Showing results by narrator "Fred Wolinsky" in All Categories

At school, Finn is a typical nerd. He wears glasses, loves fantasy games, and excels at science. But he has one flaw, a selfish streak that sometimes gets him in trouble. Trying to be cool has its price, especially if you make fun of your best friend, Audie, to try to impress the jocks. She is mad and hurt. Audie thought they were BFFs. But friends don't do that.

When a town is left defenseless and is attacked by the enemy, one woman calls on the powers that be to help her protect her people and save her son's life.

A peasant's son leaves his family after being drafter into the army and returns far more different than anyone ever expected.

Scott is devastated when his wife is horrifically struck and killed by a car on their Caribbean honeymoon. In desperation, he gives into his grief and listens to a mysterious suggestion from a morgue janitor that he could have his wife "cured of death". Against all of his reservations and common sense, he feels he has nothing left to lose, but what he finds is that there are unnatural things worse than death.

Another strange and frightening tale by Nikolai Gogol with roots in Ukrainian lore. When a poor peasant falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy farmer, a dark power interferes, promising him the fulfillment of his wishes but neglecting to mention the terrible price.

In the time of paranoia and religious fanaticism, one young woman's life falls into the hands of two very misguided men.

Fourteen-year-old Icabus used to dream about dragons. That was before the nightmares about the man in the well began - before the red ships came. Now, Icabus’ island village is under siege by the Authian King, Furius, and Icabus must abandon everything he knows to the answer the hundred-year-old mystery of what happened to the dragons of Apenninus. But time is against Icabus, and he must act quickly before everyone he loves are transformed into monsters to serve the mad king.

The Wooden Guest is an odd little tale by Prince Vladimir Odoyevsky. It starts off as a kind of fairy tale for grown-ups and develops into a brief lesson in philosophy, with frightening implications when it comes to human nature.

In Babbling Brook Society, an old-timer reminds us that our future is linked with the past. A handful of Polar Caves Park staffers learn how climate change, pollution, and friendship influence hidden societies of tiny, ancient residents. Our relationship with the world and biodiversity go hand in hand with good manners and friendship. The Earth is our home, and how we treat it has far-reaching impact.

Landon and Broden have been successful in defeating Gage twice. With him safely trapped in the hourglass and locked away, they can go on with their lives without a care in the world. And the first thing they are going to do is enjoy a banquet with Slade and his Ifs where the brothers are the guests of honor. But it doesn’t take long for them to realize that something sinister is buried just beneath the surface of celebration and fun.

This lovely and nevertheless rather spooky tale by Nikolai Gogol is rooted in Ukrainian lore. It starts quite ordinary - a young man is in love with a beautiful young girl, but other people and unforeseen circumstances stand in the way of their happiness. Quite unexpectedly, our young hero receives an offer of help from a very unlikely source.

Strange, strange things appear to a man who ventures alone into the night-time woods.

When a young man goes from the demands and rigors of the army to a luxurious and serene country living, his mind is bound to wander where it should not. Such is the fate of Alexei Alexeyevich Fedyashev, who becomes so absorbed in his newfound idleness that he falls in love with an old portrait. When the famous conjurer and medium Count Cagliostro accidentally ends up at Fedyashev's escape, the young man begs him to bring his dream to reality. "Be careful what you wish for" is the lesson young Alexei has yet to learn - and how!

The Queen of Spades is decidedly one of Pushkin's gloomier tales. It inspired several movie adaptations and a magnificent opera by Tchaikovsky. Its determined, but misguided, protagonist stakes his life with dire consequences on a very old secret that might or might not even exist.

From television series writer and fiction award winner David Francis Curran comes a must-have collection of five Sherlockian pastiches: "The Adventure of the Monstrous Medium", "The Adventure of the Shanghaied Sailor", "The Adventure of the Chess Messages", "The Adventure of the Numerologist’s Cypher", and "The Adventure of Colonel Mustard’s Secret".

Enjoy strange and wondrous stories inspired by folklore from various corners of the world, carefully assembled and adapted by a Russian writer and political journalist Nikolai Teleshov.

Surrounded by close buddies offering toasts and congratulations on the upcoming nupitals, along with sly comments about the bottom line, Sam Horton discovers more might be at stake than a transaction. It takes two to consolidate, but when the other one turns into Bridezilla, Sam's about to experience a lesson in fortitude and empathy. Technology takes a strange turn when role playing ups the ante and makes walking in others' shoes a tough lesson to swallow.

Meet Branimir Baran, the slave destined to save the world. Bran is a Kras, a race enslaved by the Highborn for generations. He witnesses the forging of the forbidden dagger, kaelandur, created to execute Nedezhda, a Highborn found guilty of practicing death magic. But Nedezhda rises again with a horde of demons, leaving Branimir and his companions to seek out the Tree of Life with hopes of stopping them from destroying it. Over a thousand years, the looming threat grows to extend across all lands.

Branimir has remained hidden from the enemy, withholding the cursed dagger from their erroneous hands. When a stranger arrives and offers the chance to end his never-ending battle, Branimir sets off for the City of the Gods for answers. Now, hoping his faith has not been misplaced, Branimir undergoes his darkest adventure yet. He can only trust he has the courage to survive the truth.

Time waits for no one, including Marshall James. Now 58 and living in New York City, Marshall has outlived the expiration date he was given with a cancer diagnosis three years ago. He beat the odds, but he knows he may not beat the clock. So he’s decided to tell a story or three about some murders he was involved in back in the day. The year was 1983. The bar was the Paisley Parrot in Hollywood, a gay, mob-run dive where people came to drink and few of them remembered the night before. Marshall loves his job as a bartender there. But one night, among the regulars, a killer arrives.