John Van Stry has 13 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 15 ratings. The most-rated is Champion for Hire.
Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials
Summary
With the first of what he suspects will be many favors completed, William finds himself busy with important tasks back at his home on Saladin. Queen Rachel has several jobs she needs him to do, and Feliogustus has similar tasks in mind for him as well. All in all, it seems easy enough to Will, it's not like he'll be fighting in any wars, or traveling across the infinite on a strange quest after all.
But things aren't always as easy as they might seem, and both politics, as well as the other gods, aren't going to ignore Will, or the tasks he's been set to complete. And is if dealing with that isn't problem enough, when the time comes to do some serious diplomacy between Hiland and a neighboring Kingdom, a deadly problem comes from a most unexpected quarter, forcing Will to take immediate action to pay back both his, and his God's foes.
©2014 John Van Stry (P)2017 John Van Stry
Champion for Hire
Summary
William is just your typical engineer fresh out of college with a stressful job, a boring life, and not a lot of prospects of anything better in the future. Until one weekend while hiking in the woods he stumbles across a portal to another time, or perhaps another place. The more he investigates this new world, the more he realizes that it may just be able to offer him a lot more than the one he's been living in. However, there are forces at work beyond anything that Will has ever come across before and the local Goddess seems to have taken a liking to him. Will may soon find himself getting an offer and cannot afford to refuse.
©2014 John Van Stry (P)2014 John Van Stry
Portals of Infinity Book Four: The Sea of Grass
Summary
With no otherworld tasks to run for Fel, Will has spent the last year mainly helping Rachel consolidate her hold on her expanded kingdom. Barassa has been set back, for now, but Will knows it's only a matter of time until they're at odds once more and Barassa still has the bigger army. So, taking the time to learn more about their enemy seems like a good place to start, and of course, Rachel has more things she expects him to do, even if he has no idea just how he's going to do them.
Fel also has things for Will to do as well, even if they are the more mundane jobs that a champion of the faith must perform. Escorting missionaries isn't the most exciting or glamorous job, but its one Will must do. At least the people are different, interesting, and friendly, and some perhaps a little too friendly. But that's never gotten him in trouble before, right?
©2015 John Van Stry (P)2018 John Van Stry
Days of Future Past: 3 Book Series
Summary
From book 1: Paul's been having a bad day, perhaps one of the worst days he's ever had. And now into the middle of all this, his instructor just got drafted by some mystical goddess to help save a world. As for Paul? Well, he's really not supposed to be there, and if he thought he was having a bad day before all of this, it just got worse, a lot worse. He's now on a one way trip, forced to help a man who despises him while at the mercy of the world's biggest trickster. From book 2: Coyote has a new task for Paul, one that involves him traveling north hundreds of miles over the post-apocalyptic landscape of California, the place that Paul once called home. Thankfully, Sarah and Heather have both decided to go with him and between Heather's shooting skills and Sarah's magical ones; Paul thinks he might just live through whatever scheme Coyote has enlisted him in. If he can live through telling the girls just what Coyote's got him carrying in his pack now of course. At least he's done with Riggs and hopefully won't have to deal with him ever again, nothing could be worse than that after all! From book 3: Coyote has one final task for Paul, the one that is the whole reason Coyote shanghaied him here in the first place. But what can a single man, without the gifts and benefits of the gods, do against a creature that has ruled in the wastelands for hundreds of years? Besides, destroying Aybem is supposed to be Riggs' job! So just why does Coyote need him to go there too? While it's true that Riggs has finally earned Paul's grudging respect, Paul has no desire to suffer the pain that his nemesis' plans often cause him. And even if he is successful, is this really the last task that Coyote wants of Paul? Or could the trickster god have just a few more things that he needs to have done?
©2016, 2017 John Van Stry (P)2019 John Van Stry
Take Two
Summary
Breck was a heavy metal rock star and to some, perhaps, even a rock god. Playing bass since he was 10, he learned to sing and write music under the tutelage of some of the industry's best. His band was one of the loudest and heaviest out there, and they had moved from one hit record to the next with ease. Married to a supermodel and being at the top of the rock star pyramid, life for Breck was everything he'd ever wanted it to be. Then, one day, while playing a fill-in gig with another band to help out an old friend, something weird happened, and it wasn't just a flashback from all those acid trips he did on the road. Attacked by people he'd only seen the likes of in movies, he's forced to dive into a shadow to make good his escape. Waking up, he finds himself in a place that seems like it was ripped out of the '60s, and things are almost like home, but not quite. It's not just the people looking to take advantage of him, after nearly two decades in the biz, Breck's more than used to that. It's not the strange cars, people, or buildings - a life on the road touring the world inured him to that years ago, as well. It's not even some of the strange beings and creatures people are telling him that share the world he now finds himself in. No, it's far more worse than that. He's broke. Nobody knows who he is. And his bass seems to be developing an attitude.
©2020 John Van Stry (P)2020 John Van Stry
The God Game
Summary
Will's life has definitely changed since that day he went hiking in the woods of Pennsylvania. He's discovered that reality is a lot bigger and stranger than he had ever imagined. Learning about the portals that link the infinite number of worlds opened his eyes to that wider reality. Learning that he was being groomed to become the Champion of a God in one of those realities was an even more startling discovery. But now it's time for him to pay the bill for his recruitment. Just as the Gods on a single world fight and jockey for power and position, the older Gods from the many different spheres of the infinite play a much larger and more complicated game. The Goddess Aryanna has a quest she needs completed, and William and four other Champions are the ones tasked to do it. What bothers Will however is what could a Goddess possibly need? And why would it take five Champions to retrieve it?
