Showing results by narrator "Eric Summerer" in All Categories

After two years, the collapse of the Terran Commonwealth has finally slowed. With communications networks rebuilding, the Successor States are beginning to look to the future—but for some of these states, that is a future to be forged in fire and conquest. With warlords leading fleets into their stars, the newborn Weston Republic has called for help from every Successor State they could find. Now, James Tecumseh, founder of the Dakotan Confederacy, finds himself fighting shoulder to shoulder alongside Imperator Walkingstick—the man he blames for the fall of the Commonwealth itself.

Lieutenant Bannon and his phalanx of Corvanite warriors have already seen some of the worst that the irregular war between the reptilian otuchans and the human latecomers can offer. Or so they think. First Sergeant Draven, trying to hold his company of Zolarian citizen soldiers together, has been on the desolate planet of Zhogalgan longer than Bannon. He's seen even more. Yet while they are both there as peacekeepers, they are not there to help each other.

Would you be prepared to work for free? How would you like to bust your hump for a large corporation 60-plus hours a week without a wage or a single day off for the vague promise of some mysterious perks in the distant future? You'd refuse point blank, wouldn't you? But what if the job in question was playing a state-of-the-art fantasy MMORPG game? And what if this was the only thing you're really good at? Especially considering that your in-game partner is someone really special to you - and this person already lives a virtual life?

America Mason, a sassy undergrad at Eastern State University, is in love with a Maddox-Shepley Maddox. Unlike his cousins, Shepley is more lover than fighter, but a road trip to her parents' home in Wichita, Kansas, could mean the next step or the end of everything.

Juniper Smith is finally starting to feel at home in this new world. Everywhere he looks are familiar pieces of the game worlds he used to make back on Earth. The last druid has died, and with her, a rare and precious magic is slowly seeping its way out of the world. The ritual to bring her back as an infant only requires a little messing around with devils and simply hacking the game system on his soul, which is practically routine, but to speed the process along will be another matter entirely.

After the fall of the American Ayatollahs (as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land) there is a Second American Revolution; for the first time in human history there is a land with Liberty and Justice for All.

What is it like for a small flap-eared goblin herbalist to play the role of the Dark Sovereign, the main antagonist for Boundless Realm's hundreds of millions of players? What is it like to find one's self the standard bearer for an army of man-eating giants, cyclops, skeletons, ghosts, and other hellspawn, who don't give a damn about their modest little ruler? Our hero didn't desire such an unenviable fate, but there is no way back now. But the longer he plays, the better he understands that he is just a pawn in someone else's game.

I had the perfect bachelor's life. No obligations. No commitments. The greatest job in the world, all while being paid millions to do it. Until I became a dad overnight. My world turned upside down, I went from ballfields and bars to dirty diapers and bottles. I turned to my best friend for help but ended up with his little sister. Now, all I want is the one woman I can't have. She's the curveball I never saw coming. The one woman I'm willing to commit to and change my old ways for. I just have to show her that we can be a family.

Brett L. Walker tackles key themes regarding Japan's relationships with its minorities, state and economic development, and the uses of science and medicine. The book begins by tracing the country's early history through archaeological remains, before proceeding to explore life in the imperial court, the rise of the samurai, civil conflict, encounters with Europe, and the advent of modernity and empire. Walker's vibrant and accessible new narrative then follows Japan's ascension from the ashes of World War II into the thriving nation of today.

Alex - a.k.a. Jack Alltrades - just wanted to play a game and make some money for himself and his family. After a string of incredible luck and a few wise decisions, he finds himself responsible for an entire company based in the game. It's not all rainbows and gold coins, though. Real life threats, angry NPC merchants, and shady deals with the elves and dwarves are giving Jack a massive headache.

Over the last 50 years, humanity has developed an extraordinary shared utility: the global positioning system. Omnipresent, free, and available to all, GPS powers everything from your phone to the Internet to the Mars Rover. Greg Milner tells the sweeping story of GPS, from its conceptual origins as a bomb guidance system to its present ubiquity.

The women I take home know exactly what they're getting from me - sex. Nothing more. At least, that's what's supposed to happen. The sweet brunette from Kentucky I set my sights on tonight shouldn't have been any different. I had her right where I wanted her. Where I needed her. But when my past comes walking into McGill's pub, the woman in my arms decides to take things to a whole new level, putting me into a situation I never saw coming.

We live in an incredible period in history. The computer revolution may be even more life-changing than the Industrial Revolution. We can do things with computers that could never be done before, and computers can do things for us that could never be done before. But our love of computers should not cloud our thinking about their limitations. The AI Delusion explains why we should not be intimidated into thinking that computers are infallible, that data-mining is knowledge discovery, and that black boxes should be trusted.

I didn't know who Dove's sister was when we first met. I didn't know that I'd been fooling around with her for a few months before Dove walked into my life. I didn't know that—if I've done the math correctly—I could be the father to her sister's child. But I do know this. Dove has the voice of an angel, and the heart of one too. I might not deserve her, but I refuse to let her go. She doesn’t know that I was with her sister before we met. She doesn’t know that her niece or nephew could be my freaking kid. And even though it kills me, I can’t let her find out.

For over two-hundred years, capitalist systems have overtaken the global economy, spreading near-universal growth and opening the floodgates for limitless human potential. Yet something is going terribly wrong in the world economy. National bestselling author George Gilder explains how economics is not an incentive system but an information system. Redefining capitalism for the modern age, he reveals how free enterprise is a mind driven system, material resources are essentially as infinite as atoms, and what governs economic growth is human creativity.

With his mother in jail, Sequoyah, a 15-year-old Cherokee boy, is placed in foster care with the Troutt family. Literally and figuratively scarred by his unstable upbringing, Sequoyah has spent years mostly keeping to himself, living with his emotions pressed deep below the surface - that is, until he meets the 17-year-old Rosemary, another youth staying with the Troutts. Sequoyah and Rosemary bond over their shared Native American backgrounds and paths through the foster care system, but as Sequoyah's feelings toward Rosemary deepen, the precariousness of their lives and the scars of their pasts threaten to undo them both.

In Failure to Disrupt, Justin Reich delivers a sobering report card on the latest supposedly transformative educational technologies. Reich takes listeners on a tour of MOOCs, autograders, computerized "intelligent tutors", and other educational technologies whose problems and paradoxes have bedeviled educators. Learning technologies often provide the greatest benefit to affluent students and do little to combat growing inequality in education. And institutions and investors often favor programs that scale up quickly, but at the expense of true innovation.

An end to the Billionaire Bad Boy era. The series comes to a close. From Kline and Benny to Wes and Winnie with Thatch and Cassie in between, spend time with the characters who have stolen the hearts of both each other and listeners alike, and meet the men of the upcoming spinoff series Mavericks Tackle Love. Contains mature themes.

Everyone loves adventure, and Otto Penzler has collected the best adventure stories of all time into one mammoth volume. With stories by Jack London, O. Henry, H. Rider Haggard, Alastair MacLean, Talbot Mundy, Cornell Woolrich, and many others, this wide-reaching and fascinating volume contains some of the best characters from the most thrilling adventure tales, including The Cisco Kid.

Ryan's life sucks. His brother is a jerk, his mom is sick, and his legs are next to useless thanks to a neurological disorder. Plus the world ended two centuries ago from nuclear war. Now the only escape from reality being the massive VR world of Crystal Shards Online. But even in the game, Ryan's life sucks. He works as a miner, earning not nearly enough to afford the operation that will save his mom. When Ryan discovers an item that grants the ability to dodge any attack, however, he has the chance to become one of the game world's most elite and sought after players: a Dodge Tank.