Showing results by narrator "Dave Cruse" in All Categories

Arrogant. Scornful. Full of pride. Darnuir, prince of dragons, cares nothing for the damage he's doing to the faltering alliance against the Shadow. He thinks himself invincible - right up till a mortal wound forces him to undergo a dangerous rebirthing spell, leaving him a helpless babe in human hands.

Something wicked has made its home in Yewland's famed Blackwood Forest. Dozens of Queen Illaria's finest soldiers have ventured in, only to meet hideous, violent ends. Now, it's up to Nock and Mallik to hunt down the threat that lurks among the dark trees. But they will soon discover that they are not the only hunters in the Blackwood.

Dragons once soared in the skies, but that was before the Transformation, before they took human form. Now, demonic forces stand to obliterate them. When left mortally wounded, Darnuir, the Prince of Dragons, can only be saved through a dangerous rebirthing spell. He is left as a babe in human hands. Twenty years later, Darnuir is of age to wield the Dragon's Blade. As the last member of his bloodline, he is the only one who can. He is plunged into a role he is not prepared for, to lead a people he does not know.

Rigby Thames, the new kid from England, builds a suspicious rock star-like following at Dresden High School a little too quickly. Even Archer’s best friend and confidant, Kara Windchil, seems taken in by the cool guy with the wild blond hair, which definitely rubs Archer the wrong way. Archer must face two foes in two worlds, but he cannot succeed alone. Archer sets off to find other dreamtreaders in a desperate attempt to defeat the enemy terrorizing his friends and family.

For generations, a sentient AI watched over the world, solving all of humanity’s problems. It was an era of objectivity, social equality, and ecological recovery. It should have been a golden age. Now, three strangers are on a pilgrimage through the arid, lonely sagelands and underpopulated cities of the Systemic era to the seemingly innocuous town of Prower. There, they'll uncover the secrets that lay buried beneath the town and learn the truth about their half-remembered pasts. In the end, they'll choose between their sanity or solving humanity’s final, most intractable problem.

The 1950s marked a transformative period in postwar American history. In baseball, one dynasty was the story during the decade. The New York Yankees played in eight World Series from 1950 to 1959, winning six of them. Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio retired following the 1951 season, but a new superstar, Mickey Mantle, took over in Yankee Stadium’s center field in 1952. Mantle, the powerful switch-hitter who blasted tape-measure home runs, often tortured by leg ailments, was the number one box office draw in baseball.

Ebenezer Krow is a relentless man who charges through life, holding himself and everyone else to the letter of the law. Krow’s nephew, his employees, his business associates - even mankind in general - all feel the castigating burn of Krow’s glare. One night, on Christmas Eve, Krow is visited by his long-dead business partner, Marley Chastain. The ghost warns Krow that three spirits, one of them a devil, will assail him throughout the night. But will the harrowing experience be enough to tear the scab from his sin-scarred soul?

Opportunities there are few and far between...that is, unless you're willing to put on a uniform. For ace-pilot Deborah Allen Riker (aka “Admiral Dare”), life had never been easy. She's defended Earth against countless enemies, both alien and human alike. Now she's retired. Committed to a life of solitude and studying the aliens she spent a lifetime fighting...until she finds herself dragged into a new conflict. A conflict she never saw coming.

The difference in their uncanny eyes could not be easily discerned. In the rays of the setting sun, both Aravel's and Morlan's eyes appeared gold. In the pale moonlight...yellow. Seemingly the same. Such inscrutable likeness is the way of things with identical twins. But all who knew the two brothers well noted unmistakable differences, peculiarities more experienced than seen.

As winter wanes, the fragile bonds of the Three Races begin to break. With Darnuir recovering from his addiction, and Blaine reclusive in the hallways of his Order, it falls to Lira to manage the mounting tension between the humans and zealous dragons before catastrophe strikes from within the city walls. In Brevia, King Arkus unveils his new weapons to the Assembly of Lords, but is it a gift to his people or a threat? Cassandra fears the latter and vows to curb her father’s new unchecked power that she herself helped to create.

