Showing results by narrator "William Dufris" in All Categories

Venice: Ethan Gage has escaped after surviving the naval battle of Trafalgar. His plan: To circumvent the French Empire and rescue his wife, Astiza, and son, Harry, from imprisonment by a ruthless mystic who seeks revenge for disfigurement, and from an evil dwarf alchemist who experiments with the occult on Prague's Golden Lane. Using death as his ruse, Gage seeks an unlikely ally in the Jewish Napoleonic soldier Gideon Mandel, who saves Ethan's life at Austerlitz, and Gideon's father, Aaron.

Imprisoned aboard a zeppelin that floats above a city reminiscent of those of the classic films Metropolis and Brazil, the greeting card writer Harold Winslow is composing his memoirs. His companions are the only woman he has ever loved, who has gone insane, and the cryogenically frozen body of her father, the devilish genius who drove her mad.

Tad Friend's family is nothing if not illustrious: his father was president of Swarthmore College, and at Smith his mother came in second in a poetry contest judged by W. H. Auden -- to Sylvia Plath. For centuries, Wasps like his ancestors dominated American life. But then, in the '60s, their fortunes began to fall. As a young man, Friend noticed that his family tree, for all its glories, was full of alcoholics, depressives, and reckless eccentrics.

In his debut novel, Tim Slover offers the real story behind Santa Claus, separating fact from legend and revealing the truth behind many long-held secrets: Why did Santa start making toys for children? Does he really climb down the chimney? How did he and Mrs. Claus meet? And most important, how is he able to deliver gifts to children all over the world in one night? This is a book that will be enjoyed year after year, sure to charm listeners of all ages and anyone who wants to celebrate the season.

What do the Merlin Game, the Penny Skim, the Doolally Snadoodle, and the Afterparty Snuke have in common? They're all the work of world-class con artist and master bafflegabber Radar Hoverlander. Radar’s been "on the snuke" since childhood, but he's still looking for his California Roll, the one big scam that'll set him up in sushi for life. Trouble arrives in the stunning, sassy package of Allie Quinn---either the last true innocent or a con artist so slick she makes Radar look like a Quaker.

Omnius has been hiding a lot from the people of Avilon. The war with the Sythians is not what we thought, but that raises the question: If not the Sythians, then what did Omnius go to fight in the Getties Cluster? Omnius knows what people will do before they do it. He predicts citizens' behavior, and, some suspect, he even makes those predictions come true.

P.I. Bill Smith is sent on a high-stakes chase when an electronically modified voice on his cell phone informs him that Lydia Chin, his occasional partner, has been kidnapped. Now, if Bill wants to keep Lydia alive, he'll have to play an elaborate game of the kidnapper's devising. The first move sends him to an abandoned building, where Bill finds the corpse of a small Chinese woman dressed like Lydia and the building being rapidly surrounded by police. Now he's on the run....

Silence is rare in Nature. When we really listen, Nature is conducting symphonies of sound as her world goes about the day and night. Her invisible heartbeat is everywhere, for everyone. Our eyes are constantly bathed in the wonder of her ways, the soft drizzle of rain from soft grey clouds, the bleached harsh desert sand of a noon day, a wave caressing the shore, to the ravenous colours of a departing sunset. Indeed, whenever we look and listen to the vastness of our world Nature’s beauty is always there for us..

It's Kev's birthday, so Hotdog and Lizzie are throwing him a surprise party! There'll be cake, games, and magic tricks! But will a rude rooster and a cranky donkey ruin the day?

Humanity has just won a major victory against the invading Sythians - the first victory in the history of the war. The savage Gors have joined forces with Dark Space, and now for the first time since the invasion, it looks like the tide is turning. But the Sythians weren't defeated. Humanity just bloodied their noses. Now they know where Dark Space is, and they are coming back for revenge.

Denby has fun snarking the snarkers, expelling the bums and promoting the true wits, but he is also making a serious point: the Internet has put snark on steroids. In politics, snark means the lowest, most insinuating and insulting side can win. For the young, a savage piece of gossip could ruin a reputation and possibly a future career. And for all of us, snark just sucks the humor out of life. Denby defends the right of any of us to be cruel but shows us how the real pros pull it off. Snark, he says, is for the amateurs.

Anton Chekhov was a Russian short story writer and a playwright. His playwriting career produced four classics, while his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics alike. As his writing evolved, Chekhov made formal innovations that have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. This collection of short stories consists of "The Duel," "Excellent People," "Mire," "Expensive Lessons," "The Princess," and "The Chemist's Wife."

Meet The Scream. Just your average everyday mega-cult band. Their music is otherworldly. Their words are disturbing. Their message is unholy. Their fans are legion. And they're not kidding. They're killing. Themselves. Each other. Everyone. Their gospel screams from the lips of babes. Their backbeat has a body count. And their encore is just the warm-up act to madness beyond belief. It emerged from a war-torn jungle, where insanity was just another word for survival. It arrived in America with an insatiable lust for power and the means to fulfill it.

It is the 21st century. Convicts are sentenced to asteroids that move in ever-widening solar orbits, timed to return when their terms run out. But a few ambitious administrators discover that small "errors" in velocity can rid them of selected groups altogether: the hardcore violent, the mentally defective, and especially the political dissidents.

It was not long after Halloween when Stephen King received a telephone call from his editor. 'Why don't you do a book about the entire horror phenomenon as you see it? Books, movies, radio, TV, the whole thing.' The result is this unique combination of fantasy and autobiography, of classic horror writing honed to an unforgettable edge by the best-selling master of the genre.

A new volume of exciting stories from 19th- and 20th-century American and British masters and mistresses of the art of story-telling, read by award-winning narrators.

Philip, Zola's boyfriend from 150 years ago, is not nearly as dead as we thought. I really wish he was. Not only has he kidnapped Zola, but he's raising an army to scour humanity from the earth. Hopefully the local werewolf pack will help. What could possibly go wrong?

Hear Patrick Bradley’s modern-day adaptation of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a tale of murder, guilt, and the sounds heard under the floorboards.

Nine brilliantly told and connected stories take place in a post-apocalyptic world sometime in the near future and follow the narrator at different stages of his life, trying to survive in a savage landscape of climate change, plague, larceny, and a new sexual order.

In the spring of 1863, as he faces battle for the first time at Chancellorsville, Virginia, a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.