Showing results by narrator "Scott Richards" in All Categories

Enlisted by the Japan Buddhist Federation to catalog a number of ancient shrines dotted across Nepal, archaeologist Annja Creed is honored to help. Political violence has prompted the Federation to protect holy sites from desecration and vandalism, and Annja is their last hope to properly conserve these sites. Where there's vandalism, there's plundering, and local police soon become suspicious of Annja's presence. But she is more concerned about the antiques smugglers and Maoist guerrillas trying to kill her.

Annja Creed jumps at the chance to join a fellow archaeologist on a quest to find a relic. But she's not so thrilled about northern Siberia, where they are hoping to discover something buried in the long-undisturbed soil of Russia's frozen terrain. When they reach the town of Jakutsk, Annja is put off by its gray landscape and highly superstitious inhabitants. They claim they are being hunted. Then one of the Villagers goes missing.

In a post-apocalyptic America, Jamie Teague helps a group of travelers make their way past the murderous Bushwhackers. Jamie comes to find that the strangers are Mormons headed for Utah to avoid being massacred. Knowing that they will die without his help, he agrees to take them as far as his cabin.

This story is included in Orson Scott Card's collection The Folk of the Fringe.

The deadly White Wizards of Fairhaven, wielding the forces of chaos, threaten the ancient matriarchy of Sarronnyn, the last bastion of order in Candar. When Sarronnyn falls despite the assistance of the Black Order mages, Justen, a young Black Engineer, must escape the city and master forbidden technology that harness chaos itself. Even so, it may not be enough to halt conquest of the White Wizards.

A Comanche war party raids settlements and steals horses. A young warrior named Buffalo Caller kills a young couple, then abducts their red-haired little boy. The boy is rescued by a volunteer defender of the white settlers named Mike Shannon, who raises the boy as his own and calls him Rusty.

Louisiana, 2065. A lot has changed in the 43rd of the Kurian Order. Possessed of an unnatural and legendary hunger, the bloodthirsty Reapers have come to Earth to establish a New Order built on the harvesting of enslaved human souls. They rule the planet. They thrive on the scent of fear. And if it is night, as sure as darkness, they will come. On this pitiless world, the indomitable spirit of mankind still breathes in Lieutenant David Valentine. Brought into the Wolves - an elite guerrilla force sworn to win back Earth - Valentine leads his first command in the Kurian Zone.

For Gage Jameson, the summer of 1873 has been a poor hunt. A year ago he felled 62 buffalo in one stand, but now the great Arkansas River herd is gone, like the Republican herd before it. In Dodge City, old hide hunters speak is awe of a last great heard to the south - but no hunter who values his scalp dares ride south of the Cimarron and into Comanche territory. None but Gage Jameson....

Sold into slavery when he was six years old, Kai has never known love. As he reached maturity, his slavers realized Kai was no ordinary man. There was something else lurking inside. An uncontrollable force that feeds on his rage and anger gives him the advantage when thrown into the pits of Darkmide to fight for his life. There he learns that killing brings rewards - after each win, he's given a female slave to sate his sexual needs.

Tensions between the Bearkillers, the Mackenzies and Mount Angel alliance, and Norman Arminger’s Portland Protectorate Association have finally come to a head, as the Protector’s armies invade the Western Territories. Mike Havel faces down the deadly Lord Alexi Stavarov and his combined forces at the now ruined city of Salem. Meanwhile, Lady Juniper and the Clan Mackenzie take to the hills with a guerrilla style campaign against the Marchwarden Conrad Renfrew.

Lady Juniper recounts the capture of one of the Lord Protector’s most precious treasurers, the Princess Mathilda Arminger. While Sir Nigel reveals that the Lord Protector has procured a deadly new weapon. Will Signe Havel ever forgive her husband for fathering Juniper Mackenzie’s son Rudi? Will Sir Nigel find a home in the Willamette Valley? And what will happen when the Norman Arminger attempts to reclaim the princess and wreck his revenge on the Mackenzies and the Bearkillers?

