“The narrators of this fraught coming-of-age story are excellent…The gospel music of the Arise Ensemble enhances the listening experience. The audio drama has moments of remarkable verisimilitude: from the play-by-play announcing of a basketball game to the whirring of a helicopter in Vietnam. Performed by a gifted cast, this slice of our history stays with the listener. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile
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- The Real Education of TJ Crowley
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Based on the novel by Grant Overstake
Adapted by Grant Overstake and May Wuthrich
Directed by May Wuthrich
Performed by Dani Martineck, Dion Graham, Tavia Gilbert, Johnny Heller, Kevin R. Free, Shayna Small, Ari Fliakos, Michael Crouch, Kirby Heyborne, Graham Halstead, Thérèse Plummer, Brittany Pressley, Peter Berkrot, John Wright, and Sheila Brown Kinnard
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Release Date: 6/11/24
Formats: cpid_11
Set in 1968 after the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this immersive audio dramatization, inspired by the author’s own experiences, features an award-winning cast of 15 actors, in a fast-paced, suspenseful coming-of-age story.
With his father’s mysterious disappearance and his brother Ronnie enlisting in the Vietnam War, 13-year-old TJ Crowley is left alone with his racist, unstable mother, Kate. The newly enforced Fair Housing Act results in the unthinkable for the Crowleys when a Black family, headed by the eminent Dr. Washington, crosses the racial red line and moves in next door. Kate is quick to warn TJ that their new neighbors are strictly off-limits and makes a panicked call to beg Ray, her old flame, to travel to their home in Wichita Kansas to help deal with “the problem next door.”
At his now integrated junior high, TJ resents that teachers tell him he must get to know his Black classmates, yet he understands that staying out of trouble can only help assure him an all-important spot on the basketball team. At school, a violent confrontation with Leon, the tough new kid in 7th grade, lands them in the principal’s office. And at home, Ray ropes him into building a fence that will send the Washingtons a message that they’re not welcome.
But the fence can’t quiet the sounds of unfamiliar music floating over the fence nor hide the strength and beauty of his new classmate, Ivy Washington, who fiercely stands up for what she believes in.
Over time, TJ begins to question the lessons he’s learned at home and decides to accept Dr. Washington’s invitation to visit their family. Devastated when his poor grades and bad behavior keep him from the basketball team, TJ turns to the doctor, a former athlete, who coaches him for the track team, teaching him how to throw the shot put.
When TJ’s secret visits to the Washingtons are discovered, and a series of escalating hate crimes point to Ray, TJ is forced to make a defining choice that will forever change his life.
Performed by Dani Martineck, Dion Graham, Tavia Gilbert, Johnny Heller, Kevin R. Free, Shayna Small, Ari Fliakos, Michael Crouch, Kirby Heyborne, Graham Halstead, Peter Berkrot, Thérèse Plummer, Brittany Pressley, John Wright, and Sheila Brown Kinnard, playing the role inspired by her mother, Josephine Brown.
Grant Overstake, a storyteller and educator, draws from his background as a former Miami Herald sports writer and decathlon All-American to write authentic sports themed novels of raw emotion. Grant and his wife, Claire, sing in the multicultural ARISE Ensemble, who’s music is featured in this program.
An award-winning producer and director with over 400 titles to her credit, May Wuthrich is a former actor with a background in traditional book publishing and book-to-screen script development.
Presented by Grain Valley Publishing
“The gospel music of the ARISE Ensemble enhances the listening experience. The audio drama has moments of remarkable verisimilitude: from the play-by-play announcing of a basketball game to the whirring of a helicopter in Vietnam. Performed by a gifted cast, this slice of our history stays with the listener.” —AudioFile (Earphones Award winner)
- The Real Education of TJ Crowley
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Based on the novel by Grant Overstake
Adapted by Grant Overstake and May Wuthrich
Directed by May Wuthrich
Performed by Dani Martineck, Dion Graham, Tavia Gilbert, Johnny Heller, Kevin R. Free, Shayna Small, Ari Fliakos, Michael Crouch, Kirby Heyborne, Graham Halstead, Thérèse Plummer, Brittany Pressley, Peter Berkrot, John Wright, and Sheila Brown Kinnard
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Release Date: 6/11/24
Formats: cpid_11
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- Boys, Beasts & Men
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 9/06/22
Formats: Digital Audy
In Nebula Award–winning author Sam J. Miller’s devastating debut short-fiction collection—featuring an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar—queer infatuation, inevitable heartbreak, and brutal revenge seamlessly intertwine. Whether innocent, guilty, or not even human, the boys, beasts, and men roaming through Miller’s gorgeously crafted worlds can destroy listeners, yet leave them wanting more.
