Mostrando resultados por autor "Stephen Donald" en Todas las categorías

Modern cultures are awash in the reflections of humankind's primitive past. Often, only graven images of ancient violence pass through eons of time to speak to us today, and it is these Death Eidolons that enable us to understand the darkest point of our collective origins. Whether looming implacably through a dense jungle tangle or winking grotesquely through the uncertain blue light of our television sets, we cannot escape countless contemporary examples of humankind's inhumanity, which most of us constrain daily with a sheer and most tenuous mastery. Experience the surreal by reading “...

Listen to mystery stories by today's top writers and the masters who inspired them. The idea for this collection came to Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Lawrence Block when he was asked, "What is your favorite mystery story?" Block compiled this unique collection by posing the same question to some of today's favorite writers of the genre, including Stephen King, Tony Hillerman, and John Lutz.

Whatever happened to the people next door? They were so loud and obnoxious, it's difficult to ignore their abrupt, unannounced departure. The neighborhood is lucky to have the old man at the end of the cul-de-sac, though. If not for his constant care, that abandoned home might have long ago gone to seed and become an eyesore. He keeps the lawn and the landscaping at no charge. You could learn to love this neighbor, but this would be a grave mistake.

This home has a history as unforgettable as it is undeniable. Many generations have lived and died within its walls and many of those who died linger beyond the grave to dwell there still. Stop in for a weekend of mystery and fun. Thrill to the unexplained thumps, taps and footsteps. Marvel at the passing cold in the heat of a southern summer. Is it your imagination? Or is it the Immaculate?

On the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year of the eleventh holy epoch, he killed God. First, you're probably asking, “Why eleven?” Second you're probably asking, “God with a capital ‘G'?” Of the first question, the killer would only say “because”. It's what the Big Guy wanted. Of the second question, the killer would answer “yes”. God with a capital ‘G'. Some say God is sleeping. Some say God is dead. In this story, the protagonist kills God with his bare hands.

Nightland resides within an extraordinary region of time and space bound only by limits of sheer imagination. Its ephemeral pinnacles soar near the apex of human aspiration while its abysmal valleys plunge deeply into the darkest landscapes of global apocalypse. It is alternately violently wild and oppressively regimented. Nightland is older than all of recorded human history and it is many things to come. Remember the past with a robust, bloody gaze when you read “Saga of the Never Seen” and “The Templar Chalice”. Linger there awhile to ponder a few of our most disturbing ancestors...

While waiting for his wife to finish shopping, he stumbles across a strangely ornate spiral stairway hidden away at the back of the local mall. Bored, he decides to descend a flight or two to examine the strange window displays arranged along its outer wall. With each downward step, he realizes the displays progressively reflect history long since passed. Intrigued, he delves deeper and deeper into the stairwell's many mysteries. Has he gone too far? It's a deep, dark hole hidden away at the back of a suburban sanctuary. Lured by its presence, he loses his sense of time and then he loses ...

Though doting parents often teach their children the futility of violence, every rational human being also understands the hypocrisy inherent in such lessons, since life surrounds us with countless examples of practical solutions wrought in savagery. While each act of brutality inevitably debases all humankind, a maladjusted minority also recognize in it a tempting potential to make quick return on a prized reward. Perspective, then, becomes a matter of outcomes. Most of us will experience violence demeaning; few of us will know violence redeeming. Journey into the surreal and mysterious in...

The lumps on Tuggle Imp’s head will soon converge atop his dented skull. After eons of review, he suspects this merger will correspond to a portentous lunar alignment. Such coincidence has happened from time to time throughout his centuries-long interment in hell, but Tuggle believes this particular conjunction will mark the location of a redeeming auspice hidden somewhere among purgatory’s endless acres. Provided that he stands in the right spot at the right time, of course, so the two lumps conjoin within the divot’s cup to complete an obvious triangulation. Yet trials of perdition ...

At the last stop for provisions before they make their climb into the snowy mountains of Colorado, the locals tease these teenaged tourists about their lack of preparation for such a cold and unforgiving frontier. Though they scoff, these unfortunate youths will soon learn why the old-timers claim that the mountains sometimes keep their dead. When they put out the 'TIRE CHAINS' signs, beware. It's not just the ice, it's the snow, too.

