wentworth, and his girlfriend's older brother Robert; meanwhile, Felix falls for his American cousin Gertrude. The Wentworths are overawed by their European cousins and their frivolous lifestyle. What unfolds is a delightful comedy of manners.

Captain Malcolm MacPhail of the Canadian Corps has been in the trenches for longer than he cares to remember. He's just landed a new job on the intelligence staff, but if he thinks staying alive is going to become any easier, he's sorely mistaken. The rain is pelting down, the shells are flying and the dreaded battle for Passchendaele looms. Malcolm reckons matters can still get worse. Which proves to be an accurate assessment, especially as his unruly tongue has a habit of making enemies all on its own.

Brogan McTyre and his compatriots are wanted, dead or alive. Preferably alive, so they can be sacrificed to the raging gods. All they can do is hire more mercenaries and turn them into a fearsome army. But warriors aren't enough when the gods bring Armageddon to the world, unleashing storms and madness and ceaseless attacks on Brogan's men by increasingly demonic foes.