Despite his ability to control the ambient digital cloud, a foster teen falls for a clever con-man. Luring bullies to a quarry, a boy takes clearly enumerated revenge through unnatural powers of suggestion. In the aftermath of a shapeshifting alien invasion, a survivor fears that he brought something out of the Arctic to infect the rest of the world. A rebellious group of queer artists create a new identity that transcends even the anonymity of death.
Sam J. Miller shows his savage wit, unrelenting candor, and lush imagery in this essential career retrospective collection, taking his place alongside legends of the short-fiction form such as Carmen Maria Machado, Carson McCullers, and Jeff VanderMeer.
- Boys, Beasts & Men
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 9/06/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Ask the Experts: Physics and Math
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 12/22/20
Formats: Digital Audy
For going on two decades, Scientific American’s “Ask the Experts” column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We’ve taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains.
Now, we’ve combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. Organized by subject, each title provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences.
The first title in our series—Physics and Math—explains a wide range of natural phenomena and mathematical concepts. Have you ever wondered what exactly antimatter is? How about game theory, quantum mechanics, and the origin of pi? Mathematicians and professors from universities across the country tackle these topics, drawing on their extensive expertise to give answers that are at once accurate and comprehensible by those who haven’t studied physics or math since high school.
- Ask the Experts: Physics and Math
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 12/22/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Ask the Experts: Astronomy
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 11/24/20
Formats: Digital Audy, cpid_11
For going on two decades, Scientific American’s “Ask the Experts” column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We’ve taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains.
Now, we’ve combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. Organized by subject, each title provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences.
The second title in our series—Astronomy—looks skyward and explains a variety of universal phenomena and theories. Are you curious about how planets acquire rings or what creates those gorgeous spiral arms around galaxies? Or maybe you want to know why the Big Bang didn’t collapse into a black hole. Astrophysicists, professors, and scientists tackle questions about stars, planets, asteroids, galaxies, and nebulae, the expanding universe as well as the oddities—black holes, wormholes, and dark matter.
Listen in and find out what we know—and what we don’t know—about these wonders.
- Ask the Experts: Astronomy
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 11/24/20
Formats: Digital Audy, cpid_11
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- Ask the Experts: The Human Body and Mind
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 10/06/20
Formats: Digital Audy
For going on two decades, Scientific American’s “Ask the Experts” column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We’ve taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains.
Now, we’ve combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. Organized by subject, each title provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences.
The Human Body and Mind is the third book in this series, and it tackles questions about our own strange and mysterious biology. Our experts field queries on evolution, bodily quirks, and psychological feats. Have you ever wondered why humans lost their body hair? Curious about what causes a hangover? Or what makes that popping sound when we crack our knuckles? What about the oft-cited maxim that we only use 10 percent of our brains? Professors, scientists, and biologists provide answers that are at once accurate, understandable, and sometimes just plain funny.
- Ask the Experts: The Human Body and Mind
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 10/06/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Ask the Experts: The Environment
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 5/05/20
Formats: Digital Audy
The fourth book in our Ask the Experts series, The Environment tackles questions about the world around us. In this book, our experts field queries on the weather, natural disasters, natural resources, climate change, and unusual phenomena.
- Ask the Experts: The Environment
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 5/05/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- High
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By David Sheff and Nic Sheff
Read by George Newbern and Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 4/23/19
Formats: Digital Audy
Just Say Know! With drug education for children more important than ever, this nonfiction book draws on the experiences of the New York Times bestselling father and son team of David and Nic Sheff to provide all the information teens and ’tweens need to know about drugs, alcohol, and addiction.
From David Sheff, author of Beautiful Boy, and Nic Sheff, author of Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, comes the ultimate resource for learning about the realities of drugs and alcohol for middle grade readers.
