Showing results by narrator "Luke" in All Categories

After 2,000 years, Christianity is the world's largest religion and continues to prosper and grow. What accounts for its continued popularity? In these 24 lectures, Professor Johnson maintains that the most familiar aspects of Christianity-its myths, institutions, ideas and morality-are only its outer "husk." He takes you on a journey to find the "kernel" of Christianity's appeal: religious experience. You'll travel back to Christianity's origins during its first 300 years to identify the elements that first made it appealing and which still hold the secret to its ability to attract new followers.

Harvey Mapes is a 26-year-old security guard who spends his nights in a guard shack outside a gated community in Southern California, reading detective novels, watching reruns, and waiting for his life to finally start…which happens when Cyril Parkus, one of the wealthy residents, asks Harvey to follow his beautiful wife. The lowly security guard jumps at the opportunity to fulfill his private eye fantasies and use everything he’s learned from Spenser, Magnum, and Mannix. But things don’t exactly go according to the books…or the reruns.

The last survivors of their company, the battered remnants of the Cadian 267th trek across the deadly toxic deserts of Sanzu in search of salvation. Taking shelter in a damaged Adeptus Mechanicus facility, they think they have found a place to await reinforcements - but something lurks in the darkness, something large and dangerous and determined to kill every last Imperial Guardsman. The Morkanaut awaits....

For 30 years humanity struggled to cope with the brilliants, the one percent of people born with remarkable gifts. For 30 years we tried to avoid a devastating civil war. We failed.

The White House is a smoking ruin. Madison Square Garden is an internment camp. In Wyoming, an armed militia of thousands marches toward a final, apocalyptic battle.

Deceived by a trusted colleague, Loredana Cyber, heir to the world's largest entertainment company, walks away from big business and vows never to return. When a young programmer on the verge of perfecting an incredible new technology comes to her for help, she must decide—remain anonymous, or return to an arena that betrayed her.

With an itinerary covering 41 countries, spanning all seven continents, and armed with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, he sets out on the greatest adventure in the birding world. Along the way he meets a colorful cast of fellow birders—and discovers a world of blood-sucking leeches, chronic sleep deprivation, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, and conservation triumphs.

David Slaton has a good life. He has a new wife and a house in the Virginia suburbs. But he also has a dark past. Slaton is a former kidon, the most lethal Israeli assassin ever created. After decades of work, a brilliant scientist has taken Iran to the threshold of its dream - a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile. Mossad must eliminate the man, but with a spy lurking high in its ranks there is only one option: bring back Slaton.

The ex-planet Pluto has a few choice words about being thrown out of the solar system. A listing of alternate histories tells you all the various ways Hitler has died. A lawyer sues an interplanetary union for dangerous working conditions. And four artificial intelligences explain, in increasingly worrying detail, how they plan not to destroy humanity. Welcome to Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi.

Years ago, in the town of Saxon Falls, young Kelsey Willard disappeared and was presumed dead. The tragedy left her family with a fractured life - a mother out to numb the pain, a father losing a battle with his own private demons, and a sister desperate for closure. But now another teenage girl has gone missing. It's ripping open old wounds for the Willards, dragging them back into a painful past, and leaving them unprepared for where it will take them next.

Kill-crazy mercenaries, gargantuan monstrosities, and a "sixth sense" that may be a death wish in disguise. Augie Brunthouse's first day of work is not going well. It all started with Chuck Vestiglio's exile and subsequent suicide on his private island, derisively dubbed "Supersize Island" by the press. Now the disgraced hamburger baron's unhinged son has vowed to silence the family's critics with a psychotic plot to grow beef better. Alas, his wildly illegal biotech experiments have gone wrong in a very BIG way. Somebody needs to look into it.

How did Lev Calder move from an unwillingly escaped Tithe to a clapper? In this revealing short story, Neal Shusterman opens a window on Lev’s adventures between the time he left CyFi and showed up at the Graveyard. Pulling elements from Neal Shusterman’s critically acclaimed Unwind and giving hints about what is to come in the riveting sequel, UnWholly, this short story is not to be missed.

Ely Hale and the Steel Sworn strike out on a dangerous mission. They must save the souls of an unsuspecting world before the evil Geist can harvest them. A desperate call for help from hidden agents on the planet Roanoke brings an opportunity for the Ibarra Crusade: a Charon transport. The Geist reap colonies under their control, the harvest transported between the stars aboard their soul prisons. Lady Ibarra wants that ship, and sends two lances of Armor and the Scipio to seize her prize. If Ely fails, and the Geist will grow ever stronger.

Cassie Angel is used to taking care of herself. With a spirit of adventure, and a need to stay out of harm's way, she departs a dying Nevada town for the golden opportunities that await in California - along with a new life. When charming Sam Ridgeway shows up, claiming to know her uncle, and offers her protection in her travels, she has no idea there is an ulterior motive involved.

Jim McCann was a high school basketball star destined for the NBA. Then an injury shattered his knee and his dreams. Disillusioned, he cut ties with his stifling hometown. Years later, he returns for his father’s funeral. Finding that his mother has dementia, he reluctantly takes over the family propane business. But there’s a silver lining: reconnecting with Kyle, his childhood best friend, and meeting Kelli, the only one who understands his struggle to fill his own big shoes.

On the eve of her wedding, Sky Elizabeth, the earl of Fife's eldest daughter, learns of her betrothed's murderous plot against her. As she flees, Sky falls through a mysterious portal in time, landing at the feet of a twenty-first-century American knight. Struan, the bastard son of the earl of Sutherland, escaped death through time's portal once. Recognizing what has befallen the frightened woman, he vows to protect her even while Sky, with a trace of fae blood in her veins, senses his resentment.

Spain is on the brink of economic collapse, and European banks demand that any bailout be linked to harsh domestic changes. An alliance of Islamic bankers counters with a rescue package containing no conditions at all. The underlying goal: to break the unity of Europe and put Madrid on the path back to Islamic rule. When the United States stridently opposes that deal, terrorists storm the American consulate in Barcelona and slaughter an entire six-man US Marine security guard.

One of 46 books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives listeners a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

The supreme Toth overlord, Mentiq, rules his species with an iron fist from his fortress on the planet Nibiru. The first overlord surrounds himself with decadent treasures and the galaxy's deadliest warriors to protect his dominion from treachery and attack. Armed with stolen Toth technology, the Breitenfeld travels to the world with a single mission: assassinate Mentiq and end the Toth threat to Earth. Armed with stolen Toth technology, the Breitenfeld travels to the world with a single mission: assassinate Mentiq and end the Toth threat to Earth.

That means taking jobs and not asking questions, whether that involves smuggling, transporting runaways, or performing other, far less wholesome work. Whatever the situation, Jace is willing to do what it takes to achieve his dream and live the life he’s always wanted. That is, until he comes face to face with an item of unprecedented value - something that could give him everything he needs to pay off his debt and be free. The only problem is that selling it would also shift the balance of power between the two largest empires in the galaxy.

The Celestial War has arrived. Captain Hughes and his team of rebels have created a shaky alliance with the same government that sought to end them, but even that might not be enough. In order to combat the Celestial threat, Jace will need to convince the Sarkonian Emperor to not only join his cause but lend him the resources he needs to overpower the enemy.