Showing results by narrator "Mark Boyett" in All Categories

Dr. Adam Bloom has the perfect life. He's financially secure and lives in a luxurious house with his wife, Dana, and their 22-year-old daughter, Marissa, a recent college graduate. Late one night, his daughter wakes him up and says, "Somebody's downstairs." Adam uses his gun to kill one of the unarmed intruders, but the other escapes. From that moment on, everyone's life in the Bloom household will never be the same.

Aerophilia is a short story from the collection Tides from the New Worlds. Caribbean-born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel, Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering listeners a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining.

“Tander Phigg was an asshole, but he was also a Barnburner. Barnburners saved my life. I help them when I can. No exceptions.” The job seems simple. Conway Sax, a no-nonsense auto mechanic with a knack for solving difficult problems, has never liked obnoxious blowhard Tander Phigg. But a promise is a promise. Tander’s a Barnburner, a member of the unique Alcoholics Anonymous group that rescued Conway, and when a Barnburner has a problem, Conway takes care of it.

Big Ray's temper and obesity define him. When Big Ray dies, his son feels mostly relief, dismissing his other emotions. Yet years later, the adult son must reckon with the outsized presence of his father's memory. This stunning novel, narrated in more 500 brief entries, moves between past and present, between his father's death and his life, between an abusive childhood and an adult understanding.

The Space Marines are in the Oort Cloud, racing in their insertion pods to the frozen planetoid of Tyche. Alone in the dark, outnumbered and outgunned by the cyborgs waiting for them on the methane-ice surface, the hour of desperation has arrived. This novella is set in the Doom Star series.

The Red Jewel is rediscovered and wielded in this, Book number five of the series. Blood Magic reigns supreme, but who will master the Red Jewel first? The elder races gather, unhappy with the upstart humans and their possession of powerful Jewels. Brand leads an army of the River Folk and the Wee Folk to the Black Mountains to answer the request of the Kindred for aid. Enemy hosts march to face him. Fantastic forces are unleashed upon the world in a new war that will not be soon forgotten.

This short story is from the anthology Mitigated Futures. Twelve science fiction stories about the oncoming future, each of them representing a possible glimpse of what could be just around the corner... or much further down the corridor. These stories previously appeared in places like Clarkesworld Magazine, The Year's Best SF, Subterranean Magazine, and in various anthologies. They deal with the future of war, our climate, and technology's effect on our lives.

Earth has been a scarred ruin for three decades, its scattered people struggling to survive amid the poisoned and radioactive wreckage of the final war between its despotic superpowers. While the people of Earth struggle to survive, out on the frontier, on a thousand worlds, mankind thrives and grows, building new civilizations and looking boldly to the future. But man has never been able to live in peace, and even Earth's sad fate has failed to slow the call to war.

It's the 21st Century and the ugliness of war no longer exists, except on a very personal level. Nowadays, people like Marcello Polletti, seller of Roman sunsets, and Caroline Meredith, lithe, beautiful, blonde, and backed by corporate sponsors and the Roy Bell Dancers, hunt, chase, and kill each other for sport and for the entertainment of the masses - until something oddly like personal human feelings pops up to confuse the players and up the stakes...as each of them seeks to kill their 10th victim and rise in the ranks of the hunters.

Conway Sax, the no-nonsense auto mechanic with a knack for solving difficult problems for the Barnburners - the renegade AA group who saved his life - is back in The Whole Lie. And for once, he thinks normalcy is within reach. He’s opening a new garage, and he’s finally moved in with longtime girlfriend Charlene. The end of his parole is finally in sight. Then along comes Savannah Kane: smart, smoky, and a pusher of men’s buttons. Seven years ago, Conway helped her disappear....

Operating Base Cornucopia: A 300-year-old fortress in the remote Iraqi desert where a few dozen soldiers wait for their next assignment - among them Private Toby Durrant, a self-described broke nobody. Then, a deadly ambush touches off events that put Durrant in the middle of a far-reaching conspiracy.

"Stop the wedding!" No bride wants to hear those words, least of all Susannah "Legs" Carter, one of the Bod Squad's best agents. But when her colleague Jackson bursts in with news that her presumed-dead father may still be alive - and possibly a double agent - the vows are on hold, and the Bod Squad hits the road.

Life has never been better for Mark Sava, the former CIA station chief of Azerbaijan. He's recently married, has a newborn daughter, and the launch of his spies-for-hire business in Central Asia has been a great success. Then he gets a call from the US Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia - one his employees, seventy-two-year-old Larry Bowlan, has died of a heart attack.

Caribbean-born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel, Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining. Tides from the New Worlds contains 19 stories that range from multicultural science fiction to magical realism, some in print for the first time.

In Dragon Magic, the fourth book of the Haven Series, the Kindred call upon Brand for help. Things are not right in their kingdom beneath Snowdon. Modi has led a treasure-hunting expedition deep into the Everdark, a place where spine-terrors, blind croaking things, and great wurms reside. But it's been weeks; Modi is overdue, and the Gudrin fears the worst. Brand journeys into the magnesium bowels - and beyond - and discovers things buried there that he wishes he had never disturbed.

In 2092, the world's ecology is in ruins, drought and famine are widespread and survival is a never-ending challenge. Harold Erdman leaves his dying community with one goal, to make his way to Esmeralda, an island paradise run by the Huntworld Corporation which has turned public murder, among willing competitors, into a thriving and lucrative business. Can he survive the journey and then the many rounds of deadly competition on his way to the Big Payoff.

Skiptracer Blake Hartley has formed a tenuous alliance with the alien Sekkha on what should be an easy job: escort a young boy named Jorn Freyul to their client. That's it. But they soon find out that Jorn is more than he seems. He's known as the Exegent, a divine-like figure among members of a fanatical order called the Fold. Unfortunately for Blake and Sekkha, Jorn also possesses classified information that will not only put their lives in jeopardy, but also ties in to a devastating secret from Blake's last job - Hypertek.