Narrator

Edoardo Ballerini

Edoardo Ballerini
  • For fans of The Boys in the Boat, and marking the 100th anniversary of the Paris Olympics, the never-before-told story of three athletes who defied the odds to usher in a golden age of sports.

    Even today, it’s considered one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. The one-hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring the world’s three fastest swimmers—American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi—had the cultural impact of the Super Bowl and Wimbledon and the World Cup finals put together. Never before had a major swimming event featured athletes of different races, and never had it been broadcast live. Across the globe, fans held their breath.

    In less than a minute, an Olympic record would be shattered, and the three men would be scrutinized like few athletes before them. For the millions worldwide for whom swimming was a complete unknown, the trio did something few could imagine: moving faster through water than many could on land. As sportsmen, they were god-like heroes, embodying the hopes of those who called them their own in the US and abroad. They personified strength and speed and the glamor and innovation of the Roaring Twenties. But they also represented fraught assumptions about race and human performance. It was not only “East vs. West,” as newspapers in the 1920s described the competition with Japan. It was also brown versus white. Rich versus poor. New versus old. The race was about far more than swimming.

    Each man was a trailblazer and a bona fide celebrity in an age when athletes typically weren’t famous. Kahanamoku was Hawaii’s first superstar, largely responsible for making the state the popular travel destination it is today. Weissmuller, a poor immigrant, put Chicago on the sports map and would make it big as Hollywood’s first Tarzan. Takaishi inspired Japan to compete on the world stage and helped turn its swimmers into Olympic powerhouses. He and Kahanamoku in particular shattered the myth of white superiority when it came to sports, putting the lie to the decade’s burgeoning eugenics movement.

    Three Kings traces the careers and rivalries of these men and the epochal times they lived in. The 1920s were transformative not just socially but for sports as well. For the first time, athletes of color were given a fair (though still not equal) chance, and competition wasn’t limited to the wealthy and privileged. Our modern-day conception of athleticism and competition—especially as it relates to the Olympics—traces back to this era and athletes like Kahanamoku, Weissmuller, and Takaishi, whose hard-won victories paved the way for all who followed.

  • WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY PATTON OSWALT

    Dubbed “the most significant and controversial SF book” of its generation, Harlan Ellison’s groundbreaking collection launched an entire subgenre: New Wave science fiction. With contributions from legendary authors and multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, Dangerous Visions returns to print in a stunning new edition perfect for new and returning fans alike. 

    A landmark short story collection that put the more character-based New Wave science fiction on the map, Dangerous Visions won several prestigious awards and was nominated for many others. This now-classic anthology includes thirty-three stories by thirty-two award-winning authors, over half of whom have won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards. Contributing authors include: Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Brian W. Aldiss, Philip K. Dick, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, Theodore Sturgeon, J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, and Ellison himself.

    As relevant now as it was when first published, Dangerous Visions is a phenomenal collection that deserves a place on every bookshelf.

  • Minority Report meets Ready Player One as a new investigator hunts down a dangerous criminal capable of high-jacking and controlling cybernetic implants.

    When your new employer tasks you with investigating the first successful mass shooting in twelve years, it’s understandable to be nervous.

    Fortunately, detective-in-training Cowan Soto has a Personal Brain Assistant—a cybernetic implant—that allows him to firewall pesky emotions like worry and guilt and redact memories of bullet-riddled corpses.

    Unfortunately, Cowan soon learns it was his suspect’s PBA which allowed a ruthless hacker to puppet her into a shooting rampage.

    Aided by a veteran investigator, a brilliant CFO, a nihilistic cybercriminal, and the best waifu madam in Kearny Mesa, Cowan must wade through a gauntlet of homicidal professional gamers, the Russian mafia, and the board of OneWorld to bring this ruthless puppetmaster to justice.

    All the while, the brand-new detective is concealing the fact that he’s the exact type of criminal OneWorld has hired him to arrest: a loose circuit—a human unbound by behavioral modification protocols.

    Grab your copy today and experience this breakneck technothriller from USA Today bestselling author Rhett C. Bruno and T. E. Bakutis. It’s perfect for fans of Douglas E. Richards, Richard K. Morgan, and William Gibson.

    Full of action, mystery, and loads of cybernetic future-tech, Mind Burn explores the very question of what it means to be free.

  • Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first issues of Weird Tales Magazine, 100 Years of Weird is a masterful compendium of new and classic stories, flash fiction, essays, and poems from the giants of speculative fiction, including R. L. Stine, Laurell K. Hamilton, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Tennessee Williams, and Isaac Asimov.

    Marking a century of uniquely peculiar storytelling, each part of this anthology features a different genre, from Cosmic Horror, Sword and Sorcery, Space Opera, to the Truly Weird—things too strange to publish elsewhere, and the magazine’s raison d’etre. Landmark stories such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” “Worms of the Earth,” and “Legal Rites” stand beside original stories and insightful essays from today’s masters of speculative fiction.

    This visually stunning hardcover edition is a collector’s dream, illustrated throughout with classic full-color and black & white art from past issues of Weird Tales Magazine.

  • The first issue in the second century of Weird Tales features a new HELLBOY story by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. Editor Jonathan Maberry has built a collection of cosmic horror that will destabilize your worldview.

