Showing results by narrator "Tim Reynolds" in All Categories

After a year of fighting across three different lands, Dante and Blays have finally brought Gladdic to justice - and in the process, they've unleashed a horror beyond all reckoning. The enemy is known as the White Lich. He is ancient. He is immensely powerful. And Gladdic believes he will soon...

The alien race known as the Ancients vanished before Earth's last ice age - but not before building interconnected rings that form a highway system across the galaxy. Humanity has used these rings for years but has never figured out how to build its own, or even how to alter the connection pattern. Now, the Imperial starship Pandora is on a mission to discover and explore new interstellar connection points. While on Venus, an unexpected guest arrives - Marvin, a rogue robot who puts his strange mind to work on reconnecting the rings into a new pattern. Everything goes haywire.

The Federation has endured for hundreds of years, but now it is dying, killed by the corruption and decadence of the Senate and the rising power of military warlords. The shipping lanes are coming apart, the colonists are revolting, and outside forces are pressing against undefended borders. Now, as one warlord makes a bid for supreme power, the entire edifice is on the verge of falling apart.

During the winter solstice, on the shortest day and longest night of the year, the ancient burial chamber at Newgrange is empowered. Its mystifying source is a haunting tale told by locals. Professor O’Kelly believes an archaeologist’s job is to make known only what can be proved. He is undeterred by ghost stories, idle speculation, and caution. Much to the chagrin of the living souls in County Meath. As well as those entombed in the sacred darkness of Newgrange itself. They’re determined to protect the secret of the light, guarded for more than 5,000 years. 

Infused with magic, shadows and starlight, the powerful godblades were believed to be lost nearly half a millennia ago, when the Godswar ended. Now, however, one has been found by the unlikeliest of wielders: Sampson Gaard, a blind but ambitious prince with something to prove. The only question is whether he controls the blade or the blade him. With an insidious evil lurking in the shadows, the answer may very well determine the fate of all Kingfall.

Roguish swordsman Korm and his cyclops companion, Aebos, are no strangers to death, yet neither would have expected that starvation on the high seas would be the foe to eventually lay them low. When a beautiful spellcaster in a magical ship arrives just in time to save them from being roasted alive by mutinous sailors, it seems like their luck may finally be turning around - yet are they jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

Young Cally is an apprentice within the most unusual order of sorcerers in the known world: the only one that forbids its members from using their powers to kill. Despite his lowly status, Cally's chosen by the Master of the Order to join a delegation to see their allies the Lannovians. The meeting will be historic: 60 years ago, the Order's enemies attacked them with a host of demons, forcing the Order to trap the monsters inside their own citadel and seal it shut with impenetrable wards. The trick worked so well the Order hasn't been able to get it back open since.

When Gabriel Winter's daughter mysteriously disappears and is presumed dead, the wealthy whiskey baron seeks revenge. Having lived in Colnora during the infamous Year of Fear, he hires the one man he knows can deliver a bloody retribution - the notorious Duster.

The White Lich has conquered Tanar Atain. Soon, he means to take the entire world. Dante suspects his next target will be Bressel, where the Tanarians have established their court in exile. The only chance to stop the lich will be to forge a fragile alliance between the bitter enemies of three different lands: Tanar Atain, Mallon, and Narashtovik. The city stands on the brink of rebellion. Yet even if Dante, Blays, and Gladdic can unite it, they still might not have the strength to stand against the army of the lich.

After the War of the Gods, the demons were cast out and fell to the world. Mankind was nearly eradicated by the seemingly unstoppable beasts until the gods sent the great hero, Ramrowan, to save them. He united the tribes, gave them magic, and drove the demons into the sea. Ever since, the land has belonged to man, and the oceans have remained an uncrossable hell, leaving the continent of Lok isolated.

The assassination of the chief judge has pushed the Capitol to the edge. The Great Extermination has spread to all the land. The casteless must be annihilated. Their only hope is the fallen Protector Ashok Vadal. But Vadal is being held prisoner on the island of Fortress. In order to save those who need him most, he must escape and find his way across the demon-infested sea and return to Thera, the prophet of an illegal and forgotten god. It is she who has sent the Sons of the Black Sword to war against the warrior caste, hoping to buy time until Vadal’s return.

People are used to seeing "fake physics" in science fiction - concepts like faster-than-light travel, antigravity, and time travel to name a few. The fiction label ought to be a giveaway, but some SF writers - especially those with a background in professional science - are so adept at "technobabble" that it can be difficult to work out what is fake and what is real. To confuse matters further, Isaac Asimov's 1948 piece about the fictitious time-traveling substance thiotimoline was written, not as a short story, but in the form of a spoof research paper.

The world of Rale is being consumed by Nolost, the entity of destruction. There are only days left to stop him, and only one man who can: the nethermancer Dante Galand. But the mentor who would have shown him how has just been slain by Nolost's armies. With his last hopes fading, Dante hatches a mad plan: travel into the afterlife, find his dead mentor, and finish training in the ancient technique to kill the entity.

Dante, Blays, and Gladdic's final effort to defeat him has failed. Within weeks—if not days—Rale will be destroyed. One last hope remains. They can't kill Nolost, but they may be able to eject him from Rale before he can complete his work. To do so, though, they'll have to destroy a world themselves: Olastar, the home of the portals that link all other places together.

Dante and Blays have a single hope of victory: the Spear of Stars, the long-lost weapon that may be capable of killing the lich. There's just one problem. Though they've learned the spear is real, they've also learned the nine parts of the weapon are guarded by the gods themselves. And they have no intention of handing over their prize. Alone in a strange realm, with no friends or allies, and a growing list of enemies, Dante and Blays' task looks doomed. Yet, they're the last line standing between the lich and the destruction of their whole world.

The demons have been defeated, along with their masters. At last, the Collen Basin is at peace. But that peace is a lie. The prince of Mallon is conspiring to wage war on Collen — and young Cally is the only one who knows of his scheme. He and his new girlfriend Myla rush to the basin to warn them. Yet the Colleners have only just begun to react when the Mallish vanguard arrives in force. Led by Inquisitor Vara, they swiftly take the city's children hostage — and deliver an offer of peace from the king.

Sitting in the front room of his family’s cottage, TY listens intently as Nyalis conveys the urgency of his upcoming quest. Having agreed to search out the four missing pieces of an age-old relic, Ty soon discovers how unprepared he is for a mission of this importance. Not only must he find the missing pieces and assemble them he must survive long enough to figure out how to use them before the White Tower closes in.

Threadbare has not had a very good time of it recently. His little girl has been taken from him, and he must travel the kingdom, finding allies old and new, living and dead, to help him rescue Celia. Fortunately, he's got a voice now and access to all those fun skills he couldn't before use. He may only be a very small teddy bear, but he's got the persistence to plow through dungeons of rascally raccoon monsters, the wiles to turn a town full of undead on its ear, and the sanity to survive an encounter with a mediocre old one.

Dante Galand has cured the sickness that trapped him on the Plagued Islands. Now it's time to leave. And kill a priest. The target is Gladdic of Bressel. Gladdic, who executed Dante's friend, the pirate Captain Twill. Who all but enslaved the Plagued Islands. And whose visions of empire are far...

Life can kick us when we are down. In Shawn Speakman's case, he is fighting back. Lacking health insurance and diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2011, Speakman beat the disease as well as the massive medical debt he amassed from its treatment. He did this by publishing Unfettered, an anthology featuring short stories donated by some of the best science fiction and fantasy writers working today. Speakman has again collaborated with celebrated genre authors to publish Unfettered II.