Showing results by narrator "Kevin Kenerly" in All Categories

In Shadow Lab, a brilliant roster of speculative fiction writers pulls listeners into a diverse and genre-bending collection of stories, each as irresistible as the last.

A powerful and resonant novel from Tom Franklin - critically acclaimed author of Smonk and Hell at the Breech - Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter tells the riveting story of two boyhood friends, torn apart by circumstance, who are brought together again by a terrible crime in a small Mississippi town. An extraordinary novel that seamlessly blends elements of crime and Southern literary fiction, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a must for readers of Larry Brown, Pete Dexter, Ron Rash, and Dennis Lehane.

Weird Tales magazine is known for launching a number of sub-genres of fiction—cosmic horror, swords & sorcery, dark fantasy, and others. It has also greatly added to existing genres like science fiction, horror, and—a personal favorite of editor Jonathan Maberry—weird mystery stories. Or, as they became known—occult detective tales.

It starts with the dogs. They won’t stop barking. And then the earth shrugs - 8.9 on the Richter scale. It’s the world’s biggest earthquake since Lisbon in 1755, and it doesn’t hit California or Japan or Mexico, but New Madrid, Missouri, a sleepy town on the Mississippi River. Seismologists had predicted the scope of the disaster - but no one listened. For hundreds of miles around, dams burst, engulfing entire counties in tidal waves of mud and debris. Within minutes, there is nothing but chaos and ruin from St. Louis to Vicksburg, from Kansas City to Louisville.

At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty.

For the first time in a thousand years, Americans are experiencing a reversal in lifespan. Despite living in one of the safest and most secure eras in human history, one in five adults suffers from anxiety as does one-third of adolescents. Nearly half of the US population is overweight or obese and one-third of Americans suffer from chronic pain - the highest level in the world.

Fantasy icon Jane Yolen is adored by generations of readers and listeners of all ages. Now she triumphantly returns with this inspired gathering of fractured fairy tales and legends. Yolen breaks open the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets: a philosophical bridge that misses its troll, a spinner of straw as a falsely accused moneylender, the villainous wolf adjusting poorly to retirement. Each of these offerings features a new author note and original poem, illuminating tales that are old, new, and brilliantly refined.

A fresh post-apocalyptic anthology: the end of the world seen through the salvage and ruins, featuring Emily St. John Mandel, Carmen Maria Machado, and more.

A time traveler gains a vista of the world’s unknown history—at the peril of his life!

Protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the United States following the death of Michael Brown revealed something far deeper than a passionate display of age-old racial frustrations; they unveiled a public chasm that has been growing for years, as America has consistently and intentionally denied significant segments of its population access to full freedom and prosperity.

King and Slater have fought and warred all over the globe, from the desolate plains of the Russian Far East to the extreme altitudes of Nepal. Now, chaos strikes them at home. New York goes dark as malicious code infects the power grid in a devastating cyberattack.

King and Slater are independent operators, outlawed from their government for good, free to deliver vigilante justice. Las Vegas, with its murky history and seedy underworld, serves as the perfect hunting ground. Below the hedonism, away from the bright lights and alluring fantasy, there’s an entrenched web of corruption. They offer their services to a woman about to serve a decade in prison for a crime she didn’t commit, and what begins with the infiltration of an unlicensed club in Chinatown unravels into an all-out war against retired cops and bent judges.

Black operations killer Will Slater has a choice to make: continue putting his life on the line for his country, despite the unrest brewing below his stoic exterior...or get out. Should he muster up the courage to tell his employers how he feels, accept that he’s rapidly approaching his physical and mental limits, and ask permission to step away from his role as a human wrecking ball? But he knows they won’t let him out, not with the state secrets swimming around in his head.

Moving north to wintry Maine, King and Slater get three days of rest before they’re barreling straight back to Boston with their hearts in their throats. Something they left behind has blown up in their faces, and suddenly they’re vulnerable, exposed. It’s all different now; the game has changed. In the shocking aftermath, it’s on them to pick up the pieces, and before long it dawns on them that they’ll need to make a choice. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place. To keep their families safe, they’ll need to do what they swore they’d never do.

On the same day Jason King is set to become a father, Will Slater sees a 12-year-old boy on a street corner. There's nothing particularly alarming about the kid, but Slater has a sixth sense when someone needs help, so he steps in to protect. After his vicious deliverance of justice enrages half the Boston underworld, Slater meets the whirlwind of chaos head-on. He made the choice to get involved, so he won't stop until the war is won. As King gets swept up in the madness from the supposed safety of Violetta's hospital room, their battles intertwine.

It’s been a year of peace. Now it's over. A vicious and mysterious assassin surfaces in the tiny town of Millinocket, and there’s only one conceivable reason for their presence. As King and Slater watch those they know added to the body count, their world begins to shift: their desire for a normal existence is irreconcilable with the brutal reality of their lives. They’re in Groundhog Day, hunted again and again by malevolent forces, and something has to change. Decisions must be made, changes that will shape their lives forever.

Told through two haunting, interwoven diaries, Mia Couto's Confession of the Lioness reveals the mysterious world of Kulumani, a village whose traditions are threatened when ghostlike lionesses begin hunting the women who live there.

Late summer, 1921. Disgraced former lightweight champion Pepper Van Dean has spent the past two years on the carnival circuit performing the dangerous "hangman's drop" and taking on all comers in nightly challenge bouts. But when he and his cardsharp wife, Moira, are marooned in the wilds of Oregon, Pepper accepts an offer to return to the world of wrestling as a trainer for Garfield Taft, a down-and-out African American heavyweight contender in search of a comeback and a shot at the world title.

Heidi Waters, CEO of billion-dollar startup Vitality+, is all the rage in Silicon Valley. Her company’s promises to roll out a neurochemical cure for caffeine-related anxiety are set to change the game, a godsend for anyone who’s ever got the jitters from upsizing their morning coffee order. There’s just one problem. There is no cure. The product doesn’t work.

The intellectual and cultural revival of African-American arts and politics in the 1920s and 1930s was centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. Here are poems from three major contributors to that rebirth: The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes, The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems by Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Copper Sun by Countee Cullen, delivered by three multiaward–winning narrators.