Showing results by narrator "Daniel Thomas May" in All Categories

The world is devolving into chaos as a game-like system has reduced the population to a series of statistics and screens. Confusion reigns as everyone struggles to survive in this new reality. Everyone but one man. Anthony Franklin has a secret. One that gives him an edge. He has lived through this exact series of events...99 times in a row.

What happens when you suddenly find yourself in a reality of untold possibilities, in a place where technology and magic are indistinguishable? Every game location is a transformed physical world connected to others through an interstellar network of portals. Every player "avatar" is a living physical body with incredible survival traits. Once in this dreamscape, it would be unwise to not seize the moment! There are, however, a couple of catches.

The three original spellbooks, source of all magic in the world, have been found, and Ray Lilly has already "acquired" one. Now he and Annalise are on a historic mission to get the other two and they're ready to kill anyone who gets in their way. If they succeed, the Twenty Palace Society will become more powerful than it has ever been and could truly safeguard humanity from both extra-dimensional predators and the people who summon them. But this time their enemies are more formidable than any they've ever faced before.

In Teachers We Trust presents a compelling vision, offering practical ideas for educators and school leaders wishing to develop teacher-powered education systems. It reveals why teachers in Finland hold high status, and shows what the country's trust-based school system looks like in action. Pasi Sahlberg and Timothy D. Walker suggest seven key principles for building a culture of trust in schools, from offering clinical training for future teachers to encouraging student agency to fostering a collaborative professionalism among educators.

War has come to the mainlands. Venick is at its head, using a fake betrothal and his new Commander's title to lead the resistance into battle. And while Venick is glad to have Ellina back on his side of the fight, he can't help but worry about all the ways she's changed...and the way things have changed between them.

Is our sun behaving differently from other stars? When an amateur astronomer discovers something strange on telescopic solar pictures, an explanation must be found. Is it merely artifact? Or has he found something totally unexpected? An expert international crew is hastily assembled, a spaceship is speedily repurposed, and the foursome is sent on the ride of their lives. What challenges will they face on this spur-of-the-moment mission to our central star?

Fr. Vincent Miceli breaks ground in this analysis of seventeen Enlightenment theologians and philosophers who contributed to the rise of atheism. He explores their efforts and successes in convincing mankind to deny the existence of God, and he demonstrates how atheism has succeeded by creating mythical gods to stand in the place of God. What Fr. Miceli shows is that each tenet of atheism doesn't deny the existence of a Higher Power; it simply replaces the true Power with a false power.

Retired Navy SEAL Alex Rojas is putting his life back together one piece at a time. Being a single dad to his young daughter and working at Hope's Crossing Kennels to help rehab a former guard dog, he struggles every day to control his PTSD. But when Elisa Hall shows up, on the run and way too cautious, she unleashes his every protective instinct.

This is George Dasent's classic collection of Scandinavian folklore. This is not about Norse mythology per se; so if you are looking for tales of Odin, Loki, and Freya etc., you will have to look elsewhere. Rather, this is an anthology of folk tales, similar to the Grimm Brothers', or Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands. All of the usual suspects are in place, including giants, trolls, witches, evil step-siblings, magical boons and tasks, and anthropomorphic animals.

In Project Zero Trust: A Story About a Strategy for Aligning Security and the Business, George Finney, chief security officer at Southern Methodist University, delivers an insightful and practical discussion of Zero Trust implementation. Presented in the form of a fictional narrative involving a breach at a company, the book tracks the actions of the company's new IT security director. Listeners will learn John Kindervag's 5-Step methodology for implementing Zero Trust, the four Zero Trust design principles, and how to limit the impact of a breach.

In the wake of Queen Rishiana's death, everything is changing. With Farah in power and the southerners growing ever stronger, Ellina must learn to navigate her new position in Farah's court, all while hiding her true intentions; namely, passing information to the northern resistance without anyone, including Venick, ever knowing. Heartbroken by Ellina's seeming betrayal, Venick is finally returning home - this time, with a band of northern elves in his company.

Over two hundred years after the first colonists landed on Pax, a new set of explorers arrives from Earth on what they claim is a temporary scientific mission. But the Earthlings misunderstand the nature of the Pax settlement and its real leader. Even as Stevland attempts to protect his human tools, a more insidious enemy than the Earthlings makes itself known. Stevland is not the apex species on Pax.

Under the protection of Nergal the Radiant, the Alliance's armies march confidently toward Tiamat's temple. Scyth's old tricks are no longer working. The Legate of the Destroying Plague and his friends have a difficult choice to make: bow to the wishes of the Snowstorm corporation and complete the quest of the Nucleus, surrender to the preventers, or retreat in the battle for Tiamat's temple to win the war?

A hooded man, his face marred by a mysterious black brand, walks the Plain of Savlos. Some say he has the power to summon demons. Others say he is the only one who can vanquish them. His name is Konrad, and he has a secret.... Once an ordinary soldier, his life was forever changed by a fateful meeting with a dying sorcerer. Now he is all that stands between civilization and the creeping evil of the shadow world.

There is a huge, bold black streak in the sky. Branches appear out of nowhere over North America, Southern Europe, and Central Africa. People who live beneath The Rift can see it. But scientists worldwide are distressed - their equipment cannot pick up any type of signal from it. The rift appears to consist of nothing. Literally. Nothing. Nada. Niente. Most people are curious but not overly concerned. The phenomenon seems to pose no danger. It is just there. Then something jolts the most hardened naysayers, and surpasses the worst nightmares of the world's greatest scientists.

It's coming up on Cajeiri's birthday. The boy has been promised he can have the young human children he knew from his voyage sent down from the space station for a two week stay. But there's a far darker business going on in the background - a major split compromising the Assassins' Guild, which furnishes security and law enforcement to the whole continent. Tabini's consort's own father has been barred from court, and may be involved in a new conspiracy against him.

Scyth and the followers of the Sleeping Gods have lost the Holy War. The new gods, who call themselves the True Gods, celebrate, unaware that the Sleepers have one more temple left. But how long until they find out? After all, Scyth's enemy Mogwai, once the strongest player on the planet, knows about Kharinza. The Supreme Legate of the Destroying Plague thirsts for vengeance and is eager to regain his former positions, becoming stronger every day, while Scyth, deprived of his invulnerability, has lost his former advantages.

Alex Sheppard flies to the Demonic Games, hoping that he and his friends Malik and Tissa can do the impossible and achieve victory. Almost 400 players are invited to the Games, the best of the best from all walks of Dis. Champions of the arena and the battlefields, gryphon races and pet battles; the very best craftspeople and grand masters of their professions.... All of them await the arrival of Scyth the Class-A Threat, who must now prove his worth without his divine abilities to help him.

After returning to Cali Bottom and the wider world of Disgardium, Alex realizes that the Demonic Games were a vacation compared to the problems he now faces. He has to help the beta players stuck in the Nether and decide what to do with his friends who "betrayed" him; identify a real traitor and prepare for the citizenship tests; and reach the Inferno to obtain Coals of Hellflame and destroy the Nucleus, whose legates, now free, have gained new powers thanks to the pantheon of dark gods who have joined the Destroying Plague.

Civil war on the world of the atevi is over, but diplomatic disputes and political infighting continue unabated. Bren Cameron, brilliant human diplomat allied with the dominant Western Association, has just returned to the capital from his country home. But his sojourn was anything but restful, for Bren and his associates have had a small war of their own to contend with, ending with rebel leader, Machigi, joining the atevi congress representing the rebels as a member state.