Showing results by narrator "Patty Jansen" in All Categories

When Perrin was so desperate that he applied for a job with the Bureau of Magic Abuse, there were two things he didn't realise. One, that he might actually get the job and two, that it would involve working with magic sniffers. And what an annoyance the creatures are. They keep him up at night, need to feed on expensive fresh fruit and cause him embarrassment.

Veronica arrives with her class in the spellcraft tower of the Oakhurst School of Magic to teach the bunch of young—and not particularly well-behaved—teenagers about the school's ancient spellbook. But the book has gone missing from the cabinet!

They came from the poorest cities on Earth. They were promised free food and housing. They didn't know that they, or their children, would never see Earth again. A few years ago, a military doctor walking the corridors of New Jakarta Space Station saved Melati's life. She signed up for the International Space Force to pay back her moral debt to him.

On the backwater world of Cayelle, Tina Freeman runs a shop with her son Rex, 15 years old, half-human, half-android with a massive chip on his shoulder about having been born without arms or legs. The shop makes a modest profit, but when a creditor turns up wanting his money back, everything goes pear-shaped. She needs money, and needs it fast.

Melati escaped New Jakarta Space Station when it fell into Allion's hands. Her family was left behind the enemy lines. She signed up for active duty with the International Space Force in the hope they would liberate the station. Instead, they chose to maintain a crippling siege that has lasted for 10 months.

Jonathan Bartell is a young man, just out of university, when he signs up for the position of Quarantine Officer at the Orbital Launch Station. He is part of a crop of students who flocked to study exo-biology when bacteria were discovered on Mars and who are now all making their living flipping burgers because the jobs are few and hard to get. He is lucky to get a job in space, no matter how mundane. Or so he thinks.... Gaby Larsen is a doctor at the tiny hospital at the space station, and she keeps secrets.

She is lost on an alien planet. He said he'd help her get home. He lied. Jessica's plane develops engine trouble over the dry Australian inland - and crashes in thick, unfamiliar rainforest. A group she thinks is a search party shows up, but it consists of large-eyed not-quite people who kill all survivors except Jessica and a long-haired hippie named Brian. No one is going to come to rescue her. In fact, they're not even on Earth. While the pair wrestle their way through the forest in search for help, Jessica becomes ever more suspicious of Brian.

Verona Rupes, on the ice moon Miranda, is the tallest cliff in the solar system. If you jump off the top, it takes 700 seconds to reach the bottom. What can you do in the most important 700 seconds of your life? Jonathan and Gaby arrive at the ice moon Miranda to work with a local researcher and find that adventurists have snuck into an area infected with alien bacteria and have gotten themselves in trouble. Do these people have to be stopped because they're about to spread a bacterial infection to the human settlements or are there other factors at play?

While space biologists Jonathan Bartell and Gaby Larsen attend a conference held at a base in the asteroid belt, a man approaches Jonathan in great distress. He's been asked to take over command of a previously commercial research station, but strange things started happening: plants glowing in the dark, lights turning themselves on and off, computers misbehaving. He discovered the cause, but Section Command issues a gag order on the issue. This is strange, because the Force is investing big in research.

Mikandra Bisumar is useless to her father: She carries the curse of infertility that plagues the Endri people of Miran. Forced to work in the hospital to pay her duty to her proud nation, she dreams of becoming a Trader, one of the people who bring great prosperity to Miran. To her surprise Iztho Andrahar, from the city's most prestigious Trading family, has agreed to take her on. That is where her troubles begin.

Tina and her crew finally arrive on Olympus, the world that holds the Federacy Assembly. Her initial plan was to go there to present the data left in a locker on Kelso Station 15 years earlier, but many things have changed. For one, rather than wait for someone else to do it, she and the scientists collected at Aurora Station have been working on a cure for the infection that turns people into gray-skinned mutant pirates. Secondly, they're bringing a stricken war ship and a few of its remaining crew members who were rescued from pirate captivity. Little has gone to plan.

Tina had no choice but to escape Aurora Station on board the Starfighter Manila: The ship was about to blow up and would have killed the entire station. But they're in deep trouble. They have less than half the crew number necessary to fly the ship safely, the engines are damaged and Tina's travel companions are on a different ship. Aurora Station fell into pirate hands, so returning is not an option and the ship isn't safe to fly long distances. On top of that, several crew members may have been exposed to genetic treatment by the pirates.

After having escaped from Kelso Station, Tina and her crew run low on supplies. Both stations they can visit are in pirate hands. They have to make a toss-up decision on which would be the safest. They choose the bigger station. But while they’re in the dock, trying very hard not to be noticed until they can negotiate the ridiculous supply wait times before they leave again, Tina finds out that her daughter, Evelle, is a prisoner at the station.

You intend to self-publish or have published a book or two. You’re not selling very well and wonder why not. You feel you should be doing something, but the thought of “marketing” gives you nightmares. You don’t want to become one of these people shouting “buy my book” on Twitter. But you would still love to start selling some books and pay some or even all of your bills with your writing income.

Picture this: you've somehow come into the possession of a dragon (long story--you can listen to the previous book if you really want to know, but it's kinda embarrassing, so you don't need to). And you need to return that dragon to the place it came from. You've tried putting it on a truck--but it destroyed the truck. You've tried putting it on the train--but it destroyed the carriage. Now you've put the dragon in a warehouse while you figure out what to do, but--You guessed it: the dragon destroys the warehouse.

A fisherwoman finds a dead man on a tiny offshore island, with no clue about how the man got there. A camel driver deep in the northern desert rescues a man who speaks no known language, but is clearly well-educated. An ancient sect that was considered close to extinct sucks in all the land's young people and creates tension that may well lead to a civil war.

After many years in space, Jonathan receives the message he's been dreading: his father has taken a fall. He can no longer live by himself and Jonathan's cousin has managed to get him into a care home. Jonathan is an only child, he is no longer in contact with his mother, and a deep sense of guilt forces him to return to Earth to look after his father's wellbeing.

Of all the things 10-year-old Cory Wilson expects to do when he moves to Midway Space Station, saving aliens from humans isn't one. An important conference is about to start at the station, not usually the sort of thing kids care about, not even when the conference is between humans and aliens, and half your family is alien.

Lana han Chevonian is one of the world’s brightest minds on the brink of making a huge discovery. There is only one problem: she is stuck as prisoner in the harem of the Aranian king. She could try to escape and run the risk of getting re-captured or getting killed on the very long and difficult road back home to Chevakia, or she could win the favour of the king, beg to be allowed to use the famed library and promise Arania credit for her work.

The world is under increasing threat from as-yet undiscovered sources of icefire, but all the people who have answers are cut off from the authorities, kings, or councils with the power to mobilize the scientists and armies to keep the world safe. Young meteorology student Javes is stuck in the remote desert of the north. The area bristles with technology of an ancient past, but he cannot tell anyone about it because roads and telegraph lines have been cut by bad weather and invading bandits. No one is watching the skies. No one is tallying up the disasters.