Showing results by narrator "Marc Vietor" in All Categories

When Lt. Commander Bobby Thompson surfaced in Tampa in 1998, it was as if he had fallen from the sky, providing no hint of his past life. Eleven years later, St. Petersburg Times investigative reporter Jeff Testerman visited the rundown duplex Thompson used as his home and the epicenter of his sixty-thousand-member charity, the US Navy Veterans Association. But something was amiss. Thompson’s charity’s addresses were just maildrops, his members nonexistent, and his past a black hole.

This is a fascinating introduction to the history of Western astronomy, from prehistoric times to the origins of astrophysics in the mid-19th century. Historical records are first found in Babylon and Egypt, and after two millennia the arithmetical astronomy of the Babylonians merged with the Greek geometrical approach to culminate in the Almagest of Ptolemy. This legacy was transmitted to the Latin West via Islam and led to Copernicus's claim that the Earth is in motion.

Protect your retirement from the next big crash with a new twist on the old investment strategy. For years advisors have recommended that investors take a "buy and hold" approach to the market. But people over 50 can't afford to rely on this strategy. Buy, Hold, and Sell! uncovers the myth of the "buy and hold" investment philosophy and explains why it's dangerously incomplete.

Guardian spirits. Divine presences. Demonic powers. Ghosts. The concept of "genius loci" is indeed an ancient one, found in nearly every human mythology. Genius Loci is a huge anthology of 31 all-new fantasy and science fiction stories drawing on the rich tradition of place-as-person. Within this audiobook, the authors present stories of sentient deserts, beneficent forests, lonely shrubs, and protective planetary spirits, as edited by Jaym Gates.

In their own words, immigrants recall their arrival in the United States. Includes brief biographies and facts about the Ellis Island Oral History Project.

The war with the deadly Host continues, only now they have secret alien allies bolstering their efforts. Our former general has defected. Our fleet of battleships took a battering in the first battle. And I’m trapped in another part of the galaxy trying to find my parents and, ultimately, my way home. The situation looks bleak, but I have ancient Navigator technology at my disposal, and I'm mad as hell. With new enemies lining up to thwart my plans, I’ll need to muster all the courage and skill if I’m to beat the odds and get back to Coalition space before the Host overwhelm my people and take over the galaxy.

In his second collection of short stories, James Leo Herlihy explores a landscape of people living on the fringes of normal society as the pleasures of daily life fade. Men and women search for the missing fragment of meaning from their existence with Herlihy’s signature humor and deft dialogue. In the titular story, Mary Ellen McClure is trapped in a dull, unfulfilled life in a trailer park, suspecting her husband of having an affair. Together with her neighbor Ivy, she dabbles with a Ouija board which spells out the name Ezra and implies that Mary Ellen will have an affair.

From James Leo Herlihy (author of Midnight Cowboy) comes a series of grim yet insightful short stories in his first collection, The Sleep of Baby Filbertson. Both an examination of the darker themes of alienation and isolation and an elevation of the oddities and quirks that make up human nature, Herlihy’s seven tales tackle the anxieties of fragile people and get to the heart of a world inhabited by perennial outsiders.

Washington, D.C., 1864: In a city that’s weary of war and eager for entertainment, Joseph and his father’s mind-reading act has become the toast of the town. Even President Lincoln comes to see Joseph demonstrate his amazing mental powers. It’s all an elaborate hoax, of course, but Joseph is enjoying his fame. Then he meets Cassandra, a young girl who really does have second sight - the ability to foretell events. And she’s having terrifying visions about the president. Someone is plotting to murder him. But who would believe such an accusation? It’s up to Joseph and Cassandra to interpret the visions, expose the conspiracy, and save Lincoln’s life!

How much sacrifice should anyone have to give? Petal and Gabriel are forced to decide, as the mad, digital entity Elliot Robertson is determined to dominate the world. His influence, spread by an insurgent group, The Ronin, seeks to control and enslave the last of humanity. With time running out, Petal and Gabriel must travel to the far reaches of the abandoned lands in order to repair a server they believe will be the key to defeating Elliot and his Ronin.

