Showing results by narrator "J.A. Scott" in All Categories

In Rip-Off!, 13 of today’s best and most honored writers of speculative fiction face a challenge even they would be hard-pressed to conceive: Pick your favorite opening line from a classic piece of fiction (or even non-fiction) - then use it as the first sentence of an entirely original short story.

Gloria Burtzlaff feared for her life one day back in April of 1991 when her abusive husband, Larry, drunk and violent, slapped her, hit her, and began pelting her with glasses. After he tried to drown her in a tub, she got the family shotgun and confronted him in his underwear. “Larry, I’m going to kill you,” she declared. Defense lawyers would later claim he lifted a glass as if to say, “Have at it, sister.” Have at It, Sister is a true-crime tale about Gloria, a South Dakota woman who shot her abusive husband and was put on trial in a precedent-setting case.

A landmark short story collection that put the more character-based New Wave science fiction on the map, Dangerous Visions won several prestigious awards and was nominated for many others. This now-classic anthology includes thirty-three stories by thirty-two award-winning authors, over half of whom have won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are vacationing in Washington State’s Hood Canal for Memorial Day weekend. It’s the perfect getaway to unplug—and to calm an uneasy marriage. But on Adam’s first day out on the water, he sees Sophie abducted by a stranger. A hundred yards from shore, Adam can’t save her. And Sophie disappears.

Camavor is a brutal land with a bloody legacy. Where the empire's knights go, slaughter follows. Kalista seeks to change that. When her young and narcissistic uncle, Viego, becomes king, she vows to temper his destructive instincts, as his loyal confidant, advisor, and military general. But her plans are thwarted when an assassin's poisoned blade strikes Viego's wife, Isolde, afflicting her with a malady for which there is no cure.

June 6, 1944. On the dawn of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, two snipers find themselves fighting a battle all their own. One is a backwoods hunter from the Appalachian Mountains in the American South, while the other is the dreaded German "Ghost Sniper" who earned his nickname on the Eastern Front. Locked in a deadly duel across the hedgerow country of France, the hunter matches wits and tactics against the marksman, both of them one bullet away from victory or defeat as Allied forces struggle to gain a foothold in Europe.

Summer 1944. When German sniper Dieter Rohde's older brother is unjustly shot for desertion by the SS, he will stop at nothing to win the Iron Cross medal and redeem his family's name by targeting as many Allied troops as possible. Rohde's deadly efforts bring him into direct confrontation with American sniper Caje Cole as the final pitched battle for France takes place around them at the Falaise Pocket.

The Seven Portals to Wonder changed the world. The most advanced AI ever created powered the worlds, bringing infinite possibilities and endless adventure to everyone across the globe. War on Earth practically ceased as most of the planet's population became addicted to the game. Ben Hales was no different. He spent a few years saving enough money to buy lifetime passes for himself and his daughter, Ingrid. Now he has the cash, and Ingrid just turned 16, the minimum age required to play.

After a Frontier village's monitoring station fails, deadly vampire Nobles return to life, swearing vengeance on the descendants of the family that defeated them three hundred years ago. The mayor of the village, hoping to save his life and that of his family, hires five vampire hunters, but as the mayor's daughter returns from the Capital, he finds that she has been targeted by five revenge driven Nobles!

This collection includes The Accidental Mistress, The Incorrigible Courtesan, and The Delectable Tart.

While the politicians on both sides negotiate, the armies in the field are fighting a brutal war of attrition across the rugged Korean Peninsula. Sniper Caje Cole and his squad have one clear objective, which is to capture the next hill and keep it from falling back into enemy hands. That’s not easy when the enemy still attacks in overwhelming numbers. At the Battle of Triangle Hill, the soldiers find themselves in a stalemate with Chinese forces, fighting to capture and then regain a strategic foothold.

Deep in the Korean mountains, US sniper Caje Cole and his squad are on patrol when they witness a dogfight that ends with an American pilot being shot down over enemy territory. Cole leads the rescue effort that puts him in conflict with a deadly Chinese sniper, but that turns out to be the least of his worries. Enemy forces are on the move, starting with the capture of an outpost just beyond the American line.

D is a vampire hunter--and he's just been paid ten times his asking price to do exactly that, an assignment to destroy Duke Van Doren, administrator of the northern Frontier. Among the complications are that no less than three other groups, each with their own agenda, are headed for the Duke...

Corrupt sheriffs and a judge in their pocket, the Scorpion gang ravaged the panhandle with robbery, murder and extortion. But who was the brain behind the gang and where was he hiding? Outlaw Black Jack Timmons has the evidence against them, and United States Marshals Ezra Flint, Jake Timber and Jubal Stone are on the trail of Black Jack. But can any three men – even these three legendary lawmen – survive the long trail to justice?

A Theology of Revelation: Audio Lectures taught by J. Scott Duvall provides a comprehensive look at the theology of John's Apocalypse. One of only a few dedicated theologies of Revelation, Duvall's series leaves no stone unturned in the study of the final book of the Christian canon of Scripture...

Charlie Naylor is a good guy, but he's never been great at multi-tasking. When Larynk, the god of corn, sends Charlie into a fantasy game, he just can't help himself trying. By combining his love of daggers, magic, and animals, he becomes the Blademage Beastmaster. With a dangerous new pet, a deadly selection of daggers, and some awesome spells, he must make allies and kill monsters as he walks his path to glory. If he can do that, then he might just create a legacy for himself.

A mixed band of travelers from an inn, spared by seeming chance from a bizarre landslide that rushed and receded like a wave, find shelter in an ancient village older even than the most forsaken settlements on the Frontier! Indeed, for fearful rumor has it that once long ago the village was a...

War has come to the realm! Wielding the power of his deadly Worldbreaker Blade, Vexes and his guild of ravens have launched an all-out assault on the people of Aetheria, seeking to drain the realm of its precious world energy and eradicate anyone that stands in their way. That is, unless Zander Darkblade can somehow find a way to put an end to their reign. Embarking on a perilous quest to the wild north, the slayer and his companions seek to uncover the realm’s long-forgotten secrets and unlock a path to unmatched power.

December 1944. As German forces launch a massive surprise attack through the frozen Ardennes Forest, two snipers find themselves aiming for a rematch. Caje Cole is a backwoods hunter from the Appalachian Mountains of the American South, while Kurt Von Stenger is the deadly German "Ghost Sniper". Having been in each other's crosshairs before, they fight a final duel during Germany's desperate attempt to turn the tide of war in what will come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. Can the hunter defeat the marksman?

Too long to be a short story, too short to be a novel - welcome to the surprisingly potent world of the novelette. The award-winning magazine Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show has been an online haven for this powerful form of storytelling since 2005. Now its editors have selected their all-time favorite science fiction novelettes from the magazine's eight-year history and reprinted them together in one big book of listening pleasure.