Showing results by narrator "Mark F. Smith" in All Categories

The Time Machine is a science-fiction novel by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. Wells is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposely and selectively forwards or backwards in time. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle.

Bret Harte paints a timeless portrait of undesirables who are forced to leave a self-righteous town, and who, in the face of oncoming winter and in the company of a pair of innocents, learn to become bigger than themselves.

The 1980s opened with the prime interest rate at an astonishing 21.5 percent, leading to a severe recession with unemployment reaching nearly 11 percent. Depression-like conditions befell the agricultural sector, a bubble burst in the energy sector, a rolling real estate recession swept the country, the entire thrift industry was badly insolvent and the major money center banks were loaded with third world debt.

First serialized in "Outing" magazine, "White Fang" was published in 1906. The story takes place in Yukon Territory, Canada, during the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century, and details a wild wolfdog's journey to domestication.

"White Fang" is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best known work, "The Call of the Wild", which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.

Was Auntie Maim an axe murderer? Well, you might have thought so! Auntie Mame, on the other hand, can teach you and all of us an important lesson. The little things in life sometimes aren’t so little. Sheldon Beasley, 13, learned that lesson when his attempt to audition for a role in the wildly popular play Auntie Mame went horribly awry. In a letter to the play’s director, Sheldon made several references to "Auntie Maim". Oops. That’s no way to impress the boss, who politely notified Sheldon he would not be invited to tryouts.

Three years after the events that took place in "The Lost World", Professor Challenger urgently summons his fellow explorers to a meeting. Oddly, he requires each to bring an oxygen cylinder with him. What he soon informs them is that from astronomical data and just received telegraphs of strange accidents on the other side of the world, he has deduced that the Earth is starting to move through a region of space containing something poisonous to humankind.

A British newspaper editor in India does some favors for a memorable pair of strangers who confide in him their plan to become kings in Afghanistan. Then, two years later, he has a bizarre return visit - kings they have become, sure enough, but they've found the price of kingly mistakes was very high!

Inconvenient owners of thrones in the kingdoms of the Islands of Sunshine have a habit of attracting the attention of an Evil Magician - and then disappearing! Prince Daimur, who, fortunately, has a helpful and caring disposition, receives some special gifts from a dying fairy. So when he, too, becomes inconvenient and is "disappeared", he possesses some potent defenses against spells. On the Island of Despair, his natural curiosity and good nature wins him allies as he attempts to solve the puzzles that await him.

The story takes place in the extreme conditions of the Yukon during the 19th century Klondike Gold Rush, where strong sled dogs were in high demand. After Buck, a domesticated dog, is snatched from a pastoral ranch in California, he is sold into a brutal life as a sled dog. The novella details Buck's struggle to adjust and survive the cruel treatment he receives from humans, other dogs, and nature. He eventually sheds the veneer of civilization altogether and instead relies on primordial instincts and the lessons he has learned to become a respected and feared leader in the wild.

Emil Barton literally missed his rocketship when the Mars colonists were brought back to Earth at the start of the nuclear war. After a lifetime alone on the Red Planet - literally the only inhabitant of the terraformed world - Barton gets an unwelcome phone call on his 80th birthday. It's himself, calling from sixty years in the past.

Looking to keep the heat? In Sweet Love, best-selling editor Violet Blue creates a world of lusty and in-love couples who live out their fantasies with delicious results. These powerful scenarios are recipes for romance that real couples can use as inspiration for memorable explorations of their own. This delectable collection will have you wishing for role-playing, exhibitionism, spankings, surprise threesomes, and much much more.

"Kidnapped" is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Seamus Heaney. A sequel, "Catriona", was published in 1893.

Dr. Watson chronicles here some of the more interesting detective cases that he and his good friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, have encountered during their association. We see the cases unfold as he does, scratch our heads as does he while the evidence is collected, and then marvel at the impeccable observations, remarkable insight, and doggedness which Holmes displays as he teases apart the tangled clues.

Someone is killing women in the Chelsea nieghborhood of Manhattan - but, who? The only clues: a signature heart carved into each victim's breast (inside, the initials "J.C." and those of the deceased); copies of the New Testament (with underlined passages referring to infidelity); and fingerprints of a juvenile arrested in the 1960s. On the case is Matt Davis, a plodding but effective NYPD homicide detective who is addicted to fly fishing - and chocolate.

Madame Charmaine chronicles the adventure one summer of four close friends, three boys and a girl, all 12 years old, who discover a locked “treasure chest” half buried in the sandy shore of the Missouri River following a spring flood. As they play detective and try to find out who buried the chest and what its strange content means, they meet up with a tall, mysterious woman in a turban and soon find out that they are playing a dangerous game, one that threatens to bury them alive in a grave of their own digging.

An errant encounter with a passing star has flung Earth away from its old Solar System into the dark and cold of deep space. With the entire atmosphere frozen as chemical snow dozens of feet deep, one last family struggles to survive. But what are they to think when they see figures moving in the city ruins? Are Earth's dead coming back to life?

When the first Martian capsule lands, Alex Smith is drawn to the scene out of curiosity and wonder. But soon he must flee, when the great alien striders begin devastating the countryside and harvesting the living bodies of men and women to drain their blood. Smith wanders south, being drafted into the Army, witnessing major battles between the Martians and the American troops, and following the trail of destruction all the way to San Francisco. There he finds a city deserted of human life. Mankind seems doomed, unless... A grand science-fiction adventure, inspired by H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.

"Around the World in Eighty Days" (French: "Le tour du monde en quatre vingts jours") is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a 320,000 pounds wager (equal to 31,324,289 pounds today) set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.

It's a good thing that Time Agents are intensively trained. When Ross Murdock and Gordon Ashe set up a time gate on the alien world of Hawaika for an exploration into its troubling past, they didn't anticipate that a storm would sweep them and their helper Karara Trehern and her two dolphins through it unprepared...and then collapse the gate. Trapped in a time of sword-and-spear technology, they rapidly discover that each of the world's cultures appear to be trying to wipe one another out.

Embark on a captivating journey to "The House of the Seven Gables" with Nathaniel Hawthorne. This Gothic novel transports listeners to a haunting world of family secrets, ancestral curses, and the enduring power of redemption. As the story unfolds within the walls of the enigmatic Pyncheon mansion, Hawthorne's masterful storytelling paints a vivid picture of the human condition, exploring themes of guilt, fate, and the interplay between past and present. Delve into this timeless tale of mystery and discover the allure of Hawthorne's richly woven narrative.