Showing results by narrator "Samuel E. Hoke" in All Categories

Welcome to a society governed through computer games! On New Earth, society is governed and conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. If you win, you have the chance to fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing. When teenage Erik dares to subvert the rules of Epic, he and his friends must face the Committee. If Erik and his friends win, they may have the key to destroying the Committee's tyranny. But if they lose....

When a multinational games company recruit Tom, a smart, streetwise Dublin teenager, to get a team together and come to San Francisco to immerse themselves in a massive fantasy world, he thinks it is the job of his dreams. His challenge is to level up fast so as to eliminate an AI dragon that has gone rogue and is preventing the release of the game. As Tom comes closer to that goal, he starts to realize that the game is not what it seems, not least because a powerful crypto-currency company seem to have funded the creation of the game for their own purposes.

The year is 1521, and Tenochtitlán burns. Wracked by plague and war, the majestic Aztec empire begins to crumble. As their beloved capital city falls to the ruthless Spaniards and hordes of vengeful tribes, the Aztecs make a last-ditch attempt to secretly save their heritage before it’s lost to the sands of time forever. Meanwhile, in the modern day, a string of high-profile robberies lays waste to archaeological sites and museums across Mesoamerica, overshadowed by a brewing nationalistic fervor which threatens to topple already fragile countries.

It’s the late 1980s, and Michael Fenton, editor of Ramboona (a magazine dedicated to forgotten films), is attempting to track down the lost test footage from the 1931 Frankenstein produced by Universal Studios. In his attempt to locate this 50-year-old film canister, Mike is led down a labyrinth of blind alleys amidst the topsy-turvy wonderland of Los Angeles and environs.

1898: Martian tripods lay waste to Earth's cities. The world's armies are unable to stem the tide of destruction. When all hope appears lost, common bacteria kills the alien invaders. From the ashes, the human race uses the technology left behind by the Martians to build new, advanced weapons.

So, you think you like to be scared.... Nominated for the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, and the coveted Nebula, the unforgettable tales in this magnificent collection are the work of one of today's most respected masters of horror. Here are stories designed to carry the listener across fear's threshold, to terror...and beyond.

From the author of the Amazon best-seller The Soul Collector comes a real life story of terror and intrigue. When Edwin Gonzalez and Lillian Otero purchased the historic S.K. Pierce Victorian Mansion in Gardner, Massachusetts, in 2009, they scoffed at the ghostly legends surrounding the house. They didn't believe in ghosts. The house soon proved them wrong. By the fall of 2011, they were forced from their house, narrowly escaping with their lives.

Charles L. Grant sets forth to take us across time and into a fantasy world to his remarkable little Connecticut town of Oxrun Station. There are new horrors on the loose to excite each listener.

She is young, incredibly desirable - the virgin bride. He is young, incredibly brilliant - the devil's groom. They are genetically perfect, programmed to plant a seed of flesh, destined to breed a mutant life of overwhelming beauty and overwhelming evil. Evil which will emerge as the anti-human, evil which will use cold, sinister technology to wipe out the world - our world. Now, it is a matter of life and death. For them. For us. For humankind.

It’s 1646 BC, and Atlantis, the jewel of the ancient world, faces oblivion. A cataclysm is brewing—one which will wash over an empire at the very height of its power and shroud it in mystery forever. A resolute general is tasked with unravelling the gods’ ominous warnings, but nature is about to unleash devastation that will ripple across millennia. Perhaps even crushing the nascent concept of democracy before it can ever be born.

A collection of three stories by John Kaniecki: "Heretic", "Johnny Can't Run", and "The Psychology of Lady Jane Perkins". Religion and truth battle for control in a future society underground on Earth. In the not-so-far-off future a group of Nazis have been exiled to a distant planet. An engineering student is swept away in love by one Lady Jane Perkins, but what does the young man see in this homeless psychiatric patient?

Steve’s days are numbered. The illness has consumed him. Would this stranger’s offer give him a second chance? It looks like a game. Looks can be deceiving. Paul Nelson, the CEO of Tempest Inc, has developed another world and he’s ready to send in another consciousness. This time, though, things are different. Those that came before have caused some troubles and his world is in peril. For Steve, it’s a last chance. He’s got nothing to lose. And who knows, it might be fun? As a warrior named Abalonious, his body gone, Steve must adapt, learn, and grow to survive.

Antiques picker and ex-FBI agent Jeff Talbot figured he was about to make a killing when Nathan Rose offered him all the antiques in his newly deceased aunt's house dirt cheap. What Jeff hadn't bargained for, however, was the bloodstain beneath one of the old pack rat's priceless rugs, indicating that the death of Verena Rose was no accident. But unlike the police, Jeff doesn't think that nephew Nathan is the culprit. Convinced the answer lies somewhere in the old woman's cluttered house, Jeff starts rummaging and unearths an antique marriage casket crammed with old letters.

Jacob Riverson, Regina Whitetremor, and Serah Brightwaters have assembled the greatest army the Northern Wasteland has ever achieved, but it still may not be enough. The tyrant, Empress Morwen, has gathered all of the forces of the Southern Continent to invade, along with an army of airships and enslaved divine spirits. It is a battle that will determine the fate of all three worlds.

Welcome to Starburst, a quiet seaside resort where the people of the future escape into the past, and only four things are certain.

Sometimes, in Bloomwood County, New Jersey, children go missing. Sometimes those children die. And sometimes, strange and alien shapes of night resurrect the bodies of those children for their own.

Charles L. Grant's town of Oxrun Station became real to horror fans (much like Lovecraft's Arkham and King's Castle Rock). While most of Grant's stories were contemporary, he did write a trilogy of "historical" novels placed in an earlier Oxrun. The Dark Cry of the Moon is a classic werewolf tale for fans of the old Universal and Hammer horror films. The emphasis is on character and atmosphere, not on gore. It is the second volume in Grant's acclaimed "historical horror" trilogy.

The Soft Whisper of the Dead is the first of the Oxrun tales to be placed in other than a contemporary setting. The first in a trilogy of historical horror novels, it is the account of the evil Count Braslov's attempt to subjugate the Oxrun population to his vampiric will.

Since Jeff Talbot left the FBI, he's been investigating yard sales as a professional antiques picker. From furniture to books, from old clothes to broken toys, nothing escapes his keen eye for appraisal. But there is one item that he always keeps his knowing eyes particularly peeled to find: a one-of-a-kind French cabaret set commissioned by Napoleon for his love, Josephine. It is an item any collector would kill for....

Ex-FBI agent and antiques picker Jeff Talbot asks Lanny, a fellow picker, to scout out some antique majolica as a present for his wife—with no idea just how costly it will be. Lanny is a bit of a loner, but Jeff has always liked him. So it comes as a total shock when the young man is arrested for murdering an antiques dealer. Jeff learns that Lanny quarreled with the dealer after she sold two pieces of majolica she was supposed to hold for him—uncharacteristic of the kind, caring, and trustworthy man that Jeff knows.