Showing results by narrator "Mark Boyett" in All Categories

Crystal methamphetamine is widely considered to be the most dangerous drug in the world, and nowhere is that more true than in the small towns of the American heartland. Methland tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), which, like thousands of other small towns across the country, has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people.

"He shoots and he scores! Lightning Logan strikes again." That was me, Lightning Logan Jackson, because I was as fast as lightning on the ice. Playing for the NHL had been my dream since I was six years old, when my dad took me to my first hockey game. Hockey was my life. It consumed me. It was the one thing in life that I could commit to. Relationships were a no. Sex with beautiful women and no strings attached was a yes. I was a bachelor - happy and living the dream. Then the accident happened, and the doctors told me I'd never play hockey again.

In the late 2020s and early 30s, corporations managed to render the major governments of the world obsolete. The big corporations owned most of the territories as well as the majority of the world’s wealth. While many of the old traditions were still observed in various parts of the world, the true power was with the corporations. In the late 30s, what would be known as the Corporate Wars began as larger companies initiated hostile takeovers in a whole new fashion. Employees, armed with corporate weapons, warred for dominance. It was a bloody time.

What do you do when the world falls? For Zebediah Pratt - or “Zee” to his friends - the answer is easy; he goes back to the family farm to support his father. By pooling resources with their neighbors in the countryside, they’re able to stand up to the lone gunmen who are on the lookout for easy prey in a world where the rule of law no longer applies. It looks like they will be able to make it. But when the dregs of society come leaking out to the countryside from the ruins of nearby Philadelphia, things change, and the Pratts realize something - they have to do more.

With a billionaire benefactor backing him, Flint Reed heads off on his first mission to secure rare artifacts spread throughout the quadrant. Aided by a cagey assassin, his snarky AI, and a loving attack dog, Flint is poised for success. But when a powerful rival organization attempts to kill him, Flint must make split-second decisions to save his team’s lives and protect the public. The pressure mounts as he is confronted with a nefarious syndicate hit man who holds the key to a trove of ancient and powerful artifacts.

In early 1942, while the American military was still in disarray from the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, a single U.S. Army squadron advanced to the far side of the world to face America's new enemy. Based in Australia with inadequate supplies and no ground support, the...

As white supremacy, ultra-nationalism, rabid misogyny, and anti-immigrant fervor coalesce, a new and uniquely American form of fascism looms. Could our current moment actually bring about the end of democracy in the United States? Are Americans willing to surrender their freedom and dignity, along with their ongoing struggle for equality, justice, and mutual respect in the face of the rising tide of political and ideological extremism?

The Breakers find a new home among the stars: Utopia. An engineered planet that is vast beyond comprehension with plenty of room to grow. They set up trade routes and work as mercenaries for their supplies...but trouble lurks. Pirates strike their merchant lanes. Key personnel are captured and enslaved. Straker is called upon to do something, and thus a new conflict is set in motion.

Commander Joe Pikeman is on a mission he didn’t ask for…and wasn’t ordered on. Then again, he isn’t in the mood to sit back while Fairfax takes over the galaxy, either. Fairfax’s power stretches across the stars, and he’s calling in all his favors. From sparking a bot rebellion to engineering godlike monsters to crush his enemies, he seems determined to ruin Joe’s day. But he made one mistake: he screwed with Joe’s family. And as messed up as they are, that simply isn’t something Joe can allow.

After surviving the initial horrors of the strange new world he finds himself in, Staff Sergeant Conor McCall and his Marine Recon platoon - or what’s left of it - have come to a safe haven where they and their newfound allies recover from the most brutal op of their lives.

The national best seller that defines a new economic class and shows how it is key to the future of our cities. The Rise of the Creative Class gives us a provocative new way to think about why we live as we do today - and where we might be headed. Weaving storytelling with masses of new and updated research, Richard Florida traces the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy.

The Corporations—the wielders of power in a society not long from now—brought about the end of civilization as we know it, nuking each other to the point where it collapsed. Ishmael doesn’t know any of this, though; in fact, he doesn’t know anything about himself when he wakes up in this shattered world. All of his autobiographical and episodic memories are gone, and along with them, any knowledge of who he was or anything in his past. Worse, he has made enemies of some very important people, and they are after him.

The end came fast for Lieutenant Nathan Ward. One moment he was participating in an international convention of mounted police officers, the next he was in a command bunker watching the world’s two biggest corporations - Obsidian and Teledyne - destroy it in an exchange of nuclear hellfire. While Columbia, Missouri, was spared a direct strike, a near-miss EMP fried most of the vehicles and the electrical grid. Then the corporations started a shooting war in the streets, and they didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. But Columbia was one of the last cities still standing.

It began with two men. They came from very different worlds - entirely different universes, in fact - and they met in a virgin forest on a duplicate planet Earth. Neither of them had expected it, but both of them realized how important the first contact with any other transuniversal human civilization might be. But something went wrong. Neither side knows who shot first. But both the magic-using civilization of Arcana and steel-and-steam age Sharona, with its psionic Talents, think it was the other side.

The Superpowers of Earth have fought their final war, leaving Earth a devastated ruin, populated only by scattered groups of survivors living in primitive squalor. Out in space, however, humanity moves forward, and the former colonies of Earth's dead nations are now free from the yoke of the despotic governments that had long ruled over them. For many, it is their first taste of liberty.

When Bashar pays an unannounced visit to the J. Appleseed Foundation, he encounters the ghosts of his long past. And the trail of clues he follows will put his wife and daughter directly in the crosshairs -- and threaten the very existence of Seattle. These connected stories were originally published in METAtropolis: Green Space. In addition, Jay Lake's "Rock of Ages" was selected for inclusion in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois.

The Cathay Empire holds Gage responsible for a sneak attack on its forces; a crime Albion's last fleet did not commit. While Gage rots in the prison cell, the Daegon hunter Tiberian comes to collect him. Tolan, the Faceless spy, hatches a plan to smuggle Gage out of captivity, but risks an all-out war in the process.

Immediately upon their return from a disastrous starship cruise, Gunnar McConnell is now in debt to the Aloysians and has no way to pay them back. To free himself and his crew, he must complete a dangerous mission. But first, he must fully embrace his legacy by participating in an ancient ceremony.If he fully commits, he will be given secrets to his lineage and his Keeper skills and learn about the family he never knew.

In What I Believe, Ramadan attempts to set the record straight, laying out the basic ideas he stands for in clear and accessible prose. He describes the book as a work of clarification, directed at ordinary citizens, politicians, journalists, and others who are curious (or skeptical) about his positions. Aware that that he is dealing with emotional issues, Ramadan tries to get past the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding to speak directly, from the heart, to his Muslim and non-Muslim readers alike.

Earth has been a scarred ruin for three decades, its scattered people struggling to survive amid the poisoned and radioactive wreckage of the final war between its despotic superpowers. While the people of Earth struggle to survive, out on the frontier, on a thousand worlds, mankind thrives and grows, building new civilizations and looking boldly to the future. But man has never been able to live in peace, and even Earth's sad fate has failed to slow the call to war.