Showing results by narrator "Basil Sands" in All Categories

Much the way Donald Hall’s Seasons at Eagle Pond captured New England, Sky Time in Gray’s River captures the essence of the rural Northwest. Although Rober Michael Pyle is a lepidopterist, and southwestern Washington is notable for its lack of butterflies, something about the village of Gray's River spoke to him on a visit thirty years ago. Ever since then he has lived in the village, which was one of the first to be established near the mouth of the Columbia River and which still feels only tenuously connected to the twenty-first century.

Rick Banik is a new patriot for a new age. He leads a Joint Intelligence Tiger Team in pursuit of a terrorist plotting an attack on Washington DC. Da'esh's agent stays one step ahead by hiding in plain sight, always there, but never being seen.

The last battle of World War II was not for military victory but for the technology of the Third Reich. In American Raiders, Wolfgang Samuel assembles from official Air Force records and survivors' interviews the largely untold stories of the disarmament of the Luftwaffe and of Operation Lusty—the hunt for Nazi technologies.

Brad Stone could not escape the image of his first wife’s mangled body in the opening days of the invasion. Now he cannot escape the image of seeing her alive two years later, and in the company of General Zhang. Youngmi has physically recovered from the attempt on her and General Zhang’s lives, but her heart is another matter as the war pushes her further from her husband, closer to her lover, and deeper into the abyss.

Once we step on the treadmill of progress, it's hard to step off. Yet Edward Tenner shows that human ingenuity can be applied in self-preservation as well, and he sheds light on the ways in which the users of commonplace technology surprise designers and engineers, as when early typists developed the touch method still employed on today's keyboards. And he offers concrete advice for reaping benefits from the devices that we no longer seem able to live without. Although dependent on these objects, we can also use them to liberate ourselves.

The tale of a man and the memory that haunts him, River City One is the poetic and compassionate story of John Walker, a lawyer and ex-Marine adrift in a nameless city. Home from the war, he has become a man on the edge, quietly raging against the people he must now work for and live among—the kind of people incapable of understanding the terror he felt in combat and the guilt he carries in his heart. When he meets Ruth, a beautiful, famous singer traveling through the city, John discovers a new passion for living.

Written by R.A. Mathis, a veteran armored cavalry officer, this unique novel exposes the pain, horror, and exhilaration of the Iraq War - harsh realities that can only be revealed by one who was there. Spiked with elements of the supernatural, it peers into the abyss and reveals how unchecked obsession can damage those around us and ultimately lead to our destruction.

Experience the awesomeness of my unexpected voyage to an undiscovered land where I survive shipwrecks, arena death match spectacles, rampaging rhinoceraptors, naked and rather surly giants, and even dragons! Well, a dragon.... All in my pursuit of fame and glory. Every word of it is true. Totally true. How do I know? Because it's all about me. Gustav Gustavson, Legendary Viking Warrior.

It was one hell of an inheritance for former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman: a broken-down pickup truck, ramshackle campground, a canoe livery - and one pot-smoking, barely working employee he doesn’t need, doesn’t want, and can’t afford. But the truth is, after losing a child and a marriage, Tom doesn’t really care.

The town of Silver Ridge, West Virginia, has disappeared from the face of the earth. To the outside world, a chasm of impenetrable mist is all that remains of the town. But inside Silver Ridge, the nightmare is just beginning. Confined by this unimaginable barrier, the townspeople find themselves confronted by the denizens of a distant dimension: horrifying creatures that intend to transform the valley town into their own outpost.

The bloodthirsty Phaestor, genetically engineered to fight in defense of the galaxy, have since turned against their creators and established a reign of terror and chaos. Lead by a cunning war queen, her ambitious suitor, and a Dragon Lord, the Phaestor continue to strive for complete enslavement of the galaxy. But a growing band of rebels from Thoska-Roole fights for the galaxy, standing against the merciless vampire overlords. As other humans, bioforms, and androids from worlds across the galaxy join their cause, the outnumbered rebels fight for freedom and the future of the stars.

For decades, the Mexican drug cartels looked at the United States of America as a business partner. The cartels supplied the drugs, and the millions of American addicts supplied them with an endless amount of money. But when the War on Drugs heats up and the money alone is not enough, the cartels decided to up the ante. With the help of a ruthless Russian mercenary, they unleashed a lethal bio-weapon, initially conceived during the Cold War to quickly bring the West to her knees.

New England preacher Benjamin Conroy thought he had it all figured out: The keys to his family's eternal salvation lay in an ancient Egyptian ritual to the god Osiris. Following a little black magic - and the crucifiction of his entire family - the Conroys would rise from the dead, united for all of eternity, bringing salvation to the world. Assuming, that is, that the ritual went off with out a hitch. But for the Conroys, things went drastically wrong, and death was just the beginning of their suffering.

Told from three alternating perspectives, On Heaven's Hill is a vividly powerful story about rediscovering hope and finding new life in the aftermath of trauma. Filled with humor and compassion, it depicts the best of America, a place composed of wildness and kindness.

Following the invasion of the previous year, Brad Stone has become the figurehead of Alaska’s resistance movement. He’s now head of the largest militia in the former state, including the Chiknik Rangers, making him enemy number one to the Chinese leadership based in Anchorage. At the same time his sons, Ben and Ian, find themselves waging a bloody guerrilla operation against Russian troops in the east.

American art student Evie Williams is studying abroad in Edinburgh and having the time of her life - especially when she falls hard for Thomas MacBean, a sexy art dealer with a Highlander's brogue. But as Thomas and Evie’s romance heats up, so does Evie’s fascination with a special exhibit of dark art at a local gallery.

Colin Farnsworth was a loser. Eking an existence from writing cheap sci-fi novels and the few dollars he makes at Fantasy Underworld card game tournaments, he lives in the house where he grew up. His only companion is Heimdall, a three pound Yorkie with big plans. Until, that is, The Brothers Four arrive on his doorstep looking for rooms to rent and with a giant troll in pursuit

God forgives when we ask sincerely. Men, not so much. Self, even less. And the Dead....never. Pastor Mike loves his family, and loves his flock. Life is good, but to get there he had to traverse a trail of blood. The faces that haunt his nightmares are no longer just specters, and a long thought dead enemy is about to unleash a very real hell.

The Seventymile Kid tells the remarkable account of Harry Karstens, who was the actual—if unheralded—leader of the Hudson Stuck Expedition that was the first to summit Mount McKinley in Alaska. All but forgotten by history, a young Karstens arrived in the Yukon during the 1897 Gold Rush, gained fame as a dog musher hauling U.S. Mail in Alaska, and eventually became the first superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park (now known as Denali National Park and Preserve).

In Head Strong: Psychology and Military Dominance in the 21st Century, Michael D. Matthews explores the many ways that psychology will make the difference for wars yet to come, from revolutionary advances in soldier selection and training to new ways of preparing soldiers to remain resilient in the face of horror and to engineering the super-soldier of the future. These advancements will ripple out to impact on the lives of all of us, not just soldiers.