Wealthy and bored, this unique human being has discovered an unusual way to pass the time of day. His story will both amuse and disturb you, for you might at one time or another become the victim of his elaborate pranks. This is the story of an ordeal he calls his “Dumping Game”. As its name implies, it begins with garbage and ends with garbage, but its ultimate goal is the destruction of human lives and the dismantlement of otherwise happy families. Depending upon your own disposition, you will love him or hate him. One thing is certain, however… he loathes you! Follow along as the ...

She is the most devestating weapon known to a galaxy filled with violence, and tonight she has come to Planet Earth aboard an alien spacecraft. To save us all. The key to unlocking this mysterious device is a naive, unassuming young cheerleader named Dee. Selected among the dwindling remnants of a population in the last throes of extinction, she alone has the power to control the terrible entity known as "Super B**ch".

It shapes our cosmos by confining the stars and is, perhaps, the interstellar sire of human spawn. Within each mind Dark Matter abides, the primordial ancestor of all things chaotic, violent and destructive. Gravitational and inert, it unyieldingly obsesses our most deviant desires while alternately flinging our most violent impulses into the fringes of destructive behavior. Take time to embrace the Dark Matter of life, if only because it is utterly inescapable. Explore the horror of contemporary darkness when you read “Ogre”, “Cassandra's Cat”, “Redemption”, “King Charlemagne...

Forty years a soldier. Forty years a spy. Forty years an international trafficker of weapons and drugs. All, the accomplishments of one nameless man, a “spook”. From the frozen highlands of Korea, through the sweltering hinterlands of Vietnam, into the arid wastes of Afghanistan and Iraq, then across the Atlantic to the oppressive deserts of Mexico, his career followed an opium highway through the highlights of modern history. His perspective will change you. With all the powerful innovations of modern technology, no nation on Earth has succeeded in closing its borders to the illegal ...

Humankind totters on the brink of extinction. Soon, a superior alien race will dominate Earth. Our greatest hope lies within the ranks of an elite cadre of anonymous combatants called Ghost Warriors. He is of that number. All but mortally wounded, he has crawled into a hidden hole to heal. When he rises again, alien blood will flow! He’s the last survivor. And he's pissed!

This particular corporal served all four years of the bloodiest war in European history, many of them as a message runner - one of the most dangerous and elite jobs of trench-bound combat. By all accounts, he was a strange young man with many strange ideas. He loved the war and thought it the best time of his life. To be sure, he would survive when so many around him perished, but how? He should have died a thousand times, but nobody could kill him. Only he could do that for himself.

This course provides a detailed executive-level review of contemporary topics in supervised machine learning theory with specific focus on predictive modeling and linear regression. The ideal student is a technology professional with a basic working knowledge of machine learning theory. Additionally, to better inform the interested student, the final lesson of this course presents samples in Python describing the essential implementation of described regression methods.

The universe is a strange, all but impenetrable mystery. Every scientific advance sponsors countless new questions, and every new explanation spawns immeasurable unknowns. How can dinosaurs of all kinds and from all epochs of evolution suddenly and randomly appear all over the world? What would you do with a tyrannosaurus peering through your bedroom window? How would you deal with pterosaurs soaring above your roof? His is an unpredictable world surrounding an entirely too predictable suburban neighborhood. Then everything changes. One thing is certain, during a plague of prehistoric ...

Calamity often follows a violent shout, but we have more to fear from the occasional wee, wicked whisper. This is the medium of humanity’s most despicable tongue, for a quick whisper is the requisite mode of lies, the self-serving gloat of torment, the insidious confidence of slander, and the preferred protocol of psychosis. Lovers reveal their most intimate and personal secrets on a breathless hiss, while murderous psychopaths use the same hushed voice to lure intended victims. Listen to the wicked whispers of vain success in “Ravenous Is the Void” and “She Comes, the Devil”. ...

If you had known him as a young man, you would not be surprised to learn that he ended up on the coroner's slab with a bullet hole in his forehead. Yet if you knew him as a man, this is the last fate you would imagine for him. This is one man's tale of the grave, of how he avoided it for so long, and of how he came to it in the end. We all got it coming. The start doesn't always dictate the end, but the end is certain, nonetheless.