Showing results by narrator "John Banks" in All Categories

Ha-Sypt has been driven back. A new king is crowned in Baegard. Yet the fight for Enea has only just begun. With Prince Alabastor by her side, Aelthena heads east to liberate Oakharrow, her home. Yet the Jotun still claims the city, and he will not easily yield it. To win this battle, Aelthena and her allies will have to bring all their wit and courage to bear. Bjorn’s path also leads him to Oakharrow. Following the visions of an ancient king, he seeks an alliance with his foes. But prophecies are fickle things. For even a hope of success, Bjorn must risk bringing ruin to all the lands.

On the world of Solennes, the battle between the forces of the Imperium and the heretics has become a stalemate of seemingly eternal artillery bombardments. The land is devastated, and the attempts to gain ground by either side end in disaster. Morale is low, and when Trooper Arehn is caught apparently fleeing the front lines, Commissar Selander does not hesitate in condemning him to a very public execution. When Selander starts to see Arehn after his death, he follows the apparition, wracked by doubts - but what will he find?

Though he knows such beliefs are forbidden, Vice-Caesari Marcus Valerius of the Therion Cohort is willing to lay down his life in service to the immortal God-Emperor, for the good of all mankind. Sent by Corax to the great slaughter at Beta-Garmon, every last one of the Imperial Army soldiers under his command knows that the end is nigh - but can Valerius' holy visions guide them to one final victory over the hordes of the hated Arch-traitor?

Darujhistan, city of dreams, city of blue flames, is peaceful at last; its citizens free to return to politicking, bickering, trading and, above all, enjoying the good things in life. Yet there are those who will not allow the past to remain buried. A scholar digging in the plains stumbles across an ancient sealed vault. The merchant Humble Measure schemes to drive out the remaining Malazan invaders. And the surviving agents of a long-lost power are stirring, for they sense change and so, opportunity.

After a bloody triumph at the siege of Cartha, Lord-Relictor Ramus' Hallowed Knights and the Astral Templars of Knight-Azyros Vandalus press on with their search for Mannfred von Carstein, but they soon learn that orruks, not ogors, hold sway in the Carthic Oldwoods. The Stormcast Eternals must overcome not only these brutish warriors but also the will of their gods. Ramus and Vandalus must prevail against the fist of Gork and the fist of Mork if they are to forge a path to the Sea of Bones, where their hated quarry awaits.

Whilst on a murder-mystery evening in deepest darkest Northumberland, Poe manages to annoy everyone whilst simultaneously solving a mystery - what happened to a five-carat red diamond called the Red Moon of Coonowrin.

Amongst the Space Wolves, the name of Lukas the Trickster is as much a curse as anything in the old tongues of Fenris. Named Jackalwolf by his masters, none of whom wish his dubious fealty, he now plays a dangerous game with the hordes of orks massing on Polix Tertius. Risking the ire of Wolf Lord Kjarl Grimblood as well as the blades of his xenos foes, he turns his attentions to the planetary vox-communications network and begins to broadcast....

On Delephron, an immense mag-train hurtles through desert. Within its metal confines there lies a hidden message, one that could bring the Raven Guard into such ill repute it would risk its very survival. Only the Shadowmasters, the finest of the Chapter’s elite, have the skill to infiltrate the high-speeding mag-lev and extract the message before their presence is known. But dark forces stir against them, servants of the Plague God intent on their own fell purpose. And who is the Inquisitor Bledheim, and what could he possibly know to inflict such a deadly blow to the sons of Corax?

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. But war is waged in many ways. From the dark places where 10,000-year-old psychic warriors interrogate living machines from a time before man, to a treacherous assassination plot that could bring an end to a centuries-old legacy of honour, to relic hunters who want to wrest secrets from a plague-ridden traitor or cross swords with a sinister Chaplain of the Dark Angels.

