Showing results by narrator "Neil Hellegers" in All Categories

During the pandemic, our homes and apartments have transported us to new places, different experiences, and changed our understanding of ourselves and others. This collection of 12 tales explores those journeys through the lens of fantasy and science fiction, accentuating the strange and unexpected to reveal the relatable, human dimensions of our continuing migration from what’s normal to a new normal...or even paranormal.

The events of Jive take place in a not-too-distant future where things have gone from bad to worse. After the pandemics (and yes, there will be more) came the Bloom, an invasion that arrived in a way that no one could have predicted. It was a genetic invasion, the ancient alien hidden in our DNA “blooming”, an event that killed a third of the world population (that’s over one billion) and mutated a third into something slightly “more” than human. They were a daunting presence - and they were in charge.

For teenagers Chris and Miles, working at the city zoo in the summer is a pretty sweet gig. They chase girls, smoke a little dope, and avoid thinking about their rapidly approaching futures. One is headed to college, and one to…who knows? But then the Zombie Apocalypse hits, and things get weird. Deadly animals, psychotic house painters, and a face-humping lemur named Sexy Rexy all get thrown into the mix, with plenty of laughs and chills to go around.

As it prepared to ward off an invasion by five well-equipped neighboring armies in 1948, newborn Israel lacked the weapons to defend itself. Enter Al Schwimmer, an American World War II veteran who feared a repeat of the Holocaust. He created factitious airlines, bought decommissioned airplanes from the US War Asset Administration, fixed them in California and New Jersey, and sent his pilots - Jewish and non-Jewish WWII aviators - to pick up rifles, bullets, and fighter planes from the only country willing to break the international arms embargo: communist Czechoslovakia.

A tale of Gilded Age corruption and greed from the frontier of Alaska to America's capital. In the feverish, money-making age of railroad barons, political machines, and gold rushes, corruption was the rule, not the exception. Yet the Republican mogul "Big Alex" McKenzie defied even the era's...

On the outskirts of a town too tired for its own happenings, the boys were found dead inside a tent. Three years later, their fathers have disappeared too. Ruth Fenn's son was the boy they blamed. For three years, Ruth has accepted her lot as pariah, focusing on her ailing mother and the children left in her care by the struggling single parents of North Falls, Vermont. But now the additional loss of her husband is too much to bear. As she edges closer to the truth, she begins to uncover some secrets that are better left buried.

This collection of 22 short stories by the author of Daughter of Hounds and Alabaster firmly established Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of the preeminent voices in dark fantasy today. Through a cycle of interconnected narratives, Kiernan unflinchingly explores a surreal world where the fantastic and the mundane are never separated by more than the insubstantial thickness of a shadow.

What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse.

In Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Ammonite Violin & Others, one of contemporary dark fantasy’s most bewitching and distinctive voices is back with another banquet of the weird and unexpected. Within this book, you’ll discover a dazzling suite of stories situated on the borderlands between the unspeakable and the erotic, the grotesque and the sublime.

In his Locus review of Two Worlds and in Between - the first volume of The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan - Gary K. Wolfe wrote, “...it makes you wish the second volume were here now.” Well, the long wait is over. This second volume completes this ambitious undertaking, collecting the finest of Kiernan’s stories from 2004 to 2012, selected by the author herself. The book includes 25 short stories and one poem, plus the short novel Black Helicopters - more than 200,000 words of fiction, including the World Fantasy Award-winning “The Prayer of 90 Cats”.

Telling the inspiring human story behind the creation of the Paralympics, this young listener's biography showcases a riveting narrative to honor the life of Ludwig Guttmann, whose work profoundly changed so many lives. Dedicating his life to helping patients labeled incurables, Ludwig Guttmann fought for the rights of paraplegics to live a full life. The young doctor believed - and eventually proved - that physical movement is key to healing, a discovery that led him to create the first Paralympic Games.

For centuries, a mysterious syndicate known as the Thirteen has staged a silent coup, infiltrating governments and manipulating the course of world events. It’s more powerful than any nation, deadlier than any army. The time has come for it to emerge from the shadows and claim the entire world as its own. And only FBI Special Agent James Mason and his longtime friends stand in its way. After narrowly preventing a global pandemic, Mason and his team discover an even deadlier threat has already been set into motion.

The renowned radio host and one of the most trusted voices in the nation candidly and compassionately addresses the hotly contested right-to-die movement, of which she is one of our most inspiring champions. The basis for the acclaimed PBS series. Through interviews with terminally ill patients...

Locked in his dark cell, Greg lay awake in bed, fidgeting with the small cassette recorder; he knew well enough no one was going to come looking for him - not while he was in between jobs, and had traveled to an undisclosed location without telling anyone. What brought him here were rumors of an abandoned building there that was said to be part of a black site. Questionable as the lead was, the story seemed too good for an amateur journalist like Greg to pass up. And that, thanks to a case of mistaken identity, he was now incarcerated there as an inmate.

The infamous 11th-century warrior Hexen Sabbath is plucked from death and certain damnation by a being claiming to be an angel of the Lord, and finds himself dropped into contemporary Manhattan with no clothes, no weapons, no resources, and one mission - to track down and kill the living personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins before they bring about Armageddon. With time running out and his only ally a destitute art gallery owner, Sabbath must fight his way through New York's elite and challenge the world's most powerful man.

A revealing audiobook about how government, law enforcement, and bureaucratic interests are seizing our property, our children, our savings, and our fundamental American rights—and how to fight back. Liberty and justice for all is the bedrock of American democracy, but has America betrayed our...

Years before his marriage to Olga Knipper and his self-imposed medical exile to Yalta, years before he even began writing the seminal works of dramatic literature for which he is renowned, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, to support his financially and physically struggling family, wrote stories...many, many stories. Starting in his early 20s, living in Moscow, he made a name for himself by capturing the peculiarities of Russian life through satire, humor, pathos, and passion. Myriad influences inspired his eventual words for the stage.

For too long, victims have been told to be quiet, to keep a secret, to be ashamed, to be blamed, and we now say, "No more." It is time to speak. It is time to form a chorus of voices that demand change. This anthology is a way to channel those experiences into something inspiring, moving, and encourages others to action.

Ted Finley is back on Earth, but humanity has lost control of the place he called home. With a world rendered unrecognizable by the power-hungry General, Ted and Erica have no choice but to look for reinforcements. But will the other conquered civilizations left in the dark souls' wake be enough to fight back? As the General continues to spread his evil across the Earth, there may only be one person who can keep him from taking over. Powerless and inexplicably alive, Dhiraj Patel remains unharmed behind enemy lines. Can he use his surprising influence to gain the upper hand?

New Pittsburgh, 1898 - A crucible of invention and intrigue. Born from the ashes of devastating fire, flood, and earthquake, the city is ruled by the shadow government of The Oligarchy. In the swarming streets, people of a hundred nations drudge to feed the engines of progress. The Department of Supernatural Investigation was set up to take care of those things that live below, that go bump in the night...those odd cases that go beyond 'standard' investigation. Nicknamed 'Storm and Fury', Mitch Storm and Jacob Drangosavich are two of the more creative agents working in New Pittsburgh.