    “The Eyrie” by Jonathan Maberry
    “The City in the Sea: A Hellboy Story” by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
    “When the Stars Are Right: The Weird Tales Origins of Cosmic Horror” by Nicholas Diak
    “A Ghost Story for Christmas” by Paul Cornell
    “The Forest Gate” by Samantha Underhill
    “Night Fishing” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
    “The Traveler” by Francesco Tignini
    “Cosmic vs Abrahamic Horror” by F. Paul Wilson
    “The Last Bonneville” by F. Paul Wilson
    “Lost Generations” by Angela Yuriko Smith
    “Concerto in Five Movements” by Ramsey Campbell
    “Mozaika” by Nancy Kilpatrick
    “Inkblot Succubus” by Nikki Sixx
    “Laid to Rest” by Tim Lebbon
    “Call of the Void - L’appel du vide” by Carol Gyzander

  • From USA Today bestselling author Robert Swartwood comes another bone-chilling thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

    While on vacation in Las Vegas, a businessman wakes up in a strange hotel room to find a dead woman in the bathtub.

    Panicked, he runs. But before he can get far, a pair of detectives stop him.

    Desperate, he tells them that he’s innocent. That there’s no way he killed the woman. That he’ll do anything not to go to prison.

    That’s when they offer him a way out.

    But there is no way out—as the detectives will soon learn.

    Perfect for fans of Lee Child, Michael Sloan, and Robert Crais, The Killing Room races readers from one revelation to the next at breathtaking speed.

  • From the NYT bestselling author of the Hell Divers series, comes a brand new look at the future in this thrilling sci-fi military novella.

    A hostile world that will doom the human race … or save it, if a few survivors can unlock its secrets …

    After waking up with no memories in an underground facility, a squad of elite soldiers and scientists must try to recall what their mission is. But first, it’s a race against the clock to escape their collapsing bunker before it becomes a tomb. Topside, an even more dangerous world of fiery skies and desolate terrain awaits.

    As they venture out to explore their strange new surroundings, bits of memory begin to return, though nothing can prepare them for the strange forces protecting this bleak landscape. Worse, it seems that not everyone on the team wants the mission—whatever it is—to succeed. One thing is certain: the world they remember is gone, destroyed by war or natural disaster. Soon, they will learn that they must unlock the past if they are to have any hope of ever seeing the future.

    Please note, this is a novella, and is the introduction to a brand new NSS universe.

  • Finding a single assassin in a city of nine million is daunting.
    Finding five is a nightmare.

    Join the NYPD Red team in their most explosive case ever. The series from James Patterson and Marshall Karp has always been a must-read. But Karp’s latest, NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority, tops them all, making it a must-read-now!

    Lower Manhattan: A sniper’s bullet ends the life of a high-profile New Yorker. Five miles uptown, a second prominent victim has his throat slashed.

    And that’s only the beginning. A network of professional assassins is on the loose in New York City. Trained by the US military, they’re on their own now, with a new unit called Kappa Omega Delta. Killers On Demand.

    NYPD Red detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan are called in to hunt them down, but these mercenaries are as gifted in the art of escape as they are in snuffing out lives.

    It’s the biggest professional challenge the Red team has ever faced, and before it’s over, both Kylie’s and Zach’s personal lives will change. Forever.

  • North Korea’s deadliest weapon is sleeper agent Song Sun Young. Married with children and living the good life in New York City, she has waited seven years to activate the mission she was trained to do: infiltrate America’s financial infrastructure. She prays the call from her handlers will never come, because she loves her husband and kids and affluent New York lifestyle.

    But the call does come. During volatile negotiations between the White House and Pyongyang, Song is hurled back into a reality she had hoped to leave behind forever.

    Unbeknownst to her, the CIA has already broken her cover. Working with “retired” Israeli operative Dalia Artzi, they track the Korean agent as she relentlessly executes her mission. Langley is pulling strings behind the scenes, confident of its advantage in this high-stakes game—until an unforeseen wild card from within its very ranks hijacks the operation for an unthinkable purpose.

    Dalia realizes that Song has been the unwitting catalyst for the disaster now unfolding, and that she alone can stop it from engulfing the world.

  • In False Flag, Israeli-born Dalia Artzi, a tactical genius and specialist at Princeton in the study of maneuver warfare, uncovers a fiendish plot by a small group of Israeli fanatics to commit a horrific crime against the United States government and pin the blame on Iran. At first, Dalia, a pacifist, is hesitant to get involved. But, strong in her Jewish faith, she believes that the goal of her religion is not to crush one’s enemies but to practice tikkun olam, to repair the world. Soon Dalia has little choice but to act quickly and do what she must to prevent the unspeakable.

    Meanwhile, Jana, a beautiful but deadly Israeli operative taking orders from the conspiring fanatics, is determined to deftly fulfill the deadly mission entrusted to her. Once the plot has been carried out, Jana and the commanders of her mission believe that Israel’s enemies will meet with total destruction when the world’s most powerful nation retaliates. Jana is firm in her conviction that she is on the side of right and believes the ends will justify the means, however violent.

    Centered on a fascinating and original Israeli heroine and antiheroine, False Flag probes some of the most important political and moral conflicts of our times. Altman examines extremism in its many incarnations and the complex pitfalls humans encounter when they try to do what is right, no matter the cost. In the process, he continues his tradition of creating ruthless female assassins, delivering his most terrifying creation yet. Riveting espionage, struggles of conscience, and edge-of-your-seat intrigue combine to make False Flag one of the most compelling and controversial thrillers of 2017.