Showing results by narrator "Ray Porter" in All Categories

"A Kingdom and a Horse" is set in the universe of the Valhalla Saga. It contains the story of legendary Viking captain Sigurd and his trusty right-hand man Sven's youthful escapades in England. If your trade is to be looting and pillaging, you have to learn somewhere...right?

In the course of one nine-month period, filmmaker Mark Millhone's youngest son nearly died from birth complications, his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, his mother had a heart attack and passed away, a freak illness claimed the life of a friend, and his career imploded. As a result of his membership in what he calls the tragedy-of-the-month club, his marriage begins to fray.

Every catastrophe has a beginning. For the opioid crisis in America, the seed was a drug called OxyContin. First hailed as a miracle drug for severe pain in the early 1990s, OxyContin went on to ignite a plague of addiction and death across America. Equal parts crime thriller, medical detective story and business exposé, Pain Killer is the origin story of the opioid crisis, a hard-hitting look at how a supposed wonder drug became the trigger for a national tragedy.

A short story from New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry!

In "The Things That Live in Cages", an MMA fighter at the end of his career is offered the chance to stay young, fit, and stronger than ever - but the price is his humanity.

Kamikaze Kill Sweep! The Rat Bastards face the deadliest battle of all as the war draws to an explosive end. The Japanese launch a final, desperate attack - a blood-hungry suicide mission. And the Rat Bastards finally meet their match. Kicking, clawing, shooting, stabbing - whatever it takes to kill the battle-crazed enemy - The Rat Bastards will do it. The tougher the opposition, the harder the Rat Bastards fight back. And they're the deadliest group of killers in the world - with one exception….

They crawl through jungle. Claw through caves. Slog through swamps. Nothing can stop them. And every moment their minds are dominated by a single thought: kill, or die. They take the impossible jobs no ordinary outfit will touch. Because these aren’t ordinary men. They’re the toughest team in the Pacific War, the one the enemy fears most...The Rat Bastards.

Supernatural investigator Sam Hunter is brought in to unlock the deadly secrets of a haunted house.

In this short story from New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry, a reporter accompanies a special ops team on a dangerous mission against space pirates.

Summer in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Bored and listless, 15-year-olds June and Val are looking for fun. Val wants to do something wild and a little crazy: take a raft out onto the bay. Only Val survives, washing ashore in the weeds, bruised and unconscious. This shocking event echoes through the lives of Red Hook's diverse residents. In Visitation Street, Ivy Pochoda combines intensely vivid prose with breathtaking psychological insight to explore a cast of solitary souls, pulled by family, love, betrayal, and hope, who yearn for a chance to break free.

George Young is a devoted family man and a Gulf War veteran. After a hometown business venture flops, George accepts work overseas as a contracted civilian interrogator for the U.S. government at Omega, a secret holding facility for suspected terrorists. The work pays well, but his personal life is crumbling.

The Venus Asteroid Expedition is en route to the "Mirror," an impenetrable membrane to another universe that holds all the riches of the Federation, but the only point of entry is the point through which Landolph and his men traveled long ago - with most of the men never returning.

Taryn di la Rovissi and Rutger Shaw: Two hard-luck mercenaries looking to make a clean break from the flagging war in occupied Llael... With the forces of Khador massing for another surge south into Cygnar and the Thornwood Forest, Taryn and Rutger are forced to take a dangerous escape route before borders close for good. Amid the last refugees fleeing the advance, the duo is caught up in an assignment that will prove to be either their salvation or their undoing.

To the victor go no spoils in the bloody battle for New Guinea. This is the Rat Bastards’ kind of war. They don’t fight for glory, but for survival. Reluctant heroes and outlaw soldiers, they hate the steaming, Jap-filled jungles, but they wouldn’t trade places with anybody. So for a high kill ratio, the Army calls on the experts. The Rat Bastards. Making history is what comes naturally to them.

The world is their war zone! The war’s never over for the battle-toughened Rat Bastards. From one jungle hell to another, they strike raw terror and drive razor-sharp bayonets into the heart of their enemies. Always in the thick of the fight, they hit hard and die harder. And when a new band of misfits joins their ranks, you can hear the panic buttons getting pushed all the way to Tokyo. The Rat Bastards. Turning losers into hell-bent heroes. The Rat Bastards.

"The Food of the Gods" was first published in the May 1964 issue of Playboy. 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.

In "The Death Song of Dwar Guntha", two old warriors prepare to ride into battle for the last time to save the future of Barsoom. Set in the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, this story first appeared in the anthology Under the Moons of Mars.

Sam Hunter is a bit of an animal. He's a former Twin Cities cop who lost his badge because of excessive force. Abusive husbands, child molesters, and other lowlifes wound up looking like they'd been mauled by a dog...or a wolf. In this short story taken from Beneath the Skin, Sam is hired by a mysterious woman to stop a group of killers who are skinning young women alive.

The enemy wants them dead. Their own side wants them to shape up. They’re the Rat Bastards. They steal. Lie. Kill. And they never respect the rules. The stuntman. The Indian. The gangster. The bum. The most awesomely effective fighting team in the history of man-to-man mayhem. And now they’re all that stands between the Japs and their plan to retake the bloody Pacific island of Bougainville.

Rutger and Taryn are scraping by in the infamous Port of Deceit, a place where two skilled mercenaries should have no trouble finding work. But an ominous shadow has fallen across the city of Five Fingers, and an ancient evil has come to gorge itself on the agony and suffering that have long been the city’s stock and trade. Rutger and Taryn are dragged into a tangled plot of danger and intrigue as they face a terrifying Cryxian invasion and a vengeful specter from their past.

"History Lesson" was first published in the May 1949 issue of Startling Stories. 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.