Showing results by narrator "John Keating" in All Categories

On Gwyn's ninth birthday, his grandmother tells him he may be a magician, like his Welsh ancestors. She gives him five gifts to help him - a brooch, a piece of dried seaweed, a tin whistle, a scarf, and a broken toy horse. One blustery day, unsure what to do with his newfound magic, Gwyn throws the brooch to the wind and receives a silvery snow spider in return. Will he be able to use this special spider to bring his missing sister, Bethan, home?

When a tiny fish shoots into view wearing a round blue topper (which happens to fit him perfectly), trouble could be following close behind.

Splat is trying hard to be good before Santa's arrival, but he just keeps messing up. Join the fun and find out if all his hard work will be enough for him to get the presents he dreams of.

Celebrate 250 years of Guinness! There is no other company, industry, or premises more closely aligned - indeed almost synonymous—with its hometown than Guinness’s St. James’s Gate Brewery and the city of Dublin.

Inside his home in Derry, Joe Logan's life is ruled by his tormented father; outside, by the tension and violence of the Troubles. Sometimes his father makes him run errands despite the nearby reports of gunfire. Other times his mother, afraid to be alone with her volatile and war-wounded husband, confines Joe to the home. A bright and sensitive young man, Joe finds solace and freedom in writing - a pursuit encouraged by Kathleen Doherty, a young teacher at a nearby school whom he meets and befriends.

Here's the story of an intrepid knight, only our narrator can't quite remember the details. Did that knight carry a sandwich or a sword? Was he supposed to fight a cat or a dragon? A hilarious and unpredictable adventure ensues, building through laugh-out-loud rhymes until, at last, the narrator remembers his own role at the center of all the marvelous madness.

Funny Business is based around the theme of - what else - humor, and if you’re familiar with Jon and Guys Read, you already know what you’re in store for: an hilarious story.

Gwyn can feel danger coming in the wind. Somehow, he knows the warnings have to do with the broken toy horse that holds the evil spirit of a prince who lived long ago. When Gwyn discovers that the prince's dark soul has escaped from the horse and is seeking revenge, Gwyn, Emlyn, and Nia have to figure out how to save the mysterious soldier who claims to be Nia's distant cousin. With the hlep of the Snow Spider, can they recapture the prince's soul without hurting the Chestnut Soldier?

Set five centuries after meteorites cause a cataclysm known as the Ruin, Cloudwalkers tells the story of Conn Brataich, a young man who lives a privileged life above the cloudbank, relying on his noble heritage - and the abilities it provides - to guide him through his beautiful but treacherous realm in the New York skylands, and Misty Casper, a Grounder who lives an arduous and somber life hundreds of feet below in the former subway tunnels of crumbling midtown Manhattan. Their two cultures live in uneasy, segregated codependence.

Eighteen years have passed since the rebellion within the Order. The once peaceful kingdom is now in turmoil, and its citizens seek a savior. Emerging from the shadows, a dangerous man sets his master plan in motion - one that will elevate him to the highest political position in the realm and give him power over the masses. Only the prophet and the rest of the Order stand in his way.

When John Glass's billionaire father-in-law hires him to write his biography, he feels he can't refuse. Then his research assistant on the book discovers some very sensitive information about John's in-laws, and is murdered before he can tell anyone what he knows. John is on his own to find out the young man's secret, before the murderer finds him.

Imagine an Age of Exploration full of alchemy, human dissection, sea monsters, betrayal, torture, religious controversy, and magic. In Europe, the magic is thin, but at the edge of the world, where the stars reach down close to the Earth, wonders abound. This drives the bravest explorers to the alluring Western Ocean. Christopher Sinclair is an alchemist who cares only about one thing: quintessence, a substance he believes will grant magical powers and immortality. And he has a ship....

The great warrior Bran has been called home from the battlefield to his mother's deathbed, where he vows to solve the strange mystery surrounding what fatally attacked her in the night. He travels to the Crossroads, seeking the wise counsel of Talhaiarn, high priest and advisor to his clan, where he learns similar attacks have been reported by clans to the north and east.

For fans of Tune In, an anthology of essays from 30 luminaries about their favorite Beatles songs. Blauner anthologizes essays from 30 authors, actors, and musicians reflecting on their favorite Beatles songs, creating a monument to the enduring impact of the most popular band of all time. The diversity of favorite tracks and the variety of reasons contributors love them speak to the range of the Beatles' song catalog and the power their music still has more than 50 years after they arrived in the United States.

"Taking on PJ" is a short story from the collection Dublin Noir. Brand new stories by: Ken Bruen, Eoin Colfer, Jason Starr, Laura Lippman, Olen Steinhauer, Peter Spiegelman, Kevin Wignall, Jim Fusilli, John Rickards, Patrick J. Lambe, Charlie Stella, Ray Banks, James O. Born, Sarah Weinman, Pat Mullan, Gary Phillips, Craig McDonald, Duane Swierczynski, Reed Farrel Coleman, and others.Irish crime-fiction sensation Ken Bruen and cohorts shine a light on the dark streets of Dublin.

A Red Peace, first in Spencer Ellsworth's Starfire trilogy, is an action-packed space opera in a universe where the oppressed half-Jorian crosses have risen up to supplant humanity and dominate the galaxy. Half-breed human star navigator Jaqi, working the edges of human-settled space on contract to whoever will hire her, stumbles into possession of an artifact that the leader of the Rebellion wants desperately enough to send his personal guard after. An interstellar empire and the fate of the remnant of humanity hang in the balance.

The Castaways finds Tom Tin and four other convicts drifting on the ocean when they come upon an empty ship. Shortly after, they also encounter two men who appear to be refugees from the abandoned vessel. But these two are not what they seem, and they become an obstacle for Tom as he travels home.

In the aftermath of the Battle of the Crossroads, Bran convinces the few warriors who remain to gather their families and live as one clan under his leadership. Together they abandon their villages and unite under a new sigil - the Sacred Oak of the Crossroads - no longer referring to themselves as Easterners, Northerners, or Southerners but simply as "Oaks."

The last of the Romans have left Britannia, leaving greedy and ruthless men to seize power and rip the land asunder. Without the discipline of Rome to stop them, relentless Picts come down from the North to raid her settlements while boatloads of Saxons sail west from Germania to pillage her shores. Grown soft with nearly five generations of Roman order, most men in Brython are unable to defend their homes against the ever-growing threats from all sides. But there is hope.

Lenard Sikophsky’s father has been feeding him plutonium since the age of six in the hopes of making him the world’s first bona fide superhero. First, he must pass the unusual tests of manhood locked in the centuries old tomb, The Manaton, a secret relic passed down for generations. Falling in love with the beautiful, compulsively suicidal Laura Moskowitz doesn’t make his life any easier.