Showing results by narrator "Mike Vendetti" in All Categories

Brian Dalrymple returns home after three weeks of pursuing the retreating Germans at the end of World War I. His hometown considers him a hero, and gives him a hero’s welcome. After basking in his quickly disappearing notoriety, he goes looking for job. Seems all those wonderful offers have gone away, and Brian takes a job as a stock clerk in Mr. Macy’s wholesale grocery. It doesn’t take Brian long to find that advancement is going to be difficult, and he is stuck in a no-win job with few prospects.

One of the remarkable things about Fritz Leiber is the ease with which he writes any kind of story. Science fiction, fantasy, weird: You name it and he's done them all. Just think of "Gather, Darkness", "Scylla's Daughter", and (in the old Unknown) ''Smoke Ghost", and you'll see what we mean. In that last story parlicularly Leiber helped to modernize the tale of terror, to take it out of haunted castles and moldering graveyards and put it into the dark, nightmarish streets of a modern city. ''I'm Looking for Jeff", written much later, belongs in this same category.

Award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti takes us into London's China Town of the early 20th century where the beautiful half cast daughter of Haung Chow tempts Detective John Durham. It's Durham's job to investigate the suspicious appearance of two bodies in the Thames. Both men had shady business dealings with old Haung who was thought to be hoarding a treasure trove of wealth in his dwelling.

Calling for staunch individualism, "Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency and follow their own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

Ace Clawson, the "Carnie" guy, is in the dumps because his girlfriend, "The Girl from Mars" in his freak show, has run off with the magician. Everything becomes okay when a beautiful woman shows up claiming she is from Mars. Ace figures she is an escapee from the asylum, but she is built and beautiful in a strange way, so he offers her a job to lure her into the tent. Bad idea.

Did he drown? Is he dreaming? Did he almost drown? Only Lord Dunsany, aka Edward Plunkett, the eighteenth baron of Dunsany, knows for sure.

First published in 1953 ,"Time Enough at Last" by Lynn Venable is the basis for the eighth episode of The Twilight Zone, becoming one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone. It is "the story of a man who loves books yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them. Hope springs forth when the protagonist appears to be the sole survivor of a gigantic nuclear attack, but wait folks; there is more."

The scene is a rundown boardwalk with carnival attractions. Ralph Banghart manages a house of mirrors where the "Dwarf", Mr. Bigelow, comes to view himself as large, normal. Ralph Banghart is a bully, and when his friend, Aimee, takes pity on Mr. Bigelow, Ralph becomes jealous. Although his bullying had been behind Mr. Bigelow's back, Ralph decides to switch the mirror in the house of mirrors to one that makes Bigelow appear tiny instead of large.

Mike Vendetti's mesmerizing voice brings "The Valley of the Worm" to life, capturing the essence of Howard's vivid characters and thrilling plot twists. Listeners will be transported to a world where swordplay and ancient beings collide in an epic battle for survival. Whether you're a fan of Fantasy Science Fiction or just looking for an exciting new adventure, "The Valley of the Worm" is sure to captivate and enthrall you from start to finish.

"Traitor's Hands" is a short story by Agatha Christie that was published in Flynn's, a weekly pulp magazine, in the edition of 31 January 1925. This short story was later published as "Witness for the Prosecution".

This is a simple story of a battle; such a tale as may be told by a soldier who is no writer to a reader who is no soldier. Ambrose Bierce wrote many fictional short stories about the Civil War. This is his experience at Shiloh.

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.

It's the 1920s, and Bernice, a teenager, visits her cousin, also a teenager, but far more wise in the ways of the world. It's summer, with dances at the country club, and Bernice is a bit of a burden to her cousin Marjorie, until Marjorie shares a few secrets with Bernice. With Bernice as the belle of the ball, Marjorie takes a few steps of her own.

Four Gangsters are creating a problem in a medium-sized town, and the police can't seem to handle it. The city fathers consider murdering them, but they are too old, so they hire a professional killer who does the job in one night; but will the problem go away?

Award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti performs Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, one of Poe's best. Poe had a fear of being buried alive, and this theme runs through many of his tales, as it does this one. Poe may have also been a bit mad, and there is definitely madness in the House of Usher. Turn out the lights, and give this Gothic tale of horror a listen, but make sure you aren't alone.

As curator of the Twentieth Century Exhibit, George Miller felt that to do a good job, he had to live his work. Then, one day, somebody got into his exhibit, and he went to investigate.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti reads "Ode to a Nightingale", a personal poem that describes Keats's journey into a state of negative capability. The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within Keats's earlier poems and, instead, explores the themes of nature, transience, and mortality, the latter being particularly relevant to Keats.

Grave robbing as an art form never really caught on. H.P. Lovecraft takes us into the last moments of a robber of graves who found far more than he bargained for. It is definitely best to let some sleeping dogs lie....

Read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti. "Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." Comes from this poem.

The Ghosts begins as straightforward haunted house story, one coming out of the Gothic tradition. Our hero, a skeptic, is staying with his brother at an ancient baronial estate. There, he argues with his brother about the existence of ghosts, and what sorts of evidence for their existence would be acceptable. Then, in order to make his point, he proceeds to induce in himself a ghostly experience by means darkness, drugs, and deprivation.