Showing results by narrator "Lily David" in All Categories

The Earth is laid waste by a devastating blight that destroys the world's food supply. Mass starvation wipes out millions almost overnight. Society collapses, and those who survive must contend with renegade groups striving for naked power. A new currency comes into existence - precious food and the force of arms that helps get it at any cost.   

"Stay the hell out of Fort Worth." Those were the last words uttered by a dying man who was the boomtown's most recent sheriff. Rail-thin and half starved, desperate cowpuncher Jess Casey ignores the travel advice. Instead, Jess not only enters Fort Worth, he becomes the new sheriff, inheriting the body-riddled little slice of heaven called Hell's Half Acre, the wide-open, deadliest piece of real estate on the American frontier.

The lethal plant cancer know as Earthblood had destroyed life on the planet in a matter of months, leaving a barren wilderness road where markers are corpses and cities are death traps. Into this nightmarish world the crew of the United States space vessel Aquila returned, a world of grim hunger and sudden death.   

The town of Bury took up a piece of Idaho Territory that was still raw, untamed frontier. It was no place for the cowardly or faint-hearted, but Smoke Jensen was neither. Nor were Stratton, Potter and Richards, the three bloodthirsty outlaws who came there to live. Or, if Smoke had his way...to die! It had been years since hired gunhands had murdered Smoke’s wife and son, but the pain was as fresh as yesterday. And so was Smoke’s need for revenge. He's come a long way to find the bandit trio responsible for his family's brutal massacre. 

They call her the Ghost of Dunhill Cemetery, but most people think “the Cemetery Girl” is just a story. In some ways, that’s true. Her chosen name is Calexa Rose Dunhill, but she doesn’t know her real name. When she first arrived here, all she knew was that someone had tried to murder her, dumped her body, and left her for dead. Calexa has been hiding out, afraid to seek out her true identity in fear that her would-be murderer would find her and finish the job. And someone is searching for her...a man who holds the key that will unlock the secrets of Calexa’s past.

Kylara had to leave a bright future as a military cadet and was thrown into the brutal world of off-world trading. This subsequent career in the family business was tough: marked by war, mutiny, and attempted assassination. But then her home was attacked and her parents killed - their trading empire left in ruins. Now she must save what is left of the family and the business, with few friends and too few assets. She must make full use of her hard-won experience to not just survive, but to restore the shattered fortunes of the Vatta family and their allies. 

As the Ice Age ends and the glaciers release their hold on North America, a brave band of people make their way into the new continent. The climate is changing and the game is scarce. A hostile tribe pursues them, driving them ever southward. In their midst rises a young shaman, who receives a Dream from the spirit of the Wolf, a vision of paradise on the other side of the impenetrable ice. An older, more powerful Dreamer teaches the young man how to find the path to the new land, but they both realize that a shadowy menace looms on the horizon, a cosmic battle between good and evil.

Rupert didn't especially want to be a prince. And he certainly never asked to be the second son of a royal line that really didn't need a spare. So he was sent out to slay a dragon and prove himself — a quest straight out of legend. But he also discovered the kinds of things legends tend to leave out, as well as the usual demons, goblins, the dreaded Night Witch — and even worse terrors hidden in the shadows of Darkwood.

My name is Zachary Nixon Johnson. The year is 2057, and after a handful of species-altering upheavals, Earth-shattering cataclysms, history-changing extraterrestrial contacts, and pop-culture disasters, the world is now a pretty safe place. But, of course, as in times past, people still run the shades-of-gray gamut from good to evil. There are still cops and robbers, saints and sinners, voters and politicians. And every once in a while some crazy thing happens that threatens all of society, all of humanity, even the entire space-time continuum. And it always happens on my watch.

The race is on to claim the area between the Ohio River and Tennessee. What's left of the resistance is hiding out in the tangle of Central Kentucky hills - leaving the powerful, well-organized Kurian vampires the opportunity to fill the void. Major David Valentine knows a small group of fierce, freedom-loving allies who would be glad to settle the rich lands. But they're more than 300 miles away, with hostile aliens and vicious human slavers standing between. But even if by some miracle they make it, the Kurian Order isn't about to easily yield the blood-soaked Kentucky soil....

