Showing results by narrator "Patrick Cronin" in All Categories

Summer 1991. Joseph March, a 21-year-old working-class kid from Seattle, is on top of the world. He has just graduated college and his future beckons, unencumbered and magnificent. But Joe's life implodes when he starts to suffer the symptoms of severe bipolar disorder and, shortly after, his mother kills a man she's never met with a hammer. Joe moves to White Pine, Oregon, where his mother is in jail and his father has set up house to be near her. He is joined by Tess Wolff, a fiercely independent woman with whom he has fallen passionately in love.

Since cities emerged 10,000 years ago, they have become one of the most impressive artifacts of humanity. But their evolution has been anything but linear - cities have gone through moments of radical change, turning points that redefine their very essence. In this book a renowned architect and urban planner who studies the intersection of cities and technology argues that we are in such a moment. The authors explain some of the forces behind urban change and offer new visions.

For generations, the urban legend of Granny Hatchet has plagued the quiet residential area of Suvikylä in northern Finland. As the story goes, this immortal killer murders her victims with a hatchet then buries the hearts in a potato field and eats them after they've rotted black. But not everyone is convinced it is just a story.

Nathan Runkle would have been a fifth-generation farmer in his small Midwestern town. Instead, he founded our nation's leading nonprofit organization for protecting factory farmed animals. In Mercy for Animals, Nathan brings us into the trenches of his organization's work; from MFA's early days in grassroots activism, to dangerous and dramatic experiences doing undercover investigations, to the organization's current large-scale efforts at making sweeping legislative change to protect factory farmed animals and encourage compassionate food choices.

The Concord is in shambles after the return of the Statu, but under the guidance of the Zilph'i, trust is slowly being rebuilt. Thomas Baldwin remains confident in his team, the secrets of his ship and the Concord no longer a dire threat. While the Founders continue to appease the Concord members, the Border Wars are picking up steam, and Constantine is sent to the far reaches of space to the Zilph'i homeworld to request the Ugna's aid.

To everyone’s surprise, the wormhole has reopened—albeit temporarily. What comes through, no one could have predicted. A people with a mysterious past, with names no one truly understands, have decided to make Faebos their home. Predaxes and Malik, working together, must keep peace while determining whether or not these new arrivals are the friends they claim to be, or the worst foes they’d ever encountered. With a man claiming to be the Prime Minister of Lenzaab among them, will this be salvation for the former residents of Purgatory, or yet another battle waiting to happen?

When the Colonial Marines set out after their deadliest prey, the Xenomorphs, it’s what Corporal Hicks calls a bug hunt—kill or be killed. Here are fifteen all-new stories of such “close encounters,” written by many of today’s most extraordinary authors. Set during the events of all four Alien films, sending the Marines to alien worlds, to derelict space settlements, and into the nests of the universe’s most dangerous monsters, these adventures are guaranteed to send the blood racing—one way or another.

A young Amish boy ventures from Pennsylvania to California in this richly imagined historical novel from the author of An Unseemly Wife. It's 1867. Growing up among the Pennsylvania Amish, 11-year-old Joshua knows that his father is a respected church deacon who has the ear of God. But he's also seen his father's weakness for drink and borne the brunt of his violent rages. In the aftermath of a disastrous fire, Joshua fears his father's reprimand enough to run away from home.

When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places. Contenders Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds. Parisa Kamali is a telepath, who sees the mind’s deepest secrets.

Matheus Taylor didn't ask to be murdered. To be fair, the percentage of people actually asking to be murdered is probably small enough to be safely ignored, but he felt it was worth stating regardless. His life might have been ordinary, but it was his life and he wasn't done with it yet. Quin didn't care. A 1,700-year-old Roman, Quintus Livius Saturnius had a different view of morality than most people. Killing Matheus and hijacking his undead existence seemed perfectly acceptable to him.

Walentin Ivano's murder was no isolated act of brutality. It was the handiwork of one of the most virulent street gangs in American history.

They are four outcasts brought together by the god Vili, bonded by a sacred oath and sworn to each other's fealty. Bith the young sorceress. Cal warrior and outlaw for a crime he didn't commit. The troll Hathor who has foresworn his people's barbarous ways. The enigmatic elf Endril. Each had pledged to defeat the Dark Lord and his minions...or give their lives trying.

Ruby was murdered on Earth 18 years ago and reincarnated on Zadok as a Pastel Zeek named Harlow. To be born at the bottom of her race’s caste colour system to a middle-class family of Magentas has made Harlow a source of conflict amongst the ruling Purples, and a source of derision from all three colours.

Clara and Henrik are married and living in a beautiful inherited villa in Oslo. She is a single-mindedly ambitious child-rights activist at the Ministry of Justice. Having grown up in rural Western Norway, she is also an Oslo outsider. Henrik is a doctor from a well-to-do Oslo family. Though their marriage is under serious strain, they share a devotion to their twin sons and their work. Then a Pakistani Norwegian child is admitted to Henrik’s hospital and dies in his care. The boy had clearly been the victim of child abuse. Soon after, a related murder rocks the city.

5% More presents a painless route to change, with results that can last a lifetime. Whether you want to boost your health, wealth, or wisdom, this book reveals a key technique that makes it stick. You may already know that breaking big goals into small chunks makes them easier to achieve, but the trick is in making those chunks large enough to be productive, yet small enough to be sustainable. This book shows you how to bring your goals within reach with only five percent more effort.

Cabot Wright is a handsome, Yale-educated stockbroker and scion of a good family. He also happens to be the convicted rapist of nearly three hundred women. Bernie Gladhart is a naive used-car salesman from Chicago, who - spurred on by his ambitious wife - decides to travel to Brooklyn and write the Great American Novel about the recently paroled Cabot Wright.

Seattle, 2078. The future hasn't been kind to the spirit of humanity; commercial obsession and technological fetishism rules the day, religion and belief has died screaming in the fires of war, and what remains is moral decrepitude. Life in the future is hard on the soul. As an agent of the Industrial Security Bureau, Thomas Walken knows that better than anyone. His job is to keep the worst kind of black-market technology out of the hands of citizens, technology born out of the shadowy nation nicknamed Wonderland.

The year is AD 2790. With space elevators and giant orbital fleets hovering over Earth, open war looks inevitable, and people are anxious to get away. The lines are drawn, with the Confederacy in the East and the First World Alliance in the West. In hopes of finding a refuge from the looming war, the Alliance is sending Captain Alexander de Leon to explore an Earth-type planet, code-named Wonderland, but at the last minute before launch, a Confederate fleet leaves orbit on a trajectory that threatens both the mission and Alliance sovereignty.

Now an agent for the small, covert SIFTR Agency, Rob Chandler is confronted with the possibility something terrible has occurred to a beloved fellow agent. He knows who is responsible, the WWZ, a fanatical neo-Nazi organization and another, even more powerful organization, called the Order. Together they are making their move - one that could alter the geopolitical landscape of the United States, forever. The newly selected multi-billionaire leader of the Order, Rudy Palmolive, has a unique hobby...he's built an 1881 re-creation of the town of Tombstone. It's a testing ground....

Thomas Baldwin transfers to Ridele, the capital of Nolix, and the center of the Concord political arena. He must navigate the new role, while his former crew sets off on an important mission without him. Captain Treena Starling deals with her new reality, while finding herself on a journey to the fabled planet Earth. Are humans really descendants from the mysterious world?