Showing results by narrator "Nick Podehl" in All Categories

Something has been asleep in forty-year-old cattle rancher Aiden Delacorte for a long time. It all comes back in a rush during a hunting trip, when he's suddenly attuned to the animals around him, feeling their pain and fear as if it were his own. But the newfound sensitivity of Aiden's "wake up" has its price. He can no longer sleepwalk through life, holding everyone at arm's length. As he struggles to cope with a trait he's buried since childhood, Aiden falls in love with Gwen, a single mother whose young son bears a burden of his own.

In the near future, to escape the crush and clutter of a packed and polluted Earth, the world’s elite flock to Atopia, an enormous corporate-owned artificial island in the Pacific Ocean. It is there that Dr. Patricia Killiam rushes to perfect the ultimate in virtual reality: a program to save the ravaged Earth from mankind’s insatiable appetite for natural resources.

When thirteen-year-old Ronan Truelove’s seemingly ordinary mom snatches him from school, then sets off on a high speed car chase, Ronan is shocked. His quiet, nerdy dad has been kidnapped? And the kidnappers are after him, too? His mom, he quickly learns, is anything but ordinary. In fact, she’s a member of an ancient order of knights, the Blood Guard, a sword-wielding secret society sworn to protect the Pure — thirty-six noble souls whose safety is crucial if the world as we know it is to survive.

On the young world of Dezrel, brother gods Karak and Ashhur, fleeing their own failed world, recreate mankind in an attempt to make amends. The fledgling race of humanity is guided by the First Families, men and women who will not age so long as their hearts remain devoted to their deities. But quickly the realms are thrown into chaos by the construction of the Temple of the Flesh, built by exiled children of Karak in the unclaimed land of Haven that lies between the two kingdoms.

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

The Spectral City of Cathella is shrouded in strange magic of a powerful artifact. Krian must face the Great Dragons of Pangea, an impossible quest on the Ancient Paths, transformed by the Twice Cursed God, a journey through an endless graveyard, the smile of the Goddess of Stealth.... And rage. Infinite rage. The path to the higher plane never seems to end, too much for any man to overcome.

When driven by a goal, the impossible oft becomes doable, like slaughtering an entire coven of the Twice Cursed God’s adepts without mercy, or leading a legion of demons to storm the last bastion of the Cursed Princedom. But as the impossible hurdles keep on coming, even that drive may not be enough for Krian to escape Demon Grounds, make it to the higher plane, reunite with his sister and friend, and exact vengeance on his mortal enemy....

A great war encroaches following the turbulent events of patch 17, casting a menacing shadow over both Demon Grounds and lands of the light races. Roused from a millennia-old slumber, dark gods seek to exact vengeance for their past defeat. Max finds himself at the epicenter of it all - with the lives of his woman, his friends, and all his people in the Wild Wood dependent on him. Two unlikely heroes must stand - and endure - against all odds: one a Black Demon from an ancient prophecy, the other a fabled Gray Lion....

Fletcher Connolly hasn't got a lot to lose. Since he and half the galaxy signed on to the rat race of the technological relics trade, Fletch has come to terms with the idea that he will join the ranks of unlucky explorers that perish light years from home without a dime to his name. But bankruptcy is a great motivator. With friends and family counting on him to strike it rich, Fletch embarks on an unwilling quest for alien treasure.

It's been slightly over a year since Kellan Thorne first accepted the Sentinel's mantel, and its power was renewed in him. He thought destroying an Arch Demon and banishing his Chaotic opposite would have brought him more respite than it did. Now Creation itself is under threat, by a Cabal of Angels and Demons who have found a way to shatter the foundational pillars of Time itself. This dire warning is brought to the young Sentinel by an unlikely messenger, who risks all to enlist the aid of God's unchecked hand on the world.

Virginia finally had the chance to explore a relationship with Aaron when he asked her on a date. She had been waiting, hoping that the widower and his young son, Buddy, would welcome her into their lives. But a terrible tragedy strikes on the night of their first kiss, crushing their hopes for a future together.

Even though the cancer should be far behind him, Jeffrey still worries that it will return. He’s got normal teen stuff to deal with, too - friends, parents, girls, school. Normally, he’d ask his older brother, Steven, for advice. But Steven, always the trusty, responsible one, is finally rebelling and has taken off to Africa to join a drumming circle and “find himself”. Jeffrey feels abandoned. Meanwhile, his best friend, Tad, is hatching some kind of secretive, crazy plan involving eighth-grade graduation.....

Ben Chase is a war hero, but a reluctant one. He struggles with bitter memories and feels alienated from the culture to which he has returned. When he claims that a psychopath is stalking him, he has by then made such an outsider of himself that no one believes him. He must resurrect the repressed warrior within to save himself and a woman he comes to love. Heroes need monsters to slay, and they can always find them - within if not without.

Kellan Thorne loves the Christmas season. He plans a well-deserved rest consisting of parties and watching Christmas classics. However, fate has different plans for Kellan and his Soulborn who find themselves swept up with gods, goddesses, and mantles of immense power. As the eternal battle between order and chaos continues to play out, Kellan quickly finds himself at odds with forces beyond both his understanding and ability to control. To safeguard all those he holds dear, Kellan must breach a celestial treasury sealed shut at the dawn of creation and pull forth a wizard's soul.

All vampires suck. Sterling just happens to be very good at it. Vainglorious vampire Sterling is forced to trade his big city hedonism for a trip to a sleepy mountain town, where mangled dead bodies have been discovered. Soon he’s entangled with snooty vampire nobles, territorial werewolves, and a society of law-enforcing sorcerers. The locals aren’t so bad, like the luscious young lady at the fruit shop, or the hunky electrician whose smile sends out sparks. But they’re distractions from the hunt for the mountain murderer.

When free-spirited werecat Yoshi sets out to find his missing sister, he’s shocked to discover that she’s the key suspect in a murder investigation. Meanwhile, sarcastic werepossum Clyde and his human pal Aimee have set out to do a little detective work of their own, sworn to avenge the brutal killing of a friend. When all three are snared in an underground kidnapping ring, they end up on a remote tropical island ruled by a species that’s unusual even by shape-shifter standards.

Russell Ammiano works on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the phone rings while Rusty is rushing to work. The news is devastating: his mother has died of a stroke, leaving his brain-damaged older brother, Ben, alone. This news also saves Rusty's life. He's still at home when two planes hit the World Trade Center--and only one of his friends and colleagues survives.

Seventeen-year-old Banyan is a tree builder. Using salvaged scrap metal, he creates forests for rich patrons who seek a reprieve from the desolate landscape. Although Banyan's never seen a real tree - they were destroyed more than a century ago - his missing father used to tell him stories about the Old World. Everything changes when Banyan meets a mysterious woman with a strange tattoo-a map to the last living trees on earth, and he sets off across a wasteland from which few return.

For the past seven years, Kellan Caufield Thorne has been caught up in a celestial power play of epic proportions. The final act began in an Atlanta alley by forever removing the scales from Kellan’s eyes to reveal a world of Creation, Destruction, gods, angels, demons, and Mantles. Now the last scene begins to unfold as God’s unchecked hand on the world must traverse a perilous and narrow path if he has any hope of saving our universe from Perditor, the very incarnation of destruction.

It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths - for good and evil - of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies.