Epic Classics

The second audiobook in Australian author Kylie Chan's ingenious urban fantasy saga - a tale of ancient gods and foul demons doing battle in the modern world - Red Phoenix combines Chinese mythology with martial arts, paranormal romance, and magic in a story that takes off like a rocket and never slows down. The action moves from Hong Kong to Europe as heroine Emma Donahoe finds a demonic circle of death closing around her and the people she loves: the breathtaking and powerful god she is bound to and his innocent, young daughter whom Emma has sworn to protect.

For Kellen, the only way to survive is to hide. His curse is growing stronger, bringing dark and violent visions, and the bounty hunters dogging his heels get closer every day. Desperate, he searches for a mysterious order of monks rumored to have a cure. But salvation comes with a high price.

The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The Kalevala was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the sense of nationality that led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917. Beginning with the traditional Finnish creation myth, the Kalevala branches out into stories of the creation of the earth, plants, creatures, and the sky. There are many stories of, romance, kidnapping, seduction, and magical spell casting and singing.

The Mabinogion is a collection of tales, told over generations, recorded in two manuscripts; Llyfr Coch Hergest ( The Red Book of Hergest) and Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch ( The White Book of Rhydderch). Translated into English by Lady Charlotte Guest, they contain a large number of tales from the Welsh storytelling tradition.

Monsters are real, and Hank Jensen has met some of the worst the multiverse has to offer. As a result, he bears the curse of a hateful, malignant god - a horrid disease that has disabled him. Hank fought demons, dragons, and mythical beings to rescue his wife and son, but the battle left the family trapped in the realm of the Isir. As his dark curse continues to ravage his body, Hank, his family, and his Isir friends must travel to an ancient, faraway place - the Rooms of Ruin - to reopen the pathways that connect the two worlds.

In Stephen Mitchell's The Iliad, the epic story resounds again across 2,700 years, as if the lifeblood of its heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Hector, and Priam flows in every word. And we are there with them, amid the horror and ecstasy of war, carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful. Mitchell's The Iliad is the first translation based on the work of the preeminent Homeric scholar Martin L. West.

In the magical world of Lyra, an innkeeper is forced to confront her darkest secret. For more than a decade, Kayl has run a modest country inn. She opened it with her husband, and they managed it together until a summer illness took him away, leaving her alone with their two children. The three of them get by, living happily together as the years pass, but everything changes the day a sorceress asks for a room.

Since leaving his homeland, the earthbound demigod Demane has been labeled a sorcerer. With his ancestors' artifacts in hand, the sorcerer follows the captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight. The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive. The one safe road between the northern oasis and southern kingdom is stalked by a necromantic terror. Demane may have to master his wild powers and trade humanity for godhood if he is to keep his brothers and his beloved captain alive.

Kiri Helena Solene thought her trial was over. She was wrong. Prophesied to be the strongest of her kind, Helena is still coming to terms with the depth of her power and what it means to rule. Unfortunately, there's little time to learn. As her soul mate, Von is Helena's balance. Too bad he's missing. When he disappears, her tenuous hold on her magic begins to slip. Helena must find Von, and soon, or risk losing control completely. If only she knew where to look.

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of Northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift - a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, the father hides the gift away, and his daughter, Vasya, grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay.

The Citadel of Wizards was under siege. Deep in the Vaults beneath the walled city, gates into inhuman realities were opening and closing without warning. Monsters emerged from other dimensions; and ancient, malign magics came to life under the influence of cosmic chaos. Someone was tampering with the Void. The Council of Wizards blamed Antryg Windrose, the rebel mage who had fled their justice to find haven in the City of Angels.

Inos, the late king's daughter, had been kidnapped through the magic casement even as the Impish legions overrunning her tiny kingdom were storming the castle tower. Now she was a prisoner in a desert land ruled by a dockside whore with a talent for magic and a passion for politics. She little dreamed that the loyal stableboy Rap had jumped through the casement after her. But no one really knew how the magic worked, and Rap found himself not in a desert, but in the steaming jungles of Faerie....

Among inhospitable and unforgiving seas stands Khalakovo, a mountainous archipelago of seven islands, its prominent eyrie stretching a thousand feet into the sky. Serviced by windships bearing goods and dignitaries, Khalakovo's eyrie stands at the crossroads of world trade. But all is not well in Khalakovo. Conflict has erupted between the ruling Landed, the indigenous Aramahn, and the fanatical Maharraht, and a wasting disease has grown rampant over the past decade.

Tad Lonnerman is having a crappy day stuck in crappy traffic late to a crappy meeting. On the bright side, his game development career is the only non-crappy thing he has going for him, so life isn't all bad. At least until he dies. Now Tad finds himself uploaded to a beta test of Haven, an unannounced hyper-immersive MMO where the dead have a second chance at life. It's not virtual reality, it's digital reality. A true afterlife online. Except Haven isn't exactly blissful paradise.

They might be doomed, damned, and buggered for all eternity, but that didn't mean they couldn't sparkle like a diamond in the sun and grin like a skull in the moonlight on their way to oblivion. Musket and cannon, bow and arrow, and magic and diplomacy vie for supremacy once again in this second epic fantasy adventure from acclaimed author Chris Evans.

Jiri has always been special. Found as an infant in the ashes of her village, she was taken in by neighbors and trained to be a powerful jungle druid. Yet when Aspis Consortium mercenaries release an ancient evil that burns her adopted home to the ground, Jiri must gather a group of her own in order to get revenge and drive the mercantile foreigners from her land before they cause further damage. For in the heart of the Mwangi Jungle, sometimes the secrets of the past are best left buried.

After defeating the Shadow King and opening the gateway to the mysterious Labyrinth of Onizoso, Reece's hopes are dashed when a surprise attack leaves his girlfriend's life hanging in the balance. To save her, Reece and his friends must enter the labyrinth in hopes of finding the one person who may be able to bring her back to life, but in a place where players turn into Shard Wraiths, their hopes may already be lost. Now Reece will have to navigate a strange new world fraught with dangers, while fending off a pursuing army and racing against the clock.

We survived the land of the Witch’s Reign - that much is true. But our arrival home is far from welcome. My idiot brother has taken it upon himself to ride off in search of a mythical healer, someone who might help him walk again. Assuming she doesn’t eat him first. Because she’s a dragon and happens to reside in the deepest reaches of the Dragon’s Ground. Like I said, idiot. I’d go after him myself, but his leaving is not the only problem I face. My mentor has forbidden me to leave the safety of the Stockyards. Her reasoning? That I am too weak to weather the coming storms.

Jane and Vincent go to Long Parkmeade to spend time with Jane’s family, but quickly turn restless. The year is unseasonably cold. No one wants to be outside and Mr. Ellsworth is concerned by the harvest, since a bad one may imperil Melody’s dowry. And Melody has concerns of her own, given the inadequate selection of eligible bachelors. When Jane and Vincent receive a commission from a prominent family in London, they decide to take it, and take Melody with them.

What would you do if you could control time? In a world where magic is outlawed, Eona has been hiding her true nature all her life, only using it to make her circus performances even more spectacular. She's always known that her ability to manipulate time could make her a target, but she couldn't have prepared for being kidnapped, manipulated, and imprisoned. After weeks in prison, the Royal sorcerer, Lassadar, offers her a way out by training her. But can she trust the King's right-hand man?