©2014 John Van Stry (P)2015 John Van Stry
Portals of Infinity
Summary
Life can be complicated for those who the gods pick as their champions, and for William, it's really no different. Between dealing with issues at home for his god Feliogustus, to helping Queen Rachel defend Hiland against the growing threat of Barassa, to being loaned out to other gods in other spheres, William has been kept busy.
Many of these tasks have had consequences however. Some of those William expected, and for one of them the time has come to deal with it and a trip back to Sireen may soon be in order. Complicating that matter however are those who are holding a grudge against William for his thwarting of their actions. But when the followers of another god kidnap his youngest child, William's first question is, is this revenge, or is there something special about his child? With both his god, and the goddess Aryanna mostly mute on the issue, beyond their one command to keep the child "hidden", William wonders what it is they won't say, and why.
As always, there are things you need to take on faith when you work for a god, but sometimes their responses can be very frustrating. Especially when they order you not to ask questions, but the welfare of your own child is involved. Add to that some equally strange discoveries about his old foe Cenewyg back on Earth, which are also affecting his life and William is left with more questions than for which he has answers.
©2015 John Van Stry (P)2019 John Van Stry
Present Tense
Summary
Coyote has a new task for Paul, one that involves him traveling north hundreds of miles over the post-apocalyptic landscape of California, the place that Paul once called home. Thankfully, Sarah and Heather have both decided to go with him and between Heather's shooting skills and Sarah's magical ones; Paul thinks he might just live through whatever scheme Coyote has enlisted him in. If he can live through telling the girls just what Coyote's got him carrying in his pack now, of course. At least he's done with Riggs and hopefully won't have to deal with him ever again, nothing could be worse than that after all!
©2017 John Van Stry (P)2017 John Van Stry
Loose Ends
Summary
Being on loan to the FBI has its advantages, and for the first time in far too long, Mark is taking a few weeks off with his family. But he's barely gotten started when he finds his brother unwittingly entangled in a mess that can be traced directly back to an attempt on Mark's life some months ago. An attempt that left something unexpected behind. And now that one loose end has started to fray into many and Mark must hurry to tie them all up, before unscrupulous drug dealers, power hungry witches, and even unwitting competitors of his brother's biotech company, unleash a power that could destroy hundreds, if not thousands of innocent lives.
©2016 John Van Stry (P)2017 John Van Stry
The Hammer Commission
Summary
Mark just watched his partner and best friend of 10 years torn limb from limb by the kind of unholy horror that leaves most people gibbering in terror. Only a combination of luck and skill kept Mark from sharing his partner's fate and being killed by an abomination that by rights shouldn't exist in this day and age. When asked, Mark tells people he works recovering stolen artifacts, and that's true. However he's also a member of a very old and secret organization that protects the world from devils and demons summoned here to do evil. A foot soldier on the front lines of the eternal war between Heaven and Hell, things had been favoring the side of Heaven for some time now. Until today that is, when someone discovered how to summon a devil that no one had seen since WWII. Never popular with his boss, Mark finds himself sidelined as he tries to discover just what happened. Upset with being taken off the case, Mark does discover one thing rather quickly: whoever is behind this is now after him, and if he's not careful he'll be joining his partner sooner, rather than later.
©2013 John Van Stry (P)2017 John Van Stry
Wolf Killer
Summary
With having to leave the commission for a year while things cool off politically, Mark finds that the church has loaned him out to the FBI, who have been trying for years now to get an experienced monster and demon expert in their newest division, to help train and educate the agents there on just what they will be facing. Finding out that Mark actually is one of those very monsters has made them want him even more - not just for what he can bring to the table but because they do need to check off that newest minority checkbox, even if no one knows they exist. Mark doesn't mind the new assignment; being closer to home means it will be easier to visit with family, and the agents all seem nice enough. Plus the FBI has a bigger budget and gets a lot nicer toys than Mark is used to. However, while Mark knows how to deal with devils, demons, and even the nastier monsters out there, he doesn't know anything about how to deal with a sociopath werewolf who has gone full psycho and started to murder coeds. That's more of a human problem, after all.
©2016 John Van Stry (P)2016 John Van Stry / Gregg Savage
Days of Future Past - Part 3: Future Tense
Summary
Since being brought forward in time to the post-apocalyptic wastelands of what was once his home, life has been pretty hard on Paul. Though it has had two good points, namely Sarah and Heather. But now, Coyote wants him to take care of the task that he was brought here to deal with in the first place: Aybem. While it has always been clear that destroying Aybem is supposed to be Riggs' job, Coyote remains unconvinced that Riggs can do it without Paul's help. After seeing just what Riggs is capable of doing, Paul isn't as convinced that he needs to be there, but he also knows he's not going to get any choice in the matter. And of course, just what does happen to you once Coyote no longer needs your help? This is the last book in the Days of Future Past trilogy, a story of a young man brought forward in time because he came to the attention of Coyote, who thought that the gods' chosen hero just might need some help.
©2017 John Van Stry (P)2018 John Van Stry
Days of Future Past
Summary
Paul's been having a bad day, perhaps one of the worst days he's ever had. And now into the middle of all this, his instructor just got drafted by some mystical goddess to help save a world. As for Paul? Well, he's really not supposed to be there, and if he thought he was having a bad day before all of this, it just got worse - a lot worse. He's now on a one-way trip, forced to help a man who despises him, while at the mercy of the world's biggest trickster.
©2016 John Van Stry (P)2016 John Van Stry