Showing results by narrator "John Pirhalla" in All Categories

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

To escape political intrigue in the capital, Sir Jared and Mage Madeline D'Abrac settled in a remote barony on the outskirts of the kingdom. Soon after, a baby in a basket appeared on their doorstep under mysterious circumstances. Fearing a connection to dark and powerful magic, they endeavor to raise him into a non-magical life as a warrior.

Vincent Donnelly has faced pain, death, and madness. His past is a haze of fractured memories. A host of restless spirits inhabited his tortured psyche once. He has inherited their powers, their magic. But all he wants is to be free of the nightmares that plague him. Fleeing from the confines of a demonic asylum, Vincent and his allies take refuge in a remote mountain cabin. Lost, wounded, unable to access his supernatural abilities, Vincent struggles to sever the link between himself and the personification of Chaos itself. But it is not so easy to destroy.

High up in the fog-shrouded mountains, a secluded resort has been infested by the ultimate evil. A powerful demonic entity has claimed a teenage girl as its lover. And its tendrils of corruption stretch through the town, infecting the icy ground with its foul taint.

Kanar Reas, an ex-soldier known as the Blackheart, hides a dangerous secret. Exiled from the Realmsguard, he wants nothing to do with the kind of magic that destroyed his life. That is until his team of mercenaries is offered a job they can’t refuse.

Caught in a deadly game of interstellar cat and mouse with a new and vile alien enemy, Captain Galvin Quintos will be forced to make choices no US Space Navy Captain should ever have to make—including who among those he cares most about should live or die. A cosmic storm is coming, one that has already decimated the long-lost crew of USS Lincoln.

It's 2182. Stuck on a dull space station, 17-year-old Loni Solace's heart is failing her, and not just metaphorically. In search of one last thrill, she jumps aboard a freighter to see the galaxy for the first and last time. She expects adventure, but what she gets is a nightmare as crewmates start to disappear, and crazed robots start attacking. Enter Hardy: a combat ChronoBot with a messed-up memory, now Loni's unexpected ally in a system aimed against her. Loni, Hardy, and a few badass crewmates are thrown into high-octane battles and face-offs.

After botching a mission to retrieve a precious artifact from a wealthy, mysterious collector called Octavius Quinn, Hunter, Sukri, and Vi must deal with the consequences. For Hunter’s father has just crossed through the Gate into the world of Varta…and Octavius kidnaps him. Hunted by Octavius’ cronies and with time running out for his father, Hunter must band together with his nemesis Lady Camilla to find and destroy Octavius. If they fail, Hunter’s father will die…and Hunter, and everyone he loves, will join him!

Money is the root of all evil.... Twin brothers dig up a buried treasure, only to discover a chilling secret from their past. A down on his luck loser is confronted with dark moral dilemma that could turn his life around. And a haunted coin seeks revenge on the thieves who stole it. Scare Street is proud to present the best in bone-chilling supernatural horror. This volume contains three spine-tingling tales for your reading pleasure. A treasure trove of fear and horror, locked in a vault of nightmares beyond your imagination.

Michael came to Stone Hill seeking redemption. He found a nightmare instead. When troubled teenager Michael agrees to stay with his grandparents for the summer, joy gives way to panic after he discovers the town has changed beyond recognition. A fanatical church leader named Pastor John is in control and performs bizarre miracles to a captivated congregation. His followers patrol the streets by day. Phantoms roam the woods by night. People vanish without a trace. Michael wants to go home, but now his grandfather has disappeared too.

Paul Mahan escaped the terrifying evil that dwelled in the Rookwood Apartments. But others have not been so lucky. Young Ella Cotter, an innocent child, finds herself tormented by a ghost Paul unwittingly freed when he escaped the building's haunted grounds. As Paul attempts to use hypnosis to separate the child from the tortured entity that clings to her soul, blood runs in the streets.

From the Great Depression to Pearl Harbor, from high school to the combat zone, from boot camp to the end of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan, here are more of the stories that we can’t afford not to hear, from a vanishing generation speaking to America today. World War II brought out the worst in humanity, but it also brought out the best; in these narratives you will draw your own lessons. Here are the stories that a special generation of Americans told us for the future when we took the time to be still, to listen, and to draw strength.

When adventurer Maxwell Barnes and his team uncover clues about a lost gold mine in Mexico's Sonoran desert, they think they've struck fortune's motherlode. But after a treacherous tumble down a rocky hillside, they discover something far more valuable buried beneath: something with unimaginable power.

Commander Anderson Cross can only watch as Kate departs to find something - anything - that can stem the tide of the Xroeshyn holy war before it reaches Earth. His own ship is held together by hasty repairs and good thoughts. He imagines this is the worst moment of the entire war. He has never been more wrong. The aliens are ready to strike at the soft underbelly of the human fleet. The aliens have found the way to Earth. It will take all that Cross and his crew can give to delay the enemy in hopes of Kate’s arrival.

I thought death would be a one-way trip. I was wrong. I thought killing the vampire who bound my soul to an Aztec demon would be the end of it. But instead of saving the thousands of infected wolves he’d the Trust had quarantined, I’d condemned them to a fiery death...and I was not prepared for what I found on the scorched island. In a last-ditch effort to contain an imminent apocalypse, I challenged a demon-possessed former colleague to an infernal duel he could not refuse.

A teenager defends her brother from a ravenous creature that feeds on sick children. Dystopian nightmares drive a man into the wilderness, where he learns that freedom comes with a high price. And a comet passing over the Earth rids the planet of the vermin infesting its surface. Scare Street is proud to present 12 chilling tales of the supernatural, in one monstrous volume. This ghastly collection of short stories is your ticket to the world of dark nightmares and sinister dreams.

Young elf prince Drynn has always lived in the shadow of his athletic and popular elder brother. But, when the bookish boy’s mother dies from a mystery illness and he receives the Queen’s Opal, he’s plagued by visions of the past and a growing power. And, with the gem supposedly cursing those who possess it, he must enter the human realm to hunt down the cure…or become the next to die. Outside the forest, Drynn finds much has changed with the world now ruled by greedy wizards coveting more magic.

Darkness lurks within these terrifying tomes.... An heiress inherits an ancient book, and a terrifying surprise waits within its pages. Knowledge comes with a deadly price, when a librarian’s curiosity traps him in a sinister void. And a horror author is shocked when his bloodthirsty creation seems to take on a life of its own.... Scare Street is proud to present the best in spine-tingling supernatural horror. This volume contains three delightfully dark tales of the macabre, waiting just for you in a diabolical library of the damned. So, take a seat.

In this unsettling novella by Bentley Little, many strange occurrences unsettle the inhabitants of William Tell Circle.

It’s finally time to end the danger. Time to take the war to the aliens. But is it a trap? Captain Anderson Cross and Commander Kate Flynn scored a win. But now it’s time to secure that victory. Naturally, the enemy has a different idea. Cross and Kate know they will be separated again. They know their dreams are on hold until they can find a solution to the aliens’ holy war. Civilians are in danger, and the human forces must make a choice. Do they defend their people, or do they strike at the homeworld of the alien force? Either way, the risks are immense.