Showing results by narrator "Travis Baldree" in All Categories

That’s Zane’s permanent nickname for me after I managed to lose the glitched item that dragged us all to the next endgame world. Just when we uncovered the mystery behind the Dark Lord Coin, I managed to find a secret world of Game Masters that have been pulling the strings. Everything was fine.... Until one of them started messing with the universe code.

The When Swords Fall Silent anthology showcases the imaginations and talents of more than a dozen of the best modern science-fiction and fantasy authors, with each tale centered around one or more characters burdened with a bloody task they will see to completion no matter the cost. Every story takes you for a vicious ride through a world of shadow and death, each as unique in perspective and execution as the contracts carried out within.

Twenty years ago, the Merge brought armies of monsters flooding into the West Coast. Dungeons popped up in shopping malls, airports, and Starbucks. Walls were built to contain the spread, but the promise of priceless loot dropped by the creatures inspired a new type of gold rush. Clay Jaeger has nothing left outside the walls. Civilization took everything he worked for, chewed it up, and spat it out. Now Clay, his wife Alex, and his beer-loving, chainsaw-toting brother, Joe, are going west to try their hand at monster killing.

Though Arthur Leywin would like nothing more than to pursue his studies at the esteemed Xyrus Academy, where he hopes to push his already potent magical abilities to new plateaus and perhaps discover something more about his reincarnation into this world, he finds the politics of the school's halls even more challenging to navigate than those of the council chambers he once inhabited as King Grey.

A ruthless wizard lord conquers a neighboring wizardom, increasing his magic far beyond mere mortals. The more power he gains, the more he craves. While wizardoms war against one another, the Dark Lord rises. An army of monsters invades, sending the world toward the brink of doom. A team of misfits find themselves the fulcrum point of destiny, their world teetering upon their actions, certain to crumble should they fail.

In the Prime Kingdoms, the system dominates everything. It dictates one’s strength, skills, and power. It spawns dungeons and guides the actions of their monsters. But every system has its limits, and it’s about to push four oddball adventurers to theirs.

Working as a quality-assurance grunt in the gaming industry sounds like fun, right? You get to play the coolest new games before anyone else. And all you have to do is to find, reproduce, and report bugs before the last pixel is locked in and the games are launched to an eager public. Sure, there’s the unpaid overtime, the office politics, and the ever-present threat of layoffs. But you get to game!

Cam and Light Squad have returned to Salvation, but important questions linger. How many of the great Sages have turned traitors? Who can Light Squad trust? And is the Ephemeral Academy itself compromised? Strangely pertinent as well is the nature of Cam's relationship with Charity Kazar. Who are they to one another? Dangers abound, and while none of the questions have easy answers, what becomes clear is that Cam has to forge his own path. The rest of Light Squad shares his antipathy toward those in authority, and together, they conceive a plan to make their own destiny.

Existing within a virtual world shared across millions of users while they sleep, the online game, Carpe Noctem, offers a life of magic and adventure. For a scruffy gunslinger like Max, and a snarky fairy like Kira, it’s home. Unfortunately, Noctem’s creator, and unhinged genius, has been fired. On his way out, he slapped a doomsday button to bring the system crashing down and send the global economy into ruin. To save their second home, Max and Kira will need to assemble a party of misfits to conquer a quest of nightmares, and discover the secrets that lurk within the game.

Simon has spent the last six months hunting Incarnations and has begun to realize that his power alone won’t be enough to stop a true enemy. Leah is queen over a nation of refugees, driven from their homes by the fury of Territories gone mad. Alin rules his city with an iron fist, imposing the virtues of Elysia on an imperfect population. Now, the three must stand united as the balance of the world shifts once more. A greater threat looms, and it has made its presence known.... The Incarnations are missing.

Ruwen’s life is inside out, literally. Trapped in the Spirit Realm by a hostile god’s magic, Ruwen’s spells, abilities, and skills no longer work. Worse, his secret "cultivation" ability is now blindingly evident. A critical clue, given to Ruwen during the betrayal, makes him question the motives behind the treachery and offers a path home.

Given a chance at immortality, can Wu Ying grasp the fleeting opportunity? Long Wu Ying never expected to join a Sect or become a real cultivator. His days were spent studying, planting rice on the family farm and spending time with his friends. Fate, however, has different plans for Wu Ying and when the army arrives at his village, he and many other members of the village are conscripted.

After Lucas dies during a freak explosion, divine intervention sees him brought back to life with the power to control a new dungeon. There are just a couple of issues: his old body is bound to his dungeon, and the craziness of what he thought was his final act is only getting weirder. When he sees newbie adventurers entering his dungeon, though, he decides to help them survive and complete their quests. After all, adventuring is a process, and someone needs to guide the rookies.

Trade Minister Rlinda Kett seeks to reestablish contact with lost human colonies that have vanished in the chaos, and she travels to a planet called Happiness, site of an isolated neo-Amish colony where the treacherous Prince Daniel was exiled. As a civil war brews among the Roamer clans over the old ways versus new business methods, some brave clans venture back to skymining again, harvesting the restless clouds of huge gas giant planets - where the threat of the devastating hydrogue aliens always looms....

Ruwen returns home to discover a civil war he unintentionally ignited 18 months prior. Still haunted by the events on Savage Island, he resolves to rise above the specter of his past mistakes and seeks the counsel of loyal friends to avert a looming descent into tyranny.

Artorian has survived his encounter at the Ziggurat, but at a sharp cost. However, the powers in the world are moving and there is no time to rest. Even if Artorian doesn’t realize his part in it, the next stage of the great plan is set in motion.

Farley Meadowsweet always planned to travel beyond the quiet Flox village where he was born. He’s finally on his way to greatness, alongside Dessa, the mountain who called him, and Torio Kite. The two men share a unique affinity for stone, which makes them perfect for a dangerous vocation—hunting rogue statues known as the Misbegotten.

Ruwen and his friends have five days to spring a comrade from the world’s most secure prison, Legion’s Vault, located in the city of a god that wants him dead. Permanently dead. Their only way into the city is competing in the yearly Step Championship. Nothing says low profile like combat in front of a hundred thousand spectators. If remaining anonymous and breaking into a legendary prison didn’t already spell disaster, an old acquaintance appears. One who knows Ruwen’s name and face and can destroy all their plans.

James thought he would be just another adventurer in the world’s most anticipated dungeon delving VRMMORPG. But when he logs in, he soon finds out that he won’t be diving the dungeon - he will be creating it. Pretty awesome right? At least that was what he thought when he boldly chose "Random" as his dungeon type....

Running on the world's fastest quantum computer is a very special game: one where retirees leave their flesh-and-blood lives in search of endless adventure. Weapons, spells, gold, experience points.... These are the marks by which life is now measured. Ethan Crane wants none of it. In fact, he never wanted to retire at all, let alone play a game for all eternity. But now he's on a mission to find his wife - a wife he just discovered is still alive and inside the game.