Showing results by narrator "Mike Vendetti" in All Categories

Some mountains are best left unscaled. Particularly Mount Hatheg-Kla. Two men go up, but only one comes back.

This 1953 science fiction short story takes place somewhere in the future. The Cold War has turned into a hot war, and the Soviets are engaged in a war with the Americans. The war has become so hot that the surface of the world is no longer habitable by humans. The surface of the earth has become a radioactive nuclear wasteland, but the war must go on and it is being conducted by highly intelligent robots.

Johnny was Gravendale's grave digger and embalmer who loved his job, especially picking a special spot that he thought the deceased would be proud to be buried at. Johnny was a little weird because during the embalming process, he would sit beside the cold slab the body was lying on, and as he was inserting the hose into the deceased body to drain their blood, he would read stories to them and talk to them as though they were still alive.

It is the turn of the last century, and Alaska is a mysterious wilderness. At the suggestion of several hundred thousand ladies desiring to revel and possibly riot in the saturnalia of equal franchise, the unnamed lakes in that vast and little known region in Alaska bounded by the Ylanqui River and the Thunder Mountains were now being inexorably named after women.

Lois, a beautiful 19-year-old young woman travels to Baltimore to meet Harold, her love interest, as they consider a breakup. We never meet Harold; instead, the short story becomes more about Catholicism and the priesthood, as Lois first spends an afternoon with Keith, her 36-year-old brother, a seminarian in a Jesuit monastery. Lois and Keith have not seen one another for 16 years, so it is an extremely interesting reunion.

Esther is getting old. No, she is old. Aging with every blink, with every breath. After a life full of power and purpose, she is met with the harsh reality that she is now obsolete, and her fragile moments are short. On the eve of the last night in the city she has called home for years, Esther and her lover Jacob share their fears and their romance for this world over one last meal, as they wait in fearful unrest for what is coming.

I knew this day would come but I didn't think it would be so soon. I peered through the curtains of my bedroom window listening to the howling wind and watched as the lightning lit up the sky. My heart was beating like a bass drum. Something about this night was like no other night I have ever experienced that overwhelmed me with great fear of the unknown. Then I noticed in the distance a carriage barreling down the castle road at such a great speed. The closer the carriage got to the castle the more my fear grew.

Step into the electrifying world of "The Five White Mice," where chance and fortune collide in the streets of 19th-century New York. This gripping tale follows a group of young men whose lives revolve around the thrill of a dice game steeped in risk and reward. As they toast to their luck with five white mice of chance, the night unfolds into an adventure filled with audacity and reckless abandon.

Frank Belknap Long's "Brown." is indeed pertinent in today's discourse surrounding artificial intelligence. The relationship between Horn and his creations, particularly Brown, serves as a microcosm of our own interactions with technology.

T.S. Elliot was likely the best read of any of his contemporaries. In his poetry, we often find an allusion to the works of other great writers. In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" he makes reference to Dante Shakespeare and "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvel. Prufrock, as the name implies, is an indecisive wimp, whereas Marvel in his seduction poem, has his eye on the prize, and makes no bones about it.

"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane is a profound short story that captures the struggle for survival experienced by four shipwrecked men adrift in a small dinghy after their steamer, the Commodore, sinks. The narrative is based on Crane's real-life experience of being stranded at sea, and it explores themes of nature's indifference, the bond between humans in the face of adversity, and existential reflections.

The crux of this story lies in the concept of "superiority"--not just in terms of technology but in understanding how that technology can be effectively employed. Clarke explores the hubris inherent in underestimating one's enemies and the danger of overreliance on assumed technological advantages. The protagonist reflects on their miscalculations, emphasizing that true military prowess extends beyond mere possession of advanced weaponry.

"The Thing Behind Hell's Door" is a science fiction short story written by renowned author Robert Silverberg. It was originally published in 1973 as part of the anthology "New Dimensions II." The story explores themes of exploration, otherworldly beings, and the unknown. Mike Vendetti's narration style proves to be an excellent choice for capturing the grim atmosphere and otherworldly ambiance that pervades the novel. His deep, resonant voice and skilled delivery brought the sinister tale to life.

Award-winning audiobook narrator and storyteller Mike Vendetti reads Poems in Prose, the collective title of six prose poems by Oscar Wilde derived from Wilde's many oral tales. These prose poems are the only six that were published by Wilde in his lifetime, and they include (in order of appearance): "The Artist", "The Doer of Good", "The Disciple", "The Master", "The House of Judgment", and "The Teacher of Wisdom".

In this tale an underrespected chemist uses his skill to create a poison that is undetectable and mimics a fit of apoplexy or stroke, killing the victim. He convinces his employer, who has wronged him in many ways, that it is an elixir promising everlasting life and many other benefits. The boss is only too anxious to sample it, and it works only too well. Problem is, what to do with the supernumerary or extra corpse.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti relates a Ray Bradbury tale, "Undersea Guardians" from Amazing Stories, that has passed into the public domain. Down in the sea, a fantastic battle was going on between German subs and their living-dead victims.

The strange beings on World Nine, System XG, could enter into a man's brain at will and make certain changes in the cells, changes to suit their ruthless purpose. Visit this strange planet with award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, as he reads A Cry for Help by Robert Silverberg.

This was one of Lovecraft's favorite short stories, and he was a cat lover. I can imagine him writing The Cats of Ulthar as a form of mental revenge on someone he witnessed mistreating a cat.

Recorded from Weird Tales, August 1926 by award winning narrator Mike Vendetti, this eight-minute short story takes our imaginations inside the crumbling abode of a New England sea captain. The townspeople knew enough to leave the old man alone, but when three out of town thieves take him to be an easy mark, well. Lovecraft was like many of his time, quite prejudiced, and he takes aim at "that new and heterogeneous alien stock which lies outside the charmed circle of New England life and traditions".

An interesting predicament. When a homeowner wakes up to noises downstairs, puts one round in a shotgun, and there are two men in the room when he turns the light on, both claiming to be the police.