Showing results by narrator "Michael Braun" in All Categories

Zero, Nyx, and the other Pathfinder colonists have adjusted to life on Kaguya. But Earth has built much faster starships-the Dreamcatcher arrives 10 years early, and the Stargazer arrives so early it actually got there before the Pathfinder did! Now the Stargazer is a lost shipwreck, and the race is on to find it, and who should show up looking for it but Nyx's dangerous family: Big Mama, Jim, and Kratt. Nyx and Zero will face kidnappers, pirates, shipwrecks, warlords, dragons, and maybe a new ally or two on their way to save the day once again.

Think you've had a bad day at work? Marcus definitely takes the cake. First, he had a horrible customer during his shift. Then he got fired by his boss. And after that, he got shot to death during a robbery. To top it all off, he awakened within the body of a weak and strange creature in a fantasy world full of deadly monsters. And that's just Monday!

Eileen was happy to set aside her own dreams to raise a family with her husband, Paul. Together they built an ordinary life in a Connecticut town, the perfect place for their kids to grow up. But when Eileen discovers that Paul's late nights in the city are hiding an affair with a younger woman, she begins to question all those years of sacrifice and compromise. On the brink of 40, is it too late to start over? Meanwhile, as Paul is thrust back into the role of suburban fatherhood, his girlfriend, Olivia, is in Manhattan, struggling in the shadow of her mother, a famous actress....

Faith Ferguson is one of New York's most sought after wedding planners. Realizing dreams and making magic happen are part of why Faith loves her job. But weddings are not always champagne and roses, and this particular year sees challenges both professionally and personally that even she questions. The Alberts' show-stopper event for hundreds on an estate in the Hamptons with orchid swans, a firework extravaganza and added family strife does not come without its problems.

Oscar-winning actress Ardith Law is a Hollywood icon. A stunning beauty at sixty-two, her star is as bright as ever. Widowed at a young age by a philandering husband, Ardith is in no hurry to marry again. Her daughter, Morgan, a successful cosmetic surgeon, has always blamed her mother for a lonely childhood while Ardith was away on location, and the relationship remains strained despite Ardith's efforts to strengthen their bond.

As the head of a prestigious movie studio for nearly two decades, Andy Westfield has had every professional luxury: a stunning office, a loyal assistant who can all but read his mind, access to a private jet and company cars. Andy always put his career before his marriage, and now, besides his daughter and young grandchildren, it's the only thing he truly loves. But then Andy's world is upended. The studio is sold, and the buyer's son demands the top seat. Out of a job and humiliated, Andy knows he needs to get as far away from Los Angeles as possible.

Tender Branson - last surviving member of the so-called "Creedish Death Cult" - is dictating his incredible life story into the flight recorder of Flight 2039, cruising on autopilot at 39,000 feet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. He is all alone in the plane, which will shortly reach terminal velocity and crash into the vast Australian outback.

It's a normal night in August. Literature professor Arne and artist Tove are with their children at the resort in Sørlandet. Their friend, Egil, a driver by day, is staying in a cabin nearby. Kathrine, a priest, is on her way home from a seminar; the journalist Jostein is out on the town; and his wife, Turid, who is an assistant nurse, has a night shift. Above them all, a huge star suddenly appears in the sky. No one, not even the astronomers, knows for sure what kind of phenomenon it is.

Melissa Henderson is leading a quiet life. Once a best-selling author, she now pours all her energy into renovating a Victorian house nestled in the foothills of rural New England. Six years ago, she lost her young son to cancer, and her marriage dissolved. She stopped writing. Then Melissa receives a call from her sister, Hattie. They were close once, but that was before Melissa withdrew from the world. Now Hattie, who became a nun at 25, is determined to help Melissa turn a new page, even if it means reopening one of the most painful chapters of her life.

Ultrarunning legend Dean Karnazes has run 262 miles—the equivalent of ten marathons—without rest. He has run over mountains, across Death Valley, to the South Pole, and is probably the first person to eat an entire pizza while running. With an insight, candour and humour rarely seen in sports memoirs, Ultramarathon Man has inspired tens of thousands of people—nonrunners and runners alike—to push themselves beyond their comfort zones and simply get out there and run.

Spencer Brooke grew up knowing that one day she would own and run Brooke's, one of New York's most respected department stores, established by her late grandfather. But the path to success hasn't been easy. Shocked after finding herself pregnant with twins, but knowing in her heart she could be a wife and mother as well as a CEO, pressure from her husband to sell Brooke's led to the breakdown of their marriage. When entrepreneur Mike Weston offers investment just when the store is going through financial difficulty, Spencer faces a dilemma.

With the failure of Hadley's Hope, Weyland-Yutani has suffered a devastating setback - the loss of the Aliens they aggressively sought to exploit. Yet there's a reason the Company has risen to the top of the food chain. True to form, they have a redundancy already in place: the facility known as "The Cold Forge". Remote station RB-232 has become their greatest asset in weaponizing the Xenomorphs. However, when Dorian Sudler is sent to RB-232 to assess their progress, he discovers that there's a spy aboard - someone who doesn't necessarily act in the company's best interests.

In 1974, Dennis Lynn Rader stalked and murdered a family of four in Wichita, Kansas. Since adolescence, he had read about serial killers and imagined becoming one. Soon after killing the family, he murdered a young woman and then another, until he had 10 victims. He named himself “B.T.K.” (bind, torture, kill) and wrote notes that terrorized the city. He remained on the loose for 30 years.

Book 2 of a LitRPG-lite adventure with a unique, Real-Time Strategy twist, like Starcraft meets Dungeons & Dragons.

You ever have one of those days? U.S. Marine Sergeant Jake Bayard did when he has to cancel a hot date to board a transport plane to the South Pole, which is hijacked by aliens with hostile intent to Earth. Bayard escapes into tunnels deep under the ice and stumbles upon advanced technology that teleports him to Epsilon Eridani. Desperately alone and on the run, Bayard falls back onto his combat training, soon discovering that these aliens keep human herds for meat. That’s it. He enlists some of the downtrodden and declares war against the hungry oppressors.

Jake knows the woman sitting next to him on his business flight to Denver - he just can't figure out how he knows her. Clara Stowe isn't in Jake's line of work. They have nearly nothing in common apart from a deep and shared certainty that they've met before. As their airplane conversation deepens, both struggle to figure out what circumstances could have possibly brought them together. Then, in a revelation that sends Jake reeling, Clara admits she's traveling to the Colorado mountains to kill herself, and she disappears into the crowded airport immediately after landing.

Zoe Morgan's childhood was marked by her younger sister's tragic illness, watching as her parents dedicated themselves completely to her final days, and then later divorced. As a young woman, driven by these painful memories, Zoe set the bar high for herself, studying hard and pursuing a career in the nonprofit world, where her deep compassion towards disadvantaged children finds a focus.

The new post-apocalyptic collection by master anthologist John Joseph Adams, featuring never-before-published stories and curated reprints by some of the genre's most popular and critically-acclaimed authors. Whether the end comes via nuclear war, pandemic, climate change, or cosmological disaster, these stories explore the extraordinary trials and tribulations of those who survive.

Antonia Adams is the product of a loveless marriage between a beautiful young model and an aristocrat. As a child, she is abandoned in the abyss that yawns between them, blamed by her mother, ignored by her father and neglected by both. Unprotected and unloved, she learns that the only way to feel safe is to hide from the dangers around her, drawing as little attention as possible to herself, to be "invisible".

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.