Showing results by narrator "Brian Nishii" in All Categories

A cyber-dystopian thriller unlike any other. In a near-future Tokyo, every action - from blinking to sexual intercourse - is intellectual property owned by corporations that charge licensing fees. A BodyBank computer system implanted in each citizen records their movements from moment to moment and connects them to the audio-visual overlay of the ImmaNet so that every inch of this cyber-dystopian metropolis crawls with information and shifting cinematic promotainment.

The world of shinobi and samurai is his new home, but there is something that threatens the new life he hopes to build. An assassin. And Andy knows her identity, but he needs proof. In order to stop the assassin, he'll need to progress further than ever before in the art of the shinobi and in the magic of the beast shamans.

Adults wage war, while children are unwitting victims, pulled into a maelstrom of fear and hate without any choice. This is a story about two groups of teenagers on opposite sides of the world, forever connected by an act of war. It is a story about the adults some of those teens became, forever connected by acts of forgiveness, understanding, and peace. And it is a story about one remarkable man, whose heart belonged to both America and Japan, who put that peace and understanding in motion.

The universe shifts and changes: suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with wonder. That moment of understanding drives the greatest science-fiction stories and lies at the heart of Engineering Infinity. Whether it's coming up hard against the speed of light - and with it the enormity of the universe, realizing that terraforming a distant world is harder and more dangerous than you'd ever thought, or simply realizing that a hitchhiker on a starship consumes fuel and oxygen with tragic results, it's hard science-fiction where a sense of discovery is most often found and where science-fiction's true heart lies.

Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-war Japan. Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan's largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company's corrupt financiers.

Japan faces Korea in the World Baseball Classic at Dodger Stadium, and curmudgeonly gardener Mas Arai finds himself embroiled in a murder. A Japanese tabloid writer drops dead on the field, and Mas gave the victim his last drink. It turns out there's more at stake than a baseball championship - international diplomacy depends upon uncovering secrets buried decades ago.

The island city-state of Singapore harbors unique customs and traditions largely unknown to the West. A booming economy and embrace of conformity overshadow its gambling dens, red-light districts, and a collective passion for ghostly and gory tales. Now, in Singapore Noir, some of its best contemporary authors delve into its seedy side.

Award-winning poet Brandon Shimoda has crafted a lyrical portrait of his paternal grandfather, Midori Shimoda, whose life - child migrant, talented photographer, suspected enemy alien and spy, desert wanderer, American citizen - mirrors the arc of Japanese America in the 20th century. In a series of pilgrimages, Shimoda records the search to find his grandfather and unfolds, in the process, a moving elegy on memory and forgetting.

It’s the night of senior prom, and eighteen-year-old Julia has made a pact with her friends. (Yes, that kind of pact.) They have secured a secluded cabin in the woods, one night without parental supervision, and plenty of condoms. But as soon as they leave the dance, the pact begins to unravel. Alex’s grandmother is undergoing emergency surgery, and he and his date rush to the hospital. Zoe’s trying to figure out how she feels about getting off the waitlist at Yale―and how to tell her girlfriend.

Okano, a convenience store employee with a troubled past, is but one of the many unforgettable characters found in this collection of four stories. Among the others are three boys facing a frightening lesson in mortality, a woman using garbage to fill a hole in her heart, and a nurse struggling to cope with the oft-brutal cycle of birth, life, and death. Remaining constant even as it fades in and out of view is the great Mount Fuji, one of Japan’s Three Holy Mountains. It serves as the anchor for these characters’ lives, and for Randy Taguchi’s Fujisan, an exploration of redemption, discovery, loss, and remembrance.

A stray kitty gets a job in a sumo stable, chasing mice in exchange for food. But when eating like a sumo wrestler slows our feline hero down, he realizes he must train like a wrestler, too. Through hard work and perseverance - and with a little help from a big buddy - SumoKitty is born! A funny and heartwarming story inspired by the Japanese saying, "Fall down seven times, stand up eight."

Detective Masuto investigates a Hollywood kidnapping that leads to a shocking conspiracy. Angel is Hollywood royalty. Her husband, Mike Barton, is one of the silver screen’s most bankable stars, and their marriage has all the hallmarks of a Beverly Hills fairy tale. But everything about Angel’s past is kept secret, including her real name. When reporters ask why Mike dubbed her Angel, she says that she must have fallen from heaven. No one knows where Angel Barton is from, and now no one knows where she has gone.

Returning from a funeral, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Briggs find their Beverly Hills mansion ransacked. As they wait for the police, they discover something unusual: Despite the chaos, nothing appears to be missing - a fact that greatly interests Beverly Hills police detective Masao Masuto. But the Zen detective only has a few minutes to ponder the strange break-in before a murder intervenes. The victim is Ivan Gaycheck, a stamp dealer whom Masuto remembers for his stout frame and unplaceable accent.

Detective Masuto reopens an investigation into a murderous film star - with deadly consequences… On the day that Eve Mackenzie murders her husband, Masao Masuto is on a plane to Japan. For years he and his wife, both American-born Japanese, have dreamed of visiting their homeland, and though the trip is a delight, the Zen Buddhist detective cannot help but check the international papers for news of murder on his home turf of Beverly Hills. Part of him regrets missing the sensational Mackenzie killing.

DR. JESSICA CORAN A brilliant and determined FBI medical examiner, she was an expert student of the criminal mind who thought she could face anything. That was before Wisconsin. Before she saw one of his victims... THE VAMPIRE KILLER The FBI agent had a special code name for his unusual method of torture: Tort 9, the draining of the victims blood. The newspapers called him the Vampire-Killer. But his own twisted love letters were signed "Teach"... and were addressed to the one woman he wanted most of all: His hunter, his prey, Dr. Jessica Coran.

A collection of 15 beloved Chinese myths, legends, and folktales that are rich in tradition and culture. Each story transports the listener back to ancient times and is filled with excitement, adventure, magic, and laughter.

Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has given up the final piece of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, in order to save everyone she loves from imminent death. Now she and her ragtag band of companions must journey to the wild sea cliffs of Iwagoto in a desperate last-chance effort to stop the Master of Demons from calling upon the Great Kami dragon and making the wish that will plunge the empire into destruction and darkness.

Wang Xiaobo's Pleasure of Thinking is an essay collection as riotous as it is contemplative. Between rollicking anecdotes about living between the East and West and serious musings on the intellectual situations at home and abroad, Xiaobo examines modern life with the levity missing from so much of today's politico-cultural discourse.

Deep in the Kunlun Hills lives a deer whose fur has nine colors. One day she hears a cry for help and discovers a man drowning. Then, leaping from wave to wave, she saves him. When the man asks how he could ever repay this kindness, the Nine Color Deer simply requests that the man never reveal her whereabouts. Will he be able to keep his promise when the King and Queen offer a reward to anyone who can locate the Nine Color Deer? Inspired by a 1,500-year-old mural in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, Kailin Duan brings listeners a beautiful story about the power of kindness.

The first book in the brand-new series from New York Times best-selling author Julie Kagawa. Enter a beautiful and perilous land of shape-shifters and samurai, kami and legends, humans and demons...a world in which Japanese mythology and imagination blend together. When destiny calls, legends rise. Every millennium the missing pieces of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers are hunted, for they hold the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for any one wish.