Showing results by narrator "Aiello" in All Categories

Dak Korasa is wounded by his team and left for dead on a hostile jungle world. On the verge of succumbing, he’s saved by a sluglike organism created by an otherworldly entity. This parasite, or chok’tal, has one purpose: to alter its host’s DNA, turning him into a super-soldier known as a Purifier who is then expected to serve in the “Glorious Game.” Imbued with superhuman strength, speed, and endurance, Dak must kill to earn enough points to win the mysterious game—or the chok’tal will kill him.

Contains books one and two of the Deadland Drifter series: Deadland Drifter and Deadland Wanderer.

In the Undercity of Corvis, a ruthless crime lord has made a bold move to establish a stranglehold on Corvis' underworld and make it his own. When Canice Gormleigh becomes the target of a foreign crime syndicate called the Black Dogs, Colbie Sterling and the rest of the Black River Irregulars are prepared to defend her. Yet what begins as a bodyguard job turns personal when the syndicate marks the Black River Irregulars as the sole remaining obstacle keeping the Black Dogs from taking over the Undercity.

Reality after reality is being destroyed by THE BLEED. With their options narrowing by the second, and with their group scattered far and wide across the multiverse, it's down to less than 10 people to try and save the lives of billions upon billions of others. If they fail, THE BLEED will rule. Nothing and no one else will survive.  

As Connor secretly searches for the enemy homeworld, he launches clandestine military operations to liberate other worlds in hopes of gaining allies before the enemy can find the last human colony. The humans cannot hope to compete with the enemy’s vast empire, but with the discovery of a new ally, Connor believes their luck has finally changed. Instead, when new allies clash with the old, Connor finds himself caught in the middle. Connor will have to choose whether doing what’s necessary to ensure the colony survives is worth compromising his loyalty to allies close to home.

"Sun and Steel" illuminates the origin of Jirom, one of the main characters of the Book of the Black Earth epic fantasy series. This story explores the brutal nature of this world as well as the honor and duty that bind its characters together.

Earth is in turmoil. The enemy is bearing down on us with every warship they have, and our only allies are in chaos. Our one hope for survival is Andy Clanton - a hack science fiction writer trying to convince some aliens that humans are worth saving. It’s an uphill battle, because to the aliens, we are the monsters. We look just like their sworn enemies, the Tevynians, who’ve sworn to wipe out both our civilizations. When everything falls apart and the fate of the galaxy is on the line, can Andy Clanton pull our fat out of the fire?

An alien message is now humanity’s only hope. Decoding the signal has given us one chance to stop the Anomaly, an ever-tightening cosmic noose, before it squeezes the life out of Earth. The only problem is, the aliens’ single instruction sounds like a bona fide death wish. They want me to step through their incredible quantum gateway, an enigma wrapped in starlight. Believe me: if I had any other option, I’d be taking it. But with the best data giving Earth a few days before the Anomaly consumes us, options are in short supply. Suicide or salvation? I’m about to find out.

Star Lawyers Corporation must defend a known criminal in Pirate Court to prevent ancient technologies from falling into the hands of expansionist star nations, which will lead to a new era of galactic war. Only pirate Captain Flavio Tavares, who faces terrible judgment by his peers, can lead Tyler Matthews to a derelict starbase abandoned by the collapsing Galactic Empire long ago.

Created in a lab to serve as a host to the parasitic chok’tal, Dak Korasa is a Purifier, an elite warrior genetically altered to possess superhuman strength and endurance. Compelled by the symbiote inside him, Dak engages in combat as an unwilling participant in the Glorious Game, earning points for every kill. If he fails to keep up his body count, the chok’tal will end his life. Guilt-ridden at being forced to perpetrate one massacre after another just to survive, Dak wants the alien out of his body at any cost.

Despite being all alone - the only one of his kind - Bast Banbeck has generously helped humanity time and again against the death machines, saving us from extinction. Years ago, Jon Hawkins promised Bast that he would hunt for and save the Sacerdotes in return. But the homesick Bast is losing hope, drowning his sorrows in extended drinking bouts. Now, Intelligence learns there are Sacerdote prisoners 162 light-years away. Jon leads the rescue operation, using the void to slip undetected into enemy territory.

They destroyed the civilization of the ancient alien Elders thousands of years ago, and now they’re following Andy Clanton and the crew of the James Bowie back from the edge of the galaxy and into Alliance space, bent on wiping out all intelligent life in the galaxy. The Bugs probe for weakness, attacking new friends and old enemies, and forcing Andy and the others into union with forces that had tried to destroy them only months before and putting a wedge between the Earth and the Alliance.

Laurel Cole loves her life just as it is, thank you very much. Every day, she leaves her 1970s-style bungalow in the Hollywood Hills and commutes through the sun-kissed canyons to her job at a record company, which she loves. Despite her best friend's gentle prodding and not-so-subtle matchmaking attempts, she has never met someone who makes her want to jeopardize the life she has built on her own.

Andy Clanton and the crew of the Jambo return to Earth for the final battle with the Bugs…but the real threat is back home. Incited by foreign enemies, stoked by mindless fear, the American public is wrapped in panic, and the country’s enemies use the opportunity to attempt a coup to seize control of America’s space assets. Andy and the others are forced to go on the run, while Pops stays on Earth to organize a resistance. Andy and Julie steal the Bellerophon and seek answers from the Elder AI, Graham.

Recruited to follow the last signal of the mysterious Elders to a system halfway across the galaxy, Andy joins the crew of the James Bowie for another adventure into the unknown. The journey will be filled with mystery and wonder, with strange life seeded on far-flung worlds by the godlike Elders…and with danger. For the Elders didn’t leave our galaxy of their own accord. They were driven out by an implacable enemy, something beyond their understanding…and ours.

The Krake, a mysterious enemy who has brought about the collapse of entire civilizations, is hunting for New Earth. Connor Gates, former elite soldier and now general of the colonial military, must find a way to protect the colony. It seems all but impossible when both humans and aliens alike are ignoring the very threat that should be uniting them all. To forge a future for the colony, Connor must risk everything.

Colonel Sean Quinn is stranded in another universe, along with 2,000 people under his command. They've been hiding from the enemy long enough, now it’s time to return home. Outnumbered against a superior foe, Sean must risk everything in a daring operation, but the mysterious enemy has a few surprises of their own. Meanwhile, a division threatens to tear the colony apart and Connor Gates is caught in the middle.

Recalling the great muckrakers of the past, an outraged team of America's best-selling writers unite to confront the disasters of wrongful convictions. Wrongful convictions, long regarded as statistical anomalies in an otherwise sound justice system, now appear with frightening regularity. But few people understand just how or why they happen and, more important, the immeasurable consequences that often haunt the lucky few who are acquitted years after they are proven innocent.

Beloved stage and screen actor Danny Aiello’s big-hearted memoir reveals a man of passion, integrity, and guts - and lays bare one of the most unlikely success stories ever told. Danny Aiello admits that he backed into his acting career by mistake. That’s easy to see when you begin at the beginning: Raised by his loving and fiercely resilient mother in the tenements of Manhattan and the South Bronx, and forever haunted by the death of his infant brother, Danny struggled early on to define who he was and who he could be.

These fourteen science fiction stories reveal Lem’s fascination with artificial intelligence and demonstrate just how surprisingly human sentient machines can be.