Showing results by narrator "Steve Barnes" in All Categories

In the land of Scandza, a captivating Ruritanian story unfolds against the backdrop of the early 1900s. Prince Frederik, a tenacious and determined soul, finds himself at the center of a web of secrets that surround the royal family of Scandza. Resolved to uncover the truth about his past, Frederik embarks on a quest that takes him through treacherous paths and into the depths of the royal palace. Alongside the unorthodox Soldier Trier and the enigmatic Princess Evelyn, Frederik encounters a multitude of eccentric and unforgettable characters, each concealing their own secrets and motives.

With the allied colony on Hot Segovia abandoned and a massive insectoid armada threatening an invasion of the human and Hroom worlds, Drake, Tolvern, and Vargus fight a war across multiple fronts to stem the enemy tide. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Capp, the only person to have successfully communicated with the aliens, believes the insectoids intentions are not as destructive as they appear. Even as allied forces are pushed to the brink, she hatches a scheme to hand herself to the enemy in a desperate bid to restore peace.

With the short, brutal struggle between humans and insectoids ending in an apparent truce, the navy orders forces withdrawn beyond the Roach Frontier, hoping to avoid a destructive war against their new rivals. But when an ambitious human settlement and a colony of semi-feral insectoids clash in the Segovia System, the conflict quickly spirals out of control, with humans launching an invasion of mechanized troops, and insectoids responding with a rapid military buildup that threatens to push the war into an uncontrollable spiral of complete genocide.

Lieutenant Capp is integrating Royal Navy tech onto a battered ship from the Old Earth fleet when she gets orders to cross the so-called Roach Frontier and investigate a potentially hostile alien race. The insectoids have survived a genocidal war and are expanding aggressively toward human territory. She arrives to find a navy warship already lurking in the system, with Captain McGowan of HMS Peerless preparing a preemptive strike against an insectoid mining colony.

As one of the rulers of the ancient city of Quintana, Lord Carbón enjoys power and privilege that the lower castes of the city can only admire and envy. His wealth and status come from the coal mined atop the plateau and shipped across the Great Span - a mysterious bridge built during a legendary period of super science. When miners discover a strange new artifact in the mines, maiming those who touch it and spawning deadly, shadow-like witherers, the discovery draws the attention of Salvatore, head of the secretive Luminoso cult.

Narina has barely recovered from the madness that consumed her soul when she is forced to confront the crowlord Damanja, who has risen to mastery on the plains, and now seeks total domination. Even as Narina unites the sword temples against the crowlord, a demon king brings fire from the underworld, while dragon demigods of the mountains bury the land in snow. If Narina doesn't quickly stop the crowlord and lead her fellow sword warriors against these threats, her world will be destroyed by fire and ice.

As other sword masters are called to the fight, Narina finds herself hunted by a warrior from a rival temple. He is a warbrand, powerful and experienced, and trapped by a curse that will see him kill any and all rivals. With her sister - a fellow blade dancer and sword master - seeking allies from the doomed firewalker temple, it falls on Narina to face the warbrand alone.

When Narina’s father is murdered, the young sword master leaves the bladedancer temple to find her father’s killer among the crowlords of the plains. Together with a temple elder and her favorite apprentice, they enter the lowlands to discover that the crowlords have plunged the land into war, and worse, that they are aware of the temple warriors in their midst. It soon becomes clear that Narina has been called to join a larger conflict: The rise of the legendary Sword Saint, a warrior with the ability to single-handedly defeat an entire army.

In a world where dragons can be sung into submission by dragon charmers, people have forgotten the true power of dragons...and they are about to pay the price. In the exciting sequel to Mountains of Fire, the spell binding the fearsome Red Dragons is weakening, and when they break free, they will seek a terrible revenge. With the help of Silverhorn and Braveheart, Logan and Alyxa flee in search of Logan's long-lost parents, who hold the key to defeating the red dragons.

It has been a year since the red and gold dragons were defeated at Silver Haven. They thought they had seen the last of the dragons.... When Logan realizes that the threat of the dragons from The Rift is still very real, he goes in search of Zared to put it right.... But Zared is gone, and the fate of Silver Haven rests on Logan and his friends. In the exciting conclusion to the Dragon Charmers series, Logan must travel down to the heart of the home of the dragons - the Caverns of Gold!

