Showing results by narrator "R. C. Bray" in All Categories

The philosopher asks: "Faced with the mutually exclusive choice between moral principle and the survival of your family, which is the correct path?" Philosophers love to pose such questions, and in the day-to-day struggle, such thinkers rarely attain to a level of relevance rivaling that of the simple hunger pang. Their careful considerations dissipate under the leveled gun. We do not feel their disapproving gaze when The Others draw near. When the world sends doom, the survivors do not hesitate. The survivors do what is necessary.

With nowhere left to run, the Allied States fortifies their few remaining outposts and relocates Central Command to prepare for their final stand. President Jan Ringgold and her generals know beating the enemy on the battlefield is impossible. The only path to victory seems to be taking down the leader of the New Gods, a sinister Chimera known as the Prophet, before he can complete his campaign to enslave humanity.

Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery. In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Asmundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker's world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, 'Powers of Darkness'), this Icelandic edition included an original preface written by Stoker himself. Makt Myrkranna was published in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside of the country until 1986, when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker's preface to the book.

The Damsel begins directly after the Parker novel The Handle. Following a wounded Grofield and his damsel on a scenic, action-packed road trip from Mexico City to Acapulco, The Damsel is full of wit, adrenaline, and political intrigue.

Bo Creel is back at his family's Star C Ranch in Texas. Along with Scratch, he's finding out that home is where the hell-raising is. A rival ranch is trying to drive the Creel family out of business, using any means necessary. For Bo and Scratch, always suckers for a pretty face, come two young ladies who just might blur the battle lines. Desperate to raise cash, the Creel family sets of on a trail drive south to Rockport and a thriving cattle market on the Gulf of Mexico. That's when their rivals strike a devastating blow.

The enemy is coming. The enemy is already here. For years they’ve prepared, plotted, and planned. For years they’ve waited to strike from above and below. Earth is under siege. The enemy covers the landscape. Proxima is unharmed. But that’s about to change. No armies can stop this menace, and no defenses can slow the advance. We are scattered and isolated. We are ignorant and weak. No help is coming. No help remains...or does it? Old heroes will sacrifice everything. New heroes will rise.

In a land sculpted by glaciers, the forest is on fire. Thick smoke chokes the mountain air and casts a twilight glow over the imposing mountains and vistas of Montana's Glacier National Park. When firefighters are called in to dig fuel line breaks near the small town bordering the park, a crew member is shocked to unearth a shallow grave containing human remains.

At the end of the 24th century, war is fought in a civilized manner: Each side hires mercenaries to engage in combat in specifically designated areas. To the victor go the spoils - whatever they maybe. After a couple of assignments involving more intrigue and skullduggery than the Cutter Force Initiative ever wanted, the unit is looking forward to being part of a straight-up, short-term industrial war on Earth.

In the spring of 1903, locomotive 311, known as the Majestic, carried more than one hundred passengers toward a tunnel through the underbelly of the Canadian Rockies. But then the mouth of the tunnel swallowed the 311 whole, and the train—and everyone on it—was never seen again. Seven years later, a gang of cattle thieves and cutthroats wait on horseback for a train car full of railway cash—a payroll they intend to steal. What they will discover, however, is that the approaching train isn’t the 5409. It’s the missing 311, a train only whispered about around dying campfires.

Brand-new stories by: Daniel Woodrell, Matthew Eck, Catherine Browder, Nancy Pickard, John Lutz, J. Malcolm Garcia, Kevin Prufer, Linda Rodriguez, Nadia Pflaum, Phong Nguyen, Andres Rodriguez, and others. Kansas City: where East and West collide, where naked ambition meets broken dreams, where blues and the night go together like rye whiskey, vermouth, and bitters. Yes, Kansas City is a surprising place of grit, gore, and betrayal, at least in the imaginations of our diverse lineup of contributors.

Overrun and forced to escape the killing grounds of Fort Indiantown Gap, the survivors of the 10th Mountain Division once again find themselves on the road, in search of sanctuary from the threat of the reekers. With a new plan in hand, Captain Phil Hastings, Master Sergeant Slater, and the acting president of the United States, Henry Cornell, lead their group of remaining forces toward Fort Bragg, NC, in an effort to enact Contingency operations that will save the United States from the clutches of the dead.

After waking up with amnesia from a six-year coma, Jake Bronson's past is lost to him. But that doesn't mean the past hasn't been looking for him, or that it will let him live when it finally catches up. Jake's placid life in Italy is shattered by the arrival of an assassination squad hell-bent on eliminating him, and he has no idea why he's in their crosshairs. He's saved only when an American scientist intervenes, wielding technology that reactivates Jake's dormant memories and deadly skills.

On January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston was found dead in his home - of an apparent heroin overdose. But no one close to Liston believed that his death was accidental. Digging deep into a life that Liston tried hard to hide, Shaun Assael treats the boxer's death as a cold case. The result is a riveting whodunit that evokes a glorious and grimy era of Las Vegas.

The battle to keep the undead tide from the walls of London is lost. Africa is a deadly hall of mirrors, leaving Alpha team riven with dissension and doubt. And the one man who might save the world is crashing to Earth half a world away. Only our greatest warriors can walk through this fire.

The final episode in the popular Crash Dive series! In this final, powerful episode in the popular Crash Dive series, the war to which Lt. Commander Charlie Harrison has sacrificed everything will demand far more. In return, it will teach him war’s true meaning and propel him to his destiny, one that is dark and brutal but also filled with hope.

Eight years ago, an engineered virus ravaged the globe, infecting and transforming humans into apex predators called Variants. Now, almost a decade after the end of the war, civilization has slowly clawed toward recovery. But evil and intelligent forces dwell in the shadows with the starving beasts, scheming to restart the extinction cycle and end humanity forever. And once again, Beckham, Fitz, and Kate will rise to fight them, joining forces with new heroes to try and save what’s left of the world.

It’s been six months since Marcus and Kyja obtained the help of the land and water elementals, but before they can secure help from the mysterious air elementals, the two friends must first be reunited. While attempting to return to Farworld, Marcus find himself in the Abyss of Time, facing four doors: the Is, the Was, the Will Be, and the Never Was. What he learns in that dangerous place has the potential to change his life - and Kyja's. But does he have the courage to tell her what he learned?

Out on his own as a surveyor, Major Corbin sleeps under the stars and calls his own shots. As a one-man operation without powers on a space colony with power-abusing supers, this is the life. Nothing lasts forever. The chance discovery of a mysterious substance changes everything when he gains superpowers and learns that it’s the key to saving the colony from an evil that nobody but he knows is coming. The kicker? Gaining powers means waking an ancient being that might be the difference between saving the universe or dying in the process.

Eleven years ago atheist Malcolm Romero met a god. Now he's a demon-hunting voodoo priest armed with a holy machete named Hounacier. After the murder of his mentor, he returns to New Orleans to catch the killer. But more is at stake when Malcolm finds himself betrayed and his holy blade stolen. Now Malcolm's only hope to save his soul and to recover Hounacier is the Valducan knight sent to kill him, Matt Hollis, the wielder of the holy revolver Dämoren.

Ruddy McCann, former college football star, now Kalkaska, Michigan, repo man, is finally getting his life back on track. He has a beautiful fiancée, Katie Lottner; a somewhat stable job stealing cars; and a lazy, lovable basset hound. With his job suddenly in jeopardy, his fiancée wanting a break, and a new court-ordered psychiatrist insisting he take his medication or violate the terms of his probation, Ruddy finds himself missing the one thing he thought he would be happy to be rid of - the voice of Alan Lottner, dead realtor and Ruddy's future father-in-law.