Showing results by narrator "Todd Smith" in All Categories

Playing Gods: Altruism is Book Three of the series. When his virtuous opponent turns even more callous than he is, Vylis, the ostensible bad guy and playfully psychopathic audience favorite, begins to smell a rat in the walls and starts punching holes in his carefully constructed reality to see what’s really on the other side. The creator of that reality will not be pleased.

When Luke Jensen traps fugitive Ben Craddock in Arapaho Springs, he’s ready to collect on his bounty. But the job’s not done - not by a long shot. A raid by a savage gang known as the Legion of Fire has left the peaceful settlement looted, burned to the ground, and the ashes scoured for female hostages - including the marshal’s daughter. For Luke this is more than a hunt. It’s now a rescue. And with Craddock busted out of jail and thrown in with the gang, it’s also revenge. Wrangling a small posse, Luke heads for the Legion’s hideout in the Kansas badlands. 

Ex-Rebel tracker Hunter Buchanon is down on his luck. He lost his family's ranch in a fire. He lost his gold to a thief. And he just might lose his fiancée—a beautiful saloon girl named Annabelle—to a stinking-rich rival. But Hunter's not ready to give up just yet. He's got a temporary sheriff's badge, a long-range plan to rebuild his ranch, and his loyal coyote Bobby Lee by his side to make things right. Too bad it all goes wrong—when Annabelle gets kidnapped. The mayhem begins with a stagecoach robbery in the Black Hills town of Tigerville. 

Restless cowpoke Perley Gates wanted nothing more than to track down the grandfather who abandoned his family years ago. What he found was the crazy old sidewinder barely hanging on after a Sioux massacre. The old man’s dying wish was to make things right for deserting his kin — by giving his strong-willed grandson Perley clues to the whereabouts of a buried fortune in gold. 

Pawns in a millennia-old struggle, the young people known only as the Birthday Children were genetically engineered to survive on the planet Omeyocan - but they were never meant to live there. They were made to be “overwritten”, their minds wiped and replaced by the consciousnesses of the monsters who created them. Em changed all of that.

The accidental gunslinger Dooley Monahan has quit wandering and settled down to a farmer’s life. But when the itch for adventure gets too strong, he packs up and rides west. Along with his horse General Grant, and Blue, a dog who’s too smart for his own good, Dooley rides for the Black Hills to strike it rich in the gold fields of Colorado. But fate has other ideas.

Actor Adam Fischer doesn’t believe in second chances. Heartbroken after his boyfriend - ex-boyfriend - Charlie leaves him to chase a music career in LA, Adam decides to focus on his own career and forget about love. Meaningless hook-ups don’t keep his bed warm, though. Fresh out of college, fashion designer Penn Shields can’t believe his luck when he lands a dream job as wardrobe assistant in Queen Victoria theatre. Not only that, but on his very first day he meets hottie Adam Fischer. Who also happens to be his brother’s ex.

Two musicals, one theatre. Two men, one epic love story. Dancer Fenix Bergman has a dream - to perform on Broadway. But claiming a place on the biggest theatre stage in the world is not easy. When he gets offered a lead role in a new musical based in London’s West End, Fenix quickly accepts, recognizing the huge potential of the show. Actor Jared Hartley is exactly where he wants to be in life. Starring in a popular West End musical, Jared’s career is at its peak. He doesn’t have time for love, and never even considered something was missing from his life. Until he meets Fenix.

Traffic is piling up, and strange things are headed your way in this new story collection by World Fantasy Award-winning author Tobias S. Buckell. In these twenty-four stories you’ll find inhabitants of a small town who won’t vaccinate against a zombie plague, a lone sentry keeping motorists from stumbling into something ancient and evil, a man who puts stranded ghosts to rest, an ex-soldier traveling the seas who trades his new life of hardship for a return to swords and blood, and many more tales of speculative fiction.

Todd elevates genre short fiction beyond entertainment. Whether it's the titular story of a haunted mug driving the new office hire mad, or a worrisome look at the near future where the guilty simply hire someone to do their prison time, these stories will challenge as much as engage.

No one thought that MacTrump - Lord of MacTrump Towers, Son of New York - would ascend to the highest position in the kingdom. Yet with the help of his unhappy but dutiful wife Lady MacTrump, his clever daughter Dame Desdivanka, and his coterie of advisers, MacTrump is comfortably ensconced in the White Hold as President of the United Fiefdoms, free to make proclamations to his subjects through his favorite messenger, McTweet. The Democrati, mourning the loss of their cherished leader O'Bama, won't give up without a fight.

In the lawless frontier town of Brownsville, Texas, a boy and his parents ride a carriage down a crowded street - when a kill crazy band of kidnappers strike suddenly. Now, to rescue his family, veteran rancher Charley Sunday cobbles together a ragtag posse that starts with an outlaw and an Indian - and picks up recruits, weapons, and a lot of trouble all the way down into Mexico. 

Flintlock takes no pleasure in killing. But when his pal O’Hara gets bullwhipped by a trio of lowdown prairie rats, Flintlock finds sanctuary for his wounded friend at the cabin of a kindly miner and his lovely daughter. Flintlock heads out to hunt down some food. But there’s more than just deer lurking in these woods. A bloodthirsty band of eight savage raiders — led by a half-mad gunslinger called The Old Man of the Mountain — wage a full-scale attack on the miner’s cabin. 

After crossing the dry Arizona desert — and missing six meals in a row — Sam Flintlock is flat-out desperate. For food. For work. For lodgings. Luckily, he finds all three in the high timber country east of the Mogollon River. A very young and pretty heiress, Lucy Cullen, has an unusual proposition for the bounty hunter. She will pay him cold, hard cash to spend one full week in the gothic mansion of her murdered uncle. What’s the catch? The place is haunted....