Showing results by narrator "Von Johnson" in All Categories

They won't settle for mere victory. They want to exterminate us. Every last one of us. A surprise attack has sent the Star Alliance fleeing for its life. A remnant of a remnant, their meager fleet—all that remains alive—flees to what seems like a safe harbor: a forgotten backwater planet called Earth. Join ace fighter pilot Chase as he teams up with the modern-day militaries of Earth and fights the last battle for the universe.

As did his father before him, Pierce Butler treats his plantation slaves like family. But massive gambling debts force him to sell 429 “family” members. When the auction begins, torrential rain falls - not stopping until the final slave is sold the next day. The ominous rainfall prompts these words: “This ain’t rain. This is God’s tears.” Based on the largest slave auction in U.S. history, this poignant montage is the fictionalized account of that 1859 Georgia tragedy.

As METAtropolis: Green Space moves into the 22nd Century, human social evolution is heading in new directions after the Green Crash and the subsequent Green Renaissance. Nearly everyone who cares to participate in the wired world has become part of the "Internet of things", a virtual environment mapped across all aspects of the natural experience. At the same time, the serious back-to-the-land types have embraced a full-on paleo lifestyle, including genetically engineering themselves and their offspring.

In 1961 Charlotte, North Carolina, the predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn is a bustling city within a city. Self-contained and vibrant, it has its own restaurants, schools, theaters, churches, and night clubs. There are shotgun shacks and poverty, along with well-maintained houses like the one Loraylee Hawkins shares with her young son, Hawk, her Uncle Ray, and her grandmother, Bibi. Loraylee's love for Archibald Griffin, Hawk's white father and manager of the cafeteria where she works, must be kept secret in the segregated South.

Ever since the System brought magic and monstrous mayhem to Earth, long-haul trucker Jill "Junkmouth" MacLeod has had a need for speed. The highway snaking through the Midwestern plains is the battleground, and the stakes are the lives of not only Jill but thousands of survivors along for the ride. Together with Bertha, her mega-upgraded, fully-turreted, heavily-armored Soulbound big rig, Jill has the edge—so far.

I don't do casual hookups, so I have no idea what to expect when I meet not one, but three hot guys who are into me. I'm an introverted, failing-book-shop-owning, romance-writer wanna be. But after my dating disaster at a hockey game all caught on the jumbotron I somehow have the attention of three men. Nathan Armstrong is the hot, older, sophisticated billionaire owner of the team.

In a world awash in educational chess content, knowing how to study the game most effectively can be challenging. As the Perpetual Chess Podcast host, USCF Master Ben Johnson has spent hundreds of hours talking chess with many of the world’s top players and most accomplished trainers. In the popular Adult Improver Series, he has spoken with dozens of passionate amateurs who have elevated their games significantly while pursuing chess as a hobby.

The final year at Lander has finally arrived for the Melbrook students and their peers, and with it comes a whole new set of challenges. Still reeling from the events of their junior year, the remaining students will have to push past their pain—and so much more—if they hope to be one of the ten to claim the title of Hero upon graduation. Constant tests and trials await the senior students. Beyond simulated missions and classes, they’ll also have to buckle down to learn about agents, prospective teams, internships, and other seemingly endless elements of being a Hero.

In Fatherless No More, Tim Johnson takes you on a journey that challenges everything you thought you knew about identity. Your true identity doesn’t begin or end with the relationship you had—or didn’t have—with your earthly father.

Can a band comprised of six very talented but very different musicians make a difference with their music? What made it possible for Diamond Rio to weather the storms inherent in the fickle world of fame and fortune and go more than two decades without a single lineup change? Any reader in...

Wagner’s Ring cycle is the most ambitious work in the history of music: four operas that combine to tell a single epic story. Based in legend, it has become a legend in its own right: a supreme challenge for conductors, singers, opera producers, and indeed for audiences. But for all its grandeur and complexity, The Ring is far more accessible than many music lovers think.

The Mockingbird family has always lived peacefully in Jubilee, Kentucky, despite the divisions that mark their small town. Until the tense summer of 1963, when their youngest child, Isaac, falls gravely ill. Middle sister Grace, nearly fourteen, is determined to do whatever it takes to save her little brother. With her father and mother away at the hospital, Grace is left under the loving but inexperienced eye of her aunt June, with little to do but wait and worry. Inspired by a young teacher’s mission for change, she begins to flirt with danger—and with a gifted boy named Golden.

Lydia returns to Mudaire to enter training at the healing temple. But instead of fighting to save lives, she’s convinced she is doing more harm than good. She delves into the history of the gods only to discover a truth that will change her life forever. His birthright as commander of the Royal Army is finally in his grasp, but Killian feels anything but victorious. Burdened by his past, he embraces the darker side of his mark - and in doing so, risks starting a war.

Cole Matheson didn't think the road to being a successful painter would be paved in gold, but he hoped there'd be fewer potholes. Insidious self-doubt that whispers that he's no good, talentless, and hopeless has him on the brink of despair. Maybe it would be better to just give up. A midnight visitation by a beautiful creature of darkness changes everything... Ambrosius Edward Meade-Finch surrendered to darkness centuries ago after knowing only pain and suffering during his short life. Now, Ambri makes humans dance on his strings, feeding on their desire for his own pleasure.

In this charming classic story, Harry, the little white dog with black spots, runs away before bath time and plays outside until he changes into a black dog with white spots.

Stories creep through Scrying Hollow—whispers of a great beast. Come dusk, the first howl catches the wind and rustles the trees. Make haste, for it's no wolf bounding through the Hollow. The Hound comes for you. Liliwen, the eldest daughter of the Valet family, knows the tales well. You see, her father was the first to die to the Hound. Seven years later, heartbreak threatens again when Liliwen's brother is ambushed by the beast. Eviscerated and barely alive, her brother escapes and stumbles home. Once more, death waits upon Liliwen's doorstep.

The past is a battleground in many countries, but in China it is crucial to political power. In traditional China, dynasties rewrote history to justify their rule by proving that their predecessors were unworthy of holding power. Marxism gave this a modern gloss, describing history as an unstoppable force heading toward Communism's triumph. The Chinese Communist Party builds on these ideas to whitewash its misdeeds and glorify its rule. But in recent years, independent writers, artists, and filmmakers have begun challenging this state-led disremembering.

After she is freed from captivity aboard a Vionian ship, Tessara is given as a gift to a huge, fiercely handsome alien warrior who will have the right to use and enjoy her as he pleases. Though he is kinder than the brutes from whom she was rescued, Tessara's new master quickly proves himself more than ready to spank her bare bottom whenever her defiance makes it necessary... including in the middle of a thorough, shamefully intimate medical examination with the doctor who just watched as she was mounted and rutted observing every stinging swat.

What price victory? The war with the Republic of Haven has resumed . . . disastrously for the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Steadholder and Duchess Harrington, the single victorious Allied commander of the opening phase of the new war, has been recalled from the Sidemore System to command Eighth Fleet. Everyone knows Eighth Fleet is the Alliance's primary offensive command, which makes it the natural assignment for the woman the media calls "the Salamander."

The year is 1815, and an American, Miss Amelia Stonehold, has arrived in the Devon town of Axminster, accompanied by her "cousin" Serena Meleva. She's brought with her a list to tick off: find a property, investigate the neighbors, bargain for and purchase the property, staff the property and . . . possibly . . . find a husband. But Amelia soon finds herself contending with some decidedly off-list trouble, including the Honorable Captain Harold Roughtower, whose eyes are fixed on her fortune.