Showing results by narrator "Scott Smith" in All Categories

A magical collection of 17 original stories by an amazing list of contributors—including a Dune story by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson!

In the dark shadow of the Prophecy Mountains lies the ramshackle town of Rattlesnake Wells, where dreamers come to make their fortunes, and desperados come to die. The streets of this little settlement are slick with mud and stained with blood, and it will fall to Bob Hatfield to sweep them clean. The town marshal, Hatfield has a young man’s face, but his eyes are those of a killer. He is a good man, but he has a secret that weighs on his soul.

Vampire Hunter D continues his quest to overcome the interstellar evil brought to earth by the ultimate Noble, the terrifying renegade vampire Valcua! Wielding a sword that can cut through the fabric of space and time, Valcua has a score to settle with the bloodline of humans responsible for his exile. The family has enlisted D to protect them from Valcua's wrath, and the vampire hunter might be their only chance at survival.

Rowan Headley tops the list of people I never wanted to see again. She shattered my best friend's heart, turning him into a shell of his former self. I hate her for what she did. But guess who my company's new hire is? Yep, the last person I expected - Rowan Headley. It's awkward, it's tense, but we have to put up with each other. Except the longer I'm around her, the less I feel like avoiding her.

Attorney Scott Winslow and CIA agent-turned-investigator Lee Henry are back with another extraordinary case. Scott must prove that a powerful company CEO raped his subordinate, Sarah Willis, on a business trip. Investigator Lee Henry employs his CIA background, and unorthodox practices, to chase evidence and help Scott prosecute the case. While Scott goes all in on the case, Lee reaches behind opaque curtains to search for clues. But can they piece it all together and win the case?

In her disguise as "Danny Duggin," Danielle Strange has spent the past two years hunting down the outlaws who murdered her father. Reunited with her brothers, the twins Tim and Jed, she plans to take her war across the border into Mexico - unaware she's being pursued by a US Federal Marshal.... Saul Delmano comes from a powerful family of cattle-men whose business stretches from the Southwestern territories into Mexico. He's put a $2,000 reward on "Danny Duggin's" head, tempting every outlaw and bounty hunter across the West to try to collect it. 

In the epic conclusion to the Cornerstone saga, the sinister forces at work in the troubled ville grow insidiously stronger, and Ryan Cawdor is the only one with first-hand knowledge of the true enemy. However, he’s trapped outside the ville, wanted for murder, and, with a hijacked Cornerstone mission team, must return to the redoubt where he and Jak Lauren nearly died, in hopes of finding the means to defeat the monster in Cornerstone’s midst. 

For the greatest trapper in the country, there’s no place like the Rocky Mountains. Preacher and his son Hawk are riding the High Lonesome when the clear mountain air is split by a girl’s savage screams. A gang of ruthless trappers has kidnapped a Crow woman, but before they escape with her, Preacher and Hawk burst out of the tree line, guns spitting fire. 

Pregnancy has turned FBI Agent Cynna Weaver's whole life upside down. Lupus sorcerer Cullen Seabourne is thrilled to be a father, but what does Cynna know about kids? Her mother was a drunk and her father abandoned his family. Or so she's always believed.... As Cynna is trying to wrap her head around this problem, a new one pops up in the form of a delegation from another realm. They want to take Cynna and Cullen back with them - to meet her long-lost father and find a mysterious medallion. 

After Tyvian Reldamar gets double-crossed by his business partner, he is affixed with an iron ring that prevents the wearer from any evildoing. Not one to be deterred by this setback, he quickly puts into motion a plan for revenge - one that will use every dirty trick in the book. But things are never simple for mastermind Tyvian, especially not after he uncovers a sinister plot: evil wizard Banric Sahand is planning to decimate the city of Freegate. 

Luke Jensen brings a body to Rio Rojo. After all, it's his job and he's going to get paid. But before he can collect the bounty for killing a killer, two notorious criminals hit the Rio Rojo bank. Now Luke can't get paid unless he catches bandit Gunner Kelly and his Apache sidekick Dog Eater. Unfortunately, a would-be man hunter is after the money-toting outlaws, too, and young Hobie McCullough is mostly a menace to himself. With a green kid to protect, renegade Mexican soldiers, and a beautiful runaway bride crossing Luke's trail, the blood hunt takes one deadly detour after another.

Learn the basic pillars of Ayn Rand’s philosophy in any easy to access format. It’s also a simple, digestible way to brush up on the basics of objectivism and find ways to apply these principles toward building your best life.

In Ayn Rand and Altruism, George H. Smith calls attention to benevolence in Rand’s thinking. Indeed, Smith defends Rand’s rejection of altruism by contrasting it to benevolence. In this series of essays, originally published on Libertarianism.org and republished by The Atlas Society with permission of the author, Smith begins by establishing that Rand’s definition of altruism - “the placing of others above self, of their interests above one’s own” - is identical to the definition of altruism originated by Auguste Comte.

"I can show you how to enter the Narrows to find what you seek." Oliver and his friends have returned to their hometown of Shumard, Texas for the funeral of their close friend Noah. They each grapple with the loss in their own ways, trying to understand the strange circumstances of their friend's unexpected death. While visiting the site where the body was found, Oliver stumbles across a chilling discovery that he knows must be related to what happened to Noah.

The war of Honce drags on, and the roads and seas are littered with bodies. To everyone's stunned disbelief, Yeslnik the Fool has tipped the war's scales in his favor. The reign of the newly self-appointed King Yeslnik is already distinguished as the most bloody and merciless in Honce history. Trapped, Dame Gwydre and Father Artolivan concoct a desperate plot to join forces with Laird Ethelbert, the lesser of two vicious evils. But Ethelbert's paid assassins slew Jameston Sequin and nearly did the same to Bransen.

It's fur trapping season and Preacher is about to discover the Rocky Mountain trail holds more than wild game - it's also infested with murderers and trail trash quick to deceive, steal, and hunt Preacher down. Among them are Jebediah Druke, his ruthless band of killers, and most terrifying of all, the barbaric renegade Crow warrior known as Blood Eye. When Preacher shows up and gets on their bad side, he stirs up a clash that could lead to a brutal and bloody battle. 

The Black River Irregulars has made a name for itself as a mercenary company that gets things done regardless of the risk. They know the streets of Corvis, the City of Ghosts, better than anyone. But they aren’t in Corvis anymore. When the Black River Irregulars take on a job in the war-torn nation of Llael, they quickly get in over their heads. What begins as a simple search for an antique book becomes a fight for their lives when the Nightmare Empire of Cryx sends its own agents to seize the book. 

In the peace following the Great Mage Hunt, the king’s long-time mistress is revealed as a sorceress. Locked away for the safety of the kingdom, bounties are placed upon the heads of the seven children she birthed. Before they can be found by the kingdom’s mage hunters, the seven turn to in-fighting and murder, stealing each other’s magics to grow stronger. After the battle on the stone plains, only three of the mage-born bastards remain alive.

Eighteen months ago, Detective Reed Mattox didn’t just lose his partner, the woman he met on his first day at the police academy and worked with for the entirety of his career thereafter. He lost his confidante. His sounding board. His support system. His best friend. Victim to a senseless shooting during a routine traffic stop, the details of that night are still as elusive to Reed as they were more than a year before.

For the past two months, Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner Billie were in limbo. Victims of their own success, they were plucked from their posts on the graveyard shift at the Eighth Precinct and thrust into a newly created role working with the governor’s office when a young woman is shot down outside her front door. Immediately written off by some in the small town as nothing more than a tragic hunting accident; closer examination proves it to not just be a murder, but an execution.