Showing results by narrator "Alex Boyles" in All Categories

Massively damaged in Aliens and Alien 3, the synthetic Bishop asked to be shut down forever. His creator, Michael Bishop, has other plans. He seeks the Xenomorph knowledge stored in the android’s mind and brings Bishop back to life—but for what reason? No longer an employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Michael tells his creation that he seeks to advance medical research for the benefit of humanity. Yet where does he get the resources needed to advance his work. With whom do his new allegiances lie?

The most wanted man in the West, Big Bob McGraw has earned his reputation as a thief and killer. Carson Stone rode with McGraw’s gang exactly once, minding their horses during a bank robbery, before quitting. But with the marshal of El Paso, Texas, gunned down in cold blood as the bandits escaped, he’s been judged guilty by association. To clear his name, Carson teams up with bounty hunter Colby Tate to track down the outlaws—now scattered across the frontier—and bring them to justice.

Today’s technology has overtaken religion as the chief influence on twenty-first century life and community. In Tech Agnostic, Harvard and MIT’s influential humanist chaplain Greg Epstein explores what it means to be a critical thinker with respect to this new faith. Encouraging listeners to reassert their common humanity beyond the seductive sheen of “tech,” this book argues for tech agnosticism—not worship—as a way of life.

As Lieutenant Rory Nance lay dying after the battle of Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, Captain Josh Logan gave his word to his best friend. Now, two years later, deep in the Comancheria, Josh Logan rides to accomplish his dying friend’s request. As he rides through the rolling, West Texas hills, blood-thirsty Comanches could wait in the next ravine or around the next hill. Yet, he is determined to fulfill his promise.

Presley Windsor is preparing for the new season of American Ninja Champions, leaving her zero time for anything as frivolous as a boyfriend. When someone posts a picture of her trying on a diamond ring with a mystery man, they assume she’s getting engaged. Instead of telling the public it was all a misunderstanding, Presley’s publicist decides this is the perfect launch for her career. Things escalate quickly, and the network wants to reveal her fiancé on national TV, leaving Presley scrambling to find someone to play the role long enough for the special to air.

When it comes to reducing animal suffering, many people aren’t sure where to start or which options are most beneficial. Charitable donations? Volunteer work? Dining at vegan restaurants? Meatless Mondays? The truth is that you have far more power than you think to make a real difference. Inspired by the effective altruism movement, The Impactful Vegan teaches listeners how to audit their impact and follow methods that have been scrutinized, evaluated, and determined to do the most good for animals.

A deeply human story, Fentanyl, Inc. is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it.

Depending on which doctor you speak with or which websites you read, cannabis could be an appealing, low-risk medicine—even an aid to wellness—or an insidiously addictive drug rotting the brains of our youth. This dissonance confuses young people, distressed patients, and paralyzes politicians, all while inviting dubious sources of information and resulting in uninformed choices, enhanced polarization, and a fragmented national policy.

It’s 2336, and the future needs heroes! They must reach back in time to find them. What if they come for you? In 2336 there is no war, no pollution, no disease, no crime—but utopia has a price.

Paper Belt on Fire is the unlikely account of how two outsiders with no experience in finance—a charter school principal and defrocked philosopher—start a venture capital fund to short the higher education bubble. Against the contempt of the education establishment, they discover, mentor, and back the leading lights in the next generation of dropout innovators and in the end make their investors millions. Can such a madcap strategy help renew American creativity? This story is the behind-the-scenes romp of one team that threw educational authorities into a panic.

In Nebula Award-winning author Sam J. Miller’s devastating debut short-fiction collection—featuring an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar—queer infatuation, inevitable heartbreak, and brutal revenge seamlessly intertwine. Whether innocent, guilty, or not even human, the boys, beasts, and men roaming through Miller’s gorgeously crafted worlds can destroy listeners, yet leave them wanting more.

A Civil War soldier survives his battlefield wounds...but a final head shot erases his memory and leaves him comatose. After surviving the bloodiest war in US history, will it be peacetime that finally kills him? Henry Remington awakes from a six-month coma with a Medal of Honor pinned to his pillow, but no recollection of how he got there. When two fellow soldiers insist he saved them and want to repay the favor, Hank accepts their offer of a job on a Texas ranch, and embarks on a ship bound for Galveston.

We’re constantly seeking answers to these fundamental human questions, and now, science has the answers. The foods we enjoy, the people we love, the emotions we feel, and the beliefs we hold can all be traced back to our DNA, germs, and environment. This witty, colloquial book is popular science at its best, describing in everyday language how genetics, epigenetics, microbiology, and psychology work together to influence our personality and actions.

The pregnancy’s over and the baby’s here…what’s a dad supposed to do? Put your other new dad books away - We’re Parents! is going to help you be the best dad (and partner) you can be. Wondering how to burp your newborn? Not sure how to get them to try solids? Desperate to get them to sleep? Adrian Kulp (a four-time dad himself) offers fast, fun, and easy-to-digest advice that other new dad books don’t, making it simple for you to step up and do your part as a brand-new dad.

Unraveling the mysteries of insurance markets, Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein, and Ray Fisman explore such issues as why insurers want to know so much about us and whether we should let them obtain this information; why insurance entrepreneurs often fail (and some tricks that may help them succeed); and whether we’d be better off with government-mandated health insurance instead of letting businesses, customers, and markets decide who gets coverage and at what price.

Instead of “what if the South won the Civil War?” cosmologists ask, “what if the constants that make up the fundamental building blocks of physics were different?” Physicists argue that any slight change to the laws of physics would mean a disruption in the evolution of the universe - and our existence. With the many factors that had to align for us to exist, it can seem like the laws of physics might seem finely tuned to make our existence possible. Instead of a supernatural or divine explanation, this book explores the possibility is that our universe isn’t the only one.

In science fiction, artificial intelligence takes the shape of computers that can speak like people, think for themselves, and sometimes act against us. Reality of course is vastly different, though in many ways computers surpass their fictional counterparts. This book reviews work in the field and covers topics from chess-playing to quantum computing. The writers tackle how to make computers more powerful, how we define consciousness, what the hard problems are, and even how computers might be built once the limits of silicon chips have been reached.

On May 19, 1942, during World War II, a German submarine, a U-boat, in the Gulf of Mexico stalked its prey 50 miles from New Orleans. The submarine set its sights on the freighter Heredia. Most onboard were merchant seamen, but there were also civilians, including the Downs family: Ray and Ina and their two children. Fast asleep in their berths, the Downs family had no idea that two torpedoes were heading their way. When the ship exploded, chaos ensued - and each family member had to find their own path to survival.

Ride the Cherokee Trail with Callum, three years after a bloody war that divided state against state, town against town, and brother against brother, as he attempts to guide his family from their ravaged horse farm back east to the waiting ranch in Colorado. Accompany him as he battles corrupt officials in Tennessee, greedy thieves in Arkansas, and Indians and bandits on the Great Plains. Will he fulfill his mission to bring his loved ones safely to their new home, nestled in the shadows of the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado?

Russ Griffin has always wanted to be a fantastic medium. Growing up in the town of St. Hilaire, where most residents make their living by speaking to the dead, means there’s a lot of competition, and he’s always held his own. But Russ knows the town he loves is corrupt, and he’s determined to save it before the sinister ruling body, The Guild, ruins all he’s ever wanted.