Showing results by narrator "Michael Kramer" in All Categories

In the realm of Isodoro, just two things stand between Alliance lands and the spears and muskets of the orcish hordes: the wizards of the Order and constant infighting amongst the orcs themselves. In the Alliance capital, young Wit has just been promoted from apprentice to full wizard - and saddled with the very unglamorous task of traveling to a distant iron mine to inspect it for fraud. Worse yet, he's partnered with Wa'llach, a drunken dwarven prisoner who's killed more people than most plagues. Yet those skills are about to become very handy.

Felix Castor has reluctantly returned to exorcism after a successful case convinces him that he really can do some good with his abilities. His friend Rafi is still possessed, the succubus Ajulutsikael still technically has a contract on him, and he's still dirt poor. Doing some consulting for the local cops helps pay the bills, but Castor needs a big private job to really fill the hole in his bank account. That's what he needs. What he gets is a seemingly insignificant "missing ghost" case that inexorably drags him and his loved ones into the middle of a horrific plot.

The literature of the Gettysburg Address tends to fall into one of two extremes. At one end are those books that maintain that Lincoln wrote his speech hastily, even on a scrap of paper on the train en route from Washington to Gettysburg. In this version, Lincoln delivered his remarks to an uncomprehending public, which applauded politely, failing to appreciate his genius. Many of the books that argued this point of view are out of print today, but the myths and legends live on.

Udo has escaped his home world in search of peace and found only more trouble living among the giants of Talamh. When he decides he cannot live within the restrictions of their society any more than his own, he flees to the country and forests beyond. There, he runs into his old friend Gefan, who offers to take him to a new world where he can find the ultimate peace of mind he's always sought along with Ing, the goddess-mother Udo never stopped searching for.

The US aircraft carrier patrolling the Western Pacific Ocean is severely damaged by a surprise salvo of cruise missiles. While the Russian government officially apologizes, claiming it was the result of fire control accident during a training exercise, it was instead a calculated provocation. With the US Pacific fleet already severely under strength, the Russian president decides that the US response is a clear indication of their weakness, militarily and politically, and initiates a bold plan.

Riley "Bear" Logan returns with his adopted daughter, Mandy, as they begin a new life away from the shadows Bear has operated in for the past two decades. But even a small town has secrets its inhabitants don't want to surface. And as Bear and Mandy get to know the locals, they realize things are not as they seem in the sleepy Upstate New York hamlet.

The Gambler is a psychologically probing novel concerning the gambling episodes, tangled love affairs, and complicated lives of Alexis Ivanovitch, a young gambling addict; Polina Alexandrovna, the woman he loves; a pair of French adventurers; and other characters. Narrated by Alexis, this short novel is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's own experiences as a compulsive gambler.

Apprentice assassin Arek Winterthorn has a power even he himself doesn't understand. Unable to cast even the simplest of spells, he can still disrupt the magic of others with a single touch. Arek's master, Silbane, is ordered to use that power to close a gate between their world and one inhabited by demons. This will save their people, but potentially at the cost of Arek's life. Thus begins an epic quest brimming with betrayals, plot twists, violence, and intrigue.

America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghorn antelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than 200 years ago these creatures existed in such abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write "it is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals".

America's most proficient covert operations team, hand-picked for its intelligence, analysis, and crisis-management skills, has had many a tough situation thrown at it. Years ago, before North Korea made its belligerent intentions known to the world, Op-Center's first mission was to thwart a crisis on the Korean peninsula. Since then, it has dealt with the machinations of Russian hard-liners, prevented the resurgence of age-old hatred in Germany, gone underground to prevent Kurdish terrorists from destabilizing the Middle East, subjugated the tensions of rebellious Basques....

A terrorist bomb explodes during a South Korean celebration of the anniversary of the election of its first president. Alarms are raised in Washington. No one is claiming responsibility. The first suspect is North Korea. Could it be making a power play against South Korea and unification? If so, how will the U.S. respond? Paul Hood, Director of the Op-Center, must answer these questions. The Op-Center, a largely autonomous new agency which takes on the government's toughest security problems, is only six months old, and has never been given a foreign crisis until now.

He’d faced the monster posing as Soldier in combat, and he had won. But at what cost? Forty-seven villagers of Alhs dead. So many that they could not bury them all and so they had looked to the old ways.

Kuni Garu, now known as Emperor Ragin, runs the archipelago kingdom of Dara but struggles to maintain progress while serving the demands of the people and his vision. Then an unexpected invading force from the Lyucu Empire in the far distant west comes to the shores of Dara - and chaos results. But Emperor Kuni cannot go and lead his kingdom against the threat himself with his recently healed empire fraying at the seams, so he sends the only people he trusts to be Dara's savvy and cunning hopes against the invincible invaders: his children.

Princess Théra, once known as Empress Üna of Dara, entrusted the throne to her younger brother in order to journey to Ukyu-Gondé to war with the Lyucu. She has crossed the fabled Wall of Storms with a fleet of advanced warships and 10,000 people. Beset by adversity, Théra and her most trusted companions attempt to overcome every challenge by doing the most interesting thing. But is not letting the past dictate the present always possible or even desirable?

The conservative party's newest superstar, Alexia De Vere has worked hard to realize her political ambitions. The brilliant and ruthless wife of wealthy aristocrat Teddy De Vere, Alexia relishes her power and the control it gives her to shape and destroy lives. Yet success has also demanded sacrifice. Her daughter, Roxie, a bitter young woman confined to a wheelchair after a failed suicide attempt, blames Alexia for ruining her life. Alexia's dashing son, Michael, is risking the family's good name to jump-start his entrepreneurial dreams.

Ordained by an ancient goddess of mercy and light, former knight Allystaire Coldbourne has become a paladin, a hero out of legend. But evil stalks him, angry gods align against him, and greedy warlords want him dead. With the help of his friends, each blessed with extraordinary powers by the Goddess, Allystaire must escape the clutches of sorcerers and wicked rulers who will stop at nothing to destroy him as he continues his dangerous quest to bring peace and unity to the fractured and war-torn Baronies.

There's a nasty flu going round. An epidemic, they call it. The posters say to cover your mouth when you sneeze, and throw away the tissue. But such simple measures won't stop this flu. Because when you catch the flu, armed police come and lock you in your house to die alone. When you catch this flu, it kills you in days. And when you catch this flu, two hours after it's killed you, your eyelids snap open again....

When Leroy "Chinese" Gordon breaks into a professor's lab at the University of Los Angeles, he's after some pharmaceutical cocaine, worth plenty of money. Instead, he finds the papers the professor has compiled for the CIA, which include a blueprint for throwing a large city into chaos. But how is the CIA to be persuaded to pay a suitable ransom, unless of course someone actually uses the plan to throw a large city into chaos - Los Angeles, for instance?

It's a mission that only Striker - the military arm of Op-Center - can handle: capture an Islamic cleric who is stirring up a rebellion against the Indian government. But when the border between India and Pakistan erupts, the Striker team gets caught in the crossfire. Now America's most proficient covert team is trapped in a full-fledged war. Their fate rests in the hands of a devious NSA double agent whose own agenda is unknown - a man who could just as easily sell them out as set them free. This book is an implicit profile of America's defense, intelligence, and crisis management technology....

Robert Mallon has lived for ten quiet years in affluent Santa Barbara, when an encounter on a beach with a mysterious young woman shatters his peaceful, carefully constructed life. Despite Mallon's desperate attempts, he loses her and becomes obsessed with discovering why. He hires detective Lydia Marks to uncover the secrets of this stranger's life, and what they learn propels them into a terrifying world of sinister secrets and deadly hatreds.