Showing results by narrator "Mike Vendetti" in All Categories

Written as a sequel to Second Variety, this is an exciting and thought-provoking view into a different world than the one left in "Second Variety". We have a fascination with time travel. But what could go wrong? Give this a listen, and see what you think.

A child goes into the garage and finds his father talking to himself. No, really talking to himself, as in two identical people. The boy; however, can sense the "thing" from his father. And then the thing comes to the dinner table...

"Time Pawn" is a novelette by Philip K. Dick published in Thrilling Wonder Stories. Vol. 44, no. 1, summer 1954. Travel with award-winning audiobook narrator, Mike Vendetti, and Dr. Parsons to our world in the distant future where everyone and everything is perfect. But wait; there's more!

Charming and thought-provoking, this short story from American master of science fiction Ray Bradbury and narrated by Mike Vendetti follows the misadventures of a group of elderly women who have poured their life savings into a final trip to an outer-space paradise, only to find out that the promised journey doesn't pan out quite the way they expected it to.

Kurt Vonnegut creates a near-perfect world. There are no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, and no wars. All diseases were conquered. So is old age. Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers. The population of the United States is stabilized at forty-million souls. Have a problem? Not really, just call the Federal Bureau of Termination. Nothing to it. Just pick up the phone and call 2BR02B. Thus the title, "To be or not to be".

"Youth" is a surprisingly complex short tale, with a deep core of thought-provoking reasoning. What is our motivation? Where is our growth? What do we consider valuable? These questions and more are brought to light in this story by Isaac Asimov. Youth is one of the rare Asimov stories with alien characters.

Imagine being trapped in the millisecond between the past and the future. All Dave Miller wanted to do was commit suicide in peace, but here he was. Trapped.

Communication is the key to getting along. Space travel makes communication with alien races imperative, but before the language problem could be resolved the war started. A highly intelligent cat-like race able to communicate telepathically is discovered that offers to help. But wait how can you trust an alien or anyone that can hear your thoughts?

Back from his final deployment with the US Marines, Alan Carson is hiking across New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness to ponder his future and put the war in his past. When his best friend and squad leader, Sergeant Kurt Timms, took a Taliban bullet because of bad intel, Alan made a promise to his dying friend. He would come here to see the rugged mountains that were Kurt’s boyhood stomping grounds. But deep in a trackless canyon, miles from any trail, Alan finds something else: the body of a dead man at the foot of a cliff, an ancient cave…and a passageway too intriguing to ignore.

A cat walking across a room swerves suddenly and walks carefully around something we can't see. We shrug, smile, and remark that cats are always doing that. Our hitherto amiable dog suddenly develops the irritating habit of barking and growling violently at certain innocent passersby. We still shrug, wonder what's got into the mutt, and pass it off. Mr. Dick argues with frightening urgency that if we are wise, we wilt immediately investigate these oddities of animal behavior.

Audiobook narrators Mike Vendetti and Kathy Verduin bring Hemingway's classic masterpiece "The Sun Also Rises" to life. Travel with them through pre-WWII Europe as Hemingway explores the dysfunctional relationship of friends drawn together by a beautiful, troubled, and often confused woman, plus the drama and excitement of the bullfights.

A chilling ghost story by Lord Dunsany, a.k.a. Edward Plunkett, resolves itself thusly: If two straight lines cut one another, the opposite angles are equal. Let AB and CD cut one another at E. Then the angles CEA and CEB equal two right angles (prop. xiii.). Also, CEA and AED equal two right angles, proving that ghosts don't exist.

Like many of Stevenson's tales, Markheim is a chilling examination of good and evil that resists easy moralizing.

Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour is a classic example that some short stories can say all they need to do in just a short time. This story remains tantalizingly ambiguous, perhaps because so little is said, and so much merely hinted at.

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense...Now that Eric Branson and his small militia have a much better idea of what they’re up against, it’s time to go on the offensive and take the fight to the enemy. The first mission involves the rescue of the friends he and Jonathan met on the upper Atchafalaya River. But Eric Branson won’t ignore the opportunity to strike hard at the heart of the operation that is bringing so much fear and disruption to the residents of the region.

What is worse: capital punishment or life in prison? You be the Judge.

The story is about a 25-year-old Harvard student who follows a "clean" life. He marries a 40-year-old clean Southern woman and the two try very hard to have a baby. Eventually, both become disenchanted with each other, and the wife's girlfriend moves in to live with her.

"Three-Day Blow'' is a short story that became a chapter from In Our Time. Jake (Hemingway's alter ego) hikes to his friend Bill's house where they spend the morning talking and drinking. The conversation is mostly chit-chat until the liquor loosens them up enough to discuss Jakes's breakup with Marjorie.

As I listened to this, I couldn't help but compare Buggs and Ad to George and Lennie in Steinbeck's Mice and Men. Buggs protects Ad as George protected Lennie. Ad, though diminutive in size, as a former professional boxer could be as dangerous as Lennie when he had a crazy spell. Hemmingway portrays Buggs as the true leader of the group, highly intelligent, articulate, and gentle to his companion Ad while leading Ad to believe he is in charge.

Days have turned into weeks with no contact from anyone outside of North America, where the power, communication, and transportation grid has been completely destroyed by massive solar flares. In the ensuing chaos, grocery store shelves have been stripped bare and panicked survivors have fled the cities and towns, sweeping across the countryside in a desperate attempt to find sustenance and avoid the violence.