Showing results by narrator "Dave Cruse" in All Categories

Arrogant. Scornful. Full of pride. Darnuir, prince of dragons, cares nothing for the damage he's doing to the faltering alliance against the Shadow. He thinks himself invincible - right up till a mortal wound forces him to undergo a dangerous rebirthing spell, leaving him a helpless babe in human hands. Twenty years pass and demonic forces are poised to sweep across the land. With the alliance between humanity, dragons, and fairies fracturing, Darnuir will have to uncover the secrets of his past, seek redemption for his sins, and rally the disparate races if they are to survive.

Jack Reilly’s luck ran out just before the war did. Released on a medical discharge shortly after the end of the war with the Serkins, he went out into the galaxy looking for a job. Signing onto the Glacier Runner 17, an old and rundown cargo ship, Rielly finds himself working for a clueless captain, mixed-up in an intergalactic conspiracy, on the run from assassins, and involved with two women in relationships that he could only call "complicated".

Dragons once soared in the skies, but that was before the Transformation, before they took human form. Now, demonic forces stand to obliterate them. When left mortally wounded, Darnuir, the Prince of Dragons, can only be saved through a dangerous rebirthing spell. He is left as a babe in human hands. Twenty years later, Darnuir is of age to wield the Dragon's Blade. As the last member of his bloodline, he is the only one who can. He is plunged into a role he is not prepared for, to lead a people he does not know.

The difference in their uncanny eyes could not be easily discerned. In the rays of the setting sun, both Aravel's and Morlan's eyes appeared gold. In the pale moonlight...yellow. Seemingly the same. Such inscrutable likeness is the way of things with identical twins. But all who knew the two brothers well noted unmistakable differences, peculiarities more experienced than seen. 

The Three Races must work together if they are to survive, but they have another problem - Castallan. The traitorous wizard has raised a deadly rebellion, and declared himself King of Humans. He believes himself safe in the bowels of his impenetrable Bastion fortress, but Darnuir, now King of Dragons, intends to break those walls at all costs. To face these threats, all dragons, humans, and fairies must truly unite; yet old prejudices may undermine Darnuir's efforts, once again.

It had been ten years since Roy came to New Terra. At the conclusion of the great interstellar war against the Serpent People, Roy went from being an ace fighter pilot to a simple farmer, married to his beloved wife Katreena and father to their three beautiful children. He had discovered a happiness that he had long given up on having again in his lifetime. However, their lives were overshadowed by a dark prophesy.

The 1950s marked a transformative period in postwar American history. In baseball, one dynasty was the story during the decade. The New York Yankees played in eight World Series from 1950 to 1959, winning six of them. Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio retired following the 1951 season, but a new superstar, Mickey Mantle, took over in Yankee Stadium’s center field in 1952. Mantle, the powerful switch-hitter who blasted tape-measure home runs, often tortured by leg ailments, was the number one box office draw in baseball. 

His touch can heal or harm. His fate is solitary. His agony belongs to us all…He was born on a day of pain: November 22, 1963. He came of age in agony: that moment of tragedy when fun-loving rock-and-roll deejay Paul Handler discovered the inexplicable power in his own hands. It is the power to make the wounded whole again. The power to make the lame walk and to heal the sick. It is a power that will sap his soul and plunge him into the world of a famous faith healer. It is a power that can turn to rage, even murder. It is a gift that makes Paul Handler a living, breathing human sacrifice. For thousands of years, a secret cabal has guarded the lineage to which Paul is heir — scapegoats who have been forced to bear humanity's anguish upon themselves. Now, while the cabal searches for him, and one man seeks to destroy him, Paul makes a lonely, frightening journey to the core of his identity and to his destiny … to all the pain his soul can bear, to all the redemption he can give, to the freedom that is death.

Like a long night's slumber disturbed by disquieting dreams, 20 years have passed since Morlan Stormgarden's exile. The realm of Myriad waits in uncertain peace, for the Gray Hour Massacres remain unsolved. Tempted by the lure of adventure, High King Lochlan Stormgarden begins to ponder his royal destiny. A daring plan is hatched, the high king's throne is left vacant, and Lochlan meets Ariana Kurtz, who might be the love of his life if she doesn't kill him first.  