The Lord Protector of Portland has continued to press his rule into every corner of the Willamette. Both Juniper and Havel know that war is coming, but their allies in the Free-state of Corvallis are less convinced. Sir Nigel continues his escape from mad King Charles with the aid of his new found Tasmanian allies, having to out race the legendary sailing ship the Cutty Sark and battle pirates off the coast of Africa.

We return to P.I. Matthew Richter, currently a zombie, in the city of Nekropolis. In this case, he’s after a wand that turns things into silver, but before he can get far in his search, he’s forced to use a coin to turn himself into a human. He’s got one shot now to get back home to his significant other for their only chance at having a kid...but of course, all of Nekropolis is out to get him (or so it seems).

In the conclusion to his first adventure, Apropos' difficulties are compounded when a routine mission to escort the King's daughter home after a long absence goes horribly awry. Suddenly Apropos finds himself saddled with trying to survive while dealing with a berserk phoenix, murderous unicorns, mutated harpies, homicidal warrior kings, and - most problematic of all - a princess who may or may not be a psychotic arsonist.

Jana, a powerful witch, and Tigan, a deceitful mercenary from Sabe's and Kiera's past, join forces to summon Samyaza, one of the most powerful of all fallen angels. The witch strikes a bargain with the fallen angel to possess Tigan, making him indestructible in battle. In exchange for granting this gift, Samyaza seeks a sacrifice, someone gifted with seraph abilities so he can free himself of the bonds that hold him captive in hell.

Hawk and Fisher, famous for their years of keeping the peace in Haven, are really quite happy being legends. They gave up the hero business when they decided they’d grown too old for it. Now they run the Hero Academy, training young hopefuls to be heroes. Legends never die, but it seems they cannot retire, either. Hawk and Fisher’s adult children, Jack and Gillian, have been kidnapped. They were taken by the Demon Prince, an old enemy from the Forest Kingdom who challenges the couple to one final battle for their lives.

The Blue Moon is full, the Darkwood has overtaken the land and demons are being fought off at the very gates of Forest Castle. The return of the exiled High Warlock reveals long-hidden secrets about the past. As the Warlock battles the wild magic of the Demon Prince, his hopes of assistance from the enchanted Sword of Compulsion known as the Curtana are crushed by the sword’s disappearance, but there may be other, more powerful weapons hidden in the Royal Armory.

Several baronies have disappeared, as if swallowed by the Earth. Strange disturbances lead Kane and the others to a giant sinkhole in a remote and wild area of Mexico, where reality merges with an ancient culture of sorcery. Here, a beautiful, mysterious guerilla leader wages war against a terrifying army of demons spiriting humans into the subterranean netherworld. Joining the fight, the Cerberus rebels invade the cavernous chambers of a hidden world, and confront a self-styled warlord using predark nuclear tech to rule the depths of the planet.

The fall of the baronies has led Earth deeper into the darkest days of a bitter struggle as old as the planet itself — a war for righteous destiny. As a force of elite rebels dares to break humanity free from the iron chains of alien rule, they face an ever-changing matrix of cunning and retribution. Area 51 remains a mysterious enclave of eerie synergy and unleashed power — a nightmare poised to take the world to hell. A madman has marshaled an army of incorporeal, alien evil, a virus with intelligence now scything through human hosts like locusts.

October 1964: Just months after freelance indexer Marjorie Trumaine helped solve a series of murders in Dickinson, North Dakota, she is faced with another death that pulls her into an unwanted investigation. Calla Eltmore, the local librarian, is found dead at work, and everyone considers it suicide. But Marjorie can't believe that Calla would be capable of doing such a thing. Marjorie's suspicions are further aroused when she notices something amiss at Calla's wake, but the police seem uninterested in her observations.

In a valiant rebellion against a half century of occupation by the Kurians, the newly formed Texas Republic and Ozark Free Territory have dealt the vampiric aliens their first major defeat. Resistance member David Valentine is revered as a hero for his part in fighting to regain Earth''s freedom. But a dangerous enemy within his own ranks soon has Valentine facing charges for his handling of the Quisling prisoners - humans who have become pawns of the Kurians in order to survive.