Gabriel and Petal have tracked Gabe's mother back to Hong Kong. But to find her Gabe has to face his old gang and the ghosts he thought he had laid to rest years before. While helping him, Petal stumbles on a way of getting Gerry's mind out of her head, but like Gabe, she too has to return to a place full of ghosts: Libertas. Enna is now the Prime Minister of the domed city, and when Petal arrives she discovers Enna has developed her transcendent technology.

In a post-apocalyptic future, humanity survives within a single city run by a shadowy benefactor known only as The Family. Each week, the death lottery claims more lives and Gerry Cardle, head of the lottery, inexplicably finds himself next on the list. Something's wrong with the system. A deadly artificial intelligence has breached security. Gerry has just seven days to live. Forced off the grid, Gerry has to do the unthinkable: willingly leave the city. What he finds in the abandoned lands will shatter his perception of what it means to be human.

The fanatical Red Widows sweep destruction across the abandoned lands. Their aggression threatens to destroy the city Gerry had risked his life to save. Petal, the woman Gerry has come to love, is dying. The despotic cabal, The Family, demand he brings her to them, but she's missing, running from the Widows, searching for the truth of her origins before it's too late. When their paths cross, Petal and Gerry will hold the fate of humankind in their hands - if they can survive the malevolent digital entity that stalks them.

Rogue hackers Petal and Gabriel are low on food and water. Their reputation precedes them and they are no longer able to hustle the crime community for supplies. With survival becoming harder, they’re left with no other choice but to accept a risky job from a dangerous individual. The two will have to negotiate with the Tinker - a woman whose reputation for psychotic behaviour is known across the nuclear-blasted Abandoned Lands; infiltrate a town overrun with killers; and recover a cache of exceptionally rare information.

The United States is in the midst of a substantial and long-term national project, which is proceeding in fits and starts, to reorient its foreign policy to the East. The central tenet of this policy shift, aka the Pivot, is that the United States will need to do more with and in the Asia-Pacific hemisphere to help revitalize its own economy, to realize the full potential of the region's dramatic innovation, and to keep the peace in the world's most dynamic region, where the lion's share of the history of the 21st century will be written.

Detective Doyle Carrick is awakened in the middle of the night by frantic banging on his front door, followed by gunfire. Ron Hartwell, a complete stranger, is dying on his doorstep. A halfhearted investigation labels the murder a domestic dispute, with Miriam, Ron's widow, the sole suspect. Doyle discovers the Hartwells both worked for a big biotech company and suspects something else is going on, but it's not his case. Then Miriam tracks him down and tells him her story.

Faith is the greatest battle. To fallen paladin Ederras, right and wrong aren't as clear as they once were, and even the forces of good seem tainted by sin. Lost and broken, the formerly righteous warrior joins up with the crusaders of Mendev, the last bastion of civilization fighting desperately against the demonic tides of the Worldwound. There he plans to rediscover his faith - or die trying.

Can an idealist from the city stop his estranged friend in the country from exposing a grim and damning secret from their past? On the surface, Greg Simmons seems an utterly improbable informant. He's an idealistic, Cascadia independence proponent from the city of Portland. When the FBI calls on Greg to go undercover to investigate a dangerous militia movement out in rural Oregon, he knows exactly why: his long-estranged friend from the country, Donny Wilkie, could have deep ties to the militia.

"Io, Robot" is a short story from the collection Tides from the New Worlds. Caribbean-born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel, Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining.

Meet Clay, a Brooklyn performance artist who is sick of being broke. Sporting a row of stitches from his last show, and severely in debt to both family and girlfriend, he decides to do the unthinkable: get a straight job. Clay shaves off his green hair, teaches himself to type, and gets a secretarial gig on Wall Street. But is this just another form of theater? Will his girlfriend still love him in a necktie? What about his artist friends - will they forgive him for consorting with the enemy?