This book tells it as it is, with testimonials from peers who have been there and families who have lived through the addiction of a loved one, along with the cold, hard facts about what drugs and alcohol do to our bodies. From how to navigate peer pressure to outlets for stress to the potential consequences for experimenting, Nic and David Sheff lay out the facts so that middle grade readers can educate themselves.
- High
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By David Sheff and Nic Sheff
Read by George Newbern and Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 4/23/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Rogue Moon
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By Algis Budrys
Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 10/09/18
Formats: Digital Audy
A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language must be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths—except the last, now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won’t go insane, even as he feels the end approaching. And now they think they’ve found their man.
Al Barker has already stared into the face of death—he can handle it again. But Barker won’t merely have to endure the trauma of dying: he will have to endure it over and over again—mentally linked to an ongoing series of duplicates of himself created and sent to the Moon by matter transmission—until the artifact reveals its secret.
With a cast of fascinating characters taking center stage, Rogue Moon is a rare thriller that doesn’t just make you sweat—it makes you think.
- Rogue Moon
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By Algis Budrys
Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 10/09/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-A
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By H. G. Wells, Poul Anderson, and others
Edited by Ben Bova
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 2/27/18
Formats: Digital Audy
Eleven essential classics in one volume
This volume is the definitive collection of the best science fiction novellas published between 1929 and 1964, containing eleven great classics. No anthology better captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field.
Published in 1973 to honor stories that had appeared before the institution of the Nebula Awards, the Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country.
This volume contains the following:
Introduction by Ben Bova
Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. (as Don A. Stuart)
Nerves by Lester del Rey
Universe by Robert A. Heinlein
The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (as Lawrence O’Donnell)
… And Then There Were None by Eric Frank Russell
The Ballad of Lost C’Mell by Cordwainer Smith
Baby Is Three by Theodore Sturgeon
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson
- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-A
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By H. G. Wells, Poul Anderson, and others
Edited by Ben Bova
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 2/27/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Some Hell
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 2/13/18
Formats: Digital Audy
A wrenching and layered debut novel about a gay teen’s coming-of-age in the aftermath of his father’s suicide
Middle school hasn’t been going well for Colin. His teenage sister teases him mercilessly, his autistic brother lashes out at him, and he has a crush on his best friend, Andy. But after the tragic night when his father commits suicide, none of that matters.
Diane, Colin’s mother, seeks solace in therapy. Colin is awash in guilt, and casts about for someone to confide in: first his estranged grandfather, then a predatory science teacher. But nothing helps as much as the strange writing his father kept in a series of notebooks locked in his study. Colin looks for answers there―in fragments about disaster scenarios, the violence of snow, mustangs running wild in the west―but instead finds the writing infecting his worldview.
Diane, meanwhile, has a miserable fling with a coworker, and leans more heavily on Colin for support as things go from bad to worse. But spring is unfolding, and a road trip to Los Angeles gives them a tantalizing glimpse of what the future might hold.
In Some Hell, a debut novel of devastating intensity and aching, pointillistic detail, Patrick Nathan shows how unspeakable tragedy shapes a life and how imagination saves us from ourselves.
- Some Hell
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 2/13/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1, 1929–1964
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By Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and others
Edited by Robert Silverberg
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 12/19/17
Formats: Digital Audy
The definitive collection of the best in science fiction stories between 1929 and 1964
This book contains twenty-six of the greatest science fiction stories ever written. They represent the considered verdict of the Science Fiction Writers of America, those who have shaped the genre and who know, more intimately than anyone else, what the criteria for excellence in the field should be. The authors chosen for the Science Fiction Hall Fame are the men and women who have shaped the body and heart of modern science fiction; their brilliantly imaginative creations continue to inspire and astound new generations of writers and fans.
Robert Heinlein in “The Roads Must Roll” describes an industrial civilization of the future caught up in the deadly flaws of its own complexity. “Country of the Kind,” by Damon Knight, is a frightening portrayal of biological mutation. “Nightfall,” by Isaac Asimov, one of the greatest stories in the science fiction field, is the story of a planet where the sun sets only once every millennium and is a chilling study in mass psychology.
