Showing results by narrator "Mike Vendetti" in All Categories

In this modern retelling of the classic Greek myth, Pandora is created by the gods and sent to live among humans with a sealed jar and one simple command: do not open it. The jar sits in the corner of her new home like a question no one will answer. As days pass, curiosity grows heavier than obedience, and Pandora finally lifts the lid.

On the island of Crete, master craftsman Daedalus is trapped with his young son, Icarus, under the watchful eye of a ruthless king. With no road to freedom by land or sea, he turns to the only path left: the sky. By studying the birds and trusting his own genius, Daedalus builds wings from feathers and wax—an impossible invention that might carry them both to safety. But when Icarus tastes the thrill of flight, excitement drowns out caution, and a daring escape becomes one of the most enduring cautionary tales in history.

The Island That Sank Beneath the Sea is an original, audiobook-style retelling inspired by the ancient Egyptian "Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor," shaped specifically for spoken performance. In Mike Vendetti's steady, seasoned narration, you'll hear of a great ship shattered by a sudden storm, one survivor cast up on a miraculous island no map has ever marked, and the immense, wise serpent who rules there. On this island rich with food, fresh water, and uncanny peace, the sailor grapples with grief, gratitude, and the question of why he alone was spared.

Sonnet 20 is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare. Part of the "Fair Youth" sequence where the subject of the sonnet is widely interpreted as being male, thereby raising questions about the sexuality of its author.

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction and a horror story. Published in 1898, the story is still frightening. Imagine your government not being able to protect you, or a nuclear holocaust making you suddenly, should you survive, a refugee with no home, no community services, and very little hope, as you watch the conqueror decimate your country.

"The Easter Egg", a short story by H. H. Munro ("Saki"), is not a happy Easter story but a tale of a proud and brave mother who loves her son even though the son is timid and perhaps cowardly. The story takes place prior to World War I, and the son, in his one act of bravery, prevents an international incident that possibly would have started the war sooner.

It is the turn of the last century, and Alaska is a mysterious wilderness. At the suggestion of several hundred thousand ladies desiring to revel and possibly riot in the saturnalia of equal franchise, the unnamed lakes in that vast and little known region in Alaska bounded by the Ylanqui River and the Thunder Mountains were now being inexorably named after women.

Did you ever wonder at the lonely life the bird in a cuckoo clock has to lead--that it might possibly love and hate just as easily as a real animal of flesh and blood? Philip Dick used that idea for this brief fantasy tale. We're sure that after reading it you'll give cuckoo clocks more respect.

The title of this short story by F Scott Fitzgerald is a bit deceptive and doesn't do this story justice. The four fists are actually four very valuable life lessons delivered with a fist.

This short story remains an enigma, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once again takes on the aristocracy. The heroine, Ardita, beautiful, rich, and spoiled rotten lounges on her uncle's yacht until she is carried away by an offshore pirate, Curtis Carlyle. Carlyle tells her of his upbringing as poor white trash in a Tennessee town, and his rise to become a successful musician - but one who has never been able to dance with the aristocracy. Until that is, the beautiful, spoiled-rotten Ardita falls in love with him, as much as she is capable of falling in love with anyone other than herself, on the deserted tropical island.

Eric Branson and his brother Keith have established a stronghold and base of operations for their newly-formed militia in the maze of remote waterways that make up the vast Atchafalaya Swamp. But before they can even begin training for what they plan to do next, they must first conduct a rescue mission pitting them against a fortified and well-equipped enemy force.

Former Navy SEAL and security contractor Eric Branson has accomplished the first half of his mission—finding his daughter, Megan. But though he’s rescued her from the dangers she faced in the Rockies, Eric is still a long way from getting her and the rest of his family to a place of real safety. Treachery strikes from multiple fronts, sidetracking Eric and taking him far from those he loves as he faces down new enemies that threaten to derail his plans. Read Sabotage, Defiance and Alliances: the seventh, eighth and ninth books in the Feral Nation Series right here in one collection.

Former Navy SEAL and security contractor Eric Branson has reunited with most of the surviving members of his family, but he still hasn’t found the one person he came here to get: his only daughter, Megan. Eric’s quest has taken him from south Florida across the Gulf of Mexico, and from there he will make his way up the Mississippi River and west to the Colorado Rockies. What he finds out there in those mountains will change everything, but nothing will stop him until his mission is complete.

George Halton, a private investigator from New York City, is hired as a bodyguard for the wealthiest family in Sleepy Hollow. There have been two gruesome murders, including that of the patriarch of the family, in the otherwise sleepy little town. The murders were particularly violent and apparently committed by a human being with superhuman strength, strong enough to tear the heads from the bodies of the victims. There are few clues as to who the individual who seems to be roaming the woods of the small town is.

In his debut release, former homicide detective Ken Lang transports you from your cozy, comfy chair to the cold, hard streets surrounding Baltimore, Maryland. Witness first-hand the vicious brutality that a human being can inflict onto another, search for that one piece of evidence needed to solidify a conviction, and desperately try to identify a shooting victim whose mangled and burnt body is found at a scene where no clues are left behind.

In the blistering heat of rural Mississippi, the Bundren family loads their dead matriarch, Addie, into a handmade coffin and sets out on a bleak, often darkly comic journey to bury her in her hometown of Jefferson. Each mile of flooded rivers, broken bones, starving mules, and simmering resentments peels back another layer of this family's grief, faith, and desperation, as husband Anse and children Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman tell the story in their own, often clashing voices.

A Battle for Survival... commander Mitchell Reyes, the ruthless C.R.I. leader, escalates his tactics to crush the civilian resistance in the Atchafalaya Basin. Determined to eliminate Eric Branson and his allies at any cost, Reyes unleashes a campaign of terror that will test the limits of the resistance. Eric leads a daring counteroffensive against C.R.I. forces, but when the mission takes an unexpected turn, he finds himself in a race against time through treacherous swampland. With enemies at every turn, Eric must use all his skills to keep his team alive while evading relentless pursuit.

"The Door" by David H. Keller is a hidden treasure among the literary short stories from the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s. Originally published in the summer 1949 issue of the Arkham Sampler, this haunting narrative narrated by award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti captivates listeners with its intriguing plot and poignant exploration of human emotions.

While the devil and his adventures and misadventures with corrupt humans require some traditional assumptions, Robert Silverberg presents one basic premise all his own, and a revelation you will not have encountered before.

From the pulp magazine "Spicy Mystery Stories" July 1937, this short story by Stewart Gates may be offensive by today's standards, but in the day it was okay.