Epic Survival Stories

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “entertaining [and] often-moving account” (The Wall Street Journal) of the remarkable POWs whose relentlessly creative attempts to escape a notorious Nazi prison embodied the spirit of resistance against fascism, from the author of The Spy and the Traitor...

"Epic" is a mountaineering term that evokes a sense of treacherous disaster. The climb that went wrong: fighting blinding snowstorms and horrific avalanches; days spent tentbound running low on food, water, and oxygen; surviving broken bones and shattered spirits. This program offers a collection of the most memorable accounts of legend-making expeditions to the world's most famous peaks, often in the worst possible conditions.

All her life, Katherine Keith has hungered for remote, wild places that fill her soul with freedom and peace. Her travels take her across America, but it is in the vast and rugged landscape of Alaska that she finds her true home. Alaska is known as a place where people disappear - at least a couple thousand go missing each year. But the same vast and rugged landscape that contributed to so many people being lost is precisely what has gotten her found.

“A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whew—what an utterly...

This intimate true account of Americans at war follows theepic drama of an unlikely group of men forced to work together in the face of an increasingly desperate enemy during the final year of World War II. Sprawling across the Pacific, this untold story follows the crew of the newly-built...

Sisters Lu and Min have always known their places as the princesses of the Empire of the First Flame: assertive Lu will be named her father's heir and become the dynasty's first female ruler while timid Min will lead a quiet life in Lu's shadow. Until their father names their male cousin Set his heir instead, sending ripples through the realm and throwing both girls' lives into utter chaos. Determined to reclaim her birthright, Lu has no choice but to go on the run, leaving Min to face the volatile court alone.

In the early years of the 18th century, a band of French scientists set off on a daring, decade-long expedition to South America in a race to measure the precise shape of the earth. Like Lewis and Clark's exploration of the American West, their incredible mission revealed the mysteries of a little-known continent to a world hungry for discovery. Scaling 16,000-foot mountains in the Peruvian Andes, and braving jaguars, pumas, insects, and vampire bats in the jungle, the scientists barely completed their mission.

An old-fashioned quest by a modern-day adventurer. When A. J. Mackinnon quits his job in Australia, he knows only that he longs to travel to the well at the world’s end, a mysterious pool on a remote Scottish island whose waters, legend has it, hold the secret to eternal youth.

Hunters of the guild wait all year for the Festival of Knives, when they put their skills to the test and claim new ranks with every fiend they slay. Trapped helping the family business instead of pursuing his own career, Trellin has never been allowed to participate. But when he risks expulsion to sneak out and claim a kill beyond his rank, his hunt is spotted by a senior guildmember. Rather than turn him in, she offers him a chance for freedom: Join her, and sail to the distant isle of Deldynne to compete in the bloody race for the rank of Guildmaster.

Twice-orphaned Sylvi has chipped out a niche for herself on Layce, an island cursed by eternal winter. Alone in her truck, she takes comfort in two things: the solitude of the roads and the favor of Winter, an icy spirit who has protected her since she was a child.

After escaping the Vault, a prison for gods, twin siblings Preeti and Vineet make a desperate journey to another world: The Abyss, also known as the human world. The Abyss is nothing like they imagined, and soon they find that they may like it more than the world of the gods, especially when relationships form with their human friends. Three years are all they have to hide from the Goddess of Law, a woman determined to either imprison or kill the twins and take their spot as rulers of the gods.

Charlotte has spent her whole life fighting the British Empire, following in the footsteps of her parents and their group of rebels. But when her reunion with her mother laid bare horrible truths about the rebellion, Charlotte knew she had to escape. Now she is on the run, with no idea who the enemy is - or which of her compatriots is truly on her side.

When two servants of evil escape during young Roland’s watch, he is driven by his own shame and vanity to take up his axes and track them down himself. Raised on the rural edges of Gallhallad, can he survive the dangers and complexity of the road ahead? With the help of his lifelong friend Eldryn, the Cavalier hopeful, and an uneasy bargain with a dagger wielding cutpurse, Roland pursues a wizard of unknown powers and a woman of uncommon beauty and skill.

Car-En, a ringstation anthropologist on her first Earth field assignment, observes a Viking-like village in the Harz mountains. As Car-En secretly observes the Happdal villagers, she begins to see them as more than research subjects (especially Esper, a handsome bowhunter). When Esper’s sister is taken by an otherwordly sword-wielding white-haired man, she can no longer stand by as a passive witness. Knowing the decision might end her career, she cuts off communication with her advisor and pursues the abductor into the mountains.

Ella's life could not have been duller. She works, she breathes, and she follows the rules. But once she's swept off her feet by the mysterious and alluring Eireden, Ella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn as she becomes enmeshed in a deadly, magical game where lives and hidden kingdoms hang in the balance and where no one asks who she is. Instead they wonder what she is. To be precise, she is bait.

The war of the wizards has ended. What will happen to the golden fairies now? They were enslaved for six years and forced to create golden wands for the Zandles. Will the Ardoors be any different? In any case, without their magic, their lights are fading fast. And without their freedom, death is imminent....

Renata was only a child when she was kidnapped by the King's Justice and brought to the luxurious palace of Andalucia. As a memory thief, the rarest and most feared of the magical Moria, Renata was used by the crown to carry out the King's Wrath, a siege that resulted in the deaths of thousands of her own people. Now Renata is one of the Whispers, rebel spies working against the crown. The Whispers may have rescued Renata years ago, but she cannot escape their mistrust and hatred - or the overpowering memories of the hundreds of souls she drained during her time in the palace.

In the lawless aftermath of a collapsed galactic empire, survival belongs to the cunning, the ruthless, and—rarely—the honorable. Commodore Gideon Adira, heir to a once-noble house now struggling for relevance, leads a fragile convoy of merchant starships through hostile star lanes to deliver food to the starving millions aboard the crumbling space city of Albion. The task is noble. The risks are immense. Pirates lurk behind every asteroid. Treacherous rival houses scheme for control. And worse still, an old enemy is on the hunt.

Warring countries, fantastical creatures, beings of terrible power, and journeys of epic scale. The legendary Book of Alcherys tells wild and unimaginable stories. But they are not mere fairy tales. They are true, every word. Callista Nienna is strong and independent, but nothing could have prepared her for civilization being brought to a violent end. Now, she is forced to stay alive in a desolate wilderness with only her closest friend for support.

Sixteen years ago, a volcanic eruption changed the world forever. A small group of survivors escaped on a cruise ship called the Catalina ahead of a choking cloud of ash. Since then, they have been surviving at sea, drifting until the land becomes safe again. The adventure continues in Seaswept, the heart-stopping second book in the Seabound Chronicles.