Showing results by narrator "Gary Bennett" in All Categories

Zee and his friends didn’t expect that after they survived recovering the legendary First Player’s Sword that OVR World Online would announce it to the whole world. Even though no one knows about the secrets that the Sword protects it’s still a powerful one-of-a-kind game item that everyone wants. To make matters worse, they’ve reached Level 5 and the party has to depart the Orientation Zone. Outside of the OZ, Player-vs-Player combat isn’t just allowed, it’s encouraged.

In 2008, the American economy collapsed, taking with it millions of Americans' jobs, homes, and life savings. The impending financial crisis was devastating, and many are still feeling its effects today. Though the crisis was debilitating, the US government has yet to implement policies that would prevent a repeat of the Great Recession. Nothing Is Too Big to Fail holds a microscope to the very policies and corruption that led to this major economic recession.

Could a magic wielding astronaut fight off an alien invasion with just his vampire assassin and space dragon friends? Amazingly, Charlie thought they might actually pull it off... that is if Lady Luck decided to play nice for a change. Unfortunately, knowing his fortunes, the odds of that were slim to none. The aliens were coming, that much was certain. What they could do to stop them, however, remained up in the air. Having joined forces with the mighty AIs overseeing the planet and its defenses, at least their toys had been upgraded accordingly.

Charlie had a constant companion everywhere he went. Unfortunately, its name was trouble. Space portals to another galaxy were just the beginning of the worries piled high on Charlie's plate. Not only was he facing a hostile band of alien mercenaries, hell-bent on capturing his home and enslaving his people, but now, it seemed, there was something more afoot. With his homeworld, solar system, and even the entire galaxy at risk, Charlie and the great AI minds of Earth had to make a decision.

Silence Jones is the legendary assassin feared by the criminal world, a righteous vigilante backed by a covert group hidden deep within US government. Silence’s previous world is shattered in a single night—his fiancée murdered and his body destroyed. Left for dead, clinging to life, his brutal revenge leaves a long and bloody trail. But when his employers discover that the people who killed his fiancée have much bigger plans in mind—plans with deadly implications for national security—will Silence be able to refocus his rage in order to stop a catastrophe?

Pella, Greece; 341 B.C. Alexandros is a middle child caught between two warring spouses, born to both a king and queen, but never meant to rule himself. When a mysterious young man arrives from the north, fleeing his own family, and meets Alexandros in a garden in the Macedonian capital, the bond that's created between them will soon become unbreakable and ultimately define both the direction of the Ancient World and ours.

When fifteen-year-old Denzel Payton is charged with the murder of a disabled veteran at a homeless camp, he's trapped in a no-win situation: remain silent and risk almost certain conviction, or name the real killer and face the wrath of a monster who terrifies him.

Jill Clark is determined to hold a hospital accountable for the death of her mother, who died during the chaotic early days of the COVID pandemic. Her death was attributed to the virus. But was COVID the cause of death? Adamant that hospital staff essentially murdered her mother through sheer negligence, Jill hires Tony Valenti and Penelope Brooks to sue the hospital. A fissure soon opens in Tony and Penelope's relationship as the case plunges them into a bewildering maze of explosive secrets that hint at alternative explanations—revelations that unleash hidden dangers.

One set wants the "Chosen Warrior" on a dissecting table; others want to silence him to keep their own secrets. And his divinely tempestuous and vengeful ex-lover, the Valkyrie Kara has her own sadistic amusements in mind. Maybe his newest allies can make the difference. Maybe he can be tough enough, fast enough, and lucky enough to pull it all off. And maybe somewhere in his confused memories are the keys to getting out of this mess. Or maybe he's just nuttier than Aunt Sally's pecan pie. Good thing he's tougher than her roast beef.

The suspect's family turns to Tony Valenti for help. The case is a bewildering maze, with multiple potential killers and a mountain of contradictory evidence that points both to and away from the ex. Is he innocent? Even Tony isn't sure. Tony is fully immersed in the battle to win the case when a lethal terror from his past surfaces and shakes his faith in himself. Now desperate to protect himself and his family as he fights to free his client, Tony fears that he is being pulled in too many directions to save anyone. He'll need every trick he knows to get everyone out alive.

