Showing results by narrator "John Banks" in All Categories

Dead Man's Fingers sees Poe, Tilly and Edgar, Poe's English springer spaniel, enjoying a picnic at a nature reserve. When Edgar chases a rabbit, and Poe and Tilly chase after Edgar, they stumble upon a twenty-year-old mystery, a mystery that couldn't be solved until now.

George Simling has grown up in the city-state of Illyria, an enclave of logic and reason founded as a refuge from the Reaction, a wave of religious fundamentalism that swept away the nations of the 21st century. Yet to George, Illyria's militant rationalism is as close-minded and stifling as the faith-based superstition that dominates the world outside its walls. For George has fallen in love with Lucy. A prostitute. A robot. She might be a machine, but the semblance of life is perfect. And beneath her good looks and real human skin, her seductive, sultry, sluttish software is simmering on the edge of consciousness. To the city authorities robot sentience is a malfunction, curable by periodically erasing and resetting silicon minds. Simple maintenance, no real problem, it’s only a machine. But it’s a problem for George, he knows that Lucy is something more.

On the world of Solennes, the battle between the forces of the Imperium and the heretics has become a stalemate of seemingly eternal artillery bombardments. The land is devastated, and the attempts to gain ground by either side end in disaster. Morale is low, and when Trooper Arehn is caught apparently fleeing the front lines, Commissar Selander does not hesitate in condemning him to a very public execution. When Selander starts to see Arehn after his death, he follows the apparition, wracked by doubts - but what will he find?

Salvor Lermentov, Astra Militarum officer turned would-be freedom fighter, languishes in a dark cell deep within an Inquisition fortress. Captured for the crime of treachery, he is sure of his innocence - for did he not aid a servant of the Inquisition in preventing a grievous threat to Terra itself? As he and Inquisitor Crowl match wits in an interrogation, Lermentov outlines his reasons for deserting - but Inquisitor Crowl knows darker truths about the Imperium of Man, and with them in mind, can he possibly allow this traitor to live?

After a bloody triumph at the siege of Cartha, Lord-Relictor Ramus' Hallowed Knights and the Astral Templars of Knight-Azyros Vandalus press on with their search for Mannfred von Carstein, but they soon learn that orruks, not ogors, hold sway in the Carthic Oldwoods. The Stormcast Eternals must overcome not only these brutish warriors but also the will of their gods. Ramus and Vandalus must prevail against the fist of Gork and the fist of Mork if they are to forge a path to the Sea of Bones, where their hated quarry awaits.

Though he knows such beliefs are forbidden, Vice-Caesari Marcus Valerius of the Therion Cohort is willing to lay down his life in service to the immortal God-Emperor, for the good of all mankind. Sent by Corax to the great slaughter at Beta-Garmon, every last one of the Imperial Army soldiers under his command knows that the end is nigh - but can Valerius' holy visions guide them to one final victory over the hordes of the hated Arch-traitor?

Berkeley Silver, one of the richest men in the Earth empire, lies dead in the penthouse suite of the Galileo space-hotel. Law enforcement officers Detective Captain McGinnis and Detective Sergeant Mead are called in to investigate - but it seems to have been the perfect crime. Even when subjected to a memory scan, everybody in the space-hotel has an alibi for the murder. Which means it can have been the work of only one woman.

Whilst on a murder-mystery evening in deepest darkest Northumberland, Poe manages to annoy everyone whilst simultaneously solving a mystery - what happened to a five-carat red diamond called the Red Moon of Coonowrin.

The small island of Malaz and its city gave the great empire its name, but now it is little more than a sleepy, backwater port. Tonight, however, things are different. Tonight the city is on edge, a hive of hurried, sometimes violent activity; its citizens bustle about, barring doors, shuttering windows, avoiding any stranger's stare. Because tonight there is to be a convergence, the once-in-a-generation appearance of a Shadow Moon - an occasion that threatens the good people of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker things....

After the destruction of the Infidus Imperator, Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers brought his followers to supposed safety in the Eye of Terror. However, their newly adopted home, the daemon world Sicarus, is far from the sanctuary they imagined - the twisted hordes of the Kairic Adept Larazzar seek to crush these newcomers and all who would ally with them. Only in the ancient legends of Sicarus can their salvation be found, but is Kor Phaeron the one to lead them to it?

