Showing results by narrator "Jonathan Sleep" in All Categories

Short-order cook and ethical relativist Claude is fascinated by the secret art of Chinese cuisine. But as he delves deeper into the mysterious culture of the surrealized "Chinesians", his revelations threaten to uproot his entire code of values. What is the weight of sacredness on the relative scale of ethics? Are our morals God-given, or merely a matter of taste?

Haunted with the ever-present memory of watching his parents get devoured by bears as a child, and now losing his adopted father and mentor, Klaus Richter embarks on a voyage of self-discovery and booze. He finds so much more - and so much less.

Among scientists who write, no one illuminates as well as Stephen Jay Gould does the wonderful workings of the natural world. Now in a new volume of collected essays—his sixth since Ever Since Darwin—Gould speaks of the importance of unbroken connections within our own lives and to our ancestral generations. Along with way, he opens to us the mysteries of fish tails, frog calls, and other matters, and shows once and for all why we must take notice when a seemingly insignificant creature is threatened, like the land snail Partula from Moorea, whose extinction he movingly relates.

They rode into town like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Four armed outlaws bringing their own brand of hell to Paris, Texas. First they rob the First National Bank. Then they take a woman hostage as insurance. When Perley Gates learns that local waitress Becky Morris is in the hands of these tough customers, with only his friend Possum he rides to get her back. Problem is, the outlaws are heading toward the Red River--straight into Indian Territory. That's where the ranch hands draw the line. But Perley won't give up.

Thirty years after the events in the Solar system, the Empire had entered a time of expansion and advancement. Six hundred light years from Earth, humanity starts again. But, their safety and peace are threatened when a hostile force is detected in one of the systems close to the Empire's border.

The novel continues the exploits of Tito, an anonymous Imago slummer who was mysteriously transported through the Ikarion VR MMO game into the real fantasy world of Ikaris as his alter ego identity, Card the Hedge Merchant. Trapped in a virtual realm with no way to log out, Card’s journey will soon force him to confront his newfound destiny.

To the world, Linda DeSilva's marriage to Robert Edelman was perfect. He was her college boyfriend turned wealthy and successful husband, and the father of her children. But what friends and family didn't know was that the Texas real estate tycoon who set her up with a luxurious life in Dallas was also her abuser. When she asked him for a divorce, the violence against her only escalated, until the shocking moment she learned her husband had hired an assassin to take her life.

Ikarion Gate is an isekai LitRPG adventure novel – Book One in the Ikarion trilogy. The novel follows the exploits of Tito, a down-on-his-luck and anonymous Imago slummer. Daily, he logs in to Monad’s Ikarion VR MMO to earn survival “gang protection” money in his alter ego identity as Card, the Hedge Merchant. With his fellow player friend Perk, the cheerful Agrarian Dwarf, and a host of other unlikely companions, Card is about to discover there is much more to the Ikarion game and its mysterious gate than he could have ever imagined.

From cultish rituals to cosmic horror, Michael Jess Alexander's collection of horror fiction will leave you disquieted and unsettled. In "Chatterbox", a college professor is haunted by the spirit of a former student. "A Profound Impact" tells the story of a lost group of people who finally find a place they belong. In "Space for Amateurs", a science experiment goes horribly awry. These tales and six others await you in this haunting volume of horror fiction.

The role and range of the American presidency has undergone significant changes in the twenty-first century, with George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden transforming the office in distinct ways. Many but not all of these changes stem from the numerous crises of this young century: 9/11 and the resulting war on terror, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social unrest of 2020.

Not only do individuals have core beliefs about what the government should or should not do, but individuals have become more likely to support the party that best matches their policy attitudes by both identifying as a member of that party and voting for that party in elections. However, as Zingher demonstrates, voters' ability to match their attitudes to a party or candidate varies according to signals sent by elites and increases as parties become more polarized.

In this short story collection, award-winning writer Michael Jess Alexander serves up a morbid menagerie of aliens, cultists, murderers, and more.