Showing results by narrator "Travis Baldree" in All Categories

Zundy has always been different. As a pal-tee, a distant cousin to the dwarves, he, and all others of his race, absorb traits from the very first item they touch upon birth. Instead of absorbing the essence of stone, or steel, like most others in his town, Zundy accidentally absorbed those of a beetle. Those who are different are often treated poorly, and for Zundy, this was no exception.

Sure, dragonslaying is heroic business. But some poor bastards have to handle the dirty work of cleaning up the god-awful mess the heroes leave behind. Gwill, the grizzled second-in-command of the fabled Iron Line, saw things go a little sideways at the end of their last adventure. After a successful dragonslaying, they might have forgotten to burn the dragon's body. Now Gwill needs a few warm bodies to take care of it. All they have to do is burn the body of the dragon and all's well that ends well. This is where the Novices come in....

Running late to a last-minute electrical repair job, the last thing Emmie needs to distract her are concerning texts from her ex. When she receives unexpected bad news on the client's doorstep, she also discovers she's not even at the right house. But when the three hot hockey players who live there reach out to help her in her time of need, it turns out that she might have found the right house after all!

Awakened. Enlightened. The Harvest fast approaches. Ryl and his companions hasten for the annual ceremony, determined to set in motion an event certain to rock Damaris to its core. Only days remain with many miles to navigate. Armed with new knowledge and plagued by lingering doubts, the path forward has proven more complicated than anticipated. The reality and the truth are far more convoluted. The road through the kingdom is long and wrought with danger and uncertainty.

After decades of raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sets her sights on a new dream—one that involves pulling more shots than punches. Armed with hope and a hard-earned secret, she plans to open the first coffee shop in Thune. To build something that will last, Viv needs a new crew. She enlists a gruff hob builder shunned by humans, and a shy baker whose cinnamon rolls are to die for. Then there’s Tandri, a charming succubus who’s determined not to let anyone assume anything about her.

When Michael Blumlein's debut collection The Brains of Rats first appeared, it marked the arrival of a major new talent, earning widespread acclaim from mainstream critics as well as genre stalwarts Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison, Pat Cadigan and many others.

In the final showdown of the Wings trilogy, Claire has to choose between temptation and destiny, and has to learn that there is more to her family history than she could have ever imagined....

From the works of Professor Humbridge of the College of Studied Gigantism Genetics and History comes another, highly contested article about cyclopean fertility and their effects on the history of our world. This work, unpublished in any respectable journal, asserts that it is due to the twisted genetics of cyclopses that caused the War of Three Kingdoms and the resulting eleventh goblin war.

After escaping an asylum, Felix drives across three states in search of bloody vengeance. When he arrives, however, he is instead roped into a plot to apprehend a psychic assassin murdering clergy. If he succeeds, Bishop X has promised to write him a blank check. If he fails, death will be the least of his worries.

Robin Burcell has worked as a cop, hostage negotiator, and as an FBI-trained forensic artist. She's also the author of award-winning thrillers. Now she uses that unparalleled experience to continue Carolyn Weston's groundbreaking series of books, which were the basis for the hit TV show The Streets of San Francisco.

Felix used to be a traveling salesman, drifting through the galaxy and hawking his wares. Used to be, that is, until a freak accident in an out-of-the-way system. One rough landing later, Felix finds himself stranded on a wild, alien planet - front and center - in a deadly role he never auditioned for to entertain a secret audience. The upside? A fellow passenger made it to the escape pod with Felix. With this reptilian stranger at his side, he’s not totally alone. The downside? They don’t share a language.

Max and his party start down a dark path with only an echo to remind them why they’re fighting. Finding their target in the game isn’t enough, they need to find them in real life. Perhaps for this very reason, they’re no longer harmless misfits: they’re the most infamous players in the game. They get invited to an auction that offers contract items to the highest bidder, a golden opportunity to prepare for the battles that loom in their future. Weapons aren’t the only thing they need. Down a party member, they need a new ally to fill the void in the team.

Falling from the sky, a creature arrived more powerful than anything imagined on Earth: Morena, an alien Queen banished from her home world. Now, she's ready to start again, repopulating the world with her species. The government's first defense failed to stop the alien. Turning to one of the smartest men to ever live, they ask Kenneth Marks to save the world. Except as Marks assesses the situation, he understands he can gain more by helping the alien...even if it means damning humanity.

Through sacrifice, the druids have raised a new queen and goddess. An army marches, made of elves, druids, animal familiars, and ensorcelled humans. Wizards are crushed, soldiers destroyed, and cities captured as the elf queen storms across the land. Unless the elf queen is defeated, she will see all humans enslaved, the wizard race exterminated, and her rule extended across the Eight Wizardoms.

Brother Sebastian is halfway up a mountain in Vermont, hell-bent on interrogating an old woman in a shack, when he gets the order to abandon his quest for personal vengeance. He has to find a missing Inquisitor, or, more likely, his remains. He's reluctant, to say the least. Not only will he have to stop chasing the best potential lead he's had in years, this job - his first solo mission - will mean setting foot in the grubby black hole of Providence, Rhode Island.

Bendik is a once-in-a-millennia genius. He does. He recognizes quantum computing will be the catalyst. More, he knows there are only three potential outcomes for homo-sapiens: evolution, enslavement, or destruction. Bendik has an idea that will trigger rapid evolution. His globe-spanning marvel of engineering will change how humanity lives.

Divorcée Tate Madison wasted 15 years of her life with a liar and a cheat. Now she’s returned to her hometown to open The Homegrown Café, find a sperm donor, and spend time with her family and new friends. Encouraged by her fellow middle-aged book-club buddies, she begs a favor from her younger brother’s best friend - father the child her ex-husband denied her. Complications abound when she discovers she’s attracted to the man who wasn’t supposed to be more than an anonymous profile at the clinic.

After a lifetime of slavery in the arena, Talon is a free man, eager to see more of the galaxy. But when his tour in the merchant marines comes to a violent end, he finds himself stranded on the ice world of Neros with a beautiful stowaway named Vaki. Struggling to survive on the frigid world, Talon and Vaki must overcome freezing temperatures, violent earthquakes, and a horde of deadly creatures. Their only hope for escape lies in an alliance with Queen Katara, the exiled ruler of a brutal mining colony.

In 1887, near the tiny Texas town of Comanche, a posse finally ends the murderous career of The Piney Woods Kid in a hail of bullets. The year is now 2016. Comanche police are stymied by a double murder at the train depot. Witnesses swear the killer was dressed like an old-time gunslinger. Rumors fly that it’s the ghost of The Piney Woods Kid, back to wreak revenge on the descendants of the vigilantes who killed him.

All things come to an end...The world is at war. Morena and her alien species ravage the United States, destroying metropolis after metropolis. Yet, even as this happens, a man-made disease kills off Morena's children, rapidly mutilating her dreams of a new planet for her people. Morena's war started in Grayson. Now it ends there as well. Will chases one last chance to make amends by killing Morena. Kenneth Marks wants to ascend, to become one with the alien species. The teenagers who still live only want to remain alive.