Though the Word Bearers' attack on Calth and the subsequent Shadow Crusade into Ultramar are but a memory, the borders of Imperium Secundus are far from secure. Sergeant Aeonid Thiel, stranded on the garrison world of Oran on his way back to Macragge, frustrates his superiors once again by pointing out the holes in their defence - traitor warband activity is increasing, and a series of key listening posts have fallen silent.

On Delephron, an immense mag-train hurtles through desert. Within its metal confines there lies a hidden message, one that could bring the Raven Guard into such ill repute it would risk its very survival. Only the Shadowmasters, the finest of the Chapter’s elite, have the skill to infiltrate the high-speeding mag-lev and extract the message before their presence is known. But dark forces stir against them, servants of the Plague God intent on their own fell purpose. And who is the Inquisitor Bledheim, and what could he possibly know to inflict such a deadly blow to the sons of Corax?

Before the Warmaster's betrayal, the primarchs and their Legions were a warrior brotherhood without equal. At Calth, a planetary jewel in Ultramar's crown, a great mustering is taking place. Two proud Legions gather in hopes of healing the discord after the notorious shaming of the Word Bearers at Monarchia. Captain Alcaeus of the Ultramarines plans on joining the muster but will not rest until the remnants of the Ghaslakh Empire are purged utterly from the galaxy, For honour and glory, he has sworn an oath to succeed.

Charles Hayden has been fascinated by a strange Victorian fairy tale, In the Night Wood, since he was a child. When his wife, Erin - a descendant of the author - inherits her ancestor’s house, the couple decide to make it their home. Still mourning the recent death of their daughter, they leave America behind, seeking a new beginning in the English countryside. But Hollow House, filled with secrets and surrounded by an ancient oak forest, is a place where the past seems very much alive....

A warrior of the Stormcast Eternals returns to the place of her birth, long before she was reforged as a celestial hero. Only by coming to terms with her past can she save her home for the future. A Stormcast Eternal returning to her human life is a fascinating thing, and this drama explores how much she has changed and grown across her lives - and what may be diminished within her as well.

Three great heroes - Hamilcar Bear-eater, Neferata and Prince Maesa - each face very personal trials that could see them fall into darkness in these three tales that beautifully evoke bitter melancholy - as well as provide audio action. The gods are at war. As the Mortal Realms plunge into darkness and despair, there are an ambitious few who seek to turn these fortunes in their favour. Within the nightmarish, labyrinthine halls of Shadespire, a famed Lord-Castellant must escape the Mirrored City to cement his legend forever.

The Red Sunz Meks are back! Uggrim, Snikgob, Bozgat, Talker the Madboy and Frikk the grot return. Their space hulk knocked out of the sky following the Great Rift, the boyz have fallen on hard times. Stranded on yet another backwater world, they are locked in an endless series of skirmishes over diminishing supplies with rival Mek Grimgutz. When Fat Mork is beset by an invasion of snotlings and attacked by ork Wildboyz and Talker the Madboy goes a bit nuts, the boyz reckon a Waaagh is coming. Uggrim and his mekboys set out to join it.

Esslemont's all-new prequel trilogy takes readers deeper into the politics and intrigue of the New York Times bestselling Malazan Empire. Dancer's Lament focuses on the genesis of the empire, and features Dancer, the skilled assassin, who, alongside the mage Kellanved, would found the Malazan empire.

Mondo Bizzarro sees Tilly drag Poe to Durham to meet her favourite fantasy author, Aldridge Fowler, but when they arrive, he's already dead - killed by his own hand. Despite the overwhelming evidence though, Poe suspects the bookshop staff might be hiding a terrible secret.

Lured into the cursed city of Shadespire by the promise of the secret of cheating death, the aelf wanderer Prince Maesa seeks the Katophrane Thanaton. Surrounded by the spirits of the dead who cannot die, trapped in the last moments before the city's destruction, Maesa nears his goal...but just why does a nigh-immortal aelf seek this power over death?