Showing results by narrator "Peter Kenny" in All Categories

Carlos is dead. A soldier who died for his ideals a thousand years ago, he's been reincarnated and conscripted to fight an A.I. revolution in deep space. And he's not sure he's fighting for the right side. Seba is alive. By a fluke of nature, a contractual overlap, and a loop in its subroutines, this lunar mining robot has gained sentience. Gathering with other "freeboots", Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone.

Tobias Smollett, in his creation of the Scot Roderick Random, exposes the sheer incompetence and injustice of the Royal Navy, as well as the snobbery and hypocrisy prevalent in English middle-class society at the time. Set in the mid-18th century, this picaresque novel follows the life and adventures of Roderick, the eponymous hero who has been shunned by his gentleman father's family on the basis of the lowliness of his mother's family.

It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach. Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God, and illegal substances.…

His name is Parmenion. Despised by Spartans and Macedonians alike, he must fight for his place in the world. Yet he will survive. Dark forces have marked out his destiny as the most fearsome warlord Greece has ever known. For he will become the Lion of Macedon - and will reshape the glory of Greece before he faces the wrath of hell....

Siv and the others may have escaped Ekaran IV on the Outworld Ranger, but now they’re on the run with two governments, several criminal organizations, and a host of bounty hunters in pursuit. If they want to protect Oona, the young hyperphasic messiah, they need allies, resources, and information. The girl’s father, Ambassador Vim, could provide those things. The problem: he’s missing. He was last seen on a planet named Titus II. And all the groups hunting them know it.

Reynevan begins by hiding away in Bohemia but soon leaves for Silesia, where he carries out dangerous secret missions entrusted to him by the leaders of the Hussite religion. At the same time, he strives to avenge the death of his brother and discover the whereabouts of his beloved. Once again pursued by multiple enemies, Reynevan is constantly getting into and out of trouble.

When renowned archeologist Gav Gendin discovers the wreck of an Ancient starship, with a stasis pod and a still living member of the extinct aliens inside, it should be the greatest triumph of his career. Instead, it ends in disaster and leads to his son, Siv, being placed in cryogenic sleep. A century later, Siv Gendin wakes to a world in decline, a world where you do what you must to survive. With the help of a snarky, sentient AI companion named Silky, Siv becomes a top procurement specialist.

Kingdoms are at war and young wizards Eynon and Merry are thrust into a complex web of conflicts, conspiracies, and long-hidden secrets as they learn more about the true threats facing Dâron, including an invasion by 500 dragonships from the northern kingdom of Bifurland.

From the marble city of Sanc Aldet, to the dark woods of the Dullwilds, to the dragon-filled continent of Drakon, Jelly has become a rather well-traveled Ooze. However, he is about to go on the biggest trip of his life when the X-ranked adventurer Jeris Cowl takes the young Royal Ooze for special training far away in the mystical planes of the Aether, a land beyond mortality, where the Heavens and Hells clash and eldritch entities of primordial energy reign as gods over entire universes.

Silky, Siv, and Mitsuki are now willing to do whatever it takes to find and rescue Ambassador Galen Vim. But government agents, criminal organizations, and bounty hunters swarm the Titus II system. Getting to the planet alive may be the easiest part of this mission since no one has seen the ambassador since he was captured by Tekk Reapers.

After a summer of adventure, Socks must return to Father to make an accounting of himself. It's time to justify what he's been up to and demonstrate that he remains the predator he was born to be. Failure to meet expectations could easily mean death. Meanwhile, Dirt continues to receive special tutoring from the trees, which comes with its own set of dangers. They're teaching him to speak with beings who dwell beyond perception, hopefully without accidentally getting himself killed. It's proving to be no easy task.

It is the place where fortunes can be made and lost though chess, backgammon - every game under the sun. But those whom fortune favours may be invited to compete in the higher league...where the games played are of politics and nations, of economics and kings. It is a contest where Capture the Castle involves real castles and where hide and seek takes place on the scale of a continent. Among those worthy of competing in the higher league, three unusually talented contestants play for the highest stakes of all....

In the late 20th century, the streets of Paris are lined with haunted ruins. The Great Magicians' War left a trail of devastation in its wake. The grands magasins have been reduced to piles of debris, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine has turned black with ashes and rubble and the remnants of the spells that tore the city apart. But those that survived still retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and the great houses still vie for dominion over France's once-grand capital.

Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life. Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him.

The enemy is out in the open. The Reaction has seized control of a resource - rich moon. Now it's enslaving conscious robots - and luring the Corporations into lucrative deals. Taransay is out in the jungle. Her friends are inside a smart boulder on the slope of an active volcano. The planet is super-habitable - for its own life, not hers. But soon the alien infestation growing on her robot body is the least of her problems.

The Outworld Ranger crew has dodged government forces, criminal guilds, and bounty hunters numerous times since fleeing Ekaran IV. But with the warships of the Dark Messiah closing in on them, their mission has never been in greater jeopardy. Cornered, their options and allies are few. And the Outworld Ranger suffered extensive damage getting them this far.

A best seller in the UK and a memoir every bit as warm and welcoming as a visit to your very favorite bookstore. Inside a stone-faced Georgian townhouse on the Wigtown highroad, jammed with more than 100,000 books and one portly shop cat, Shaun Bythell manages the ups and downs of Scotland's largest used bookshop with a sharp eye and even sharper wit.

This groundbreaking new collection addresses the burning issue of how we interpret history today. What stories are told, and by whom, who should be celebrated, and what rewritten, are questions that have been asked recently not just within the history world, but by all of us. Featuring a diverse mix of writers, both bestselling names and emerging voices, this is the history book we need NOW.

The first ever collection of Iain Banks's short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks's staggering talent.

Reynevan is besieged on all sides and faces torture and execution if he makes any mistake in his quest to find his beloved, Jutta of Apolda. Aided by his companions—the ever-pragmatic Scharley and the mysterious being known as Samson Honeypot—his journey takes him all over the Bohemian realm. And Reynevan will need every ounce of his wit, intelligence and cunning if he is to succeed in his search. The political and religious alliances of the Hussite Wars are ever shifting, and the battle for dominance threatens to devour anyone who gets in their way.