Showing results by narrator "Ryan Burke" in All Categories

The last time Thread attacked Pern, the world was unprepared for the fight - until the Oldtimers appeared. These courageous dragonriders arrived from the past, traveling 400 years to help their descendants survive. But the collision of past and present took its toll. While most of the displaced rescuers adapted to their new reality, others could not abide the jarring change and found themselves in soul-crushing exile, where unhappiness and resentment seethed.

No matter what you want to achieve in life, the secret to doing it is passion. For people to be happy, they need to find meaning in what they do and in the roles they play in their lives, careers, and communities. But it's not always easy to find our passions. Author Keith Abraham tells you how to ignite the passion in your life, as well as in the lives of your colleagues, employees, and associates. He includes in-depth research, easy-to-understand concepts, and inspirational stories to teach you how to find out what's meaningful to you and pursue it with passion and energy. 

Modern-day markets do not arise spontaneously or evolve naturally. Rather they are crafted by individuals, firms, and most of all, by governments. Author Steven Vogel builds his argument upon the recognition that all markets are crafted then systematically explores the implications for analysis and policy. In modern societies, there is no such thing as a free market. Markets are institutions, and contemporary markets are all heavily regulated. The "free market revolution" that began in the 1980s did not see a deregulation of markets, but rather a re-regulation. 

Life is going great for Seaville High senior Erick Rudd. He's a good student, he has a girlfriend he'll probably marry, and he's on a straight path to college. Then his best friend's girlfriend lets him know she's attracted to him. Seventeen going on 25, Nicki Marr is blond, green eyed, and gorgeous. Soon, Erick is seeing her on the sly. Guilt ridden over his deception, Erick isn't prepared for what happens next.

A powerful story of love and loss, secrets and revelations - and making sense of a past that once seemed perfect. For Tom Brennan life is about rugby, mates and family - until a night of celebration changes his life forever. Tom's world explodes as his brother, Daniel, is sent to jail, and the Brennans are forced to leave the small town Tom's lived in his whole life. Tom is a survivor, but he needs a ticket out of the past just as much as Daniel. He will find it in many forms....

Keo has been in tough situations before. Some have been tougher than others, but he’s always managed to come out on top thanks to an innate stubbornness, the skills he’s honed from a previous life, and a whole lot of Lady Luck. But Luck can sometimes be a fickle mistress, there are always people with more skills, and stubbornness has a tendency to bite you in the ass if you’re not careful. Since leaving Gaby at Axton, Keo finds himself being stalked by a highly-trained group of humans in the day and hordes of the undead at night. Someone, something out there wants him, and it won’t be denied.

It's been six years since a terrifying breed of seemingly unkillable creatures emerged from the darkness to topple the unprepared governments of the world, in the process knocking mankind down the food chain. Survivors called it The Purge. A few brave souls rose from the ashes of the old world to fight back, often against overwhelming odds. Led by indomitable heroes, they risked everything to achieve a final, stunning victory over the supernatural "ghouls" in The Battle of Houston. Five years later, what remains of the ghouls have fled back into the shadows.

Why would a collector of ancient American artifacts hand over his prized pieces to a historian and then shoot himself in the head? And why does an ancient Templar scroll in his possession refer to Jesus as "The Thief on the Cross"? The answers place historian Cameron Thorne at the dangerous intersection of secret American history and modern geopolitical intrigue. 

Attorney Cameron Thorne is thrust into a bloody tug-of-war involving secret societies, treasure hunters, and keepers of the secrets of the Jesus bloodline. Joined by Amanda, an enchanting British researcher with secrets of her own, Cam races around New England with only two choices - unravel the 600-year-old mysteries encoded in the ancient artifacts, or die trying. 

Nationally best-selling fantasy legend Mercedes Lackey created a vivid, dynamic fusion of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of ancient Egypt with the most exciting, authentic and believable portrayal of dragons ever imagined. In the second novel in Mercedes Lackey's richly conceived Dragon Jousters series, the dragonrider Vetch escapes to Alta, the subjugated land of his birth. There, he hopes to teach his people to raise and train dragons - and build an army that will liberate his homeland.

