Showing results by narrator "MIke Vendetti" in All Categories

One of the remarkable things about Fritz Leiber is the ease with which he writes any kind of story. Science fiction, fantasy, weird: You name it and he's done them all. Just think of "Gather, Darkness", "Scylla's Daughter", and (in the old Unknown) ''Smoke Ghost", and you'll see what we mean. In that last story parlicularly Leiber helped to modernize the tale of terror, to take it out of haunted castles and moldering graveyards and put it into the dark, nightmarish streets of a modern city. ''I'm Looking for Jeff", written much later, belongs in this same category.

What is a Wub? Perhaps a play on words by Philip K. Dick in this 1952 science fiction short story that first appeared in Planet Stories. As Philip K. Dick describes it, a Wub is an extremely ugly piglike creature, inhabiting the planet Mars, that may be good to eat. Most of the crew of the space ship are repulsed, however, when it speaks. But not the Captain, leading to a very interesting turn of events.

Brian Dalrymple returns home after three weeks of pursuing the retreating Germans at the end of World War I. His hometown considers him a hero, and gives him a hero’s welcome. After basking in his quickly disappearing notoriety, he goes looking for job. Seems all those wonderful offers have gone away, and Brian takes a job as a stock clerk in Mr. Macy’s wholesale grocery. It doesn’t take Brian long to find that advancement is going to be difficult, and he is stuck in a no-win job with few prospects.

"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.

Step into the fantastical world of Fritz Leiber's "Bazaar of the Bizarre," a captivating audiobook narrated by the talented Mike Vendetti. In this tale, we follow The Gray Mouser as he stumbles upon a peculiar shop created by The Devourers, enigmatic beings with the power to make trash appear as treasure through their mesmerizing abilities.

Journey into the treacherous world of Lankhmar alongside the fearless duo of Fafhrd the Barbarian and the Gray Mouser in Fritz Leiber Jr.'s novelette, "Thieves' House." Originally published in the pulp magazine Unknown Worlds in 1943, this gripping tale follows our protagonists as they navigate the dangerous headquarters of the Guild of Thieves and Murderers, as well as underground catacombs filled with intrigue and peril. It's not the human adversaries that terrify them—it's the supposedly long-dead beings lurking in the shadows.

"Dark Vengeance" is a captivating novelette by Fritz Leiber published in "Suspense" in the Fall of 1951 featuring the iconic duo Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Dive into the sinister world of Lankhmar, where malevolent birds besiege the city with a sinister agenda of plundering precious gems and trinkets from the town's noble women. These cunning avian thieves are not just after riches but pose a grave threat, wielding their sharp talons to inflict harm, even resorting to the gruesome act of plucking an eye from their victims.

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.

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.

Pleasure Cruise to Hell by Donald Graham appeared in the pulp magazine Terror Tales May-June 1938. A second honeymoon turns into a trip into terror and perversion when the yacht a couple is traveling on becomes stranded outside the home of unfathomable evil: Madman's Island.

"Prey for the Daughter of Hell" is a captivating short story by Conrad Kimball that combines elements of horror and romance. The story revolves around a 12-year-old girl who becomes the victim of a curse imposed by an Asian mystic. The mystic hypnotizes her, making her believe that her love life will mirror that of a female praying mantis, where she mates with males and then consumes them.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti takes us on a journey with a madman - driven to madness by the rituals he performs and the incantations he recites found in an ancient book. Thus the title "The Book".

Imagine for a moment if you will, a world where everything is predestined, and if someone in this world steps out of his predestined role, a monster called an expunger in the disguise of an ordinary citizen will call upon that person. After the expunger's call, that person will never have existed. The protagonist, Steven Crane, finds himself thrust into the role of expunger through a simple misunderstanding in a cigar store, changing his existence and the existence of those he calls upon.

From the July 1937 Issue of Spicy Mystery Stories, "30 Seconds" by Robert Leslie Bellem and narrated by Mike Vendetti takes us to a rooftop forty stories above the pavement below where Philip Hayden is preparing to end his life because he has murdered his wife. But a strange bearded man pulls him from the parapet. Dr. Zarkov introduces himself as a Surgeon of Souls and offers Phillip a second chance if he can demonstrate that he has changed his evil philandering ways.

A man makes a deal with the devil. The devil can't give him immortality in return for his soul, but he can protect him from being killed as long as he wears his patent leather shoes. Robert Bloch's masterful storytelling shines through in this tale of greed and consequences. Discover the twisted repercussions of a Faustian bargain in "The Shoes," a must-listen audiobook for fans of classic horror fiction.

Whether she was a woman or a devil, we will never know for sure, but when she stood before him in all her awful beauty, all thoughts of love and honor fled from his mind, and he arose to answer her call to embrace the blossom of fire.

Mistress of Satan's Hounds, by Frederick C. Davis, takes place in a small town next to a prison. There are very few escapes from this prison. It isn't because inmates can't escape, they fear being caught and mutilated by a particularly vicious pack of bloodhounds owned by a local and reclusive eccentric, Ira Clegg. Clegg seemed to gather a certain amount of perverse satisfaction when his "devil" dogs would maul another victim.

Do you want to know how a corpse feels, moldering in the grave? Listen to this audiobook of weird, bizarre menace. "When the Banshee Calls," a short horror story by Wayne Rogers published in the May-June 1938 issue of Terror Tales, narrated by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, will creep you into the crypt.

From the May-June, 1938 issue of Terror Tales, Queens of Beauty and Horror a chilling story by George Edson. A group of 48 beauty queens celebrate the pageant they have just completed. The beauty queens and their escorts suspect little of the sinister motive behind the pageant. The audience consists of leering, lecherous old men who have nefarious plans for the beauties later in the evening.