Showing results by narrator "Jack de Golia" in All Categories

Dragons, monsters, and stranded aliens. Dr. Anthony Kennan is a renowned astrophysicist and master player in the King of Gems video simulation game. But will his knowledge and skills be enough when he encounters the Chandrans, alien beings who have been trapped in the game? This story by Jim Cronin combines the best of both science fiction and fantasy worlds where Star Trek meets Dungeons and Dragons meets Ready Player One in a new and epic science fiction novel.

Morocco Jones figured this assignment would be a breeze. After all, sending a guy who specialized in busting up crime syndicates and international spy rings to Los Angeles to track down some two-bit blackmailer seemed like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. To Morocco, it seemed like a good excuse for a nice little Hollywood vacation—catch a bit of sun, bed a few starlets, and relax poolside with a large snifter of brandy.

Kidnapped at 16, Maggie O’Bannen returns home after seven years to be reunited with her father. No longer the idealistic girl she once was, her return is meant to help put her demons to rest. Instead, it sets in motion a series of events that will put her on a collision course with trouble, and this time, Maggie has no qualms about speeding towards it. Discovering who was behind her abduction is just the beginning. Murder with no apparent motive and no suspect soon brings her under the scrutiny of the local sheriff.

An ancient group intends to decimate the human population and convert the remainder to slaves. Their only internal disagreement was the method. Jaeger Kunstler was their monster, but would he remain loyal, or turn rebel agent? Deepak Advani created Aura and dedicated his life to her keeping. But Aura was doomed by a fatwa.

Shannon dreams of being a cinema verite type of reporter, but she needs an edge. With the help of a trust fund and a ham radio guru, she gets the help she needs, but at what price? Maxwell Burnham, known as Max Burner, is a rogue government operative, a monster who hunts "squawkers." He's also a runaway diabetic who uses his excess glucose to power his killer beam. Phi is an "Elmer," in the old tradition of ham radio. Can he help Shannon save more than 100,000 squawkers from a horrible death?

A lethal plague resurrected from the bones of the dead is stolen from a secret biological warfare lab hidden in the mountains of North Korea. There's no cure and it's one hundred percent fatal. If it gets loose, millions will die. The men who have it want to reduce the world's population and bring down the global economy as part of a plan to establish world dominance.

Gil Daly had started working for his wages at sixteen, saving his money for the ranch he eventually bought. Then the banks in far-away New York started sinking and with them cattle prices fell and credit became almost impossible for small ranchers to get. The final blow had been the drought. He lost everything. For a year he had drifted, working for cowhand wages . . . but even a year of drifting didn’t make him a saddle bum. He’d signed on with Brewster as a cowhand, but after only a week, he was ready to leave. He didn’t like Swallowfork or the man who owned it or the men who worked here.

The contents of a two thousand year old scroll set in motion a deadly quest for the tomb of Solomon and the long lost treasure of the Second Jewish Temple. The Project team is up against a madman who believes he is the last high priest of an ancient and cruel god. He seeks the Seal of Solomon and the mystical powers he's sure it will bring him. He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants, including murder and treachery.

A centuries-old conspiracy plots to destroy much of the world's food supply as part of a plan for world domination. The Project team must stop a traitor and prevent a worldwide disaster.... The hunt for answers leads Nick Carter and Selena Connor to Greece, Bulgaria, and the United States.

Reaching for a curiously shaped stone in a southern California riverbed, Kurt, a motherless 13-year-old out on a father-son bonding camp trip, feels a pulsing tremor of energy. Confused, he shares this oddly colored rock with his two friends, both who touch it briefly and throw it away in cries of pain. Unsure what to do, the three boys agree to keep this strange phenomenon a secret.

Nella Braddy (1894-1973), a pioneer among female editors, compiled this seven-story collection and published Masterpieces of Adventure: Tales of the Sea and Sky in 1921. It features seven authors: Frank Norris, W. Clark Russell, Major General E.D. Swinton, Donn Byrne, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Guy de Maupassant, and Edgar Allan Poe. A century since publication, we can perhaps have a new appreciation for tales of the sea (on ships both wrecked and abandoned, in lighthouses and with ferocious currents) and the sky (with warfare in dirigibles and using balloons).

Another rejection. Another no. Where do you go from here? I can’t tell you how many times I heard that word. It’s painful. When you pour your heart into that golden idea, embrace many sleepless nights, feast on ramen noodles for three months straight because you’re spending a lot of money on your golden idea, only to hear that one-syllable, soul-crushing word. “No, sorry, we just don’t need that.” Or, “That sounds nice and I wish you all the best."

Nella Braddy, a pioneer among female editors, compiled this eight-story collection and published Masterpieces of Adventure: Adventures Within Walls in 1922. It features eight authors: Robert Louis Stevenson, O. Henry, Washington Irving, Anton Chekhov, Honoré de Balzac, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, and Leonidas Andreiyeff.

A wealthy and ruthless South American drug lord is eliminating the competition with designer drugs, murder, and shamanistic powers. He is a Brujo Negro, a practitioner of ancient black arts. His chemists are creating the ultimate addicting drug; a single dose and you are addicted forever. One man, Dr. Lucas Forge, a former forensic psychologist, scout/sniper, and now an 'off-the-books' Spec Ops operative, and his team of multi-talented Spec Ops agents are the only ones who stand in his way.

Penelope the Pixie and Godfrey the Gnome are on the lookout for a safe place to rebuild their homes away from those troublesome Elfs, Orks and Trolls! Along the way they meet a young dragon, Esmerelda, and a new friendship is born!

In "Christmas Eve", a family prepares for some special visitors. "Surfin' Santa" is a poem set in the lovely island of Hawaii. "Christmas Means" is about the true meaning of the holiday spirit. And, in "Santa's Secret"...well, the Jolly Ole Elf is a little grumpy. Find out why!

Job security flew out the door decades ago - and now seems forever out of reach, thanks to the Great Recession. As much of our economy follows jobs to other countries, especially China, Americans must wonder what we will be left holding.

Nella Braddy (1894-1973), a pioneer among female editors, compiled this seven-story collection, and published Masterpieces of Adventure: Stories of Desert Places in 1922. It features seven authors: Edgerton Castle, Stephen Crane, Selma Lagerlöf, Bret Harte, Thomas Hardy, O. Henry, and W. H. Hudson. It’s a stellar group. Braddy went on to write and edit more articles and books, including two more in the Masterpieces of Adventure series; one focused on Helen Keller’s breakthrough teacher, Anna Sullivan Macy; and a biography of Rudyard Kipling.

The Lone Wolf: A Melodrama, by Louis Joseph Vance, was first published in 1914 and was the first of what eventually became an 8-book series. The main character, Michael Lanyard, also known as The Lone Wolf, is a jewel thief who in later stories reforms and becomes a private detective. In this first book, we learn of his difficult past and his journey that led to this pre-war moment, when he gets entangled with both a Paris crime mob and a woman, confronts his present and future course, and then seeks ways to escape his life of crime.

"Rat Under Glass" is a short story that straddles the dark crime and extreme horror genres. It is primarily about Neo, a rat catcher who crosses the mob after his partner is killed by The Lobotomizer. Neo bungles the mob's bid for another sanitation contract by electrifying the runoff grids of New York. Lots of people fry, and the mob sees fit to dispense extreme punishment. Most of the story is about how Neo deals with that punishment, making use of his perseverance, tenacity, and off-the-wall thinking.