Showing results by narrator "Mark Boyett" in All Categories

A recent French biography begins, "Who doesn't know Nadar?" In France, that's a rhetorical question. Of all of the legendary figures who thrived in mid-19th-century Paris - a cohort that includes Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Gustave Courbet, and Alexandre Dumas - Nadar was perhaps the most innovative, the most restless, the most modern. The first great portrait photographer, a pioneering balloonist, the first person to take an aerial photograph, and the prime mover behind the first airmail service, Nadar was one of the original celebrity artist-entrepreneurs.

When humanity reaches for the stars, our probes are destroyed. They crash into an incredibly advanced piece of technology: a massive force-field. Unknown beings have placed a barrier around our star and planets, enclosing us within. We’re locked inside a Great Sphere. Was this invisible obstacle built to imprison us - or to protect us? No one knows the truth, but it soon becomes clear the barrier has leaks. Aliens infiltrate and try to sabotage our efforts to escape our cage.

Crystal methamphetamine is widely considered to be the most dangerous drug in the world, and nowhere is that more true than in the small towns of the American heartland. Methland tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), which, like thousands of other small towns across the country, has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people.

Surge is an insider's view of the most decisive phase of the Iraq War. Using newly declassified documents, unpublished manuscripts, interviews, author notes, and published sources, Surge explains how President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Ambassador Crocker, General Petraeus, and other U.S. and Iraqi political and military leaders shaped the surge from the center of the maelstrom in Baghdad and Washington.

After getting shot down over Tau Ceti, Uplink Squadron commanding officer Lance Baker has come to the realization that Earth is fighting for the wrong side in the ongoing galactic war. The only problem—their allies, the Overlords, control the Solar System, and to do anything other than what they bid is suicide for humanity.

Immediately upon their return from a disastrous starship cruise, Gunnar McConnell is now in debt to the Aloysians and has no way to pay them back. To free himself and his crew, he must complete a dangerous mission. But first, he must fully embrace his legacy by participating in an ancient ceremony.If he fully commits, he will be given secrets to his lineage and his Keeper skills and learn about the family he never knew.

Before the Fall, Obsidian Corporation had Agents, and Teledyne Industries had Specialists. Both were deadly. In the Northeast Sector of North America, deep in Obsidian-controlled territory, Teledyne had Mr. Smith, and people fled, just on the rumor he was close by. Now, 20 years after the fall, former Obsidian executives have formed a tenuous truce with the former assassin to save New Toronto. Smith would have happily lived out his life alone, but when Smith sees that something needs doing, he gets it done.

With a billionaire benefactor backing him, Flint Reed heads off on his first mission to secure rare artifacts spread throughout the quadrant. Aided by a cagey assassin, his snarky AI, and a loving attack dog, Flint is poised for success. But when a powerful rival organization attempts to kill him, Flint must make split-second decisions to save his team’s lives and protect the public. The pressure mounts as he is confronted with a nefarious syndicate hit man who holds the key to a trove of ancient and powerful artifacts.

The Breakers find a new home among the stars: Utopia. An engineered planet that is vast beyond comprehension with plenty of room to grow. They set up trade routes and work as mercenaries for their supplies...but trouble lurks. Pirates strike their merchant lanes. Key personnel are captured and enslaved. Straker is called upon to do something, and thus a new conflict is set in motion.

As white supremacy, ultra-nationalism, rabid misogyny, and anti-immigrant fervor coalesce, a new and uniquely American form of fascism looms. Could our current moment actually bring about the end of democracy in the United States? Are Americans willing to surrender their freedom and dignity, along with their ongoing struggle for equality, justice, and mutual respect in the face of the rising tide of political and ideological extremism?

In early 1942, while the American military was still in disarray from the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, a single U.S. Army squadron advanced to the far side of the world to face America's new enemy. Based in Australia with inadequate supplies and no ground support, the...

In the late 2020s and early 30s, corporations managed to render the major governments of the world obsolete. The big corporations owned most of the territories as well as the majority of the world’s wealth. While many of the old traditions were still observed in various parts of the world, the true power was with the corporations. In the late 30s, what would be known as the Corporate Wars began as larger companies initiated hostile takeovers in a whole new fashion. Employees, armed with corporate weapons, warred for dominance. It was a bloody time.

What do you do when the world falls? For Zebediah Pratt - or “Zee” to his friends - the answer is easy; he goes back to the family farm to support his father. By pooling resources with their neighbors in the countryside, they’re able to stand up to the lone gunmen who are on the lookout for easy prey in a world where the rule of law no longer applies. It looks like they will be able to make it. But when the dregs of society come leaking out to the countryside from the ruins of nearby Philadelphia, things change, and the Pratts realize something - they have to do more.

The Corporations—the wielders of power in a society not long from now—brought about the end of civilization as we know it, nuking each other to the point where it collapsed. Ishmael doesn’t know any of this, though; in fact, he doesn’t know anything about himself when he wakes up in this shattered world. All of his autobiographical and episodic memories are gone, and along with them, any knowledge of who he was or anything in his past. Worse, he has made enemies of some very important people, and they are after him.

The end came fast for Lieutenant Nathan Ward. One moment he was participating in an international convention of mounted police officers, the next he was in a command bunker watching the world’s two biggest corporations - Obsidian and Teledyne - destroy it in an exchange of nuclear hellfire. While Columbia, Missouri, was spared a direct strike, a near-miss EMP fried most of the vehicles and the electrical grid. Then the corporations started a shooting war in the streets, and they didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. But Columbia was one of the last cities still standing.

It began with two men. They came from very different worlds - entirely different universes, in fact - and they met in a virgin forest on a duplicate planet Earth. Neither of them had expected it, but both of them realized how important the first contact with any other transuniversal human civilization might be. But something went wrong. Neither side knows who shot first. But both the magic-using civilization of Arcana and steel-and-steam age Sharona, with its psionic Talents, think it was the other side.

The UHS Providence is restored to her former glory, with a fully reconstituted Air Group ready for war. But the Ixan fleet has grown far larger than anyone anticipated, and the onslaught has begun. As system after system is consumed, the Ixan Prophecies' terrifying nature is revealed.

Sent to deadly Krenaisha by the powerful Aloysians to find the coins, the crew of the Enoch are in perilous danger. Though they are on the hunt, closer than ever to finding the remaining God-walker coins, which will guide them to the ancient codebook. But Arvad has placed an exorbitant bounty on Gunnar's and Brina's heads, as well as the coins he is in possession of.

"He shoots and he scores! Lightning Logan strikes again." That was me, Lightning Logan Jackson, because I was as fast as lightning on the ice. Playing for the NHL had been my dream since I was six years old, when my dad took me to my first hockey game. Hockey was my life. It consumed me. It was the one thing in life that I could commit to. Relationships were a no. Sex with beautiful women and no strings attached was a yes. I was a bachelor - happy and living the dream. Then the accident happened, and the doctors told me I'd never play hockey again.

The Cathay Empire holds Gage responsible for a sneak attack on its forces; a crime Albion's last fleet did not commit. While Gage rots in the prison cell, the Daegon hunter Tiberian comes to collect him. Tolan, the Faceless spy, hatches a plan to smuggle Gage out of captivity, but risks an all-out war in the process.