Showing results by narrator "John Banks" in All Categories

The Victorian era is remembered for many things, but one of the fondest is the wide and varied array of short, ghostly, suspenseful tales...often enjoyed around the fireside at Christmastime. In this new anthology, John Banks performs 12 of the very best, all written by incredibly talented but oft-times overlooked or forgotten authors. Once you tire of Dickens and James, these are the true masters of short-form suspense.

Vindicare Assassin Deliva stalks her prey - noblewoman and dangerous heretic Seleuca Markovan - on the target's palatial estate. When her shot is spoiled, Deliva must move into the facility to finish Markovan before she escapes justice. Inside, a trail of bodies and taunting messages from Markovan prove that Deliva's coming has been anticipated...but nothing is at it seems, and as the truth of the mission emerges, Deliva's world will be turned upside down.

In the sprawling Imperium of Mankind, everyone serves the Emperor in their own way. From the inquisitors who hunt the hidden enemies of humanity in the dark places of the galaxy to the brave soldiers who stand on the front line, and the Imperial Assassins who can change the tides of war with a single shot, each has a part to play in preserving the Imperium. In this audio anthology, three of these disparate heroes are put to the test, each facing a personal crisis that will see them either fall to darkness, or rise to continue doing their duty in the Emperor's name.

You’ve got to keep your head to survive in Nekropolis. It’s a shame Victor Baron couldn’t manage that. Now everyone wants a piece of him. Zombie detective Matt Richter and his glamourous she-vampire companion Devona are back on the case, with another wild and wonderful investigation. Tim Waggoner is a novelist and college professor.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. But war is waged in many ways. From the dark places where 10,000-year-old psychic warriors interrogate living machines from a time before man, to a treacherous assassination plot that could bring an end to a centuries-old legacy of honour, to relic hunters who want to wrest secrets from a plague-ridden traitor or cross swords with a sinister Chaplain of the Dark Angels.

The road to becoming a Doan warrior is a long one. While Cam must face distrust and long days of training, he also attracts the interest of Uelia, the beautiful Festival Master of High Home. His acts of bravery swell his fame and the jealousy of his brother. With winter approaching, the people of High Home decide to cross the Long Dark to see what’s on the other side.

I cannot go on like this. I feel such a burden to you. You are young and can start again. You deserve that chance. By the time you read this, I will be dead. Do not grieve for me, for I am now without pain. Yours truly forever, Monica. Monica suffers from chronic neuropathic pain. Every second of her life is spent in agony, and she is coping with it the best she can. However, there are whole years of her life which are a blur to her. But when she finds a suicide note, written in her handwriting, she begins to question everything.

The Pharos stands as a beacon of light in the darkness, a whisper of hope in the silent void, a bastion of defiance in the face of treachery. Without it there could be no Imperium Secundus - why, then, do the masters of Ultramar know so little about its operation, or the dangers it could present? Young Oberdeii and Tebecai, Scouts of the 199th Company, descend into the depths beneath Mount Pharos in search of the truth...though it may haunt them for all time.

Doubly so for a Rootless Daiygmar, hated by just about everyone. But even more distressing than assassins and dealing with his scheming stepmother is the knowledge that to save the world from a Nausch invasion. He will need to let Ahkra kill him so she can take his throne and unite the Doans and the Kingdom of Calaphas. Reuniting with old Doan friends convinces him that sacrificing his life for the greater good is what a healer would do, but those who love him have other plans...

Imprisoned in a Tsarran mine, Cam dreams of escape. When he unexpectedly becomes a gang boss, his unorthodox leadership and healing skills earn him the loyalty of his miners. His big mouth and penchant for sass, however, earn the ire of others who want him punished or dead. As the miners suffer from privation and barbaric cruelty, Cam and his gang suspect a darker plot is at work, a plot that might get them all killed. Will anyone listen? Is there any way out? And who is the mysterious prisoner locked away in the apothecary’s clinic?

Imagine if you had the blueprint to create an agile and intelligent organisation that could handle anything that an unpredictable business world threw at it.... First Be Nimble is that blueprint, presented by best-selling author Graham Winter in an enthralling business story packed with easy-to-apply ideas and powerful tools linked to online resources. Learn how to: move, learn, and adapt - fast; replace change resistance with change resilience; thrive in ambiguity and uncertainty; break through business bottlenecks; and build a network of nimble, connected teams.

The sharp, funny, entirely original and explosive debut novel by Adam Thirlwell – twice named one of the Best Young British Novelists by Granta magazine. In case you had not noticed, writes Adam Thirlwell in his first novel, Politics, in this book I am not interested in anything so small as the history of the USSR. I am not writing anything so limited. In this epic miniature, therefore, Politics tells the story of three kids in their twenties falling in love with each other in London.

With enemies advancing on all sides and Cardinal Richelieu's health failing, France is at breaking point. Yet salvation may arrive in the most unlikely form.... Born into poverty and with terrible deformities, Sebastian Morra is a dwarf with the wit of Tyrion Lannister and three foot, four inches of brazen pluck.

Science is always telling stories. Whether in the creation myths of evolution or the Big Bang, or in the eureka moments of science history, narrative just as much as metaphor is a key tool in the scientist's surprisingly literary toolkit. In this unique anthology, authors have collaborated with leading scientists, to bounce literary, human narratives against purely theoretical ones, alloying together real stories with abstract ones, to produce truly extraordinary results.

A global pandemic forces Poe and Tilly to self-isolate together. Things don't go well. They're bickering and on the verge of falling out until Poe finds an old case file: a locked-room mystery he's been mulling over for years. Step forward, Tilly Bradshaw.

The latest adventure for the Red Sunz mekmob continues in the second part of a three-part audio drama! Bozgat, the smallest of the meks, runs out of fuel for his bike and is separated from the crew. Lost alone with Frikk the grot, he stumbles across a trading outpost deep in the desert and finds himself in trouble with a bunch of rebellious gretchin. Can Frikk save the day?

A fictional biographical slice of Baudelaire's life and love with his famous Haitian muse, Jeanne Duval, Black Venus captures the artistic scene in the great French capital city, at a time when the likes of Dumas and Balzac argued literature in the cafés of the Left Bank. Among the bohemians, the young Charles Baudelaire stood out, dressed impeccably thanks to an inheritance that was quickly vanishing.

In the cursed city of Shadespire, two Stormcast Eternals Liberators, Darras Sunblade and Erak Grimwatch, seek a way to rejoin their comrades in Severin Steelheart's company. However, the twisting and ever-changing maze of the dead city thwarts them at every turn - and Grimwatch has his own troubles as flashes of another life take him. Mortal danger stalks them, as a warrior of the Khorne Bloodbound, also suffering visions of an impossible past, seeks to take their skulls for his bloodthirsty god....

An extravaganza of suburban noir - complete with one orgy, one brothel and a series of firearms disputes - from Adam Thirlwell, twice selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. This yarn takes place in the suburbs of a giant city. In Brasilia they’re coming off their night shift; in Tokyo they’re having their first whisky sours. That’s what’s happening elsewhere in the world when our hero wakes up. Together with his wife and dog, he lives at home with his parents.

Raised by his father in La Rochelle, France, Paul Plantavalu is known for his artistic nature, inquisitive mind and Christian faith. He also has an unshakeable love for his Muslim childhood friend, Alisha al Komaty. Courageous and outspoken, she returns Paul’s love. But their path is paved with obstacles: religion, war, political chaos and a mysterious enemy determined to destroy their family lines.