In a world where they can be sung into submission by dragon charmers, people have forgotten the true power of dragons...but when feral red dragons seize a royal prince, that power threatens everything. Logan lives with Zared, and elderly and absent-minded wizard, in Shanoria - the Kingdom of the Dragons. His closest friend is Alyxa, a dragon charmer with the rare gift of soothing and commanding dragons. But not all dragons are tame, and when feral Reds kidnap the crown prince, Logan and Alyxa are thrust into a fast-paced adventure.

When a brutal threat takes over Vagabond Circus, everyone seeks refuge away from the big top. Finley knows he has to protect the circus he’s grown to love - and its people. But to do that he’ll have to further scar his soul. Jack is relentless to take back what was stolen from him, but in the process he becomes someone he never expected. And this acrobat, who once stole the hearts of millions, accidentally steals a heart he didn’t expect.

Who will save the circus? When the worst case scenario befalls the Vagabond Circus, Zuma knows she must ensure it doesn’t fall to doom. Titus’s job is to guarantee the show goes on, while the acrobats seek to avenge and rescue. Jack has no idea that he’s about to levitate himself into a deadly situation, and only Zuma and Finley can save him from a threat unlike what most have ever encountered.

When an ancient artifact kills the head of the Luminoso cult and descends into the Rift on a trail of fire, it falls upon Lord Carbón, his chancellor, and a sympathetic cultist to decipher the object before it returns to destroy the city of Quintana. Unfortunately, the treacherous Naila Roja, fresh off a murderous ascent to the top of the Luminoso, wishes only to force Quintana to bend a knee and acknowledge her as its ruler. She is blind to the dangers and possibilities of the artifact, and on the hunt for secrets hidden in the vaults of the Luminoso temple.

After Lord Carbón, one of the rulers of Quintana, discovers an artifact created during an ancient period of magic and super science, he enlists his energetic young chancellor, Iliana Diamante, and his former rival, the elderly Lord Torre, to hide the object before the Luminoso cult can seize it in a bid for power. To stop them, the spider-like Salvatore, head of the Luminoso, enlists his underling, the treacherous Naila Roja, to coerce the secret from her father-in-law, Lord Torre. Salvatore thinks he can control the artifact and bring about a new era of glory with himself in command.

When miners discover a strange new artifact in the mines, maiming those who touch it and spawning deadly, shadowlike witherers, the discovery draws the attention of Salvatore, head of the secretive Luminoso cult. Hoarding ancient artifacts and terrorizing the city, the cabalists of the Luminoso temple collect scientific knowledge without understanding it, while watching the skies for heavenly signs, determined to bring about another golden age and crush any who meddle with their sacred prerogatives.

If knowledge is power, then what's a secret? A year after thwarting the Kabbahl's attempt to restore shadow magic, the impetuous Marcus Fith, denied the opportunity to help his family search for his sister, decides to take matters into his own hands. When the only meaningful clue his family has seen mysteriously shows up - a letter addressed to him... written in his own blood - Marcus escapes in order to work out the set of expiring instructions that promise to lead him to his sister. Promises are slippery things, however.

Inspired by the rising chaos in Sheng Fan, Xu Liang, mystic and officer of the Imperial Court, leaves his homeland for the barbarian outer lands in search of four magical blades to unite with two sacred weapons already in the possession of the Empire. His plan is to bring all of the blades together and return them to Sheng Fan's Empress as a symbol of unity that will bolster the people’s faith in the Imperial family and assist against the surge of dark forces. Complicating his plan is not the finding of the blades, but finding them with bearers.

A reluctant teen, a tattooed man, and a Big Boss with an even bigger secret. They'll keep you guessing until the very end with this gamer's fantasy tale. In the gaming world you can always power off. In the world of Nin, power is forever. Soon to be ninth grader, Xavier Dare, thinks he can ace any video game out there. When a mysterious tattooed man challenges X to play a game that's never before been completed -- X can't refuse.

One word changes everything. The all-powerful ruling authority, the Common, implants sensors into its citizens, sensors into the eyes and into the ears. They can see what you see and hear what you hear, and everything is monitored and recorded. One wrong word, or action, and you can lose your citizenship, which means death.