Showing results by narrator "Steven Brand" in All Categories

A fantasy anthology featuring the deadly, the worldly, and the sneaky. Blackguards consists mainly of stories in established series, and the authors range from wildly successful indie authors to New York Times best sellers. If you enjoy roguish tales of scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells, this one's for you.

Aaron and his companions prevented the assassination of a queen, but in doing so, they angered an ancient evil. Angered it, wounded it, but did not kill it, for such evil never truly dies. An army greater than any the world has ever known marches bringing steel and death with it, and somewhere, a 1,000-year-old evil lurks in the darkness, plotting and bending its will toward revenge.

Times have changed for Alwyn Scribe. Once an outlaw, he's now a spymaster and sworn protector of Lady Evadine Courlain, whose visions of a demonic apocalypse have earned her the fanatical devotion of the faithful. Yet Evadine's growing fame has put her at odds with both Crown and Covenant. As trouble brews in the kingdom, both seek to exploit her position for their own ends. Sent to the Duchy of Alundia to put down a rebellion, Alwyn must rely on old instincts to fight for his new cause.

Ben Stiger, Legate of the Lost Thirteenth Legion, a nobleman from an infamous family, and born fighter, has defeated the enemy army before Lorium and raised the siege of the city. Mortally wounded and dying, the emperor has made Stiger his heir, but in name only. The senate and the church must confirm and anoint him. Will they want a Stiger on the throne? Or will they choose someone else? Hundreds of miles away, the Cyphan Confederacy’s armies are marching along the coast, moving inexorably toward the capital, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake.

Nobleman and born soldier Ben Stiger never backs down from a fight. Even as the son of an infamous imperial general, an outcast from society, he refuses to crumble under the unforgiving shadow of his once-powerful family’s disgrace. When he’s reassigned from his crack company to the struggling southern army, he’s eager to help turn the tide against a growing deadly rebellion.

It is 200 years since the deity known as the Absolved went mad and destroyed the Kingdom of Alnachim, transforming it into the Execration, a blasted wasteland filled with nameless terrors. For decades, desperate souls have made pilgrimage to the centre of this cursed land to seek the Mad God’s favour, their fate always unknown. Now a veteran warrior known only as Pilgrim, armed with a fabled blade inhabited by the soul of a taunting demon, must join with six others to make the last journey to the heart of the Execration.

Grinner and his conspiracy to overthrow Perennia have been defeated, but victory came at a high cost. The alliance suffered losses it could ill afford, for the true enemy still lies in Baresh, growing stronger with each day that passes. Leading the combined armies of three kingdoms, Aaron and his companions march to the city, but even with such a force, even with the power of the Virtues, victory is anything but assured. For when blades are drawn, when battle begins, the only certainty is blood.

Vaelin Al Sorna was known across the realm as the greatest of warriors, but he thought battles were behind him. He was wrong. Prophecy and rumor led him across the sea to find a woman he once loved, and drew him into a war waged by the Darkblade, a man who believes himself a god - and one who has gathered a fanatical army that threatens all of the known world.

If life has taught the jaded sellsword Aaron Envelar anything, it’s that hope is for fools and causes are a sure remedy for breathing. But when his latest job leads him to the corpse of a prince and a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the entire realm, Aaron is forced to choose sides in a war he doesn’t want, between forces he doesn’t understand. Thrust into a world of mythical assassins, a madman with superhuman strength, and a nagging ball of light with a superiority complex who claims to be the embodiment of compassion, Aaron takes on his hardest job yet - staying alive.

The Downs, the poor district of the city of Avarest, is home to cutthroats and thieves, pickpockets and prostitutes, all of whom pay tribute to one of two powerful crime bosses. It is also home to Aaron Envelar, a disillusioned sellsword known as the Silent Blade, who cares nothing for the criminal overlords or their schemes, who only wants to survive and make a little coin. But when a group of thugs steal his mother’s necklace, the only link he has to his murdered parents, Aaron decides that sometimes gold isn’t enough - sometimes, blood is the only payment worth taking.

Like a dark tide, the Horde is slowly conquering one nation after another, and a great migration of peoples has begun fleeing westward before the enemy's advancing armies. No one has been able to stand against the might of the Horde. But the Horde has never faced the power of a Roman legion. Cast adrift in this strange, fantastical world, so unlike the one he knew, Karus has been given a number of tasks by his god Jupiter, known in this world as the High Father. Karus's holy mission and mandate: retrieve a dread artifact and form an alliance with the peoples of this world.

Ambition and jealousy - all set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards?

A man awakes on a boat at sea with no memory of who or where he is. He's not alone—there are six others, each with a unique set of skills. None of them can remember their names. All of them possess a gun. When a message appears on the onboard computer—Proceeding to Point A—the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming. But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form. Who is directing them and to what purpose? Why can't they remember anything?

Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight, the defender of the realm of Andomhaim from dark magic. But when dark magic stirs in the mountains of Taliand, the power of the Shield Knight might not even be enough to save Andomhaim....

Jimmy Porter barely ekes out a living running a candy stall by day and playing jazz trumpet by night. Although he usually takes his frustrations out on his emotionless wife, Jimmy's scathing tongue and self-loathing seem destined to destroy everything. Set in the UK at the dawn of the '60s social unrest, this savage morality tale spawned the phrase “angry young man".

In Responsibility Rebellion, author Kain Ramsay discusses why we often rely on easy steps and magical formulas to find fulfillment, only to come up short. He’ll equip you with a structured roadmap for personal growth and progress - one that shows you how to be better, rather than feel better.

Cal Lovett has spent half his life telling other people’s stories on his true-crime podcast. But the police are close to solving the mystery of his sister’s disappearance—now he might finally get to tell Margot’s story. Cal seeks respite on a holiday in the Scottish Highlands, but is dragged into a new cold case: an unsolved murder that shattered a family fourteen years ago.

Four hundred years ago the Alkomian Empire clawed its way from the long dark, uniting the splintered factions of mankind under one banner. Harnessing the mysterious power of runes, the empire of man spread across the land, exploring and inhabiting the ancient fortresses that they plundered for runestones. For centuries humanity has stood unopposed, masters of their own destiny. Until now. In the east a darkness stirs. An evil beyond myth and memory sends its agents to plant the seeds of mankind's destruction.

Cal Lovett's sister, Margot, has been missing since he was a child. When Marc Dubois, The Woodland Killer, learns of Cal's true-crime podcast, Finding Justice, he invites Cal into his cell to talk. Dubois has famously refused to speak about his crimes, so why has he asked Cal to meet with him? And why does Dubois know so much about him?

A man awakes on a boat at sea with no memory of who or where he is. He's not alone - there are six others, each with a unique set of skills. None of them can remember their names. All of them possess a gun. When a message appears on the onboard computer - Proceeding to Point A - the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming. But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form. Who is directing them and to what purpose? Why can't they remember anything? And what are the screams they can hear beyond the mist?