Showing results by narrator "Paul Heitsch" in All Categories

Each member of Omega Force carries his own baggage. Most of them are running from their pasts or simply trying to forget them. One member of the small mercenary crew is not who he claims to be, however. When his former life collides with his current one, the team is drawn into a conflict that could have profound consequences for the future of an entire species. Captain Jason Burke struggles to find answers as the tight cohesion of his crew seems to dissolve.

In this fascinating and comprehensive examination of the underside of globalization, Moises Naim illuminates the struggle between traffickers and the hamstrung bureaucracies trying to control them. From illegal migrants to drugs to weapons to laundered money to counterfeit goods, the black market produces enormous profits that are reinvested to create new businesses, enable terrorists, and even to take over governments. Naim reveals the inner workings of these amazingly efficient international organizations and shows why it is so hard - and so necessary - to contain them.

Fin, Renata, Drake, Audrey, Theta, and a freshly rescued Jacques must outmaneuver the Ranger Corps’ own security protocols in frantic pursuit of their close allies and the Ranger Corps fugitives. As if this mission weren’t already personal enough, the raiders of the Ranger Corps station may also be responsible for the disappearance of Drake’s broodmates. With no support and a brand-new spaceship salvaged from an intergalactic junkyard, Fin and the crew embark on their most perilous mission yet.

China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® is a concise introduction to the most astonishing economic growth story of the last three decades. In the 1980s, China was an impoverished backwater, struggling to escape the political turmoil and economic mismanagement of the Mao era. Today it is the world's second biggest economy, the largest manufacturing and trading nation, the consumer of half the world's steel and coal, the biggest source of international tourists, and one of the most influential investors in developing countries from southeast Asia to Africa to Latin America.

A close look at the contest of 1880 reveals that Garfield's victory could have been the start of a period of greater civil rights legislation, a continuation of Lincoln's vision. This was the choice made by the American people - and, as The Last Lincoln Republican makes poignantly clear, the great opportunity forever lost when Garfield was assassinated just a few months into his term.

Captain Jason Burke is a man apart, and not just because he's the only of his kind for thousands of light-years in any direction. The changes to his body and to his genetic code have made him faster, stronger, more able to survive in his dangerous occupation...but they've also ensured that he'll never truly fit in with others of his species. He always assumed he would live and die with his crew and never lay eyes on another human again. He was wrong.

Noah, Ben, and the rest of the crew have done the impossible—defied the Warden and lived to tell the tale. But for how long? Faced with the Warden’s retribution, they’ll have to put all their combined skills and teamwork to the ultimate test to survive. And even if they make it through the gauntlet in one piece, their reward is hardly a reward at all…

Sailing the Caribbean is every yacht owner's dream. Azure waters, golden sunshine, and warm winds greet sailors in every port. But that dream is shattered when one boat returns from a race without its captain. The story is that the skipper fell overboard, but the clues point to something much more sinister, and one of the crew is arrested. And that crew member happens to be a friend of Miami Jones.

For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants, and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defense Industry. These "agents of inequality" are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01 percent.

Miami Jones—Palm Beach's favorite PI—enjoys a quiet beer with friends as much as the next guy. He just never really saw the point of doing it while floating around with 2,000 strangers. But when he is hired on a most delicate case, Miami finds himself navigating not only the turquoise waters of the Bahamas, but also a mystery man who may or may not exist, a crazed Cleveland Browns fan harboring a grudge, and a gaggle of Palm Beach's finest—and most infamous—residents.

When a South Florida golf club is hit with a series of suspicious events on the eve of hosting a big tournament, there’s only one man to call. Miami Jones. But when a caddy goes missing after an altercation with Jones, Miami finds himself in the middle of the case - not just solving it. Miami must navigate billionaire property developers engaged in a high-priced tit-for-tat, death threats, and a state investigator interested in his girlfriend in a professional capacity, and maybe more - to keep himself, the club, and the great state of Florida well and truly out of the deep rough.

American politics seems to grow more contentious and complicated by the day, and whether American democracy works well is hotly debated. Amidst all this roiling partisan argument and confusing claims and counterclaims, there has never been a greater need for an impartial primer on the basics of the American political system.

Buried for decades, the Up Stairs Lounge tragedy has only recently emerged as a catalyzing event of the gay liberation movement. In revelatory detail, Robert W. Fieseler chronicles the tragic event that claimed the lives of 31 men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on unprecedented access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates an indelible portrait of a closeted, blue-collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community.

Five years ago, astronaut Jack Templeton took the spacecraft Magellan to the farthest reaches of our solar system, never to be heard from again. Until now. When the Magellan suddenly reappears where an undiscovered planet was suspected to be, it poses more questions than answers. How did Jack survive all this time? Can he be rescued before his life support runs out? And what is the object long thought to be the elusive "Planet Nine?"

Captain Caleb Card and his crew are on a mission to investigate a transmission believed to be from the lost ship. Ambushed upon arrival, they immediately fear the worst. But the beacon isn’t only active, it’s on the move, and where it leads will change everything they thought they knew about the universe. Cast into a distant galaxy brimming with unknown dangers, they’ll need to adapt quickly if they want to survive long enough to help the missing colonists.

After fragments of a comet hit Earth, Dust wakes to discover the world as he knew it is gone. It isn't the only thing that has changed though; so has Dust. He now possesses powers that continue to grow, but they also come with a price. A deadly encounter after Dust leaves his home leads to a new discovery - other survivors. Dust soon learns that another creature has risen from the ashes, one that is determined to possess the powers he now has.

There was a time when Israel could do no wrong in America's eyes. That time is long past, and justly so - no nation is absolutely perfect, particularly not one that is engaged in a conflict as long as the Arab-Israeli conflict. But the myth of the perfect Israel has been supplanted by a far more deleterious myth: the myth of the evil Israel. This new myth has so pervaded contemporary culture that the history of Israel - as well documented as it is - has been recast and retold to fit a false narrative of Israel as violent occupier.

Jason Burke is a broken man. The loss of his friend and crewmate on an ill-fated mission to a Pillar World has left him in a downward spiral of rage and self-destruction. But what if Lucky hadn’t actually died on that planet? While Omega Force tries to pull itself together for the sake of their friend, they also learn that a ruthless new faction has seized control of the ConFed Council and now threatens the stability of the entire quadrant. To make matters worse, the rise of this new regime might be their fault.

Having spent centuries in the shadows of its neighbors China and Japan, Korea is now the object of considerable interest for radically different reasons - the South as an economic success story and for its vibrant popular culture; the North as the home to one of the world's most repressive regimes, at once both bizarre and menacing. Korea: A Very Short Introduction explores the history, culture, and society of a deeply divided region.

Ten years had passed since he last had dealings with humans and their machines. He was happy. He'd built a base for himself and his Void Warriors around the barren moon of a gas giant, where they planned to live out their immortal days in peace. And then humanity came looking for them. Hunting them.