Showing results by narrator "Grant Cartwright" in All Categories

The cruel Merdrun, the greatest warriors in the void, have invaded Santhenar but their portal failed, leaving them stranded. They're desperately trying to regain contact with the summon stone so they can reopen the portal and begin the slaughter of humanity. Llian, hurled through another portal, sees the summon stone wake and knows the allies have but one chance to destroy the Merdrun—though it will involve an alchemical quest that has always ended in ruin, a mad invasion in untested sky ships with untrained pilots and the most unequal battle in all the Histories.

Through the skillful application of being barely competent, Captain Iridius B. Franklin and the crew of the FSC Deus Ex have managed to triumph in not just one adventure but two. Unfortunately, despite being assured this sort of thing doesn't happen to space adventurers nearly as often as is assumed, Iridius and his crew have been flung almost a year back in time. Now, in order to stop an existential threat to the galaxy and ensure they don't cause irreparable damage to the space-time continuum, the crew of the Deus Ex must set out to find their way back to the future.

Aika is playing a dangerous game. Torn between the loyalties she thought she had and revelations she wishes she didn't, she will burn the city down to get the answers she needs. To get the vengeance she craves. But when the boy from her past starts asking questions that could get them both killed, she is forced to choose between the people she needs to die and those she wants to save.

With acuity, humor, and respect for human diversity, The Shortest History of Sex reveals where the many facets of our sexuality—chemical, anatomical, behavioral, social—come from. Chasing down our evolutionary family tree, from the first aquatic creatures to primate societies, David Baker sheds light on our baffling array of passions, impulses, and fetishes, and guides us toward a clear understanding of one of the deepest, most abiding forces of human nature.

A marriage that could save them both. A truth that might destroy them. And a choice that will break her heart. All Aika ever wanted was a family—until hers was standing on opposite ends of a war. Trapped between her loyalty to a monster and her love for a man who despises her, she must decide who she's willing to lose. And who she's willing to betray.

The most terrifying thing that you can possibly imagine is your own body in the hands of a monster. Or worse, in the hands of another human being. In this definitive anthology of body horror selected by a World Horror Grandmaster, you'll find the unthinkable and the shocking: a couture designer preparing for an exquisitely grotesque runway show; a vengeful son seeking the parent who bred him as plasma donor; a celebrity-kink brothel that inflicts plastic surgery on sex workers; and organ-harvesting doctors who dissect a living man without anesthetic.

Vincent Stanley, Patagonia's director of philosophy, with Yvon Chouinard, founder and former owner of Patagonia, draws on fifty years' experience to challenge all business owners and leaders to rethink their businesses in a time of cultural and climate chaos. The authors describe the current impact of manufacturing, commerce, and traditional capitalism on the planet's natural systems and human communities, and how that impact is forcing business to change its ways.

What's stopping you from buying property? Is it the changing markets? The needless jargon? The rising costs? Buying property doesn't have to be difficult; you just need to step up on that ladder. In Buy Now, you'll get the simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand advice to help you not only enter the property market, but to launch and grow your own portfolio. Nobody ever got what they wanted by waiting. Take the first step toward financial freedom through property with practical advice from one of Australia's leading buyer's agents.

There is a dark full moon on midwinter's day. The foretelling has come to pass. Rulke the Charon is unstoppable now. Karan is held captive in desolate Carcharon tower. Rulke plans to use her to find the Way between the Worlds. On the mountainside below, the allies await their fate. Karan's lover, Llian, is in chains, falsely accused of betraying her to the enemy. As the dark moon rises, Rulke begins to open the Way. If he succeeds, the world will be overwhelmed by the dread armies of the void.

Rulke the Great Betrayer is free at last, to use the deadly construct he has spent a thousand years perfecting. To succeed he needs just one thing – Karan's sensitive talent. Karan and her lover Llian are lost in the Nightland, in an alien palace that is collapsing around them. Only Rulke can open the gate and send them home to Santhenar, but Karan is terrified that he will corrupt Llian first.

When the Alpha Event struck Earth, the rules of reality itself were rewritten. Millions died as the world was transformed into a lethal realm of magic and monsters. Yet somehow, an overweight, out-of-shape construction supervisor managed not just to survive the apocalypse, but inadvertently became an reluctant hero after saving thousands from one of the many monsters spawned by the mana storm.

Adrian and his companions continue their journey toward Melbourne. The pathway through the post-apocalypse landscape continues to be harrowing; as they travel, they run into dysfunctional towns that need their help, and they must find unorthodox solutions to defeat the monsters that plague the landscape, some of which are extinction-level threats.

The Sapphire Portal is the shattering fourth and final instalment of Ian Irvine's best-selling fantasy series The Gates of Good and Evil. The Sapphire Portal is ready, and the Merdrun are bringing their long-hidden women and children through. There’s no turning back now. But what is the true purpose of the portal? Is it a horrific new weapon to cleanse Santhenar of all four human species, so the Merdrun can take it for their own world? Only their arch-sorcerer, the magiz, knows.

Adrian's journey to get to Melbourne continues, and he realizes sometimes the only path to success is to do things slower. He has promised to accept the quest for Jules' sake, but his interface is also adamant that completing the quest is the only way he reaches Melbourne. Not only will he need to find the fortitude to kill, he will also need to work out how to complete the quest requirements.

In the dead of night, a figure flits through the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, searching for a hidden document he knows could change the course of history. The journal he discovers, by a young soldier, David Erskine, records an extraordinary story.

The team has done everything right. They have killed off all of Adhava’s kids and in doing so denied her reinforcements, but now she has fled into a dungeon. Adrian and his team need to hunt her down; track her, find her and then destroy her in an environment she knows, controls and has had time to prepare to kill interlopers. It is not an exercise, as Training Facilities in the Alpha Physic framework have the real chance of death, and with Adhava trying to ambush them at every moment, it is going to be a tough fight. With discipline and luck, they might pull through.

My name is Charlotte Locke, and I’m an analyst for Section 47, a secret government agency that tracks terrorists, criminals, and other paramortal bad guys who want to unleash their abilities on an unsuspecting mortal world. I have a magical form of synesthesia that senses danger and uncovers lies - making me a stealthy operative. I’m trudging through another day when one of Section’s cleaners - assassins - takes an interest in me. I don’t need my synesthesia to realize that he is extremely dangerous.

As an operative of the United Forces of Humanity and its secret covert group known as the Knight Hunters, we join Vic as he digs even deeper into the underbelly of humanity's survival. In doing so, he uncovers even more nefarious activities that go beyond the horrors he's already unearthed. And as always, the threat from the Invaders is a constant risk that could end everything he holds dear.

Adrian faces threats he is aware of; weak but numerous enemies that no one else would even think about challenging. He is not at all concerned because of a simple fact of life: if you know what's coming, the risk can be mitigated or avoided in its entirety. With his companions, new and old, along with the energy windfall from the hoppers, Adrian has the purchasing power and the fighting strength to make like light work of monsters that would otherwise be problematic.

The node has failed, rendering humanity's battle clankers and the Aachim's constructs useless. The battle has been lost. Now hordes of alien lyrinx are swarming out of the tar pits of Snizort, intending to fall upon the survivors and destroy them to the last man. Tiaan is held prisoner by a vengeful Vithis, who is determined to extract her geomantic secrets at any cost. For his failings, Nish has been cast out and branded a traitor while Irisis, accused of high treason, has been forced to flee for her life.