Showing results by narrator "Ralph Lister" in All Categories

The First Interstellar War is over, but the Royal Navy still has plenty of work to do. As Earth struggles to recover from the bombardment, Captain John Naiser is placed in command of HMS Warspite - an experimental heavy cruiser - and ordered to escort a squadron of colony ships to a star system of immense strategic importance. But as the crew struggle to survive hundreds of light years from Earth, they find themselves dealing with the legacy of the war.

The world J.R.R. Tolkien created is one of the most beloved in all of literature, and continues to capture hearts and imaginations around the world. From Oxford to ComiCon, the Middle Earth is analyzed and interpreted through a multitude of perspectives. But one essential facet of Tolkien and his Middle Earth has been overlooked: science.

Cities, even private individuals, may from time to time hire soldiers; either to supplement their indigenous forces, or to conduct particular ventures, perhaps of reprisal, perhaps even of acquisition. On Gor there are numerous mercenary companies, some larger, some smaller, whose services may be purchased, or bid upon, for given periods of time. The allegiance of these companies is to their pay, and their captains. The forces of Cos and Tyros, powerful maritime ubarates, and their allies, have now beached upon the mainland, and are utilizing the city of Torcodino as a repository for supplies....

The daughter of Marlenus, the Ubar of Ar, is now a fugitive sought for betraying the Home Stone of her city. The price on her head could build fleets and hire armies. For years she has been hunted by legions of guardsmen and bounty hunters. Now, tricked by a former colleague, Talena has been captured and delivered to Lurius of Jad. Once her esteemed ally, Lurius is now eager to sell Talena’s blood for the gold of Ar. But the reward cannot be claimed until the prisoner is delivered.

In the darkness of a vast cave system, cut off from the world for millennia, blind creatures hunt by sound. Then there is light, there are voices, and they feed. Swarming from their prison, they multiply and thrive. To scream, even to whisper, is to summon death. Deaf for many years, Ally knows how to live in silence. Now, it is her family's only chance of survival. They must leave their home, shun others, and find a remote haven where they can sit out the plague. But will it ever end? And what kind of world will be left?

One September morning in 2008, an investment banker approaching forty, his career in collapse and his marriage unraveling, receives a surprise visitor at his West London townhouse. In the disheveled figure of a South Asian male carrying a backpack the banker recognizes a long-lost friend, a mathematics prodigy who disappeared years earlier under mysterious circumstances. The friend has resurfaced to make a confession of unsettling power.

As the son of a famous general, Aravon is proud to captain his own company against his people's enemy. But the experienced veteran’s march toward glory dissolves into pain as ruthless barbarians massacre every last one of his soldiers. Burning for vengeance, he leaps at the chance to spearhead a specially trained company and pay back his tragic defeat with blood.

"Earthlight" was first published in the August 1951 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. It was later expanded into the novel of the same name. Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) is regarded as one of the most-influential science fiction writers of all time. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

The Lords of Creation rule the Nine Worlds through its control of the ultra-advanced technology that has permitted the colonization of the entire solar System. More gods than men, the Lords of Creation have cheated Death itself. But although they rule the solar system with their god-like scientific knowledge, there are even more powerful forces to be feared lurking out in the dark depths of space. And when an unthinkably terrible enemy that rules a vast network of dead stars and planets comes to the Nine Worlds, it falls to them to stop it, though entire worlds may perish.

Once the reserve of only the most hardcore enthusiasts, ultra running is now a thriving global industry, with hundreds of thousands of competitors each year. But is the rise of this most brutal and challenging sport - with races that extend into hundreds of miles, often in extreme environments - an antidote to modern life, or is it a symptom of a modern illness? In The Rise of the Ultra Runners, award-winning author Adharanand Finn travels to the heart of the sport to investigate the reasons behind its rise and discover what it takes to join the ranks of these ultra athletes.

Humiliated in the ruins of Imperial Ithos, with the Exile Splinter stolen from their grasp by the ancient sphinx Kanderon Crux, Havath's Duarchs have assembled an army that dwarfs the entire population of Skyhold. Led by their Great Powers, monsters and mages individually capable of leveling a city, they pose a threat that even Kanderon, one of the mightiest of Great Powers, and her equally monstrous allies might be unable to stop. As the Havathi forces push closer and closer to Skyhold, Hugh and his friends train relentlessly, hoping to make a difference in the oncoming siege.

Humanity is losing the war. The once-mighty space navies have been crippled, officers and crew have been stretched to the limit and Earth herself has come under heavy attack. The end cannot be long delayed. For Admiral Smith and the crew of HMS Ark Royal, the stakes have never been so high. The one hope is to make contact with alien factions that might oppose the war.

HMS Lion and HMS Unicorn have made it home from their first mission against the alien virus, opening the way for humanity to take the offensive. Now, a major fleet is readying itself to depart into enemy space, intent on smashing the virus’ ability to wage war and destroy the threat once and for all. And Captains Hammond and Campbell will take the lead. But humanity itself is buckling under the strain of endless war.

Quillifer is young, serially in love, studying law, and living each day keenly aware that his beloved homeport of Ethlebight risks closure due to silting of the harbor. His concerns for the future become much more immediate when he returns from a summery assignation to find his city attacked by Aekoi pirates, leading to brigands in the streets and his family and friends in chains.

On her last cruise, HMS Vanguard - the most powerful battleship in the Royal Navy - barely survived her encounter with a deadly new enemy. Now, with her commanding officer accused of everything from mutiny to dereliction of duty and her crew under a cloud, the Royal Navy doesn't quite know what to do with her. But there's still a war on. And Vanguard must return to the front lines. Assigned to a task force heading to assist humanity's alien allies, Vanguard and her crew find themselves caught in a deadly alien trap.

Long ago in their intraspecific conflicts a violent, technologically sophisticated life form, the Kurii, destroyed their native world. They now seek another. Between Earth and Gor, or the Counterearth, and the power of the imperialistic, predatory Kurii, now ensconced in the -Steel Worlds,- a number of satellite colonies concealed amongst the debris of the asteroid belt, stands only the defensive might of the Priest-Kings of Gor.

This is the third installment of John Norman's popular and controversial Gor series. Tarl Cabot is the intrepid tarnsman of the planet Gor, a harsh society with a rigid caste system that personifies the most brutal form of Social Darwinism. In this volume, Tarl must search for the truth behind the disappearance of his beautiful wife, Talena. Have the ruthless Priest-Kings destroyed her?

A rich, sweeping, and compelling work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores dozens of plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Richard Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols of war and peace, life and death.

In this, the 12th book in the famous Gor series, the fight for survival on the primitive, Earthlike world, Gor, continues with a ferocity that matches the rest of the series. On Gor, there are three different kinds of beings that are labeled beasts: There are the Kurii, a monster alien race that is preparing to invade Gor from space; the Gorean warriors, who fight with viciousness almost primitive in its blood lust' and then there are the slave girls of Gor, lowly beasts for men to do with as they see fit, be it as objects of labor or desire.

In the depths of the Great War, with millions dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. The heart of the financial system shifted from London to New York. The infinite demands for men and materiel reached into countries far from the front. The strain of the war ravaged all economic and political assumptions, bringing unheard-of changes in the social and industrial order.