Showing results by narrator "Jeff Harding" in All Categories

From atop the choppy waves to the choking darkness of the abyss, the seas are full of mystery and rife with tales of inexplicable events and encounters with the unknown. In this anthology we see a thrilling spread of narratives: sailors are pitched against a nightmare from the depths, invisible to the naked eye, a German U-boat commander is tormented by an impossible transmission via Morse Code, a ship ensnares itself in the kelp of the Sargasso Sea and dooms a crew of mutineers, seemingly out of revenge for her lost captain.

The Facility is gone. The cryptids being studied there are dead. Now the monsters are out in the open, changing the world forever. Dr Borm is on the run with Cryptid Nine, desperate to survive for the sake of the hybrid child his beloved ‘Nina’ carries.

The Facility is a research centre that specialises in cryptozoology, the search for legendary creatures. Once these ‘cryptids’ are found, they are caged, abused and experimented on to graft their physical prowess onto ordinary soldiers. Even as the Facility’s troops hunt down Shaw, and the cunning Cryptid Nine plans her escape, something far more horrifying is emerging from hibernation to feed. And both human and cryptid will discover that nothing can stop the Wendigo....

Crease is known in Weaver as ‘the bug guy', the man who takes care of insects and other critters. But what emerges from the shadows of the town's waste plant is beyond anything found in nature. Fist-sized cockroaches. Bird-sized wasps. Spiders, millipedes, ticks, all swollen to enormous bulk with vicious appetites to match. And other things, creatures that should never exist.

A deadly captain is the subject if this short story. Young sailor Roberts recalls his experience of Captain Morbond, a cruel, heartless man who mysteriously is followed by small white mice said to carry the souls of dead men.

There have been reports of a phantom ship attempting to run down other vessels on the waters. It is said to be a cutter that went missing, along with its crew. A ship eventually stumbles across the missing cutter, a final log from those on board shedding light on the fate of the cutter.

There is a dark mood aboard Serapis, driven by its distracted captain. It was agreed that this ship would not be returning from its voyage, the insurance money paying for a new ship. But the captain loses more than he bargained for, and it is years until he is at peace when he is unexpectedly reunited with the wreck on the coast of Chile.

It’s not unusual for ships to vanish, lost to bad weather, but what isn’t so easy to explain are the abandoned ships, left floating on the waves, eerily silent with no sign of attack or destruction. In this short story, our unnamed protagonist recalls his experience aboard the Robert Sutter, an abandoned ship he was forced to take charge of during his journey from Sydney to Callao.

An earthquake throws a ship and its crew into disarray in this short story from Morgan Robertson. But the waves become the least of their worries when they discover a mysterious beast has been disturbed, invisible to natural light.

A smoking cigar is seen in the fog, but not the man behind it. Could it be the final smoke of Charlie Devereux? The crew aboard the Königen Teresa recall this ghostly story as they themselves plough into fog across the Mid-Atlantic.

Instructed to guide in a speed-boat crossing from Russia in the Bering Strait, special forces Major Rake Ozenna watches in horror as the operation culminates in a fatal firefight - and the loss of vital intelligence of a deadly new weapon. A weapon of unimaginable power. But who sabotaged the mission? Who possesses the weapon - and what is their ultimate goal?

A retired war pilot is travelling the French countryside. Entranced by the natural beauty of the area when he stops to rest by a lake, he sees visions of beautiful tree women who seek his protection.

Professor Jonkin is a scientist who has successfully cultivated a tree that produces many fruits. He doesn’t stop there though and starts experimenting on a pitcher plant with disastrous results....

The titular house in this short story sits not far from the state of Missouri. An old, run-down building, missing windows and doors, it has been overgrown with foliage, and its dilapidated appearance has given it an ‘evil reputation’.

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Evil Roots. Best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, this short story by Conan Doyle preceded the famous detective by almost a decade. After an altercation, a disgruntled American storms off into the night, only to disappear mysteriously. Could a giant flytrap really be capable of engulfing an adult victim?

The story is set in Padua and follows botanist Giacomo Rappaccini’s garden of poisonous plants. A student from the university of Padua falls for a maiden in the luscious garden, but he soon learns some troubling information about his beloved’s true nature.

Strangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) 'killer plant' in fiction, film and video games. Step within to marvel at Charlotte Perkins Gilman's giant wisteria and H.G. Wells' hungry orchid; hear the calls of the ethereal women of the wood and the frightful drone of the moaning lily; and do tread carefully around E. Nesbit's wandering creepers. Every strain of vegetable threat can be found within this new collection.

BBC Audio present six fantastic tales of twisted futures and times beyond tomorrow. Inspired by the pulp sci-fi of '50s America, these perfectly pitched parodies are redolent of the atomic age—when the space race was at its height, Cold War paranoia was at fever pitch and the future seemed both thrilling and terrifying. 

In the vein of Graham Greene and John le Carré, The Matchmaker delivers a chilling Cold War spy story set in West Berlin, where an American woman targeted by the Stasi must confront the truth behind her German husband's mysterious disappearance. Berlin, 1989. Protests across East Germany threaten the Iron Curtain and Communism is the ill man of Europe. Anne Simpson, an American who works as a translator at the Joint Operations Refugee Committee, thinks she is in a normal marriage with a charming East German.

In Our Time is an exploration of alienation, loss and war that launched Ernest Hemingway into the American public consciousness and began his career as one of American’s foremost writers.