Showing results by narrator "Austin Ku" in All Categories

When Derek Yu released Spelunky for free in 2008, his roguelike-inspired platformer took the indie game community by storm with its combination of classic platform mechanics, extreme difficulty, and random level generation. Four years later, Spelunky's HD remake went on to become PC Gamer's Game of the Year and earn perfect scores from Polygon and Eurogamer. But how is a "perfect" game made?

Jackson Grey awakens inside Eden, a ruthless system ruled by an unseen Judge, with no memory of how he arrived and no clear way out. Survival demands more than strength. It demands adaptation, sacrifice, and choices that cannot be undone. As Jackson fights his way through a deadly dungeon, he...

Orpheus can't believe it's come to this. After helping his childhood friend conquer the realm by raising an army of hell-beasts, the befuddled dark sorcerer finds himself banished when the price of his magic endangers the palace. Isolated and betrayed, the feared spellcaster isn't exactly thrilled when his irritating and handsome rival keeps stepping between him and certain doom.

Eleven-year-old Avery Lee loves living in Hickory Valley, Maryland. She loves her neighborhood, school, and the end-of-summer fair she always goes to with her two best friends. But she's tired of feeling squished by her six siblings! They're noisy and chaotic and the younger kids love her a little too much. All Avery wants is her own room—her own space to be alone and make art. So she's furious when Theo, her grumpy older brother, gets his own room instead, and her wild baby brother, Max, moves into the room she already shares with her clinging sister Pearl!

International bestselling mindfulness author and early Google engineer Chade-Meng Tan (Meng) teams up with admired American Buddhist abbot Soryu Forall to bring you this vital guide to Buddhism. Meng and Soryu carefully pored over the entirety of the early Buddhist texts (EBTs) to faithfully deliver their profound wisdom, packaged with Soryu's incisive sagacity and Meng's uncanny ability to explain deep concepts humorously and understandably.

Happily ever after isn't all that magical . . . With Hell's chasm closed and magic sealed away, Orpheus and Fenrir find themselves at the center of the Empire's reconstruction. But when mysterious assailants kidnap Orpheus to a city once powered by the chasm he closed—the redeemed villain...

Hans had a realization that changed the direction of his adventuring career: "above average" is different from "great." At 39 with a litany of lingering injuries, he accepted that he would never progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked. He plateaued long ago, lacking whatever secret sauce...

"E. Y. Zhao's Underspin is an eruption of a debut. This novel displays a wondrous ability that renders both the central sport and lives that weave around it with meticulous precision and tremendous heart. The beauty of sport, the spirit of desire and the sacrifice required for greatness are all...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BC AND YUKON JIM DEVA PRIZE FOR WRITING THAT PROVOKES From the bestselling, Canada Reads-shortlisted author of The Woo-Woo comes a wild, darkly hilarious, and poignant collection of immigrant horror stories. They’ll haunt and consume you—in strange and unsettling ways...

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s 2022 First Novel Prize! “Belinda Huijuan Tang’s debut novel is a beautifully drawn, sensitively rendered portrait of a man desperately searching for his father—and for reconnection to the past and people he once knew and loved. Both rich in...

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER THRUST IS: “Epic.” –The New York Times “A triumph.” —Elle “Stunningly beautiful.” —The Daily Beast “Both of the moment and utterly timeless.” —Chicago Review of Books “A book to take in wide-eyed.” —Rebecca Makkai NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE...

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize Named a New York Times Best Crime Novel of 2022 Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by *Marie Claire* *Washington Post* *Vulture* *NBC News* *Buzzfeed*...

Outside a New York apartment building, an attempted mugging alters the lives of three people. Tony, a Chinese-born engineer turned Manhattan doorman, who immigrated to the United States to give his family a better life. His daughter, Tammy, who grapples with the expectations surrounding a...

It is 2085 and Laisve is learning to use the ancient waterways to travel through water and time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as The Brook, she discovers a talisman that will connect her with people from the past two centuries, including a squad of laborers at work on a...

“What a knockout. An incredibly rich and new voice for American literature…China Boy grabs the reader’s heart and won’t let go.”—Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club “A fascinating, evocative portrait of the Chinese community in California in the 1950s, caught between...

Do you feel there is something more to be found in life? Is there something more for your life? Traditionally people turn to religions to find that "more." Today, when cultures are in upheaval and traditional religions are collapsing, a prominent Zen teacher explores the possibility of a spirituality at the heart of all religions. Zen at the End of Religion is a brief introduction to Zen as a practical expression of perennial wisdom, a "naturalistic perennialism."

Brought to you by Penguin. Ryan Lo begins playing table tennis at age eight. His brilliant but ruthless coach sees a talent in him that might be nurtured into greatness. Through an adolescence marked by hours of practice, matches away from home, clandestine relationships and a determination to...

Seven decaying kingdoms. One ancient curse that threatens to destroy them all. High in a secluded tower, Prince Sigismund lives in quiet exile. He is an outcast in his own kingdom—his black eyes feared as the harbinger of the ruin that has swept across the land. Alone and blamed, he watches...

When the Kitchen God is challenged by the Jade Emperor to fathom the workings of the human heart, he chooses to trace the lives of Jinyi and his wife, Yuying, from their blossoming love until their old age, in hope of finding an answer. The Kitchen God watches as government strictures split their family in two, living inside their hearts as they endure the losses of two children, homesickness, and isolation—all while keeping alive a love that survives famine, forced labor, and even death.

A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A weird and revelatory novel that vividly captures the dislocation of growing up BIPOC and neurodivergent in a country awash in both conspiracy theories and genuine conspiracies. “This funny, insightful debut about mental illness, identity...