Showing results by narrator "Steven Brand" in All Categories

Part of John Muir's appeal to modern audiences is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Here collected are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, ranging in subject matter from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the High Sierra. 

Sentenced to death. Impossible to kill. Bershad was supposed to die. He tried to assassinate a fellow noble, so was given a harsh sentence - a command to slay dragons so his death might serve the kingdom. But for some reason he’s never lost a fight, and is now the most successful dragon-slayer in history. Yet as a doomed man, Bershad is still shunned by both his peers and his countrymen. But that could all change. The king who sentenced Bershad has just given him an out. Kill a foreign king and walk free forever.

In Terence Rattigan’s classic drama, an aging schoolmaster at an English secondary school faces the harsh judgments of his students, his fellow teachers, and his vicious and spiteful wife. But can a lone act of kindness from a sympathetic student change his heart? This recording also includes an interview with Michael Darlow, the author of Terence Rattigan: The Man and His Work.

Badly outnumbered, facing certain destruction, and cut off from supply, the Imperial Roman Ninth Legion Hispana is in a desperate position. Surrounded by the hostile Celtic army, Senior Centurion Lucious Grackus Lisidus Karus must lead his men to safety after unexpectedly finding himself thrust into command of the legion.

Cal Lovett has spent half his life telling other people’s stories on his true-crime podcast. But the police are close to solving the mystery of his sister’s disappearance—now he might finally get to tell Margot’s story. Cal seeks respite on a holiday in the Scottish Highlands, but is dragged into a new cold case: an unsolved murder that shattered a family fourteen years ago.

War grips two worlds as heroes rise to challenge the sinister Heralds of Ruin. In the realm of Andomhaim, Ridmark Arban leads the armies of the High King against the brutal legions of the Heptarchy. A daring ruse might defeat the might of Warlord Agravhask, or it will bring Andomhaim crashing down in ruin.

Contains books five and six of the Dragontiarna series: Legions, book five, and Defenders, book six.

Ben Stiger, Legate of the Lost Thirteenth Legion, a nobleman from an infamous family and born fighter, has defeated the servants of the evil god Castor and crushed the dark deity's orc-led army. Having repaired the damage wrought by Castor and fixed the timeline, Stiger has returned to the present, bringing with him the entire Thirteenth Legion and her auxiliary cohorts.

Grinner and his conspiracy to overthrow Perennia have been defeated, but victory came at a high cost. The alliance suffered losses it could ill afford, for the true enemy still lies in Baresh, growing stronger with each day that passes. Leading the combined armies of three kingdoms, Aaron and his companions march to the city, but even with such a force, even with the power of the Virtues, victory is anything but assured. For when blades are drawn, when battle begins, the only certainty is blood.

The dragonslayer Bershad and Queen Ashlyn are facing the greatest challenge of their lives. Branded the Witch Queen and driven from her kingdom, Ashlyn flees to her mother’s people. Yet she won’t be beaten, resolving to master magical feats long thought impossible. But this could have unforeseen consequences. Meanwhile, Bershad has learnt why he seems invincible – and that he’s living on borrowed time. However, he remains determined to help Ashlyn regain her throne. 

The Downs, the poor district of the city of Avarest, is home to cutthroats and thieves, pickpockets and prostitutes, all of whom pay tribute to one of two powerful crime bosses. It is also home to Aaron Envelar, a disillusioned sellsword known as the Silent Blade, who cares nothing for the criminal overlords or their schemes, who only wants to survive and make a little coin. But when a group of thugs steal his mother’s necklace, the only link he has to his murdered parents, Aaron decides that sometimes gold isn’t enough - sometimes, blood is the only payment worth taking.

Sevenfold Sword, Part VI includes books 11 and 12 of the series. The quest of the Seven Swords nears its end, and dark powers rise to seize the world. Ridmark Arban has learned the terrible secret at the heart of the Seven Swords. Now he need only escape Urd Maelwyn, the grim city ruled by the dark elven tyrant known as the Confessor. But few who enter Urd Maelwyn ever leave alive. And the Maledicti priests will kill to protect the secret of the Seven Swords. 

Aaron and his companions have been saved from Kevlane's creatures only to find themselves in the power of the Akalians, a shadowy group of warriors many believe aren't men at all, but creatures of nightmare bent on blood and death. But not all the shadows' secrets are evil ones, and allies are often found in the unlikeliest of places. In Baresh, the tournament has begun, and the ancient mage, Kevlane, adds more twisted creatures to his army, fashioning a force the likes of which the world has never seen.

Orcs, an ancient fiend thought lost to history, have risen from The Under Realm. Their hunger for total dominance has plunged Illian into war, pushing the survivors to Namdhor, the last refuge of man at the top of the world. For those who stand up to this foe, they do so in darkness. Ash clouds smother the skies, blocking out the sun as the orcs rampage across the land.

Aaron and his companions return from Baresh with the truth of what the alliance faces, yet such knowledge is little comfort. Throughout the city, men and women whisper of demons, of monsters. But though they might disagree on the nature of Kevlane's twisted creations, there is one thing they have in common. Fear. For the creatures they face are not men - not any longer. They are death given form and function. They are, it seems in the darkest hours - and there are many such now - Telrear's doom.

To defeat the evil of the Seven Swords, Ridmark must learn the secrets of their making. But the creator of the Swords is imprisoned within the dungeons of Urd Maelwyn, once the stronghold of the dark elven tyrant called the Sovereign. And those who enter the dungeons of Urd Maelwyn never return. To find a way to destroy the Swords, Ridmark enters the Durance of Urd Maelwyn, a twisted dungeon built by a dark elven tyrant. There, he must find the mad smith who forged the Swords. But the ruler of the Durance does not let prisoners escape her iron grasp....

Millennia in the dark has left these lost and forgotten monsters hungry for war. The people of Illian can do nothing but rely on their peacekeepers, the Dragorn. Are the dragon riders ready for what has been buried under their feet? Gideon Thorn, Master of the Dragorn, can feel the Third Age coming to an ominous end. With Inara Galfrey and her dragon by his side, they must investigate the return of this ancient evil.

The quest of the Seven Swords will unmask treachery. It threatens to summon the malevolent New God...but other dark powers might seize the New God's throne. Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight, questing to stop the rise of the evil New God and to rescue his friends from the cruel dvargir slavers of Najaris. The sorceress Cathala, imprisoned within magical stone, holds the lore of the creator of the Seven Swords. But dark powers are stirring in the Serpent Marshes, and Cathala has secrets of her own. Secrets that might kill Ridmark and his friends.

Aaron and his companions prevented the assassination of a queen, but in doing so, they angered an ancient evil. Angered it, wounded it, but did not kill it, for such evil never truly dies. An army greater than any the world has ever known marches bringing steel and death with it, and somewhere, a 1,000-year-old evil lurks in the darkness, plotting and bending its will toward revenge. 

For decades, the brothers of the Sixth Order have fought a savage war against the Lonak clans amid the frozen peaks of their dominion. When word reaches the North of a fresh outbreak of the dreaded Red Hand, Brother Sollis, the finest swordsman in the Order, leads a small band to a long-abandoned castle in search of a potential cure but discovers a far greater threat lurking in the mountains. Enemies become allies as Sollis leads an increasingly desperate fight against an inhuman enemy steeped in the power of the Dark.