Showing results by narrator "Jeremy Arthur" in All Categories

Landover was a genuine magic kingdom, with fairy folk and wizardry, just as the advertisement has promised. But after he purchased it, Ben Holiday learned that there were a few details the ad had failed to mention. The kingdom was in ruin. The Barons refused to recognize a king, and the peasants were without hope. A dragon was laying waste the countryside, while an evil witch plotted to destroy everything.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

Addison’s about to get married, but she’s not looking forward to the big day. It’s not her fiancé; he’s a wonderful man. It’s because Addison doesn't know who she really is. A few years ago, a kind driver found her bleeding next to a New Jersey highway and rescued her. While her physical wounds healed, Addison’s memory never returned. She doesn’t know her real name. Or how she ended up injured on the side of a road. Or why she can’t shake the notion that she may have done something very, very bad.

In the title story of Walk Between the Raindrops, a woman sits down next to a man at a bar and claims she has ESP. In “Thirteen Days,” passengers on a cruise line are quarantined, to horrifying and hilarious effect. And “Hyena” begins simply: “That was the day the hyena came for him, and never mind that there were no hyenas in the South of France, and especially not in Pont-Saint-Esprit—it was there and it came for him.”

Young and handsome, Julian lives a charmed life in Los Angeles. His world is turned upside down by a love affair with Josephine, a mysterious young woman who takes him by storm. But she is not what she seems, carrying secrets that tear them apart - perhaps forever. So begins Julian and Josephine’s extraordinary adventure of love, loss, and the mystical forces that bind people together across time and space. It is a journey that propels Julian toward either love fulfilled...or oblivion.

Ukraine, 1923. On a small farm, two boys are born within days of each other, both Ukrainian, one Jewish. Mykhail and Asher grow up inseparable, together finding friendship, adventure and escape from the harshness of Russian rule. But after Asher’s family flees to Warsaw, their worlds are torn to shreds by the Second World War. The war brings cruelty to both boys. Although Asher finds love in Warsaw, the city is far from the haven his family sought; meanwhile Mykhail becomes a victim of the bitter struggle for Ukraine. But worse follows, in the shape of the Treblinka death camp.

Dean Robinson used to be a soldier. That is, until a fallen angel with a God complex and a snappy wardrobe killed him. Now, he is something else. Not quite an angel but no longer human, Dean is thrust into the prophetic pinnacle of a timeless battle raging in the shadows of the Earth and the heavens. He and his newfound gang of arcane sidekicks might be the only thing standing between mankind and an incursion of otherworldly giants.

After saving America from Middle Eastern terrorists, even Mike Harmon and the Keldara could use a vacation. Of course, the Kildar's idea of a vacation includes taking down pirates in the Singapore Straits. But when he finds computer chips designed to run nuclear reactors in the pirate booty, Harmon has a new mission thrust upon him - discover how bottom-feeding thieves got their hands on top-secret technology. The chips are headed for newly democratic Myanmar, a country vital to American interests in the region. Now Harmon finds himself in a desperate race to learn who stole the chips and why.

Eighteen months have passed since Jake and his daughter endured a harrowing ordeal in the Alabama woods. To save his child, Jake killed two men working with notorious drug runner Ethan “Moon Pie” Daniels. Jake’s grateful that they survived, but can’t shake the feeling that the horror isn’t over and that retribution is coming. His actions cost Moon Pie his best friends and nearly two years of business.

Scarred in a duel over a feckless female, Gavin Lawrence leaves America to take up his new duty as Marquess of Effingham, vowing to never again care for another woman. But lurking in the Marquess' crumbling manor is a young woman in terrible danger. The self-sufficient daughter of a soldier, Dillian Whitnell hides her injured cousin in the secret passages of Arinmede Manor following an attempt on their lives.

Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought - and will use her newfound power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other once more. With Marcella's rise, new enmities create opportunity - and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

With 30 years of backcountry patrol experience in Florida, Bob Lee has lived through incidents of legend, including one of the biggest environmental busts in Florida history. His fascinating memoir reveals the danger and the humor in the unsung exploits of game wardens.

Thrust into a life full of woeful twists and turns, Jason Marshall has contended with the prehistoric customs and immeasurable power of the Goreans. His struggles on Gor, a planet resembling Earth, included escaping imprisonment, enslavement, and redeeming lost land. Jason has fought to regain control of his life. Having ascended to a position of power in the Gorean army, Jason must prevail in a battle that seems destined to destroy Gor. Jason has a lot riding on his success as a war leader: prestige, wealth, and an Earth girl of goddesslike beauty.

A year had passed since Ben Holiday bought the Magic Kingdom from the wizard Meeks, who had set a series of pitfalls against him. Ben survived, by the aid of three loyal friends: Questor Thews, and ill-trained wizard; Abernathy, a talking dog, the court scribe; and the lovely Willow, who sometimes had to be a tree. But Ben had been troubled by dreams of disaster to his former partner, Miles Bennett. Yet when he returned to Earth, Ben found Miles doing splendidly. The dreams had been a trap by Meeks, who had returned to the Magic Kingdom as a tiny insect hidden in Ben's clothing.

A riveting novel in which old friends must excavate the formative event of their childhood - a murder - and determine how to pit truth against justice. Hutch Van Buren is 15 years old, playing sports and searching for arrowheads in a small industrial town in Ohio with his three closest friends when an altercation between the comrades and Petey Sanchez, a troubled 17-year-old, leads to Petey’s accidental death. Together, Hutch and his friends become ensnared in a web of secrets and moral dilemmas.

Learning a valuable lesson in gender roles, Jason Marshall, an Earthman enslaved by the Goreans, must prove himself on the planet Gor. Determined to find the beautiful Earthwoman who was kidnapped with him, Jason is caught in the middle of a devastating war between Ar and the Salerians. Jason must prove himself a real man and survive the war in hopes of finally finding the girl of his dreams.

Hercules, Zeus, Thor, Gilgamesh - these are the figures that leap to mind when we think of myth. But to David Leeming, myths are more than stories of deities and fantastic beings from non-Christian cultures. Myth is at once the most particular and the most universal feature of civilization, representing common concerns that each society voices in its own idiom.

Lust, Vengeance and Non-stop Action.

Mike Harmon's commando-quality retainers agree: their leader, code-named Ghost, is a peculiar one. An ex-Navy-SEAL, there is no stronghold he cannot penetrate, no target he can't take out. But Ghost is also a man struggling to keep the animal inside at bay and his twisted sexual desires satisfied with a rock-hard integrity and incredible force of will. Now Harmon and his militia have been hired to rescue the daughter of a powerful political mover in America, kidnapped into the Eastern Europe sex trade.