Showing results by narrator "Jennifer O'Donnell" in All Categories

Created as an homage to the 1980 classic horror anthology, Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley, this collection contains 12 original novelettes showcasing today’s top horror talent. Dark Stars features all-new stories from award-winning authors and up-and-coming voices like Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Usman T. Malik, Caroline Kepnes, and Alma Katsu, with seasoned author John F.D. Taff at the helm. An afterword from original Dark Forces contributor Ramsey Campbell is a poignant finale to this bone-chilling collection.

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

Obedience. Self-restraint. Endurance. Silence. These are the duties of a Highborn lady, and like the veils, masks, and tight-fitting underskirts female Kencyr students are obliged to wear, Jame finds them damnably constricting. Sent here by her brother Torisen, Highlord of the Kencyrath, she has tried valiantly to fit in, but throws the quiet Women's Halls into an uproar. It's not entirely Jame's fault, though. While Tori's vain and vicious consort treats her like an underling, the Kencyr Matriarchs, determined to winnow out her secrets, scheme to use her to their own advantage.

It was supposed to be a fun weekend at our family cabin. I was going to surprise my husband, Mike, with a small get-together for his 40th birthday. Something is wrong, though. Mike isn’t himself lately. He goes out often and by himself, leaving me and our young son. Our happy marriage is fading away, and I don’t know why. This weekend is just what's needed to cheer him up. It’s what we need for us. When I get to the cabin and set up, I hear sounds coming from the basement. That’s when I see her. A young woman tied up and scared.

Exiled Charmer Leena Edenfrell is running out of time. Empty pockets forced her to sell her beloved magical beasts - an offense punishable by death - and now there's a price on her head. With the realm's most talented murderer-for-hire nipping at her heels, Leena makes Noc an offer he can't refuse: powerful mythical creatures in exchange for her life. Plagued by a curse that kills everyone he loves, Noc agrees to Leena's terms in hopes of finding a cure.

These are the chronicles of Jamethiel Priest’s-bane, otherwise known as Jame, as she struggles to find a place in a universe full of danger, intrigue, and more than a bit of downright lunacy. The current novel’s title, To Ride a Rathorn, comes from the Kencyr phrase that refers to someone attempting something insane, but it is too dangerous for them to stop. The reference is also to a certain young rathorn (think of an armor-plated, carnivorous unicorn with a nasty temper) who is after Jame for killing his mother and about to catch up with her.

A colony survives among the icy rings of a planet, hiding from alien robots determined to destroy them … at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers, and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment … a man who can’t feel pain has been bioengineered to be a killing machine, but he refuses to give in to his fate … a man is contacted by three future versions of himself, each trying to save their world from destruction.

Jame is a Kencyr. Kencyrs are not native to the planet where they now live. For 30 centuries they have been the weapon that their Three-Faced God has used against the power of the Perimal Darkling. Jame knows this as she stumbles out of the hilly, barren Haunted Lands into the city of Tai-tastigon. But she knows little else. She does not remember where she has been or what she has done for the last 10 years of her life. Her memory goes back only a week or two - to finding her home destroyed and all her family dead.

The sequel to Bound in Blood and exciting sixth entry in the Godstalker Chronicles by epic fantasy world-builder extraordinaire, P. C. Hodgell. A droll heroine born to one day battle a world-destroying god fights her way through deadly plots and challenges at a warrior's academy to graduate and move forward to her destiny. Jame is one of the last of the Kencyrath line, born to battle a world-destroying Lord of Darkness and resuscitate her ancestral heritage. Jame's youth was spent hard and low in a desert wasteland.

In the year 2035, robots, artificial intelligences, and neural implants have become commonplace. The Institute for Ethics keeps the peace, using social reputation to ensure that robots and humans don't harm society or each other. But a powerful AI named Adam has found a way around the restrictions. Catherine Matthews, nineteen years old, has a unique gift: the ability to manipulate the net with her neural implant. Yanked out of her perfectly ordinary life, Catherine becomes the last firewall standing between Adam and his quest for world domination.