Before the Warmaster's betrayal, the primarchs and their Legions were a warrior brotherhood without equal. At Calth, a planetary jewel in Ultramar's crown, a great mustering is taking place. Two proud Legions gather in hopes of healing the discord after the notorious shaming of the Word Bearers at Monarchia. Captain Alcaeus of the Ultramarines plans on joining the muster but will not rest until the remnants of the Ghaslakh Empire are purged utterly from the galaxy, For honour and glory, he has sworn an oath to succeed.

Though the Word Bearers' attack on Calth and the subsequent Shadow Crusade into Ultramar are but a memory, the borders of Imperium Secundus are far from secure. Sergeant Aeonid Thiel, stranded on the garrison world of Oran on his way back to Macragge, frustrates his superiors once again by pointing out the holes in their defence - traitor warband activity is increasing, and a series of key listening posts have fallen silent.

Charles Hayden has been fascinated by a strange Victorian fairy tale, In the Night Wood, since he was a child. When his wife, Erin - a descendant of the author - inherits her ancestor’s house, the couple decide to make it their home. Still mourning the recent death of their daughter, they leave America behind, seeking a new beginning in the English countryside. But Hollow House, filled with secrets and surrounded by an ancient oak forest, is a place where the past seems very much alive....

A warrior of the Stormcast Eternals returns to the place of her birth, long before she was reforged as a celestial hero. Only by coming to terms with her past can she save her home for the future. A Stormcast Eternal returning to her human life is a fascinating thing, and this drama explores how much she has changed and grown across her lives - and what may be diminished within her as well.

Three great heroes - Hamilcar Bear-eater, Neferata and Prince Maesa - each face very personal trials that could see them fall into darkness in these three tales that beautifully evoke bitter melancholy - as well as provide audio action. The gods are at war. As the Mortal Realms plunge into darkness and despair, there are an ambitious few who seek to turn these fortunes in their favour. Within the nightmarish, labyrinthine halls of Shadespire, a famed Lord-Castellant must escape the Mirrored City to cement his legend forever.

The Red Sunz Meks are back! Uggrim, Snikgob, Bozgat, Talker the Madboy and Frikk the grot return. Their space hulk knocked out of the sky following the Great Rift, the boyz have fallen on hard times. Stranded on yet another backwater world, they are locked in an endless series of skirmishes over diminishing supplies with rival Mek Grimgutz. When Fat Mork is beset by an invasion of snotlings and attacked by ork Wildboyz and Talker the Madboy goes a bit nuts, the boyz reckon a Waaagh is coming. Uggrim and his mekboys set out to join it.

After a gruelling journey, the warriors of the Hallowed Knights and Astral Templars have found their quarry in the Sea of Bones. During the hunt, Mannfred the vampire lord has raised a mighty undead host to protect the realmgate he has claimed. While Ramus of the Hallowed Knights seeks the vampire's head and Vandalus of the Astral Templars wants to reclaim the realmgate, both must fight as one and alongside their orruk allies if they are to triumph.

The return of the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard, could not have come at a worse time for a Malazan Empire exhausted by warfare and weakened by betrayals and rivalries. Indeed, there are those who wonder whether the Empress Laseen might not be losing her grip on power as she faces increasing unrest as conquered kingdoms and principalities sense freedom once more.

Dead Man's Fingers sees Poe, Tilly and Edgar, Poe's English springer spaniel, enjoying a picnic at a nature reserve. When Edgar chases a rabbit, and Poe and Tilly chase after Edgar, they stumble upon a twenty-year-old mystery, a mystery that couldn't be solved until now.

The small island of Malaz and its city gave the great empire its name, but now it is little more than a sleepy, backwater port. Tonight, however, things are different. Tonight the city is on edge, a hive of hurried, sometimes violent activity; its citizens bustle about, barring doors, shuttering windows, avoiding any stranger's stare. Because tonight there is to be a convergence, the once-in-a-generation appearance of a Shadow Moon - an occasion that threatens the good people of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker things....

Mondo Bizzarro sees Tilly drag Poe to Durham to meet her favourite fantasy author, Aldridge Fowler, but when they arrive, he's already dead - killed by his own hand. Despite the overwhelming evidence though, Poe suspects the bookshop staff might be hiding a terrible secret.