Showing results by narrator "Richard Smith" in All Categories

An epic collection of fantasy tales in the grand tradition, including a never-before-published A Song of Ice and Fire story by George R.R. Martin and an introduction by Gardner Dozois. Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettable heroes ever conjured onto the page: Robert E...

Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son by his father, David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister, Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family. In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past.

Coel ap Math and Snorri Yaroslav serve on the Frontier with Debts of Commission they can never hope to pay. When an enemy no one believes exists wipes out their detachment, the two warriors find themselves disgraced, destitute, and dishonorably discharged. They are soldiers without a cause and must pay off their commissions or face a lifetime of indentured servitude or a rope. When an Eastern sorcerer makes them an offer they cannot afford to refuse, they join a disparate band of associates.

Originally broadcast on Radio 4 in 2003-4, We’ve Been Here Before is the topical, satirical, historical panel game that aims to show beyond all doubt that there’s nothing new in the news. Hosted by award-winning comedian, broadcaster and Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Clive Anderson, it takes a wry, witty look at long-gone days through a present-day lens, as the panellists battle it out to discover who’s got the best memory for detail when it comes to raking up the past.

Some people are born boring. Some live boring. Some even die boring. Fred managed to do all three, and when he woke up as a vampire, he did so as a boring one. Timid, socially awkward, and plagued by self-esteem issues, Fred has never been the adventurous sort. One fateful night, Fred reconnects with an old friend at his high school reunion. This rekindled relationship sets off a chain of events thrusting him right into the chaos that is the parahuman world.

On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there was once a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. Here begins the epic story of a small African nation, told by a mysterious swarm-like chorus that calls itself man’s greatest nemesis. The tale? A playful panorama of history, fairytale, romance and science fiction. The moral? To err is human. In 1904, in a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. 

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But Jason Trapp is losing his taste for it. For six months, his personal crusade has taken him around the world, mopping up the last of the Bloody Monday conspirators. There's only one left, and after the crooked financier Emmanuel Alstyne meets his maker, Trapp's debt will be paid in full. He vows he's done with the business of death.

Two of the Johnstones’ most legendary heroes—the rugged mountain man known as Preacher and the Scottish clan rancher Jamie Ian MacCallister, here together for the first time—are forced to choose sides in a blood-soaked battle for the heart and soul of a nation divided. This is not the American dream they were looking for. This is a nightmare. A brutal, blood-drenched frontier war that two heroic men must fight and win—or one struggling nation will never come together. For liberty and justice for all.

The Primordials are crossing into our universe. Their mission is simple: Burn every planet to ashes. The only hope for all life is the culmination of the Kane bloodline. Prometheus finds his back against the wall. Can he hold off the horde long enough for his grandson to face a god? Or will defending his home require the ultimate sacrifice? Constantine and his warriors are out of options. They must find the alien god-king and kill him before time runs out for everyone. Two generations must dig deep and rise above a species more powerful than humanity ever imagined.

Delaney Reed needs a vacation from her vacation town. Even on a good day, it’s a lot of work to keep the peace in a town full of gods, monsters, and magical beings. Lately all the good days have gone from bad to worse. Luckily, Delaney has a plan to steal away with her fiancé, Ryder Bailey, for a nice relaxing weekend together. Her getaway plans come to a screeching halt when Delaney discovers Crow’s garage sale is selling cursed magical items to anyone who wants one—and everyone wants one.

Alistair knows the risks, but he must take the Ice Queen’s military and the gigante to Planet Phoenix. In order to defeat the Ascendant, Alexander de Finita, and put this nightmare behind him, it’ll take every asset he can bring together. There’s just one problem.

Centuries ago, when Earth's Darkfolk - vampires, werewolves, witches, and other creatures - were threatened by humanity, they departed our planet's dimension and journeyed to a shadowy realm, where they built the great city of Nekropolis. Matt Richter is an Earth cop who came through a portal to Nekropolis on a case, died, and was resurrected as a zombie. Unable to return home, he works as a private investigator on the very mean streets of this shadowy, dark city.

On the blood-stained battlefields of a divided nation, Dr. Samuel Knight used his surgical skills to treat wounded Confederate soldiers. In the brutal prison camps of the Union Army, he offered his healing services to fellow captives who’d given up hope. But now, with the war over and the South in ruins, the good doctor faces his hardest challenge yet: to save himself.

Golconda, the secret underground military complex hidden away before Skydark and rediscovered by Trader, is a bounty of riches, filled with arms, ammunition, and wags. But having those things is not enough for the man called Trader. With this newfound wealth, he’s got a dream that’s burned within him. Determined to build a trade caravan strong enough to plow through the most inhospitable areas of the Deathlands, Trader gathers a new crew to face bandits, raiders, and mutie menaces spawned by the world destruction known as Skydark.

In Othir, he was at the top of the food chain — an assassin beyond compare, a dark shadow in the night. But Caim left that life behind when he helped an empress claim her throne. And now his past has come calling again. Searching for the truth behind the murder and disappearance of his parents, Caim discovers a land in thrall to the Shadow. Haunted by temptations from the Other Side, he becomes mired in a war he does not want to fight.

The Spear of Lugh, one of the four Kingly Hallows of Ireland is in Chicago. And everyone, everyone wants it, for it is said that he who carries the spear into battle cannot be defeated. Among those who seek it are an agent of the infamous Wild Hunt; a mobster who knows far more about these things than he should; and of course both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts - the last people PI Mick Oberon would want getting hold of the spear....

London might as well be a world away from Sandsend, a tiny village on the Yorkshire coast. Gideon Smith dreams of the adventure promised him by the lurid tales of Captain Lucian Trigger, the Hero of the Empire, told in Gideon’s favorite “penny dreadful.” When Gideon’s father is lost at sea in highly mysterious circumstances Gideon is convinced that supernatural forces are at work. Deciding only Captain Lucian Trigger himself can aid him, Gideon sets off for London. On the way he rescues the mysterious mechanical girl Maria from a tumbledown house of shadows and iniquities. 

It is God's year 54, many years before the Demon Wars, in the land of Corona. The roads are unsafe to travel; goblins and bloodthirsty Powries search out human prey. Two religions struggle fiercely for control. Bran Dynard, a monk of the fledgling religion of Abelle, returns from his mission in a far-off land with a book of mystical knowledge and a beautiful and mysterious new wife. But he soon realizes that the world he left behind has changed, and his dream of spreading the wisdom he learned to his fellow monks is crushed. 

The games are over. The war is here. Does humanity have a chance against the gods? Five men and women venture to another universe to find beings whose power gives them abilities they can’t imagine. Their leader? The greatest warrior produced since Prometheus: Achilles. Young, untested, but with unbridled potential, will his raw talent be enough? Can Achilles fight gods and turn back the tide of fate for the entire universe? Or will he be crushed like an ant beneath the feet of beings who can walk the stars? Humanity comes face-to-face with their creators.

A selection of the award-winning author’s plays for theatre and radio Well known for his hit TV series Doctor Foster, Mike Bartlett is one of Britain’s most prolific and high-profile contemporary playwrights. He has been Writer-In-Residence at the both the National Theatre and The Royal...