Showing results by narrator "Gary Bennett" in All Categories

On October 28, 1940, Mussolini provides Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas with an ultimatum - either allow Axis forces to occupy their country or face war - and Greece’s response is swift: “Oxi!” they say. “No!” In a small village nestled against the radiant waters of the Aegean Sea, Alexei, the son of a local fisherman, and his best friend Costa - who were both born on the same night eighteen years earlier and have been like brothers ever since - leave their homes, like all the other young men in their village and throughout Greece, to bravely fight for their country.

Two years after my beloved Jonah was killed in a car accident, I retrace my steps to the romantic hotel we were staying in when his life was cut tragically short. The last thing I remember is the warmth of his hand in mine as we drove off through the pine trees toward our candlelit dinner. Then the beeping of monitors when I woke up alone in a hospital bed days later. What really happened that night?

The Taiwan government is on the brink of collapse. From their hiding place on Xiuguluan Mountain, a United States-Taiwanese special ops team prepares to wage guerilla warfare. Their mission may demand the ultimate sacrifice, but could change the course of the war.

It is six months since the Battle of Hawaii. The war to defend Taiwan has become World War III, and the surviving pilots of a rested and refitted Aggressor Inc. are thrown back into the fight as it moves across multiple fronts. On Japanese Kunashiri Island, the crew of a single Japanese Infantry Fighting Vehicle tries to hold back an entire Russian airborne company, while marauding Russian fighters pour into the skies overhead.

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.

Being a bouncer at a heavy metal/goth bar sounds pretty exciting...unless you're one of Odin's Chosen Warriors hiding out from Valhalla and your past. So Magnus a.k.a. Mouse is less than thrilled when Fate drops a supernatural murder at his feet. Is there any way he can stop the killer without tripping over his own secrets? Or will the cops, the feds, or his Valkyrie find him first? And can someone explain how his pet raven is learning to speak Norse?

Aurum, the champion of Gold, is in over his head. That is just one of the thoughts he has had over the last week since the world became a game for some bored gods. His god might have told him to win, but that won't stop him from saving as many people as he can in the process. Now he has just a week to reach the site of a battle with the champion of Copper, Harry Barker. With his arsenal of skills and allies growing by the day, he might not be in too bad of shape when he reaches the battlefield.

When a horribly disfigured woman breaks into the underground depository of the Stockholm National Library in Sweden and tears out pages of satanic spells hidden deep inside the Codex Gigas - The Devil’s Bible - teams of investigators quickly realize that there is more to this than meets the eye. Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, Colonel Cameron Skull is investigating the ravaged remains of the cemetery outside the infamous, and now touristy, Church of Bones. But when a manlike creature appears and Colonel Skull realizes the danger, it’s too late.

It’s been a year since the explosive events in Nevada. Adrian Hell has kept a low profile, continuing to earn good money killing bad people. But a simple job in San Francisco is about to turn his world upside down.

Faces from his past and doubts about his future compel Adrian to pick up his guns once more and do what he does best. But when he finds himself in the middle of a large-scale conspiracy that threatens everyone’s freedom, he realizes his will to do the right thing might not be enough....

After the traumatic events in San Francisco, Adrian feels his time as a hit man is coming to an end. But before he can put this life behind him, he must confront the man who killed his family: Wilson Trent—a powerful crime boss, considered untouchable by both sides of the law.

He had survived a spaceship crash, alien slave traders, space pirates, and fierce gladiatorial combat. Hell, he’d even faced an actual fire-breathing dragon and lived, but now, he was presented with an even greater challenge. Domestic living, captive on a strange world. Charlie almost had to laugh at his changing circumstances, having seen it all since a wormhole spat him out in a distant galaxy. He learned to fight, he learned to use magic, he even learned to kill - to survive at all costs.

Someone had Charlie in their crosshairs. A war-like race hell-bent on galactic domination. But unlike Charlie’s enemies of the past, this new threat had a few tricks up their sleeves, namely, using technology and magic interchangeably. Suddenly, what was once Charlie’s biggest advantage had been negated. Worse yet, his own magic, as well as that of his friends, wasn’t quite working right in this new corner of space. In fact, they learned the hard way that if they weren’t careful they could just as easily harm their allies as well as their enemies. Strike two for Team Charlie.

Sports fandom isn’t what it used to be. Owners and executives increasingly count on the blind loyalty of their fans and too often act against the team’s best interest. Sports fans are left deliberating not only mismanagement but also political, health, and ethical issues. In Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports Industrial Complex at Its Own Game, sportswriter and lifelong sports fan Craig Calcaterra outlines endemic problems with what he calls the sports-industrial complex.

In Voice, Adam Pottle explores the crucial role deafness has played in the growth of his imagination and in doing so presents a unique perspective on a writer's development. Born deaf in both ears, Pottle recounts what it was like growing up in a world of muted sound, and how his deafness has influenced virtually everything about his writing, from his use of language to character and plot choices.

Richly illustrated with clinical stories from Burgo's 35 years in private practice, this self-help book also describes the myriad ways that unacknowledged shame often hides behind a broad spectrum of mental disorders including social anxiety, narcissism, addiction, and masochism.

Could a magic wielding astronaut fight off an alien invasion with just his vampire assassin and space dragon friends? Amazingly, Charlie thought they might actually pull it off... that is if Lady Luck decided to play nice for a change. Unfortunately, knowing his fortunes, the odds of that were slim to none. The aliens were coming, that much was certain. What they could do to stop them, however, remained up in the air. Having joined forces with the mighty AIs overseeing the planet and its defenses, at least their toys had been upgraded accordingly.

Like poop on your shoe, bad luck had a knack for sticking Charlie wherever he went. And it sure did stink. Wormholes to a distant galaxy? Done it. Alien slavery? Yup. Forced gladiatorial combat? That too. Space pirate and eventual rebel leader? Check. Rising to the pinnacle of power as Dragon King? Uh-huh. Charlie, it seemed, had seen and survived it all, and at long last it looked like he’d finally earned himself a little peace and quiet. That is until a whole new threat reared its ugly head.

Charlie thought building a spaceship had been tough, so being king should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, it was like a cake made of cement. Hard to swallow, and just might kill him. It was good being king, or so Charlie had believed. After an abrupt crash arrival, people had finally stopped trying to kill him - for the most part, anyway - and his new subjects respected him. Or feared him. It was sort of hard to tell, what, with the ginormous dragon who had eaten the previous king standing right behind him.

An anti-government party called the Civil Resistance Movement is growing in popularity as tension mounts between police and civilians. The head of the CRM, Leo Frazier, has his own racist agenda which is unknown to his followers.