Showing results by narrator "John Pirhalla" in All Categories

After the United Nations of Terra (UNT) Fleet Frigate Nelson reported an encounter with an alien spaceship, she disappeared without a trace. An alien race called the Maltaani have made their presence known by landing a mass of troops on Balfan-48, a desert planet located far too close to Terra Earth for comfort. Tensions are rising and tempers are growing short. The UNT responds by deploying ISMC’s Ninth Division aboard the flagship Atlas to the scene to investigate the Maltaani aggression.

At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small American community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Decades later, author Matthew Rozell tracks down over thirty survivors who fought the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. Rage is instantaneous. He's looking at me from a crawling position. I didn't shoot him; I went and kicked him in the head. Rage does funny things. After I kicked him, I shot and killed him. ~Thomas Jones, Marine veteran, Battle of Guadalcanal

As a Titan of a human being, Dii Van Damme embodies this idea. Having mastered the fundamentals of his Stolen Cosmic Power, his expanding arsenal now enables him to transition seamlessly from defense to offense. If enemies from other Realms attack him where he lives, then he can do the same.

Aron of Darien, raised in exile after his homeland is conquered by a treacherous warlord, makes his way in the world on the strength of his wits and skill with a sword. Both are sorely tested when he is impressed into the service of the Earl of Nandor to rescue his heir from captivity in the fortress of Sarazan. The rescue goes awry. Aron and his companions are betrayed and must flee for their lives. Pursued by steel and magic, they find new friends and old enemies on the road that leads, after many turns, to the city of the High King. There Aron must face his father's murderer before risking everything in a fight to the death with the deadliest swordsman in the kingdom.

We live at a time in which scientists race to reanimate extinct beasts, our most essential ecosystems require monumental engineering projects to survive, chicken breasts grow in test tubes, and multinational corporations conspire to poison the blood of every living creature. No rock, leaf, or cubic foot of air on Earth has escaped humanity's clumsy signature. The old distinctions - between natural and artificial, dystopia and utopia, science fiction and science fact - have blurred, losing all meaning. We inhabit an uncanny landscape of our own creation.

After the President declared the Maduro Sector off-limits, a peace craze swept the United Nations of Terra, and the government enacted the Budget Realignment Act to reap the dividends of the peace by shifting funds from the defense budget to public services. Thousands of Space Marines and Fleet personnel were summarily dismissed from the service, and their ships and weapons were mothballed.

Meet Calcannis Illudere, a certified dungeon accountant (TM), who takes on failing dungeon cores, turning their lairs into the hero-slaying death traps of their dreams. On Fidotopia, a world full of otherwise happy puppies, a sudden shift in the Tree of Souls has flooded a cynical stink slime’s disorganized dungeon with new energy. Now that rubbish dungeon is the number one destination for powerful raiders looking to level up quickly.

The Space Marines may have won the battle against the Kuiper Knights on LAM, but the war continues in the shadows. The Master is dead, but some of his top lieutenants evaded capture, and the UNT wants them to pay. To get revenge, UNT President Okoye signed the Swift Sword Protocol, which authorized the pursuit and assassination of certain fugitives.

On Terra Earth, war fever grips the populace. Opportunistic politicians and war profiteers manipulate public opinion to demand the United Nations of Terra get involved. It’s a war everyone wants, and it’s a war everyone will get. Brevet Captain Abner Fortis takes command of Tango Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment—Tango 2/2—just in time to join the fight. Tango 2/2 is a reconnaissance company, and their mission is to lead the way for the invasion force.

A teenager defends her brother from a ravenous creature that feeds on sick children. Dystopian nightmares drive a man into the wilderness, where he learns that freedom comes with a high price. And a comet passing over the Earth rids the planet of the vermin infesting its surface. Scare Street is proud to present 12 chilling tales of the supernatural, in one monstrous volume. This ghastly collection of short stories is your ticket to the world of dark nightmares and sinister dreams.

Fourteen-year-old Dylan Reynolds is anything but happy when his parents decide to move the family to Traverse City, Michigan. Suddenly friendless and angry, Dylan decides to run away from home, and has a chance encounter with a traveling hypnotist. The hypnotist, a pompous man who calls himself Dr. Dark, is more than willing to show Dylan forgotten details about his past. But Dylan’s world is turned upside down when he recalls a memory of himself when he was a baby, seated next to another toddler who looks exactly like him.

Torian Ranth is no longer the struggling student he once was. Now a skilled sahir to be reckoned with, Torian arrives at the devastated university. It still stands amid the remnants of the Rusav onslaught.

Betrayed by Duke Dominus and the treacherous Guild of Seekers, everyone Hunter loves is dead, murdered in cold blood. He is left alone, struggling to survive in a cruel wilderness filled with dangerous magic. Now, Hunter is going to get his revenge. He’s going to kill them all…and he’ll stop at nothing to do it. He’ll become the greatest Seeker that has ever lived, so powerful that no one will be able to stop him.

After establishing an uneasy truce with the constables, Gavin has settled in Yoran to offer protection to his friends and the remaining magical element in the city. When a job reveals a dangerous new threat in the city, Gavin must take action. This time the target isn’t Gavin, but the city itself. Magic was banished a generation ago, but the Fates have returned. They bring a dark magic Gavin has never seen before - and might be helpless to control.

Cobb wanted a simple life. He wanted excellent steaks, great coffee, friends, and a quiet place to restore his favorite ship. Working for a recovery operation turned out to be the best place to find parts cheap. She had other plans for him. He wanted the staff of the deep space salvage ship, Oxcart, to treat him just like another member of the crew. Not the man he really was. Light years from Earth, he thought his secrets, his past, wouldn't matter. Especially not to her.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

In this unsettling novella by Bentley Little, many strange occurrences unsettle the inhabitants of William Tell Circle.

With those three words, The Master, leader of the Kuiper Knights, unleashed a horrific terror attack on the United Nations of Terra that united the entire planet against them. Major Abner Fortis takes command of Second Battalion of the First Regiment of the newly reconstituted Second ISMC Division and joins the force deployed to the Free Sector to mete out punishment to the evildoers.

Huon has less than one week to save those he cares about most. But in the world of Temtoria, time moves at a different rate, and those days are turned into months. Though Huon has managed to defeat a High Celestial, he still isn't ready to face the Everlasting King. But he has a plan. Reunited with people from his past, he has to teach them all he knows—whether he wants to or not—as when the time comes, they'll only have one chance to defeat their enemy.

The Everlasting King has been dealt a blow. The blow has only brought Huon and those he fights beside to the Everlasting King's attention. Though Huon has reached the rank of Low Celestial faster than he had anticipated while destroying one of the Everlasting King's stockpiles of stolen cores, he fears that his newfound strength won't be enough to protect his friends. As the Everlasting King's fleet prepares to sail for Taloniar, their only hope to prevent full-on war between the two continents is to find and destroy the other stockpiles of cores before the fleet reaches its destination.