Showing results by narrator "Kevin T. Collins" in All Categories

By the workings of chance Bleys Ahrens was born the genetic equal of Hal Mayne, the hero of The Final Encyclopedia, but he was destined by nurture to a far different fate. Raised alone by his unhappy Exotic mother, Bleys was an outcast from every society until his half-brother Dahno claimed him. Disciplined by Friendlies, schooled by Exotics, Dahno was beginning to build an interplanetary network of half-breeds, who called themselves "Others". But Dahno thought only of gaining wealth and power for himself; Bleys saw an opportunity to challenge the Dorsai for control of the Human Worlds.

Budd Schulberg is a master of the art of the short story, as he proved in his early collection Some Faces in the Crowd. The crowd is the American landscape: indelible characters drawn coast-to-coast from the teeming streets of New York to tables at Hollywood's legendary nightclub, Ciro's. In these sparkling stories, Schulberg brings us vivid, restless people haunted by abrupt failure in the wake of rapid success.

It's 1955, and Albert Einstein lies in a hospital bed, deathly ill. He suddenly stirs, asks his assistant for paper and pen, then scribbles something down. Minutes later, he dies. History tells us that Einstein jotted down equations that night. But struggling scholar Jacob Morgan believes that history is wrong. He's convinced that Einstein wrote a deathbed confession that night - a secret that the great scientist didn't want to take to his grave.

Summer Montgomery wants to be taken seriously almost as much as she wants her brother's best friend, Ethan. But with a long resume of seemingly random career choices and a protective brother on watch, those things are nothing more than pipe dreams....

Raymond Ditmars (1876-1942), the first curator of reptiles at New York's famous Bronx Zoo, brought cold-blooded animals to public attention as never before. Through wildly successful books and movies, he inspired a generation of zoologists with his fascination for snakes, insects, and other misunderstood creatures. Ditmars was among the most celebrated naturalists in America. His reptile-collecting trips for the zoo spawned newspaper headlines across the world.

Earth is a dead cinder beyond the dense clouds. On a terraformed Venus, the land is ruled by savage plants and the even more savage beasts that prey on them, while monsters out of nightmare swim though the globe-girdling seas. Mankind huddles in domed underwater Keeps, living a purposeless static existence - dedicated to pleasure but destined for oblivion later if not sooner. Only the Free Companions, the mercenaries who fight proxy wars for the Keeps, live on the surface of Venus.

In five years, little green men are going to invade Earth - and the only man who knows is Professor Emil Vlasov. Is Vlasov crazy? Or is something actually watching the Earth... waiting...

A movie star on a meteoric rise, young James Dean was already being hailed as one of America's finest actors when he died in a high-speed car accident in 1955. In one terrible instant a luminous future glowing with extraordinary promise was snuffed out forever. But what if it wasn't? With The Rebel, acclaimed award-winning author Jack Dann pulls James Dean from the twisted wreckage and offers him a second chance to make an indelible mark on his art, his culture, and his time in an era of profound change and devastating social upheaval.

Mac Montgomery spent two years watching his father play matchmaker for his brothers and their wives, and as the last Montgomery standing, he knew it wouldn't be long until all eyes would be on him. While he couldn't deny that things had worked out well for his siblings, the last thing that Mac wanted was to get married and settle down.

Sam Capra's infant son has been kidnapped. The shadowy, powerful organization responsible for the abduction has thwarted Sam at every turn. But now Sam, an ex-CIA agent, has a potential lead: a picture of the woman who took his child from the clinic where he was born. Finding this mysterious woman could be his last chance to save his son....

With a mysterious key in hand and their only friends by their sides, the twins Malwynn and Umaryn race against the Amaranth Empire's invasion. Chased from the capital city of Varrland, branded as criminals for the murder of their traitorous aunt, they begin the trek to the forlorn wilderness of Duulan. They seek a village where their parents had nearly perished decades ago, where an abandoned mine, protected by an army of the dead, conceals the darkest secrets of Elmoryn.

Was it a living woman that stood by his side, or a dead body reanimated for the time or the occasion in some strange manner?

It is the late 1970s and criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker for his rebellious tactics, is struggling to build his own practice when he receives a call from a desperate mother. Her son, Darren Kingston, has been arrested for raping five white women in Castle Hill, an area of the Bronx long forgotten by the city. A young, good-looking black man, Darren is positively identified by four of the victims as the fifth prepares to do the same.

Executive assistant Emma Taylor is desperate for a little time away - away from her job, from her life, and from thoughts of her boss' son, who doesn't seem to know she even exists. Tired of waiting for the time to be right, she takes advantage of her boss' generous offer for a little weekend getaway to thank her for helping out with a difficult business deal.

From the introduction to Philadelphia Noir: "America's first great city, first capital, and first industrial metropolis contained from the beginning the mix of poor workers and elite culture, of ethnic enclaves and religious intolerance, of easy skullduggery and flesh-pot possibilities, that led Lincoln Steffens in 1903 to famously rule it 'corrupt and contented'."

Malwynn and his twin sister, Umaryn, experienced true horror when their hometown of New Picknell was razed to the ground in the first act of war by a Necromancer from The Amaranth Empire. They took their thirst for vengeance north across the border, and, after killing both the innocent and the guilty alike, they discovered a horrible truth. The Empire had not ordered the strike. The Necromancer had been paid.

Freelance photographer and wildcat smuggler Dan Abatangelo blows into Vegas to hit the tables and taste the night life. In his path waits Shel Beaudry, a knockout redhead with a smile that says, "Gentlemen, start your engines." The attraction is instant - and soon the two are living the gypsy life on the West Coast, where Dan captains a distribution ring for premium Thai marijuana, His credo: "No guns, no gangsters, it's only money." But the trade is changing.

James Montgomery has achieved everything he'd hoped for in life...except marrying the girl of his dreams. After a terrible accident, Selena Ainsley left 10 years ago. She took his heart with her, and she's never coming back. But it's becoming harder and harder for him to forget their precious time together, and James can't help but wonder what he would do if they could ever meet again.

Two years after the devastation of mass human extinctions in kill zones, mankind is still grasping for survival. An oppressive union of government and big business controls an exhausted America, which is divided between walled-in Protectorates and the unpoliced Outlands.

They know the end is coming, and they know who is behind it. They think they have a plan. A way to stop the men and women who are trying to destroy every single human being on the planet. Only those who are Special will be spared, and only they will be left to fight for the fate of their kind. Except... we already know that even the best-laid plans usually unravel in spectacular ways.