Showing results by narrator "Peter Joyce" in All Categories

John Buchan's hero Edward Leithen chances upon a worldwide plan for domination. With his own life (and those of his friends) depending on the outcome of his struggle, he engages in combat with the anarchic brain behind The Power-House. The author, despite being very busy in public service, wrote over 50 books during his life, but his particular talent was for writing fast-moving adventure stories. The Power-House, a good example of this genre, was first published in 1916.

Revolutionary for the time in encouraging children to think like children, the adventure of Princess Irene and Curdie, the boy miner, was to influence generations of writers, including Chesterton and Tolkien. Overflowing with fantastic ideas and images to delight the young and allegory to inspire their morality ‘The Princess and the Goblin’ has remained one of the most exciting tales for over 100 years.Irene lives in a castle on a mountain under which there is a labyrinth of tunnels inhabited by Goblins.

A lost race of elves, the taredhel or 'people of the stars', have found a way across the universe to reach Midkemia. On their current home world, these elves are hard pressed by a ravaging demon horde, and what was once a huge empire has been reduced to a handful of survivors. The cornerstone of taredhel lore is the tale of their lost origins in the world they call simply 'Home', a place lost in the mists of time. Now they are convinced that Midkemia is that place, and they are coming to reclaim it.

"He was too imperious, too masterful, too much inclined to think that all things should be made to go as he would have them." Thus Trollope describes his hero Harry Heathcote, a settler and sheep farmer in the untamed bush of Australia in 1871. However, Harry has made enemies. In seeking always to act in the honourable fashion he cannot bend and embrace the weaknesses of others.

The second book in the Darkwar series, from worldwide bestselling author of Magician, Raymond E. Feist. Chaos threatens to overwhelm two worlds as the most dangerous force ever encountered threatens to invade Midkemia, while the most treacherous magician in history - the madman Leso Varen - begins to wreak havoc on the world of Kelewan.

In Rage of a Demon King - the spellbinding third installment in Raymond E. Feist’s masterful epic fantasy, The Serpentwar Saga - the imperiled realm of Midkemia confronts its most devastating horror, as a nightmare beyond imagining descends upon the war-torn land determined to devour and destroy. A terrible conflict reaches a breathtaking climax - a world-annihilating conflagration that pits serpent against man and magician against demon.

Sex, betrayal, murder and corruption form the basis of this sensational novel by one of the leading French authors of the 19th century. Jacques Lantier is a man with a hereditary homicidal lust. When he sees Roubaud and his wife Severine slit the throat of a wealthy nobleman, it is the catalyst for a string of murders in a convoluted plot full of horror and suspense.

The vile sorcerer Sidi plans to strike the kingdom a fatal blow, setting the murderous pirate Bear upon the high seas in pursuit of the vessel that is transporting Midkemia's most holy object: the Tear of the Gods. From this miraculous stone all magic power is believed to flow. And if the Tear becomes the mage's trinket, the future will hold only terror, death, and unending night.

Third in the massively successful Krondor series inspired by Feist's global best-selling computer game Return to Krondor. A drop in the ocean? A raid upon the high seas signals an attack of unprecedented magnitude by the forces of darkness. For the holiest of holies, the Tear of the Gods has been lost to the Temple of Ishap. After a raid planned by Bear, one of the most brutal pirates to sail the Bitter Sea, goes dramatically wrong, the colossal gems sink below the waves.

When tulip-grower Cornelius van Baerle is framed for treason and sentenced to death, he is powerless against the brutal factional politics that put him in prison. But Rosa, the jailer’s daughter, is beautiful and strong-willed, and when they fall in love she determines not only to save him but also to grow the near mythical flower: the black tulip.S et in the savage turmoil of Holland’s late 17th century, this intimate novel celebrates the power of integrity over obsession, and tolerance over violence; and it creates in the black tulip a symbol of humanity’s potential.

Here starts an adventure that will span lifetimes and worlds. Discover where the story begins. Raymond E. Feist is an internationally best-selling author. My name is Pug. I was once an orphaned kitchen boy, with no family and no prospects, but I am destined to become a master magician…War is coming to the Kingdom of the Isles from another world, bringing with it chaos and destruction.

Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.

The second instalment of The Riftwar Legacy, Assassins reveals Feist at his storytelling best. There is intrigue, humour, and breakneck action aplenty here from the undisputed master of epic fantasy. Fresh back from the front, another foe defeated, Prince Arutha arrives to find all is not well in Krondor. A series of apparently random murders has brought an eerie quiet to the city.

A new episode in Feist's massively successful Riftwar saga. From the endlessly inventive mind of one of fantasy's all-time greats comes a spellbinding new adventure featuring old favourites Jimmy, Locklear, and Pug. It is nine years on from the aftermath of Sethanon. There has been peace awhile, and it's been needed. But news is feeding through to the people of the Kingdom of the Isles that deadly forces are stirring on the horizon. The bringer of the latest tidings is Gorath, a moredhel (dark elf).

The ‘sketches’ in this... volume are more the substance and length of short stories illustrating the development of the tools of the Masters trade: farce, parody, irony, black humour and wonderful one liners which unerringly hit the mark. The ensuing narrative, however, brings the listener bumpily back to earth with a reminder of the mean and often tragic lives that were being endured in the busy, uncaring metropolis.

Tal Hawkins has succeeded in wreaking revenge on Kaspar, the evil Duke of Olasko. Banished to a distant land, Kaspar begins a journey that will take him halfway around the world. Reduced to the role of farm-hand, then common laborer, the former ruler endures dangers and horrors beyond his imagination as he struggles to return home. But fate, or some dark agency, has more in store for the man who was once tyrant of Olasko.

Sir Richard Hannay introduces this last adventure involving his old friends.

John Blenkiron discovers that a ruthless industrialist is plotting to destabilise America and cause global turmoil. Although Bavarian born, Castor plans to dominate the world from Olifa, a small country in Latin America. Hannay realises he is now too old for the job of thwarting these evil designs and enlists the aid of his old friend Sandy Arbuthnot, now Lord Clanroyden.

This comprehensive novel consists of three subplots which interlink to form the whole and supply a trio of targets at which Trollope aims his proselytising pen. The first treats on the courtship of a woman by a man whom she does not love and with whom she is not compatible. Mary Lowther will not accept such a marriage of dishonesty. The second deals with the plight of a young woman who has fallen prey to the wiles of an evil seducer and subsequently adopts a life of prostitution.

Hannay to the rescue once more! This time...our hero is summoned from his tranquil life in rural Oxfordshire to save the world from a financial conspiracy which threatens the global economy. Hannay comes to believe that the villain behind all this must be Dominick Medina. But can such a brilliant, charming idol of the nation be using Eastern magic to suborn industrialists, magnates and other such pillars of society as his slaves?

The demon has been defeated and the Kingdom rejoices as the threat to the existence of every living thing on Midkemia has passed, but out of the ashes of war new problems arise, in the brilliant sequel to Rage of a Demon King…The demon is no more…The enemy has been routed, yet peace still eludes the Kingdom. Midkemia lies in smouldering ruins following the Demon King's siege. Many lives have been lost, including that of the brave James, Duke of Krondor.