Showing results by narrator "Patrick Cronin" in All Categories

An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment. Old alliances quickly fracture as the initiates take opposing strategies as to how to deal with the deadly bargain they have so far failed to uphold. Those who remain with the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities, while elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage.

Richard doesn’t have a past. For him, there is only the present: a new marriage to Tamara, a first chance at fatherhood to her son, Elijah, and a quiet but pleasant life as an art teacher at Elijah’s elementary school in Danvers, Virginia. Then the body of a rabbit, ritualistically murdered, appears on the school grounds with a birthday card for Richard tucked beneath it. Richard doesn’t have a birthday - but Sean does.... Sean is a five-year-old boy who has just moved to Greenfield, Virginia, with his mother.

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.

With his time as the Blue Wolf winding down, Jason knows the dangers of looking past the next mission all too well. And Legion has just been called to its most challenging one yet. In a closed kingdom in Southeast Asia, a town of 5,000 people has disappeared from the map. Victims of the country’s tyrannical leader? Or targets of a shadowy reptilian race rumored to lurk deep in the rainforest?

Three years ago, Earth was attacked by an invading force so devastating, only one ship in the fleet survived. Their hard won victory came from the aid of an alliance of aliens long at war with an aggressive force. With the aid of advanced technology, humanity retrofitted their surviving vessel. The Behemoth became a shield against any future incursions.

Xander Liu survived the alien invasion - just barely. For more than a year, he has outsmarted, hidden from, and otherwise avoided the ruthless intruders, the Nahx, dodging the deadly darts that have claimed so many. When the murder of his friend leaves him in the protective company of August, a rebellious Nahx soldier, Xander is finally able to make his way back to human controlled territory and relative safety. But safety among the humans is not what it seems.

Brian Polk had been stateside for barely a year after leaving the Air Force when the unthinkable happened. It was an interstellar invasion. The Earupitans' technology and weaponry was so remarkable, humanity never really had a chance. The aliens now walk brazenly among humans - their reptilian eyes always watchful, always scrutinizing. Humanity now lives in fear - freedom is a thing of the past. And then there are those who have befriended the enemy. But not Captain Brian Polk. When he acquires some of the alien technology, he finally has hope of making some small difference.

Camavor is a brutal land with a bloody legacy. Where the empire’s knights go, slaughter follows. Kalista seeks to change that. When her young and narcissistic uncle, Viego, becomes king, she vows to temper his destructive instincts, as his loyal confidant, advisor, and military general. But her plans are thwarted when an assassin’s poisoned blade strikes Viego’s wife, Isolde, afflicting her with a malady for which there is no cure. As Isolde’s condition worsens, Viego descends into madness and grief, threatening to drag Camavor down with him.

Terribly wounded during the battle for Hermes, Ryan Hendrix was repaired with cybernetics, transformed into a weapon by Fleet Intelligence...and covertly dropped onto the enemy-occupied colony at Aphrodite to sabotage the enemy and build up a civilian resistance. While Ryan fights the real battle behind enemy lines, Travis Miller and Jessica Leer struggle with politics...and their new commands.

The official novelization of the summer blockbuster The Predator, Shane Black's new movie with a screenplay by Shane Black and Fred Dekker.

One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life.

Pursuit, book five: Earth's mighty warship, The Behemoth, has been selected to receive the honor of formally joining the alliance. This momentous occasion opens new opportunities for the human race, a chance to help decide the fate of the universal government and participate in galactic affairs. As they prepare for the voyage and ceremony to come, not all are easy aboard the battleship. Clea An'Tufal, liaison aboard The Behemoth, wakes from a revelatory dream. Her first assignment ended in tragedy, the ship she served on was destroyed in a massive battle.

Soul Machine takes us back to the origins of modernity, a time when a crisis in religious authority and the scientific revolution led to searching questions about the nature of human inner life. This is the story of how a new concept - the mind - emerged as a potential solution, one that was part soul and part machine but fully neither.

Savid DelaCrotia is the third born son of one of the Kingdom of Montshire’s oldest and most respected High families. Cast aside by his father at an early age, it’s up to him to make his own way and create his own honor. With just his horse, his weapons, the clothes on his back and in his pack, and the education that his family provided, he’ll have to go it alone. Luckily, he already has a pretty good idea of what he’s good at - fighting, and woodcraft - not to mention finding hidden and lost items.

Harlem is perhaps the most famous, iconic neighborhood in the United States. A bastion of freedom and the capital of black America, Harlem's 20th-century renaissance changed our arts, culture, and politics forever. But this is only one of the many chapters in a wonderfully rich and varied history. In Harlem, historian Jonathan Gill presents the first complete chronicle of this remarkable place.

Using understandable metaphors and easy to follow language, Stephens gives listeners of any scientific level an introduction to neuroscience and shows them how things like creativity, skill, and even perception of self can grow and change by utilizing the body's most important muscle. Fans of Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson will love Stephens' down-to-earth attitude, and those interested in science will appreciate his thoughtful explanations of scientific terms.

When Robert Worth relocated his law practice to the Venice Beach boardwalk, he never thought he’d be cutting movie deals. But when his pal Reyes needs legal help with his film project, Robert agrees to look into it. The road to Hollywood fame takes a crooked turn after a potential billionaire backer turns up dead in his Brentwood mansion - and Reyes is arrested for first-degree murder. Robert may not have any criminal-law experience, but with the help of his girlfriend, Gia, and his buddy Erik, a retired cop, he takes the case.

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?

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.

In 1945, the Allied nations agreed on a judicial process, rather than summary execution, to determine the fate of the Nazis following the end of World War II. Held in Nuremberg, the ceremonial birthplace of the Nazi Party, the British, American, French, and Soviet leaders contributed both judges and prosecutors to the series of trials that would prosecute some of the most prominent politicians, military leaders, and businessmen in Nazi Germany.