Showing results by narrator "Steve Barnes" in All Categories

Cowering in his home, he watches as his neighbors are dragged into the street and brutally executed by a small army of psychotic scavengers hell-bent on making the formerly privileged pay. As they methodically purge each home, Chris realizes that staying was the worst decision of his life. Secrets or not, he has to act fast; the murderous pack only has one more house before they reach his…

After Captain Tolvern and the sentinel battle station fight off a ferocious Apex assault, Admiral Drake sends her into Hroom territory to repair the wounded HMS Blackbeard and collect a fleet of Hroom warships. While Drake probes the deep void searching for the main enemy force, Tolvern and the Hroom spaceyards are assaulted by a massive Apex battleship that intends to harvest Hroom and human alike for its bloody rituals.

Captain James Drake is desperate to clear his name. Pursued relentlessly by the Royal Navy, he takes his loyal crew to attack Admiral Malthorne's estate and seize the evidence that will prove his innocence.

With the alien death fleet destroyed and a temporary truce shattered, Captain Drake and his crew flee from the vengeful Lord Admiral Malthorne who has seized the throne of Albion. When half the fleet joins Drake in rebellion against the usurper, civil war embroils the kingdom.

Narina has barely recovered from the madness that consumed her soul when she is forced to confront the crowlord Damanja, who has risen to mastery on the plains, and now seeks total domination. Even as Narina unites the sword temples against the crowlord, a demon king brings fire from the underworld, while dragon demigods of the mountains bury the land in snow. If Narina doesn't quickly stop the crowlord and lead her fellow sword warriors against these threats, her world will be destroyed by fire and ice.

A desperate alliance of human and Hroom factions gather to defeat Apex, a brutal alien menace who has vowed to exterminate all civilized races from the sector.

When miners discover a strange new artifact in the mines, maiming those who touch it and spawning deadly, shadowlike witherers, the discovery draws the attention of Salvatore, head of the secretive Luminoso cult. Hoarding ancient artifacts and terrorizing the city, the cabalists of the Luminoso temple collect scientific knowledge without understanding it, while watching the skies for heavenly signs, determined to bring about another golden age and crush any who meddle with their sacred prerogatives.

If knowledge is power, then what's a secret? A year after thwarting the Kabbahl's attempt to restore shadow magic, the impetuous Marcus Fith, denied the opportunity to help his family search for his sister, decides to take matters into his own hands. When the only meaningful clue his family has seen mysteriously shows up - a letter addressed to him... written in his own blood - Marcus escapes in order to work out the set of expiring instructions that promise to lead him to his sister. Promises are slippery things, however.

The original Codex stories appeared in The Crimson Pact anthologies as The Transition and The Merging. These stories are connected to each other, and to Failed Crusade at their roots, but occur many years later. They follow an unsuspecting foreign exchange student named Sloan Boyle. A seemingly innocent interaction with a stranger in a Spanish Cafe leads to a dangerous series of events, and a weighty discovery that threatens everything Sloan ever knew about this world and his role in it.

The most magical place in the world is about to be destroyed forever. Vagabond Circus is in danger. Its ringmaster knows it. The performers know it. And the one person who can save the circus knows it. There are no smoke and mirrors in this show. No nets or wires. The magic is real. And so is the murderer who lurks somewhere under the big top. The ringmaster and the crew must work together to discover who is trying to ruin the place they love more than any other. Full of mystery and intrigue, this circus will transport listeners to another place.

Parenting is one of the most stressful fulltime jobs around. School, lessons, sports, homework, hormones, dinner, dishes...Parents want to know how to be calm and enjoy these wonder years. Dr. Ben Bernstein, celebrated performance coach for CEOs, professional athletes, and musicians, takes on parents this time around in his book Stressed Out! For Parents.

When a brutal threat takes over Vagabond Circus, everyone seeks refuge away from the big top. Finley knows he has to protect the circus he’s grown to love - and its people. But to do that he’ll have to further scar his soul. Jack is relentless to take back what was stolen from him, but in the process he becomes someone he never expected. And this acrobat, who once stole the hearts of millions, accidentally steals a heart he didn’t expect.

Who will save the circus? When the worst case scenario befalls the Vagabond Circus, Zuma knows she must ensure it doesn’t fall to doom. Titus’s job is to guarantee the show goes on, while the acrobats seek to avenge and rescue. Jack has no idea that he’s about to levitate himself into a deadly situation, and only Zuma and Finley can save him from a threat unlike what most have ever encountered.

When an ancient artifact kills the head of the Luminoso cult and descends into the Rift on a trail of fire, it falls upon Lord Carbón, his chancellor, and a sympathetic cultist to decipher the object before it returns to destroy the city of Quintana. Unfortunately, the treacherous Naila Roja, fresh off a murderous ascent to the top of the Luminoso, wishes only to force Quintana to bend a knee and acknowledge her as its ruler. She is blind to the dangers and possibilities of the artifact, and on the hunt for secrets hidden in the vaults of the Luminoso temple.

Inspired by the rising chaos in Sheng Fan, Xu Liang, mystic and officer of the Imperial Court, leaves his homeland for the barbarian outer lands in search of four magical blades to unite with two sacred weapons already in the possession of the Empire. His plan is to bring all of the blades together and return them to Sheng Fan's Empress as a symbol of unity that will bolster the people’s faith in the Imperial family and assist against the surge of dark forces. Complicating his plan is not the finding of the blades, but finding them with bearers.

As a young man, Cedric discovers a terrifying defect in his nature. He has no blood loyalty, which means he can defy his king - something that has never happened in recorded history. But what begins as a flaw evolves into a strength. Citizens begin to listen to Cedric, and he discovers that if he leads, others will follow. But there's a catch. The more who follow him, the more famous he becomes. And the more famous he becomes, the more targets he finds pinned to his back.

When a threat so brutal it has the force to rip the magic right out of the world takes over Vagabond Circus, everyone seeks refuge away from the big top. Finley knows he has to protect the circus he's grown to love and its people. But to do that he'll have to further scar his soul. Jack is relentless to take back what was stolen from him, but in the process he becomes someone he never expected. And this acrobat, who once stole the hearts of millions, accidentally steals a heart he didn't expect.

When the worst case scenario befalls the Vagabond Circus, Zuma knows she must ensure it doesn't fall to doom. Titus's job is to guarantee the show goes on, while the acrobats seek to avenge and rescue. Jack has no idea that he's about to levitate himself into a deadly situation, and only Zuma and Finley can save him from a threat unlike what most have ever encountered.

Captain Li Wing Hua has been a prisoner of an alien race for nearly four years, freed at last after the war. So when he's finally made captain of another space ship, he's eager to return to space. But when he discovers an observation outpost wrecked and the crew tortured to death, Hua has reason to suspect the same alien race that tortured and held him captive those four long years. But can he unravel the mystery before it causes an interstellar incident?

Killing a man in the heat of the moment, violating a sacred peace among the criminals of Ralon's Bend, a young thief called Joren sets off a chain of events he could never have imagined. He gets banished from his home, caught up in the political intrigue of nations, and wanders the world with his friend, Mattal, the only witness to Joren's crime, trying to fix the mess he caused.