They live in the shadows, Jack and Jill, feuding twins who can never stop running. From earliest memory, they've been taught to hide, to hunt, to survive. Their prowess is outdone only by Clare, who has always been mentor first and mother second. She trained them in the art of espionage and sharpened their minds with nerve-racking psychological games. As they grew older, they came to question her. But when Clare's safe house explodes and she goes missing, they're forced to believe the unthinkable: Their mother's paranoid delusions have been real all along.

Nothing ever goes easily for Jame, least of all this journey. As hints of the past she has forgotten - of dark and horrid years in the house of Gerridon, betrayer of her people, the Kencyrath, and her god-come to the surface, she encounters changers from the house of Gerridon, wanting to bring her back into that dark place. Arrin-ken, catlike creatures who are nevertheless a part of her own people, find and judge her.

Arizona Turner has been my best friend since fourth grade, even when we hated each other. We've been there for one another through first kisses and first times, and we've been each other's constant when good relationships turned bad. (We even went to colleges that were minutes away from each other.) Throughout the years, and despite what anyone says, we've never crossed the line. Never thought about it. Never wanted to...until one night changed everything. At least, it should've....

Carla Matthews is a single mother struggling to make ends meet and give her daughter Kaleigh a decent upbringing. When Kaleigh's absent father Seth - a famous alpine climber who never wanted to be tied down - begs for a second chance at fatherhood, Carla is hesitant because she doesn't want to pin her hopes on a man who is always seeking another mountain to scale. A man who was never willing to stay put in one place and raise a family.

I was just your average 17-year-old girl, until I was Marked. Some may sell their souls; mine was taken. Not only are angelic hunters out to kill me, but Hell's deadliest Mage - the devilishly charming Crown Prince of Lust - is just as desperate to get his hands on me...again. No, he doesn't want me dead. This seductive trickster only has one thing on his mind: making me his new blushing bride. He can call me his "mate" all he wants. I'm not about ready to sign my soul away into eternal damnation, no matter how gorgeous he may be.

Contains volumes one and two of Reincarnated as a Familiar. A young teacher finds herself reborn with only fuzzy, damaged memories of her past life. Even worse, she's stuck in the body of a cat and can't remember her own name. Summoned by a young mage girl named Lesti, she takes up the name Astria and becomes the girl's familiar.

All we ever did was try to help the angel world and humanity like we were raised to. But some of you paras plot to destroy us for no other reason than how powerful we will become. And now the days of playing nice with the paras are over....

When a church combusts in rural Appalachia, the bizarre trail of carnage suggests diabolical forces are at work. Charged with explaining the inexplicable, the FBI's Dr. Ailes and Agent Knoll once again turn to the ace up their sleeve: Agent Jessica Blackwood, a former prodigy from a family dynasty of illusionists. After playing a pivotal role in the capture of the Warlock, a seemingly supernatural serial killer, Jessica can no longer ignore the world - and the skills - she left behind.

Eighteen years ago a teenage pregnancy changed Kate Worthington's life forever. Faced with many difficult decisions, she chose to follow her heart and embrace an uncertain future with Glenn Ferguson, her devoted first love...and the father of her baby. At the same time, in another part of the world, sixteen-year-old Ryan Hamilton makes his own share of mistakes, but learns important lessons along the way.

It's finally time for the Alandrian Central Magic Academy's famous Spring Tournament. For Lesti, it's her best opportunity to prove her strength before turning fifteen and becoming an adult. She'll have to do it alone, though. The academy has forbidden Astria from participating. Still, the tournament isn't all about fighting. People from across the alliance gather to watch the spectacle. Amongst the masses and gathered lords, threats new and old plot their moves. As Astria works to neutralize these threats, she finds herself with a choice that could change the course of her new world.