Teenage burn survivor Wilder Tate begins high school ashamed of his disfigurement. He finds an outlet tapping into his one-dimensional basketball talent as a shutdown defender and courts his cheerleader dream girl, only to endure heartbreak and setbacks that drive him to have a tissue-expander operation to rid himself of his scar tissue for good, but at what price?

Fighting, apocalyptic quests, endless danger—it's nice to get a break from that kind of thing sometimes. Why not escape into a world where fighting isn't the only way to level up? Come to a place where you'll get a mug of tasty beer and a bowl of hearty winter stew to warm your belly. A place with bookstores owned by grouchy satyrs, and bakeries where delicious sweet treats are guaranteed. Does that sound like just what you need? If so, you're in luck.

Come to a place where you'll get a mug of tasty beer and a bowl of hearty winter stew to warm your belly. Relax in a tavern on a cozy winter evening with the gentle flames of a hearth flickering nearby. Does that sound like what you need right now? If so, you came to the right place. Josh and his fellow builders are expanding Blade's Rest with the dream of achieving "town" status one day. This means there's a lot of work to do, problems to solve, ales to savor, and pies to enjoy. But as Josh discovers, the bigger your settlement, the bigger your headaches.

Blade & Sheath is a fully immersive VRMMORPG game where some folks complete quests, while others develop their magic and battle monsters. Then there are players like Josh. He needs to earn some cash, so when he gets a job as a town builder for Blade & Sheath, he can't believe his luck. However, it won't be easy. The land he needs to build on is as untamed as the critters that prowl it. That's not all—he also starts with no skills and no resources.

I am the reincarnation of a dark god. I cannot escape that now. The prince of demons come again. And I am hunted. The Fomori have a prophecy about my return, and have been so kind as to dispatch the Morrigan herself to slay me. She's even forging a special divine sword. Their armies of beastmen and giants march upon Hasra, and the ailing empire is in no shape to hold. They need new troops. They need us. My friends and I are being sent off to the other Catalysts we control to gain more magic so that we can resist the Fomori advance.

The activation of the runes has the Osuna fleet mobilizing. They’re closing in, and thanks to a new class acquisition, the timeline to Judgment Day has sped up. After thousands of years in hiding, Governor Cullen refuses to believe the Cipher chose him just to watch his people lose everything. He races the clock to find and destroy the portal with the greatest loot. Problem is, every portal he opens cuts down his time to prepare. With his people’s future on the line, Cullen’s up against a war on two fronts—from the streets to the mystical beyond.

Historians Cameron Thorne and Amanda Gunn stumble upon a mysterious spiral necklace and a 12,000-year-old human skull, sparking their search for Atlantis and its true legacy. But are modern-day Knights Templar and a cabal of goddess worshipers conspiring against them? Only after a whirlwind of international travel and a violent encounter with a shadowy paramilitary group do the mysteries of Atlantis finally reveal themselves.

I have been sentenced to death for the crime of being born; of winning the Hasran's war for them. But my death has purchased the freedom of my people, and so I go to it gladly, ready for whatever final torture they might have in mind. The Imperator has decreed that I will be sacrificed in the Great Games, a sacred ritual that will magically empower the Gateway Arena. It requires five god-souled, the reincarnations of gods, divine shards that can be fed to the Arena, and used to increase its size. It means my life has narrowed to one purpose: live.

While rooting around in the mysterious stone chambers of New England, historian Cameron Thorne and his fiancée Amanda Spencer-Gunn stumble upon a reinterpretation of the Biblical passage calling on Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. It is a revelation—long suppressed by the medieval Knights Templar—that threatens to destabilize the Middle East forever. It is also a secret Cam and Amanda want nothing to do with. Not that a rogue faction of puppeteering Freemasons gives a damn what Cam and Amanda want.

Who is The Horoscope Writer? It’s not Bobby Frindley. He’s an ex-Olympic athlete who has fast-talked his way into an entry-level position at a dying newspaper. He’s supposed to be writing horoscopes, but someone has been doing his job for him . . . On his first night on the job, Bobby receives an email with twelve gruesome, highly detailed horoscopes, along with a chilling ultimatum: print them and one will come true, or ignore them and all of them will.