Originally published in 1970 to honor those writers and their stories that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Vol. 1, was the book that introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction. Too long unavailable, this new edition will treasured by all science fiction fans everywhere.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1, includes the following:
Introduction by Robert Silverberg
“A Martian Odyssey” by Stanley G. Weinbaum
“Twilight” by John W. Campbell
“Helen O’Loy” by Lester del Rey
“The Roads Must Roll” by Robert A. Heinlein
“Microcosmic God” by Theodore Sturgeon
“Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov
“The Weapon Shop” by A. E. van Vogt
“Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett
“Huddling Place” by Clifford D. Simak
“Arena” by Fredric Brown
“First Contact” by Murray Leinster
“That Only a Mother” by Judith Merril
“Scanners Live in Vain” by Cordwainer Smith
“Mars Is Heaven!” by Ray Bradbury
“The Little Black Bag” by C. M. Kornbluth
“Born of Man and Woman” by Richard Matheson
“Coming Attraction” by Fritz Leiber
“The Quest for Saint Aquin” by Anthony Boucher
“Surface Tension” by James Blish
“The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke
“It’s a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby
“The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin
“Fondly Fahrenheit” by Alfred Bester
“The Country of the Kind” Damon Knight
“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes
“A Rose for Ecclesiastes” by Roger Zelazny- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1, 1929–1964
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By Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and others
Edited by Robert Silverberg
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 12/19/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Shutter
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Read by Bailey Carr and Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 10/18/17
Formats: Digital Audy
THE FACTS
- Julian Roman, age sixteen, is an escapee from a juvenile detention facility.
- His parents, Michael Roman and Jennifer Roman, are dead.
- Julian is wanted for murder.
THE QUESTIONS
- Why is Julian Roman on the run?
- Just how dangerous is he?
- And who did kill Michael and Jennifer Roman, if not Julian?
Sixteen-year-old Day Connor views life through the lens of her camera, where perspective is everything. But photographs never tell the whole story. After Day crosses paths with Julian, the world she pictures and the truths she believes—neatly captured in black and white—begin to blur.
Julian is not the “armed and dangerous” escapee the police are searching for, but his alibis don’t quite add up, either. There is more to his story. This time, Day is determined to see the entire picture … whatever it reveals. Did he? Or didn’t he?
Day digs deeper into the case while Julian remains on the run. But the longer her list of facts becomes, the longer the list of questions becomes, too. It’s also getting harder to deny the chemistry she feels for him. Is it real? Or is she being manipulated?
Day is close to finding the crack in the case. She just needs time to focus before the shutter snaps shut.
- Shutter
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Read by Bailey Carr and Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 10/18/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Orphans of the Sky
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 9/19/17
Formats: Digital Audy
Lost in Space
Hugh had been taught that, according to the ancient sacred writings, the Ship was on a voyage to faraway Centaurus. But he also understood this was just allegory for a voyage to spiritual perfection. Indeed, how could the Ship move, since its miles and miles of metal corridors were all there was of creation? Science knew that the Ship was all the universe, and as long as the sacred Converter was fed, the lights would continue to glow, the air would flow, and the Creator’s Plan would be fulfilled.
Of course, there were the muties, grotesquely deformed parodies of humans, who lurked in the upper reaches of the Ship, where gravity was weaker. Were they evil incarnate, or merely a divine check on the population, keeping humanity from expanding past the capacity of the Ship to support?
Then Hugh was captured by the muties and met their leader (or leaders)—Joe-Jim, with two heads on one body—and learned the true nature of the Ship and its mission between the stars. But could he make his people believe him before it was too late? Could he make them believe that he must be allowed to fly the Ship?
- Orphans of the Sky
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Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 9/19/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- This Is Not the End
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By Jesse Jordan
Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 7/22/16
Formats: Digital Audy
James Salley is turning sixteen, and it’s not going well. His family’s too busy to care, the local bully creates new tortures daily, someone appears to be following him, and he’s just learned that he’s the Antichrist.
All James ever wanted out of life was for Dorian Delaney—the operatically trained and suicidal girl of his dreams—to fall as in love with him as he is with her. But once he’s told of his bloody destiny, he finds himself fighting between who he thought he was and who he’s supposed to be.
With the school librarian pushing him to begin the Apocalypse, an irritable homunculus watching his back, and a murderous cabal of Catholics following him everywhere, James must discover how to navigate a world in which everything he’s ever believed is wrong—and if it’s possible to be the hero of a story when you’ve already been cast as the villain.
- This Is Not the End
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By Jesse Jordan
Read by Graham Halstead
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Release Date: 7/22/16
Formats: Digital Audy