Lt. Reilly is back. He took the job that Mitchell offered him in the Military Investigations office on New Harmony, got his commission reinstated, and finally had a chance to figure out his relationship with Kayla. Yet one of his cases turned out to be much, much bigger than he expected it to be. He and Mitchell soon find themselves in the middle of a black-ops cover-up, intergalactic conspiracy and the beginnings of a new war that threatens to rip the Alliance apart from within.

For generations, a sentient AI watched over the world, solving all of humanity’s problems. It was an era of objectivity, social equality, and ecological recovery. It should have been a golden age. Now, three strangers are on a pilgrimage through the arid, lonely sagelands and underpopulated cities of the Systemic era to the seemingly innocuous town of Prower. There, they'll uncover the secrets that lay buried beneath the town and learn the truth about their half-remembered pasts. In the end, they'll choose between their sanity or solving humanity’s final, most intractable problem.

As winter wanes, the fragile bonds of the Three Races begin to break. With Darnuir recovering from his addiction, and Blaine reclusive in the hallways of his Order, it falls to Lira to manage the mounting tension between the humans and zealous dragons before catastrophe strikes from within the city walls. In Brevia, King Arkus unveils his new weapons to the Assembly of Lords, but is it a gift to his people or a threat? Cassandra fears the latter and vows to curb her father’s new unchecked power that she herself helped to create. 

Did you ever wake up wondering where you were…and perhaps equally important, how you got there? Yeah, me too. The only the thing is, it usually happens when I've been drinking…and I'd been dry for the better part of two years. I'm Commodore Jeremy David Riker…my friends call me JD or just plain “Dog.” I have the dubious honor of running a starship boneyard in the middle of nowhere. 

Fleeing the kingdom he once ruled, Lochlan Stormgarden leads the survivors of the Bloody Red Night across Myriad on a desperate quest for safety. With tyrannical High King Morlan's legions and the lethal bone ministers constantly dogging his steps, Lochlan discovers that the only refuge might be a legendary contagion-cursed fortress deep in the heart of the Gorrack nation.

Daniel Peterson's life was all planned out. His upcoming marriage would guarantee him the lifetime corner office in her father's firm, complete with the highest social standing, country club memberships...even golf lessons. But then the phone rang. It seems the father he never knew has passed away, leaving him a tidy inheritance. To claim it, Dan is tasked with scattering his father's ashes, but under the most bizarre conditions and circumstances he could possibly imagine.

An imperfect hero for an imperfect time. For generations, Riker men have been the best of the best. For the Battleborn that comes with a cost. I spit out the blood in my mouth. I had to give the other guy credit. That was a fine right hook. Every bit as good as my mom used to give me. Of course, the best right hooks were the ones I landed on the other guy rather than the ones the other guy landed on me. My dear departed mother had always taught me it was better to give than receive.

When journalist Liam "Mick" Murphy lies to the chief of police in order to get a story, he uncovers a conspiracy to smuggle a cheap, lethal, cocaine-based drug through Key West. Before long, local authorities, federal agents, and drug-cartel hit men are looking for Murphy because of what they think he knows. With help from an eclectic group of friends, including an old black-ops acquaintance from Central America, Murphy sets out to prove who's behind the smuggling plot.

I watched as the alien weapon’s neutronium hull fractured and then exploded. The antimatter-driven explosion engulfed the remaining three ships. Even neutronium is not impervious to antimatter. In one final act of love, my wife had saved us. A piece of my heart died that day in the Paradise system. In a way, the wound never healed. I learned to live with it. I raised our son as best I could. I carried out the mission. But I missed the woman who represented everything good in my life.

It’s odd the way some things work out. You expect to wake up dead, and instead, you wake up to the beautiful face of your wife. I was confused. I had died...or at least I sure as heck thought I had. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’ve been alive for a number of years now and to be honest...I’m quite fond of it. I just didn’t understand "how" I was alive. My name is Fleet Admiral Jeremy Riker...but my friends call me Dog. This is the rest of my story.

Pharmacology professor Miklos Rosen (now Michael Ross) retires from the world of academia in 1970 and opens a community pharmacy in a peaceful upstate New York town. He puts the horrific tragedies of his past behind him and finds serenity in his new life. That is, until he recognizes a customer as former Nazi SS officer Hans Stern....