Showing results by narrator "Gary Bennett" in All Categories

Two days after Christmas, 2011, Russel Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri, home to find his wife, Betsy, dead, a knife still lodged in her neck. She had been stabbed 55 times in a brutal murder that would set off a chain of events leading to one man's wrongful conviction and imprisonment, another man's death, the revelation of a diabolical scheme, and an astounding miscarriage of justice left unresolved for another 10 years.

Trapped in a distant galaxy run by magic instead of technology? Check. Kidnapped by space pirates and alien slave traders? Check. Nearly eaten by wild dragons in gladiatorial combat? Check. Locked in an interstellar war spanning galaxies? Check. Charlie had faced it all, and yet somehow he and his friends had managed to come out on top. But now, at the peak of his powers, something new was coming over the horizon, and it was a threat the likes of which he’d never imagined. Facing a desperate struggle against all odds, Charlie found himself forced to dig deeper than ever before.

Kincaid, a journeyman carpenter with artistic skills not seen in generations, discovers his shop is on the wrong side of underworld loans. In a blast of unknown and untamed power to protect those he loves, Kincaid changed his bright future in the Carpentry Guild to a dank prison beyond the laws of the city. Thrust into city politics, Kincaid faces impossible choices to escape to save his loved ones or embrace being a pawn in the games of political power. All the while a whispering voice invades his thoughts, pushing him to become the Chronomancer. 

Maggie Trousdale has been vice president for only 48 hours before she’s thrust into the executive office. As smoke rises over Turkey from the wreckage of the former president’s plane, America demands answers. Nobody knows what brought the aircraft down, Turkey has restricted all access to the crash site, and the White House is in chaos. But as the nation unravels, President Trousdale discovers a cryptic message left by her recently deceased predecessor. The attack on Air Force One may not have been a matter of foreign aggression.

Hope is much more than wishful thinking. Science tells us that it is the most predictive indicator of well-being in a person's life. Hope is measurable. It is malleable. And it changes lives. In Hope Rising, Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman reveal the latest science of hope using nearly 2,000 published studies, including their own research. Based on their findings, they make an impassioned call for hope to be the focus not only of our personal lives, but of public policy for education, business, social services, and every part of society. 

Zee and his friends didn’t expect that after they survived recovering the legendary First Player’s Sword that OVR World Online would announce it to the whole world. Even though no one knows about the secrets that the Sword protects it’s still a powerful one-of-a-kind game item that everyone wants. To make matters worse, they’ve reached Level 5 and the party has to depart the Orientation Zone. Outside of the OZ, Player-vs-Player combat isn’t just allowed, it’s encouraged. 

It was looking like Lady Luck had quite a grudge against him. In fact, at this point merely crashing the multi-billion-dollar ship he had helped design would have felt like winning the lottery compared to his current dilemma. If only he were so lucky. Things had started off all right - that is, until a freak wormhole unexpectedly swallowed his ship, leaving him stranded on an unknown planet far, far from home.

Backed by Russian airpower, Syria has begun an operation to push Turkish troops out of Northern Syria. Despite US efforts not to get dragged into the conflict, the US 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines "Lava Dogs", find their hilltop combat outpost encircled and their Kurdish allies under siege. Further west, a Syrian armored advance across the border into Turkey pivots, threatening US troops at the Turkish and NATO airbase of Incirlik. But will Syria be satisfied with reclaiming its northern border region, or is the operation just the first move in a bolder plan to regain lost territories?

Aidan Marlowe is the superstitious type. He's been playing the same lottery numbers for fifteen years, never hitting the jackpot. Until now. On the day of his wife's funeral. Aidan struggles to cope with these two sudden extremes: instant wealth beyond his imagination and the loss of the only woman he's ever loved, the mother of his twin children. But the money gives him and his kids options they didn't have before. They can leave everything behind. They can start a new life in a new town. So they do. 

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.

Acclaimed in her own time for her short story “The Lottery” and her novel The Haunting of Hill House - classics ranking with the work of Edgar Allan Poe - Shirley Jackson blazed a path for contemporary writers with her explorations of evil, madness, and cruelty. Soon after her untimely death in 1965, Jackson’s children discovered a treasure trove of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, many of which are brought together in this remarkable collection.  

Charlie had already managed to overcome alien mercenaries in two galaxies, miraculously saving his own neck as well that those of his dear friends. But things were getting complicated, and fast. Very, very complicated, in fact. With their forces in the dark as to the true nature of their enemy, Charlie and his band of rebel pirates and resistance fighters would have to dig deep if they hoped to find a way to overcome the deadly foe.

Friends and comrades had put their lives on the line, defending not only their homes and loved ones, but their galaxy as well. Both galaxies, to be exact. And more than a few had paid the ultimate price. Now the threat of a massive war spilling over between both realms had gone from a vague threat to a deadly reality, and facing Visla Dominus’s incredible power, Charlie and his friends were forced to call in every favor they were owed. 

Charlie had a constant companion everywhere he went. Unfortunately, its name was trouble. Space portals to another galaxy were just the beginning of the worries piled high on Charlie's plate. Not only was he facing a hostile band of alien mercenaries, hell-bent on capturing his home and enslaving his people, but now, it seemed, there was something more afoot. With his homeworld, solar system, and even the entire galaxy at risk, Charlie and the great AI minds of Earth had to make a decision.

When your luck just plain sucks in not one galaxy, but two, most people would throw in the towel. But not Charlie. In fact, it almost seemed like he was a glutton for that sort of misery. His friends were spread across two distant galaxies, separated by a heavily guarded magical portal and struggling to deal with a war now spilling over into both the technological realm as well as the magical one. And it was beginning to look like they’d reached their breaking point. But Charlie wasn’t about to give up, nor would he give in.

Transcend your fear of negative cards with this beginner-friendly guide to the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot. Using his engaging and easy-going style, Elliot Adam teaches you how to move through the shadows and into the light no matter what card you pull. We've all been there: hoping for the best as we draw a card...but oh no, it's the Devil! This book shows you that fear won't prevail - every card can become something positive.

This life-changing book goes far beyond simple money magic. This is a tome of true financial sorcery that will show you how to ensure success no matter what life throws at you. Financial Sorcery will give you the step-by-step instructions on how to improve your fiscal situation. 

Silence Jones is the legendary assassin feared by the criminal world, a righteous vigilante backed by a covert group hidden deep within U.S. government. Yet even legends have their beginnings….

There is no shortage of spells out there. Some books highlight thousands of spells, but do any of them actually work? And how well do they work? I don't mean just getting a result - I mean getting a result that matters, a result that will impact your life or the lives of those you work for. The Elements of Spellcrafting provides the most effective and efficient ways to get things done with magic, identifying and explaining 21 keys to successful sorcery - a best practices of sorcery.

There are some books on magick that teach it purely as spiritual advancement. There are others that teach it as a form of psychological self-help that effects only inner change. While magick can and should be both of these, it is something more. The Sorcerer's Secrets is about success in practical magick; it is a book that aims at change in both the outer and inner worlds. Beyond a mere spell book or training course, The Sorcerer's Secrets is a field manual on successful sorcery written by a professional sorcerer.