Showing results by narrator "Chris Macdonnell" in All Categories

"Mr. Midshipman Easy" (1836) is mostly a humorous, sometimes ironic, satirical, seafaring adventure. However, the early chapters of the novel address the birth, upbringing, and education of "our Hero", Jack Easy, and set the stage for the rest of the book.

From sorcerous bridges that link worlds to the simple traditions of country folk; from the mysterious natures of twins to the dangerous powers of obligation and contract. Laden with perils for both the adventurous and the unsuspecting, magic is ultimately a contradiction: endlessly powerful but never without consequence, and rigidly defined by rules of its own making. Award-winning Jonathan Strahan brings together some of the most exciting and popular writers working in fantasy today to dig into that contradiction.

This powerful and moving 1860 novel is believed to be George Eliot’s most autobiographical novel. She was certainly referencing personal experience when she wrote the character of Maggie Tulliver.

This is Charles Dickens’s second novel and regarded as one of his best. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and titled; Oliver Twist, or; A Parish Boys Progress. As a book, it first appeared in 1838 in three volumes. The story follows the title character Oliver Twist, who, being born and raised in a workhouse for the first ten years of his life, runs away to nearby London. Here, he falls in with a gang of young thieves and pickpockets controlled by Fagin, an elderly criminal.

In this James-Bond-meets-real-world thriller, MI5 man Lucas Norton once again finds himself caught up in a high-stakes assault when a sniper in a powerboat takes a pot-shot at his family. Could it be linked to the daring raid carried out at GCHQ, where thieves evade the world's tightest security to steal top secret ultra-high-tech equipment from under his nose? Lucas's first case culminated in him, and the FBI, losing $48m from an international heist.

Authoritarian regimes in many countries, and the men that lead them, depend on the international management of licit and illicit funds under their control. Frank Vogl shows that curbing their activities for their kleptocratic clients is critical to secure democracy, enhance national security, and ensure international financial stability.

"Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific" by Capt. Frederick Marryat, follows the adventures of a devoutly Christian family (The Seagraves) and their servant (Juno) who are shipwrecked at sea and find themselves having to survive on a desert island.

We are in darkness. We are alone. They came from the lands of light. They came with torches, with lanterns, with the banners of the sun. The children of endless day-they came to banish the darkness. And they came to kill. We are the children of never-ending night. We are the dwellers of shadow. In the light of our enemy, we are dying. We were born in darkness. We must cast out the light. This is our story.

London, 1888. A madman has begun the most notorious series of murders in history. With each new discovery of a woman's mutilated body, the citywide panic grows. The police seem unable to stop the killer, even when he taunts them with letters. Letters signed...Jack the Ripper. In another part of London, the reign of terror has touched a young writer and theater manager named Bram Stoker. The police have closed his theater's production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and suspect its star of being Jack the Ripper. His livelihood endangered, Stoker sets out to find the real killer.

For the past six months, since solving the thefts of England's subsidies meant for its war allies, Lady Cecilia and Sir James Branstoke have concentrated on renovating their estate in Kent. When David Thornbridge sends word to them that someone has kidnapped a child from The East India Company dock, Cecilia and James immediately return to London to investigate. Their investigation leads them from warehouses, to a society musical entertainment, and to the rooftops and chimneys of London. And just when they rescue the child, murder occurs.

The ancient conflict that has waged on Earth for eons between two rival groups of alien gods, one from the bright center of the galaxy and one from the dark abyss beyond, is finally nearing its end. A prophecy foretelling the birth of children of the bright gods, the Lightbringers, is fulfilled, and dark forces immediately set out to destroy them. Raised in secrecy on a mysterious isle by a group of magical women called the Circle of Swans, one of the children, Deykin, is believed to be safe until one fateful day when his world unravels.

Mindful Business Leadership presents a new model of leadership. It introduces 10 very different leadership roles that are required to meet the challenges of modern business. Memorable metaphors and images are created for each, and they are placed in a matrix. Listeners are shown how to develop these roles within themselves. Potentially negative aspects of each are discussed, along with material on how to put these to creative use.

In this sweeping and provocative work, political economist William Davies draws on a 400-year history of ideas to reframe our understanding of the contemporary world. He argues that global trends decades and even centuries in the making have reduced a world of logic and fact into one driven by emotions - particularly fear and anxiety. This has ushered in an age of "nervous states", both in our individual bodies and our body politic.

Set in rural Victorian England, Far from the Madding Crowd describes the life and relationships of a woman Farmer, Bathsheba Everdene. First with the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, then her lonely neighbor William Boldwood, and finally, the prodigal soldier Sergeant Frank Troy.

River steamboat captain Charles Marlow has set forth on the Congo in Africa to find the enigmatic European trader Mr. Kurtz. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in "one of the darkest places on earth." Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.

The sun no longer rises. Evening no longer falls. In the lands of endless sunlight, we fear the darkness, we forge swords, we march to war. In the shadows of eternal night, we hide, we pray, we die. Soldiers of sunlight and children of darkness - we were once one. We were torn apart. We must be one again.

First published in 1905, H. G. Wells’s Kipps is an appraisal of society and class framed in a “rags to riches” style plot.

A young man, Elwin, seeks to become an elementalist. But with war looming and an accident that could cost him his freedom, Elwin finds himself fleeing for his life and evading the Guardians of Life. The Guardians think Elwin guilty of the most grievous of crimes, and as he trains the gifts of his bloodline, he will discover a secret from long in his past.

When we first encounter the series' narrator, Lucas Norton, he's riding his bicycle through a sleeting rain, heading to his office in the British Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) complex in Cheltenham, England. Meet the new James Bond. He has all the high-tech toys Britain's MI5 security service has developed at his disposal, but he's just a regular guy dealing with a promotion and marital problems, in addition to one hell of a caper.

The novel is the story of a scientist who, through the study of optics finds a way to make things invisible. In a desire for recognition, fame, and the advantages of being invisible, he subjects himself to the process. But being unseen isn't as positive as he had hoped, and he soon finds himself regretting his condition, and his mind also becomes warped. He becomes mentally unhinged. Later, he embraces his invisibility and begins to spiral into a lust for power and control, and he reveals a plan he has hatched to unleash his personal "terror" on the world.