Showing results by narrator "John Pirhalla" in All Categories

Battle rages between the dinosaur kingdoms of Cretacea. When the Fallen Star struck, it brought death and despair, ash and toxic rain. But some dinosaurs survived . . . and were changed. Their minds grew alert. They learned to speak. To dream. To wage war. As the two remaining dinosaur kingdoms fight for territory, Eleri, the disgraced son of a prince, is exiled from his home for saving an enemy soldier. Banished to the merciless Deadlands, a terrifying desert full of tar pits, poisonous gas, and ruthless carnivores, he must join forces with a group of questionable allies.

CHICAGO, SOMETIME— Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

Being a supernatural assassin and bounty hunter had its perks...until the Trust’s bloody assignments made me question everything. When I found my sister lying in a coma, I became a mercenary, killing vampires to pay her hospital bills and searching desperately for a cure. When my handler offers me a job that could clear my debts and give me answers about what really happened to Cat, I’m all in.

He and his father have fought their way out of the Abyssinian Plains and returned home stronger than before, but Aster Fall is never peaceful for long, and the tiny village of Cliff’s End is no longer a place they can live.

From the deserts of North Africa to the mountains of Italy, 15men and women veterans of the Italian campaign open up about a war that was so brutal, news of it was downplayed at home. Here are the stories from a vanishing generation speaking to America today. The war in the Mediterranean, and particularly the Italian Campaign, is one that for many Americans is shrouded in mystery and murkiness. Yet it was here that the United States launched its first offensive in the west on enemy soil.

Gideon Wolf’s world has turned not only upside down but inside out. In just a few days, the capricious hand of fate has flung Gideon from the status of celebrated archaeologist to wanted murderer. The US government, the Mexican cartels, and even a shadowy team of assassins are hunting him. All because he discovered some ancient amulet in a hidden jungle temple. All because he killed the drug lord who murdered his wife to force him to look for it. All because that amulet now transforms Gideon into El Chupacabra—part man, part monster, part ancient guardian sent to protect humanity.

Beneath the light of three moons, the world of Aster Fall lies shattered. Classes are broken, Outsiders are invading, and the future is unknown. The ancient guardians have left and no one knows where they have gone. The fate of the world lies with one young man. Sam Hastern. His family has been cursed by a broken class for the last fifty years. No one has ever managed to level it, condemning them to the lowest paying jobs and life in a barren village.

After an unstoppable ascent through the Tower of Champions, Xavier has cemented his place as the True Progenitor of Earth by attaining the top leaderboard records on floor after floor. Now he finds himself on the fifth floor, defending Queen Alastea and her castle from the infinite waves of the Endless Horde. They say the Endless Horde can't be stopped—but Xavier has always been bad at listening.

The fourth installment in the Music and Murder Mystery series, edited by Don Bruns, Bat Out of Hell is a nonstop thrill ride of engrossing mysteries from some of the best authors in the business. An anthology unlike any other, this collection includes a brand-new Jack Reacher story from Andrew Child, a never-before-seen Pignon Scorbion prequel from Rick Bleiweiss, as well as exciting new mysteries from Heather Graham, Don Bruns, John Gilstrap, Dave Bruns, C. J. Kudlacz, and Charles Todd.

In the small town of Montgomery, Arizona, Kyle Decker's book shop is barely breaking even. When a bank opens in the empty storefront next door, he hopes the new establishment will bring in more foot traffic. Trouble is, nobody has ever heard of the First People's Bank, and the local branch has appeared mysteriously overnight. Their incentives for new customers seem reasonable...at first. But is it a coincidence when Kyle's wife has her identity stolen and his son receives emails that seem to know his private thoughts? Or when the manager of a competing bank dies a gruesome death?

They called it the Event. The Event changed everything. The earthquakes came first, including the Big One, shattering the Pacific Rim and plunging the world into chaos. Then, the seas came, the skies opened, and the never-ending rain began. But as bad as that was, there is something worse.

Searching the battlefield after a major battle, Sgt. Eli finds a dead Union Army messenger. In the messenger's bag is a message saying the South had surrendered, the war was over. Along with the Union Messenger was a dead Union Captain carrying his discharge papers, and 8,000 dollars. Sgt. Eli decides now is a good time to seek other opportunities, away from the stink of war. While buying supplies from his friend the quartermaster, he is advised to go to St. Louis. Those opportunities may lie there and a crowd to get lost in.

In volume eight of the Things Our Fathers Saw® series, you will return to the Pacific with our veterans as they recall the chaos in the aftermath at Pearl Harbor, the first challenges on land at Guadalcanal, island-hopping with the Marines, Navy, and Army at the Marshalls, Marianas, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. You will witness the most horrific bonzai charges of the war, accompany airmen on their B-29 missions over Japan, and lean over Navy corpsmen as they work to save the wounded.

Volume six of The Things Our Fathers Saw World War II oral history series. In The Bulge and Beyond, you will be with the soldiers going into the heart of the bloodiest single battle fought by the US Army in American history, the so-called "Battle of the Bulge". You will be with them as they feel the sense the fear of the unknown, the crush of impending doom, the scale of being amongst the columns of young, tired men slogging into a forest, medieval and dark, with the complete inability to ever get warm again.19,000 American GIs never saw their mothers again.

Venture into the shadows of Anger, New Hampshire, where a teenager with a unique ability fights a war hidden from the naked eye. This anthology features Jimmy Hsu’s chilling encounters with entities beyond the grasp of ordinary men. Join Jimmy as he races against time to save his friend from a vengeful spirit, comes face to face with the horrors of a haunted pet cemetery, and confronts the undead in an abandoned neighborhood.

In his introduction, guest editor S. A. Cosby observes that writing short stories is “a special skill that combines brevity with wit and cleverness and the hint of the existential malaise that imbues crime fiction with its gravitas.” The stories in this collection overflow with gravitas in the most unexpected ways: a cryptic note left on a windshield, a murder for hire meets a game of Mouse Trap, a swipe right on a dating app goes horribly wrong.

We’ve come a long way since the days of Wholesome Grandpa streaming. Transitioning from those blissful, quiet nights, Artorian finds himself in a heap of trouble, turmoil, and change. Plus that tiny detail which involves a burning need to Incarnate, while the Heavenly of Copyright chases him with a rolled up newspaper.

With those three words, The Master, leader of the Kuiper Knights, unleashed a horrific terror attack on the United Nations of Terra that united the entire planet against them. Major Abner Fortis takes command of Second Battalion of the First Regiment of the newly reconstituted Second ISMC Division and joins the force deployed to the Free Sector to mete out punishment to the evildoers.

Since the dawn of civilization, a hidden hand has gripped mankind. Operating in darkness with limitless wealth and power, this ancient Shadow Caste has controlled every major event in human history - mass migrations, revolutions, plagues, even two world wars. But now these ancient “caretakers” want to change the global experiment. Civilization is too successful, they believe, and our overpopulation threatens the existence of all life on earth.

Without the threat of the Witch’s bloody harvest, the family elders have fallen into chaos. Internal squabbling has left them blind to this new enemy in their midst. Local legends have barely begun to fade when a group of tourists go missing. Some say the Witch has returned. But Basheba, Mina, and the others believe it could be something even worse. As the survivors dig deeper, they discover that one of their own may have been corrupted by an ancient evil - a power greater than anything they have faced before. But is the Bell Witch behind all this?