Showing results by author "Howard Jones" in All Categories

The Dervan Empire has at last triumphed over Volanus, putting the great city to the torch, its treasures looted, temples defiled, and fields sown with salt. What little remains of Volanus is scattered across the empire, its wealth plundered and its survivors sold into slavery. It is an absolute victory for the Dervans in every way but one. Hanuvar, last and greatest general of Volanus, still lives. He now travels the length of the Dervan Empire that conquered his homeland, driven by a singular purpose—to find what remains of his people who were carried into slavery across the empire.

Sela Gordon, shy owner of a Tennessee general store, prefers solitude. If anyone can chip away at her protective shell, it’s the handsome, mysterious, ex-military man who’s been hiding for two years in the wilds of Cove Mountain. But when he warns her that a catastrophic solar storm with the capability of taking down the power grids is approaching, Sela must come out of her shell and be the leader Wears Valley needs.

The success of Starbucks is one of the most remarkable business stories in decades. Since 1987, the coffee merchant has grown from a single retail store on Seattle's waterfront to a company with more than 1,000 stores nationwide and a new one opening somewhere every business day. According to Fortune magazine, Starbucks "has changed everything...from our tastes to our language to the face of Main Street."

It almost seemed that the worst lay behind them. Hanuvar and his small band of allies had faced down warriors and horrors and sinister magics to free hundreds of their people from slavery. The emperor was dead and his successor had so little interest in finding Hanuvar he'd ordered his sorcerous revenants to cease their search and turn their sinister talents to other targets.

Carlin Reed lives in fear, off the grid, moving from place to place. So Battle Ridge, Wyoming, a small town in the middle of nowhere, seems like a good place to lie low for a while. But after becoming cook and housekeeper to cattle rancher Zeke Decker, Carlin suspects that she’s made her first mistake. Rugged, sexy, and too distracting for his own good, Zeke is pure temptation mixed with something deep and primal that makes Carlin feel almost safe. Soon things are getting way too hot in the kitchen.

Mirian Raas comes from a long line of salvagers, adventurers who use magic to dive for sunken ships off the coast of tropical Sargava. When her father dies, Mirian has to take over his last job: a dangerous expedition into deep jungle pools, helping a tribe of lizardfolk reclaim the lost treasures of their people.

When the human and the vampire worlds collide, there will be hell to pay. Luca Ambrus is a rare breed: Vampire from birth, begotten by vampire parents, blood born. He is also an agent of the Council - the centuries-old cabal that governs vampirekind, preserving their secrecy and destroying those who betray them. When a cryptic summons leads him to the scene of the brutal killing of a powerful Council member, Luca begins the hunt for an assassin among his own people. But instead of a lone killer he discovers a sinister conspiracy of rogue vampires bent on subjugating the mortal world.

The race is on to free Lord Stelan from the grip of a wasting curse, and only his old, half-elf mercenary companion Elyana has the wisdom - and swordcraft - to solve the mystery of his tormentor and free her old friend before three days have passed and the illness takes its course.

When a mysterious monster carves a path of destruction across the southern River Kingdoms, desperate townsfolk look to the famed elven ranger Elyana and her half-orc companion Drelm for salvation. For Drelm, however, the mission is about more than simple justice - it's about protecting the frontier town he's adopted as his home, and the woman he plans to marry.

Yig, known as the Serpent God, is older than humanity, and Yig’s reptilian children once ruled the Earth. Now they are stirring in their caves, walking the Earth in forms not quite human, slowly and patiently preparing their plans. Those who stumble on their secrets are in deadly danger...but only they can prevent the return of our darkest fears.

Elyana is an elven adventurer devoted to helping innocents escape the madness of revolutionary Galt. Together with her band of bold human companions, she is a powerful force for freedom, and one that many Galtan leaders would happily see tied up at the bottom of a guillotine. When one of their allies is gravely injured, it's up to Elyana and the wizard Arcil to buy time by leading the enemy on a wild chase into the dark depths of the Verduran Forest.

The Naor hordes have been driven from the walls, but the Dendressi forces are scattered and fragmented, and their gravest threat lies before them. For their queen has slain the ruling council and fled with the magical artifacts known as the hearthstones, and she is only a few days from turning them to her mad ends. The Altenerai corps has suffered grievous casualties, and Elenai’s hearthstone and her source of sorcerous power has been shattered. She and her friends have no choice but to join with the most unlikely of allies.

Howard Jones provides a concise, incisive, and dramatic account of the disastrous attempt to overthrow Castro in April 1961. Drawing on recently declassified CIA documents, Jones deftly examines the train of missteps and self-deceptions that led to the invasion of U.S.-trained exiles at the Bay of Pigs. Ignoring warnings from the ambassador to Cuba, the Eisenhower administration put in motion an operation that proved nearly unstoppable, even after the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

Lenna is Strength, a manifestation of the tarot card, and powerful beyond reckoning. But when she's pulled into the human realm and tasked with protecting a young boy, everything is thrown into chaos. Lenna's not supposed to be here, interacting with mortals. She's definitely not supposed to be drawn to the sexy mercenary sent to retrieve her by any means necessary.

Hanuvar pledged to find the remnants of his people, scattered into slavery across the whole of the peninsula. This time he had no army. His would be a stealthy war of liberation, buying the freedom of some and arranging for the escape of others, aided only by a young playwright, the daughter of a hated political rival, the tattered remnants of his old spy network, and the unlikeliest ally of all, the general who once defeated him.

On the early morning of March 16, 1968, American soldiers from three platoons of Charlie Company entered a group of hamlets located in the Son Tinh district of South Vietnam, located near the Demilitarized Zone and known as "Pinkville" because of the high level of Vietcong infiltration. The soldiers, many still teenagers who had been in the country for three months, were on a "search and destroy" mission. Three hours after the GIs entered the hamlets, more than 500 unarmed villagers lay dead, killed in cold blood.

As a snowfall blankets 8th century Mosul, a Persian noblewoman arrives at the home of the scholar Dabir and his friend the swordsman Captain Asim. Najya has escaped from a dangerous cabal that has ensorcelled her to track down ancient magical tools of tremendous power, the bones of the old ones.

Their peace was a fragile thing, but it had endured for seven years, mostly because the people of Darassus and the king of the Naor hordes believed his doom was foretold upon the edge of the great sword hung in the hall of champions. Unruly Naor clans might raid across the border, but the king himself would never lead his people to war so long as the blade remained in the hands of his enemies. But when squire Elenai’s aging uncovers evidence that the sword in their hall is a forgery, she’s forced to flee Darassus for her life, her only ally the reckless, disillusioned Kyrkenall.

While the savage Naor clans ready to march on the heart of the Five Realms, Rylin Corimel infiltrates the highest of the enemy ranks to learn their secrets and free hundreds of doomed prisoners. His ailing mentor Varama leads the Altenerai corps in a series of strikes to cripple the Naor. Kyrkenall, Elenai, and the kobalin Ortok ride for the storm-wracked shifting lands to rekindle the alliance with the winged lizards known as ko’aye, the only possible counter to the terrible Naor dragons.

Voices: Vol. 2 is the second installment of the Voices series by Black Males in Education St. Louis (BMESTL) in an attempt to project the work, accomplishments, and perspectives of Black male educators. Based on the success of Voices: Vol. 1, there is little doubt that Vol. 2 will not only be a compelling listen, but will also inspire more Black men (and women) to find their authentic voice while encouraging others to enter the field of education.