In the aftermath of the cold-blooded assassinations that killed her parents and shattered the Vatta intersteller shipping empire, Kylara Vatta sets out to avenge the killings and salvage the family business. Ky soon discovers a conspiracy of terrifying scope, breathtaking audacity, and utter ruthlessness. The only hope against such powerful evil is for all the space merchants to band together. Unfortunately, because she commands a ship that once belonged to a notorious pirate, Ky is met with suspicion, if not outright hostility...even from her own cousin. 

Kirby — later Smoke — Jensen has just earned his first paying job as a deputy US marshal for the Colorado Territory and is sent to the lawless town of Las Animas. There, he finds a sheriff too cowardly to face the outlaw leader Cole Dawson, whose six-gun has left a lot of good men dead. Young Smoke feels no such fear. He takes Dawson down fast. Then the real fight begins.

Detan Honding, a wanted conman of noble birth and ignoble tongue, has found himself in the oasis city of Aransa. He and his trusted companion Tibs may have pulled off one too many cons against the city’s elite and need to make a quick escape. They set their sights on their biggest heist yet - the gorgeous airship of the exiled commodore Thratia. But in the middle of his scheme, a face changer known as a doppel starts murdering key members of Aransa’s government.

On the rolling Missouri River, a riverboat of fur traders, a US Senator, and Prussian royalty are all heading to the Yellowstone from St. Louis. Preacher's onboard because the nation's fate depends on the passengers landing safe and sound. But it won't be easy. Two beautiful women make a play for Preacher. So does a killer. So does a band of river pirates. No sooner does Preacher beat back these threats than the riverboat lands in the middle of a blood-soaked Indian ambush - with a Prussian nobleman and his family taken hostage.

They just wanted to get home for Christmas...but fate had other plans. It's December 1890. A Texas rancher named Big Jim Conyers has a deal with Scottish-born, Wyoming cattleman named Duff MacCallister. Along with Smoke and Matt Jensen, the party bears down on Dodge, Kansas, to make a cattle drive back to Forth Worth. But before they can get out of Dodge, guns go off and a rich man's son is killed.

Outlaws have again taken Frank Morgan's son and the Drifter is fortunate to get some help from an unexpected source. But just as Morgan gets close to the men he's hunting, he comes upon a ghost town nestled into a Rocky Mountain valley. For Morgan, the mystery of what happened to the town and of a deadly spirit that haunts it, has to take second fiddle to what's brought him this far. Determined to free his son, he'll face his enemies in this godforsaken place, where amidst the ghosts, the gunfighters, and the gunsmoke, he'll make sure the killing is real.

Kitty Wellington inherited her uncle’s 20,000-acre ranch — and a mortgage — on the Snake River. She plans to pay her debt by selling thoroughbreds to the US Army. But a relative is trying to steal it all…until Matt enters a fight whose most dangerous combatants have yet to show their hand. Behind one man’s evil plot is a small army of vicious killers masquerading as peace officers in Boise. For men who are used to getting their way, the odds in this fight look pretty good…until they meet Matt Jensen.

Rejuvenates fear the backlash caused by bad drugs: they want nothing to interfere with their pursuit of long life—or the profit that comes from promising it to others. Neighbor states fear the aggressive expansion of the Familias Regnant, fuelled by population growth and extended lifespan. Within the Regular Space Service, those who have received experimental rejuvenations fear they may have been intentionally given bad drugs. Esmay Suiza's family fears that her marriage to an offworlder will damage their position.

Half Native American and Half White, Yakima Henry considers himself lucky to have any job - even if it means just sweeping up the local brothel. But when four hombres attempt to carve up one of the house girls, Yakima gives them a taste of their own medicine with his Arkansas Toothpick. Now, he's become the girl's protector, and is on the run from a vicious bounty hunter.

For archaeologist and TV host Annja Creed, a late-night phone call from the NYPD means one thing: there's been a murder and the police need her expertise. The only link between a dead body and the killer is a small elephant of white jade. An artifact that's gone missing. Once belonging to Catherine the Great of Russia, the elephant was key in a risky political gambit all those years ago. But there is another story attached to the artifact - a rumor of an ancient hidden treasure.