Jack Reilly's luck ran out just before the war did. Resigning his commission in the Alliance shortly after the end of the war with the Serkins, he went out into the galaxy looking for a job. Signing onto the Glacier Runner 17, an old and rundown cargo ship, Reilly finds himself working for a clueless captain, mixed up in an intergalactic conspiracy, on the run from assassins, and involved with two women in relationships that he could only call "complicated". And that's just book one. Follow Lt. Jack Reilly and his partner, Major Mitchel, through their adventures.

Fleeing the kingdom he once ruled, Lochlan Stormgarden leads the survivors of the Bloody Red Night across Myriad on a desperate quest for safety. With tyrannical High King Morlan's legions and the lethal bone ministers constantly dogging his steps, Lochlan discovers that the only refuge might be a legendary contagion-cursed fortress deep in the heart of the Gorrack nation.

Like a long night's slumber disturbed by disquieting dreams, 20 years have passed since Morlan Stormgarden's exile. The realm of Myriad waits in uncertain peace, for the Gray Hour Massacres remain unsolved. Tempted by the lure of adventure, High King Lochlan Stormgarden begins to ponder his royal destiny. A daring plan is hatched, the high king's throne is left vacant, and Lochlan meets Ariana Kurtz, who might be the love of his life if she doesn't kill him first.

Opportunities there are few and far between…that is unless you're willing to put on a uniform. For ace-pilot Deborah Allen Riker (a.k.a “Admiral Dare”), life had never been easy. She's defended Earth against countless enemies, both alien and human alike. Now a civilian and academic living on the fringes of civilized space, she has committed herself to a life of solitude and studying a race of long-dead aliens. Everything was great…until she finds herself dragged into a new conflict. A conflict she never saw coming.

Things were looking up for Jack. He and Kayla had married, were expecting their first baby, and moved into a nice house on New Harmony. Kayla was due to give birth any day, but Jack is pulled away on a case that could threaten their newfound happiness and the peace of the Alliance. An Alliance starship, believed to have been destroyed 17 years ago during the war, has mysteriously appeared without its crew.

The Three Races must work together if they are to survive, but they have another problem - Castallan. The traitorous wizard has raised a deadly rebellion, and declared himself King of Humans. He believes himself safe in the bowels of his impenetrable Bastion fortress, but Darnuir, now King of Dragons, intends to break those walls at all costs. To face these threats, all dragons, humans, and fairies must truly unite; yet old prejudices may undermine Darnuir's efforts, once again.

Jack Reilly’s luck ran out just before the war did. Released on a medical discharge shortly after the end of the war with the Serkins, he went out into the galaxy looking for a job. Signing onto the Glacier Runner 17, an old and rundown cargo ship, Rielly finds himself working for a clueless captain, mixed-up in an intergalactic conspiracy, on the run from assassins, and involved with two women in relationships that he could only call "complicated".

Lt. Jack Reilly was just settling into his new life on the colony planet called New Harmony with his partner Major Mitchell, and his girlfriend Kayla. Most days in Fleet Investigations were not much more than witness interviews, low-level cases, and data work. But just as life was getting simpler, the job pulled them back to the front lines. Pirates had stolen the fleet's newest warship. Reilly and Mitchelle are called in to help figure out who the pirates are, and what they intend to do with the deadliest ship ever built before innocent lives are lost.

Lt. Reilly is back. He took the job that Mitchell offered him in the Military Investigations office on New Harmony, got his commission reinstated, and finally had a chance to figure out his relationship with Kayla. Yet one of his cases turned out to be much, much bigger than he expected it to be. He and Mitchell soon find themselves in the middle of a black-ops cover-up, intergalactic conspiracy and the beginnings of a new war that threatens to rip the Alliance apart from within.

The north was decimated by war centuries ago and nature never recovered. Rumors and whispers now spread of the return of the darkness that once plagued the lands. Prince Gilford remains as the only surviving heir of a dying kingdom but he must remain vigilant as he knows there is more to fear than simply the darkness.