The Empire is dead! And Captain Josiah Bleys, smuggler and charmer though he may be, is likely to soon follow unless he is willing to at least pretend to be something he loathes: a hero. His "pal" Chief Ragnar Kane, one of the Emperor's finest warriors, likewise harbors no aspirations toward gallantry, just increasing his kill count. Fate, however, has other plans.

On the run from the ruling houses in Caesea, Kincaid struggles to honor the wishes of his former teacher. Unstable magical power leads to rejection in the ancient capital of the Empire of a Thousand Spears and leaves the young magi without a purpose. Scrabbling to stay alive, Kincaid finds company in a group of misfit sorcerers bent on uncovering the darkest depths of power. Facing impossible moral challenges, Kincaid, with new companions at his side, must make a stand against a new generation of magicians.

When a horribly disfigured woman breaks into the underground depository of the Stockholm National Library in Sweden and tears out pages of satanic spells hidden deep inside the Codex Gigas - The Devil’s Bible - teams of investigators quickly realize that there is more to this than meets the eye. Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, Colonel Cameron Skull is investigating the ravaged remains of the cemetery outside the infamous, and now touristy, Church of Bones. But when a manlike creature appears and Colonel Skull realizes the danger, it’s too late.

The survivors lived through the horrifying first days of the plague and its aftermath. They've found their friends, their family . . . but others are still missing. Finding them means leaving the only safety they have, which may not be so safe after all. It's the dawn of a new era. One of violence, war, destruction, and horror. Just when they feel as if they've gotten a grip on the situation, fate throws another curveball their way. Every day is a new struggle, a new terrible reality. The only way forward is through it.

Like poop on your shoe, bad luck had a knack for sticking Charlie wherever he went. And it sure did stink. Wormholes to a distant galaxy? Done it. Alien slavery? Yup. Forced gladiatorial combat? That too. Space pirate and eventual rebel leader? Check. Rising to the pinnacle of power as Dragon King? Uh-huh. Charlie, it seemed, had seen and survived it all, and at long last it looked like he’d finally earned himself a little peace and quiet. That is until a whole new threat reared its ugly head.

Charlie thought building a spaceship had been tough, so being king should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, it was like a cake made of cement. Hard to swallow, and just might kill him. It was good being king, or so Charlie had believed. After an abrupt crash arrival, people had finally stopped trying to kill him - for the most part, anyway - and his new subjects respected him. Or feared him. It was sort of hard to tell, what, with the ginormous dragon who had eaten the previous king standing right behind him.

When Grazyna Zaluski's marriage takes an ugly turn, she finds herself isolated in a remote corner of Wyoming. Her husband's family controls almost everyone and everything in the county . . . including the courts. Is divorce an option for a young immigrant living in the United States on a visa? Will her husband simply sweep away the problem of Grazyna, or even—quite literally—bury it?

Cain, still reeling from the attack on his girlfriend, gets even more suspicious of Project Specter when they send him to Russia to find Dmitri Kurylenko, a man he has already secretly killed. After another attempt on his life, he soon learns of the agency's involvement in keeping his memory from him and sets to meet with a man who seems to know everything.

Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America and winner of countless awards—including the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bram Stoker—Harlan Ellison proved once more that he was both unpredictable and irrepressible in this second collection of innovative science fiction. Again, Dangerous Visions—the middle installment in a planned three anthology series—includes award-winning stories from incomparable writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz, and James Tiptree, among many others.

Meet Tony Valenti. His high-flying corporate law career just cratered. His society marriage blew up in a bitter divorce. He's returned to the Chicago suburbs to lick his wounds and regroup in the haven of the Valenti family home. But time to heal isn't in the cards. Tony's elderly father inexplicably shoots a sheriff's deputy on their front porch. Nobody knows why, and Papa isn't talking. Then their house becomes an unlikely target for condemnation and expropriation by corrupt local officials and their cronies.