Showing results by narrator "Phil Thron" in All Categories

The war against the sentient artificial intelligence has been simmering and erupting for two years. In their attempt to isolate the hardware hosting the AI's software, the armies of the world have embarked on a coordinated campaign to destroy silicon-based processor equipment across the planet. Unfortunately, it's not just TVs, laptops, and cellphones that have fallen in their crosshairs, but service robots and even the computer modules driving the prosthetic limbs used by some of the disabled. Trapped in Dallas at the center of an assault, Madison has enlisted the help of a robot.

This book contains numerous short stories as seen through the eyes of a dusty old baker. The stories are made up of observations, history, and imagination, as the author watches the world go by as he sits at the large table in the middle of his bakery.

In The Listeners, Brian Hochman shows how the wiretap evolved from a specialized intelligence-gathering tool to a mundane fact of life. He explores the origins of wiretapping in military campaigns and criminal confidence games and tracks the use of telephone taps in the US government's wars on alcohol, communism, terrorism, and crime. While high-profile eavesdropping scandals fueled public debates about national security, crime control, and the rights and liberties of individuals, wiretapping became a routine surveillance tactic for private businesses and police agencies alike.

Paul is a reincarnated Knight Hospitaller from the 12th century. He is also a nurse, or the historical equivalent, in all of his incarnations. After so many lives, he just wants to die and get off the rebirth wheel. Then he becomes a father, and everything changes. Paul must train his adopted daughter to be the first new K-Nurse since the Crusades, but in teaching her to use her magic and in training her to fight, he must bring her into his own deadly world.

Dear parents everywhere—we get it, you love your kid. But, let's face it: no matter how much you praise them, your kid is most likely not the next child prodigy. Be that as it may, we are pretty sure the neighbors are tired of hearing about how the fruit of your loins got the lead in the school play or scored the most points in the last game when they are just trying to grab a burger at the barbecue.

1956 was one of the most remarkable years of the 20th century. All across the globe, ordinary people spoke out, filled the streets and city squares, and took up arms in an attempt to win their freedom. In this dramatic history, Simon Hall takes the long view of the year's events - putting them in their post-war context and looking toward their influence on the counterculture movements of the 1960s.

On the anniversary of his wife's passing, Jefferson Shaw—ex-cop, retired Marine, and grieving widower—packed a duffle bag and climbed into his pickup truck to take the road trip they had been planning together before she died. Now, when engine trouble temporarily strands him in Rosewater, Texas, an impulsive act of chivalry toward a battered young woman lands Shaw in more hot water than he ever could have anticipated.

Quinn Farrell is a modern-day fixer in Los Angeles. He cleans up other people’s messes - rich people’s messes - for a lot of money. He’s so good that he’s become indispensable to Hollywood moguls, and he’s managed to construct a working moral framework so that he can live with himself. That is, he did until a new neighbor moves in next door, Rose Marie, who works with terminally ill teens. Against all his survival instincts, Farrell falls in love with Rose Marie...and then her uncanny patients, who shine a spotlight into his soul.

Born and raised in rural Mississippi and the even balmier climes of central Florida, Red Barber, at the age of thirty-two, became one of New York City's most influential citizens as the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers. But behind all the base hits, balls, and strikes lies a compelling story that dramatizes the shifting expectations and roles of a public figure—the sports broadcaster—as he adapted to complex cultural changes throughout the course of twentieth-century American life.

Paige’s Story may be over, but that doesn’t mean the lives of the people in it stop. This collection of seven short stories follows the residents of Fort Thomas through their ups, downs, and sometimes hilarious screw-ups. From coping with loss and trauma, to a girls’ night out gone wrong, these stories are a heartstrings-tugging, laugh-out-loud look into the personal lives of Paige, Alpha, Fer, and all your favorite Fort Thomas characters.

Upon its release in 2008, Matt Reeves's Cloverfield revitalized the giant creature, a cinematic trope that had languished for over a decade. The film addressed the attacks of September 11, 2001, trading the jingoistic rhetoric of retributive military aggression for serious engagement with personal and collective trauma. It applied the horror genre's fascination with personal stories captured by found footage to the grand violence of history. Innovative and intense, Cloverfield represented blockbuster filmmaking at its best.

Charleston Buzz, a TV reality show, is a train wreck of losers, boozers, womanizers, and ne’er-do-wells. Thing is, the show’s as addictive as crack. One day, its main character is discovered dead in bed, lacy panties tucked under the covers, his wife a thousand miles away. Violent Crimes Unit detectives Nick Janzek and Delvin Rhett swing into action, and within 24 hours they have five suspects…. Problem is, they all have solid alibis.

In a world that is often overwhelming, it’s time to return to the simple things, the AWESOME things, all around us...if only we take a moment to see them. Our Book of Awesome is an injection of joy, a heartfelt gift, and a smacking high five for humanity. Listen to it to be reminded of the endless AWESOME things that give laughter and happiness to our beautiful and brief lives.

It’s business as usual for the superdreadnought and his crew - they gated into the middle of a battle and have to figure out how to stop it.

Integrated with a superdreadnought, the artificial intelligence known as Reynolds has recruited a humanoid crew to help search the universe for the elusive Kurtherians.

Two years and 6,000 miles away from the explosion that took his leg, Josh Carpenter struggles to reclaim his former life as a college student. Mary Fischer, a civilian for the first time in years, strikes out on her own to create a new, independent life away from the army and her controlling mother. The last time Josh saw Mary, his National Guard unit was leaving Kuwait, headed north to the war. The last time Mary saw Josh, she watched as his unconscious body was rolled onto a plane bound for a hospital in Germany.

Something is wrong with the androids at Fort Thomas and it's up to Paige and her new friends to find out what. When an explosion levels a secret lab in the dead of night, an experimental computer virus is unleashed on the world invading artificially intelligent workers and soldiers. Once infected, these synthetic humans experience 1 of 2 side-effects: sentience or corruption. Thirty years later, the military and governments of the world are still struggling to cope with the shock.

Superdreadnought Reynolds has cornered his enemy and believes that Gulg technology will help him defeat the Kurtherian-armed Phraim-‘Eh. But what if it doesn't? With all guns blazing, the battle is joined, but the crew learns more about each other than the enemy. Even though it’s a battle, the superdreadnought must win. Maybe that gives them an edge over the cult. Reynolds wants to take what he’s learned back to Bethany Anne. He’s ready to go home, even if only for a short while.

Maxwell Barnes is on a high-stakes scavenger hunt with no end in sight. The initial discovery of the long-lost Crystal of Ahrum has spiderwebbed into a much more complex adventure, threatening his relationships, worldview, and even his life.

Published to commemorate Cleveland Clinic’s centennial, To Act as a Unit tells the epic story of the hospital system’s conception and rise to prominence. You’ll meet pioneering researchers and clinicians whose innovations are the basis for today’s advanced medical care - from Dr. F. Mason Sones, whose fortuitous accident with a cigarette proved that coronary angiography was possible, to the surgical team that performs groundbreaking, life-changing face transplants.