Showing results by narrator "Joshua Saxon" in All Categories

As the Dragon Moon continues to hold sway over Tiberos and the gods begin to take a hand in matters for their own gain, Rath the minotaur finally returns to the empire. However, accompanying him and his surviving crew is a cargo that immediately puts the mariner at odds with his own people...the wizard Amble, the knight Erik Constantin, Kaldara, the elven mystic, and Grey Gage, reluctant new emissary. There to attempt to close the rifts growing between the empire and the kingdoms, they are instead used as pawns by powers both mortal and not seeking to foment all-out war.

Since he became the guardian of the Gate between our world and Feirie 1600 years ago, Nick Medea, once Saint George, has battled to keep the darkest Feirie - the Wyld - from invading the mortal plane. With the dragon an unwilling part of him, Nick maintains balance between realms, often at great cost to him and those nearest to him. Nick and his ragtag confederates - including the shape-shifter Fetch and Nick's reincarnated love, Claryce - have battled the Wyld, but mortals as sinister as the darkest Feirie.

The clash of armies in the American Civil War left hundreds of thousands of men dead, wounded, or permanently damaged. Skirmishes and battles could result in casualty numbers as low as one or two and as high as 10s of thousands. The carnage of the battlefield left a lasting impression on those who experienced or viewed it, but in most cases the armies quickly moved on to meet again at another time and place. When the dust settled and the living armies moved on, what happened to the dead left behind?

As dark forces vie against one another to claim power during the Dragon Moon - in the process seeking to manipulate the minotaur empire and the allied kingdoms into war with one another - a few move to prevent catastrophe from overtaking the world of Tiberos. Sent on a desperate mission by her superior, the half-elf knight Aylin Brightstar and her comrades - the Vledarian siblings Varvara and Nathaniel - must confront their own heritages if they hope to convince bickering realms of the true threat lurking among them.

There are monsters roaming the desert and menacing the roads. There are sorcerers, harlots, and gamblers rampant in the city. In a compound in a forest, at the base of a mountain, one man and his family have received a prophecy. There will be a reckoning. There will be a flood. They will survive, but only if they obey the prophecy. Only if they build an ark, where there is no water. Only if they gather all of the creatures of the world. Only if they are faithful. Everyone else? Well, they're going to die.

Salt Water Tears delivers 11 stories from Bram Stoker Award winning author Brian A. Hopkins. These stories share a common theme, the oceans that cover seven-tenths of our world, but each is as unique and emotionally-charged as you've come to expect from this talented, seasoned, if not-heard-from-often-enough author. Submerge yourself in the worlds of this gifted storyteller, and you'll not want to come up for air.

Here are 17 of the author's favorite stories, including Five Days in April, along with the preceding story "Ten Days in July" and a story published here for the first time, "These are the Moments I Live For". Hopkins also won Stokers for his novel The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club, his novella El Dia de los Muertos, and the second volume of his Extremes anthology series. He is the author of several other collections, including Salt Water Tears, Phoenix, and Road's End, as well as two mystery novels.

October 1943: The tide of war in the Pacific has begun to turn in favor of the United States and her allies...the U.S. military deploys a number of new air groups in the Solomon Islands, including a naval fighting squadron known as the Blue Devils...Soon, the Blue Devils are forced to fight on two fronts: against the known enemy, the Japanese, and an unknown, predatory force on the island that threatens to destroy McLachlan and his men.

Scholars suggest the Renaissance started with the first scientific study of perspective. It was introduced in a treatise named De pictura, published in 1435. The author was Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). He was an Italian polymath.

When the XSS Cousteau makes first contact with the Rheas, a pre-space flight alien race, it creates an opportunity for an economic windfall for Earth. After 300 years of paying tribute to their benefactor, the Vrene, humanity can use the relief. Only the Chzek already have a claim on the Rheas, who they want to enslave to serve their empire.

For 1600 years, Nick Medea has guarded the gate between our world and Feirie, preventing the Wyld - the darkest Feirie of all - from coming into Chicago to find human prey. But since he defeated Oberon, more and more Wyld have been slipping through. Nick and his Feirie companion, the shapeshifter, Fetch, have been busy hunting them down. Nick keeps coming across the Dacian Draco, the sign of his ancient enemy Galerius, including a tattoo worn by a human thug. Unfortunately, every trail ends as if years old.

Myles's courtroom testimony should have put Pryor, their one-eyed ringleader, behind bars after the bank robbery gone wrong, yet somehow Pryor got off scot-free while Myles served time. Now, upon his release, Myles decides he is done with his life of wrongdoing—a change that will only be possible if he can kill Pryor and turn over a new leaf. Pryor has other ideas, and the collision between these two deadly forces soon leaves the ex-con in critical condition, clinging to life in a hospital bed.

In 1712, Johann Bessler unveiled the perpetuum mobile, a wheel that continually spun after being set into motion until it was stopped with no mechanical input. Bessler's secret died with him. Except that it didn’t. Elly Kassel is the granddaughter of Evelyn Kassel. Elly is called into the offices of eminent London solicitors where she discovers that her grandmother was a rich woman. She also receives a trunk and an envelope, which she is not to open until she reaches New York City. In New York, she is told, all her questions about her grandmother and her inheritance will be answered.

This new collection of stories from USA Today best-selling, multiple Bram Stoker winning author David Niall Wilson presents twenty-stories and a brand new, unpublished novella.

Trapped in a lifetime of wrong turns and regret, Danny is a lost man desperate to reinvent himself. When Danny receives a sudden influx of cash, he devotes his time and money to mastering the art of time travel. Delving into his troubled past, Danny begins constructing an alternate life narrative to fulfill his biggest dreams and abolish personal tragedies. He ignites a love affair with his childhood sweetheart and achieves his ambition to fly airplanes. But the reboot comes with a price. As the secrets of Danny’s time machine come to light, murder and mayhem erupt around him.

Welcome to New Londinium, a city that developed from an enclave of stragglers who survived the culminating blast of the last world war. From beneath the lee of a mountain formed as a result of the devastation, a colony gathered and grew. After several hundred years, this post-apocalyptic city is filled to bursting, and everyone - well, nearly everyone - is struggling for a place amidst the city’s Chosen, the elite ruling faction.

An alternate 1930s Chicago beset by "rogue"', the newspaper-christened costumed villains kept only in check by the mysterious hero, the Legionary. However, when the Legionary goes missing, and there is no one left to stop the reign of crime, what is the city to do?

Read offers the first book focused on Lincoln's understanding of majority rule. He also highlights the similarities and differences between the threats to American democracy in Lincoln's time and in our own.

An old king with nothing left to lose is lured to the site of his greatest victory by a long-forgotten enemy seeking revenge. The last dragon-slayer and the last dragon, brought together with just one anticipated outcome, but what if they have more to ask of each other? A brave knight cursed to know love as no other, but to never have that love returned in kind. The wild west as you've never seen it before. Two ancient warriors body-stealing through time. These are just some of the stories in this collection from award-winning author Brian A. Hopkins.

The Nativity: During the reign of King Herod of Judea, an unwed teenage virgin called Mary is impregnated with a magical baby by the Holy Spirit. She and her fiancé, Joseph, travel to Bethlehem for a preposterous census, and Mary has to give birth in a stable. Meanwhile, a group of stargazing magi who have traipsed hundreds of miles after a star inadvertently inform the king of Judaea of the Messiah’s birth. Also included: "Herod’s Christmas Carol" and a bonus, "Parodies of a Visit from St. Nicholas".