Showing results by narrator "Ray Chase" in All Categories

Inspired by the groundbreaking A History of the World in 100 Objects, this book draws on the unique collections of The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, to chronicle the evolution of video games, from Pong to first-person shooters, told through the stories of dozens of objects essential to the field’s creation and development. Drawing on the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s unmatched collection of video game artifacts, this fascinating history offers an expansive look at the development of one of the most popular and influential activities of the modern world: video gaming.

Gothic master Edgar Allan Poe's complete works are collected in this multivolume set by Blackstone Audio. Here are his short stories, detective fiction, and poems in all their mysterious and macabre glory. Also included are Poe's literary reviews and editorial musings, comprising an often caustic analysis of the poetry, drama, and fiction of the period.

Dashiell Hammett is best known as both pioneer and master of American hard-boiled detective fiction, but these dozen and a half stories both affirm that reputation and present him in a different light. Along with the full-length treatments On the Make and The Kiss-Off, this collection includes never before and rarely published stories that explore failed romance, courage in the face of uncertainty, hypocrisy, and crass opportunism.

In the title story, a white aspiring professor is convinced she is being followed. No need to panic - she has a handgun stowed away in her purse, just in case. But when she turns to confront her black male shadow, the situation isn't what she expects. In "The Rescuer" a promising graduate student detours to inner-city Trenton, New Jersey, to save her brother from a downward spiral. But she soon finds out there may be more to his world than to hers.

From the heights of sacred sexuality to the depths of human foible, they ultimately have to choose: surrender to this love or shrink back to mediocrity, work through their emotional baggage or flee the connection, open to the next portal of possibility or postpone it until the next lifetime. Shaped and reshaped in love's cosmic kiln, Sarah and Lowen become a symbol of our own longing for wholeness in the presence of another.

In 1951, the second year of the Korean War, a studious, law-abiding, and intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner, begins his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at a local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hardworking neighborhood butcher, seems to have gone mad - mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees on every corner for his beloved boy.

Ali has been hiding in an attic since civilization collapsed eight weeks ago. When the plague hit, her neighbors turned into mindless, hungry, homicidal maniacs. Daniel has been a loner his entire life. Then the world empties, and he realizes that being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be. Finn is a former cop who is desperate for companionship and willing to do anything it takes to protect the survivors around him.

Fin Finnegan, a San Diego police detective and wannabe actor heading straight for a midlife meltdown, is assigned a routine truck theft that turns into a toxic chemical spill, setting off a bizarre chain reaction of death and murder on both sides of the Mexican border. Fin is forced to team up with Nell Salter, a sexy female investigator, as well as an equally fetching U.S. Navy investigator who wants to learn all that Fin can teach her - and that’s saying a lot

The Hive has survived their first fleet action against FinnTech. But in the process, they've lost the Hive itself. With their manufacturing base in Finn's hands, it's only a matter of time before they're outnumbered and destroyed. As Rada searches for a path to victory, she stumbles on a horrifying secret: the aliens who've kept humanity confined to the Solar System are about to make their move.

Through the screen of his computer a man watches a squirrel running about in a forest. For the better half of his life he has been drifting from job to job, diligently designing work-automating systems, and being rendered redundant by those systems. As he observes the squirrel, we observe him; and as he imagines the squirrel's world, we imagine his. The Squirrel Awakes is a quiet meditation on 21st century life and a compelling look at the direction society is heading.

Three-time Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele now imagines an alternate history rooted in an actual historical possibility: what if the race to space had occurred in the early days of WWII? It's 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his Fuehrer to abandon the V2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the U.S. Work on the rocket - called Silbervogel - begins at Peenemunde. Though it is top secret, British intelligence discovers the plan, and brings word to Franklin Roosevelt.

A thousand years ago, an alien invasion set humanity back to the Iron Age. Slowly, we recovered, colonizing the Solar System in peace. And discovered that an unknown force is stopping us from exploring any farther. But before the cause can be discovered, a slow-burning conspiracy threatens to explode into System-wide war. With enemies at home and in the darkness beyond, a team of unlikely heroes-a janitor, a mercenary, an asteroid miner, and a pirate-are the only ones who can avert a second apocalypse. This set includes the first three books of the newly-finished REBEL STARS series.

Evan Gabriel wasn't always a feared and respected North American Federation Navy Commander. Before dangerous missions to the ice-bound planet of Poliahu, the deadly jungle world of Eden, and politically corrupt Mars, he was a simple recruit, fighting to make his mark in the elite Naval Special Forces…and was part of a top-secret military experiment that would change his life forever. Zero Point tells the tale of a young man faced with difficult choices and dangerous trials.

Is the top still spinning? Was it all a dream? In the world of Christopher Nolan's four-time Academy Award-winning movie, people can share one another's dreams and alter their beliefs and thoughts. Inception is a metaphysical heist film that raises more questions than it answers: Can we know what is real? Can you be held morally responsible for what you do in dreams? What is the nature of dreams, and what do they tell us about the boundaries of "self" and "other"?

When the plague came, federal agent Ellie Colson fled into the Adirondacks with Dee, the daughter she barely knew. They began a new life as subsistence farmers, isolated from the fall of the world. In the six years since, a small community has arisen from the ashes. Dee is grown up. She's engaged to Quinn, a young man from across the lake. And she's being hunted. Strangers are spying on the farms at night. Dee's harassed by a spurned suitor. One of Quinn's dogs turns up dead. Drawing on her old skills, Ellie launches an investigation of the locals.

Sometimes Captain Max Robichaux fights by the book—and sometimes he throws the book away. This makes him one of the Union Space Navy's rising stars. It's also what has kept him and his green crew alive...thus far.

Streaming video games is now a billion-dollar industry. In 2022, Twitch alone had over 140 million active monthly users, with top players earning millions each year. But success breeds envy, and when big money's being made, everyone wants a piece.

An Anonymous-style rabble-rouser, an Arab Spring hacktivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll are each offered a choice: go to prison or help protect the United States, putting their brains and skills to work for the government for one year. But being a white hat doesn't always mean you work for the good guys.

Anson's army has driven Raina from the mainland, but the war is far from over. From the safety of Catalina Island, she launches a guerrilla campaign, meaning to weaken him cut by cut. She finds herself matched at every step by his grimly determined lieutenant, Lowell. With progress slower than expected, Raina is forced to accept the creation of a war council. But the council's will to fight is weakening by the day. Pressured by her enemies and from within, Raina soon finds her grip on the island slipping.

The final book in the postapocalyptic Breakers series.