Showing results by narrator "Derek Shoales" in All Categories

Influencers have always deployed the power of hype to get what they want. But never in history have people been so susceptible to propaganda and persuasion as they are now. Hype truly runs our world. Imagine if you could generate and leverage hype for positive purposes - like legitimate business success, helping people, or effecting positive change in your community. Michael F. Schein teaches you how.

China's growing role in the global economy is showing no sign of retreat. Indeed, recent events have only increased China's influence - to the point where China is poised to edge out the United States and take the lead. For investors like you, this tectonic shift poses difficult challenges - along with tremendous opportunities. In China's Rise and the New Age of Gold, one of the 21st century's top economic experts, Stephen Leeb, lays out his compelling argument that explosive gains in gold lie ahead.

Eddie Hunter's pretty happy with his stay in Light Online so far. Even with a major raid coming up, he's still making progress on getting his castle built. His business ventures in the game are performing admirably, and the testing he's been doing has recently been going quite well. With other settlements to create, a forest elf town to find, a settlement quest still to finish, and the king's quest beyond that, Eddie's staying busy. Unfortunately the NPCs in the game are far too much like real people, so treachery and backstabbing are also within their grasp.

Marc and his party are seeking the sarcophagus that they were sent on a quest to find, only to discover that it is now protected by far more than just the Guardian they'd been told would await them. When they return to Any Port, Marc discovers that Bastet's obsession with Beggar has reached new heights, forcing Beggar and Marc into taking action to foil Bastet's plan to kidnap the raccoon.

His name is Taylor McFadden, survivor of eighty-three trips into the ZOO. Now, he's retired, and yet his country needs his skills to save people in the country he calls home.

It's time. The gloves are coming off. The mob has disrespected Taylor's people, and he won't stand for it. However, DESK is more than willing to help everyone bet their bank account on the outcome. But will Taylor be able to take out two very large mob guys and take home the scratch? To get Niki's hand, will Taylor have to go through her DOD guys to get their permission? Perhaps, but perhaps they better not let Niki hear them say it that way.

It started with a girl. Her father, as it turned out, was a barbaric maniac. Decades into the 21st century, the madman seemed terribly out of place. Yet he was also a powerful mogul - and determined to turn the life of every man who had ever been romantically involved with his daughter into a particular variant of hell only made possible by the latest VR technology. All 17 of his girl's former lovers would suffer in virtual reality until they snapped. For the first 16, the project succeeded. But the 17th was different. The 17th was Dark.

Niki Banks and her team from the DOD need Taylor's help, but he isn't at home. He is in New Orleans with her cousin, which has Niki more than a little curious. She needs to stop a potentially catastrophic release of cryptids into the Louisiana biome. But will Taylor be in jail by the time she arrives? If he isn't in jail, will he have committed yet another major heist to get even with those who have attacked him?

After arranging her parents' wedding at the spring festival, Angeline and her friends return to Orphen to resume their activities as adventurers. With all that they endured on the road, Marguerite is poised for a major promotion, and soon Angeline, Anessa, and Miriam's party will officially become a quartet. Back home, Belgrieve finds himself juggling the traditional demands of life in the countryside with all of his new responsibilities as a husband and soon-to-be guildmaster. Life in Turnera is on the precipice of major changes.

His name is Taylor McFadden, survivor of eighty-three trips into the ZOO. Now he's retired, and yet his country still needs his skills to save people in the country he calls home.

Marc is all too aware that the end of the acclimatization year the System has provided to Earth is quickly drawing to a close and that others will be allowed onto the planet to start claiming areas shortly. Zeus has promised that his series of quests will get Marc, at least, to the maximum level reachable in that first year, but Marc is nervous that it isn't going to happen.

In the seven years since he crossed the Alps and began his war against the Roman Republic, Hannibal Barca stood unbeaten in battle. However, maintaining a large army was a costly proposition and the government of Carthage proved stingy with its coins. To intercept the supplies destined for Hannibal, the Senate of Rome stationed Legions in Iberia. But, when the Legions were destroyed by Hannibal's brother and their Generals killed, the Senate could not find a willing replacement. Enter one Tribune who hungered for the position.

Paul Farmer has battled AIDS in rural Haiti and deadly strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the slums of Peru. A physician-anthropologist with more than fifteen years in the field, Farmer writes from the front lines of the war against these modern plagues and shows why, even more than those of history, they target the poor.

After a long and perilous journey to the Earth Navel, Belgrieve finally succeeds in locating the second of his missing comrades. The dangers of the road are a fresh reminder of Belgrieve's limitations, and he begins to doubt his ability to continue his quest. But with the support of his daughter and friends, he finally manages to reconcile with his old party member Percival. Resolved to see things through to the end, they continue their journey to find the elf Satie, the last member of Belgrieve's old party.

After rescuing Mit from the malice of the ancient woods, Belgrieve and Angeline set off on their first proper adventure together. Their goal: the long-awaited reunion of Belgrieve and an old comrade. Along the way, they happen to cross paths with an old acquaintance of Kasim's, a guild master. But as fate would have it, a disagreement leads Belgrieve to lock blades with her. Eventually, after so many long years, Belgrieve finally manages to find his former party member Percival. Their reunion, however, isn't entirely a happy one.

Belgrieve's journey to find the last member of his old party, Satie, has led him and his companions to the imperial capital of Rhodesia—a majestic city with a dark underbelly, rife with scheming and plots. Their seemingly simple quest to reunite with a long-lost friend is now inexorably bound up with the fate of the empire itself. Amidst the plotting and intrigues of the city, they soon learn of Satie's solitary war against the impostor who has supplanted Crown Prince Benjamin and his clandestine alliance with the legendary archmage Schwartz.

They were on their own. In September 2245, the artificial intelligence known as Janice Quant dropped 100,000 colonists and their supplies in the subtropical zone of the planet they named Arcadia. One of the colonist groups was the Chen-Jasic group, composed of 31 American suburbanites and 31 Chinese peasants. They formed an alliance, then solidified it into a family, acting in the best interests of the group. The Chen-Jasic family would play a critical role in the first 150 years of the Arcadia colony. This is their story.

Billionaire industrialist Ted Burke understands that humanity has always balanced on the edge of a knife. A single planetary cataclysm could wipe out the human race. As long as humanity only occupies one planet, the danger exists.

Chen JieMin hypothesized the existence of hyperspace. The government of Arcadia put a project together to build a hyperspace probe. Chen ChaoLi managed the project to build a successful probe and transition it there and back.

A bounty hunting survivor. A Galactic dark elf. A woman who has given up her humanity to become something more. These stories and more are available in the first short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, covering year one on Earth. When the world ends, humanity steps up, finding new ways to survive in a world with classes, magic, and monsters. The anthology features exciting, new stories by five new writers and a new, never publicly released short story by Tao Wong.