Tony Bertauski has 17 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 7 narrators, with an average listener rating of 3★ across 5 ratings. The most-rated is Claus Boxed 2.
Claus
Summary
The Christmas story you never heard. In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica, and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat, and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient. Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions - time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They've even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace. Until now. An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He's tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold One and total chaos. He's white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven known as…Claus.
©2012 Tony Bertauski (P)2012 Tony Bertauski
Bricks
Summary
Fabbers, slabbers, and fakies were dehumanizing slurs for fabricated humans. Bricks, however, was the People's favorite. The Sentience Laws were created to protect the rights of Bricks, but the laws didn't last long. Banished to a remote gulag called the Settlement, Paul and Raine are sentenced to live the rest of their lives in the wilderness. Escape and freedom will depend on Marcus Anderson, the man responsible for all the suffering that's been endured since the invention of biomites - the synthetic stem cells used to fabricate halfskins and Bricks. Marcus needs them in order to find the "powers that be", the man he believes is truly responsible for the world's suffering. Their journey will take them to a tiny island in the South Atlantic, where the truth is much closer than they realize. That's where they will discover the "powers that be". And so much more.
©2015 Tony Bertauski (P)2016 Tony Bertauski
Clay
Summary
Jamie wants to be a halfskin. Her life has become dull and pointless. If she had more biomites, the synthetic stems cells that promise hope and healing, she could take control of her life. But Jamie's body is already 49.9% biomites. The rest is clay-her God-given organic cells. Anymore biomites and she becomes a halfskin. And halfskins are shutdown. But there is a way. Black market biomites, called nixes, can't be detected by the government. She'd have to sacrifice her clay, but nixes can make her halfskin without anyone knowing. But first, she has to find them. Nix Richards can help. He's the first halfskin to escape the government and Jamie has something he wants. He'll need her to help him find a fabricator to build a human body. He'll betray anyone to get it, even those closest to him. This psychological thriller will keep them second-guessing every move while they elude Marcus Anderson and the governing agency that seeks to rid the world of biomites. But in the end, they'll all discover just how deep the betrayal goes.
©2014 Tony Bertauski (P)2014 Tony Bertauski
Halfskin
Summary
Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any cell in your body. No more kidney failure, no severed spines or blood disease. No cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we become stronger, we become smarter and prettier. We become better. At what point are we no longer human? Nix Richards nearly died in a car accident when he was young. Biomites saved his life. Ten years later, he's not so lucky. The Halfskin Laws decree a human composed of 50% biomites is no longer human. Halfskins have no legal rights and will have their biomites shutdown. It's not called murder, merely deactivation. Cali Richards has been Nix's legal guardian since their parents died. She has lost far too many people in her life to let the government take Nix. She is a nanobiometric engineer and will discover how to hide him. But even brilliance can succumb to the pressure of suffering. And technology can't cure insanity. Cali and Nix keep a slippery grip on reality as they elude a maniacal federal agent dedicated to saving humanity from what he calls "The Biomite Plague"?
©2013 Tony Bertauski (P)2013 Tony Bertauski
Claus Boxed 2
Summary
The Christmas adventures continue. The second volume of the holiday tales you never heard growing up.... Humbug Eb Scrooge is left to run Avocado, Inc., an innovative technology business, all alone. An introverted shut-in locked away in a Colorado mansion, only his servant droids keep him company. Until the gifts arrive. The Miser When Kandi’s dad gets a mysterious call, they fly to a tropical island. Despite the heat, his sunburned client wears a heavy cloak. The world doesn’t know it yet, but Santa Claus is missing. Kandi knows where he is. Ronin There's one Christmas story no one has ever heard, the legend of the biggest and baddest reindeer of them all, the one who leads the sleigh and protects the herd. Billy Big Game doesn’t want to discover the last reindeer. He wants to capture him.
©2018 Tony Bertauski (P)2018 Tony Bertauski
Flury
Summary
Life hasn't been kind to Oliver Toye. As if juvenile diabetes wasn't enough, he's forced to live with his tyrannical grandmother at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in a snow-bound house. He spends his days doing chores and his nights listening to the forest rumble. But he discovers a leather-bound journal, and family secrets surface. Like the mystery of his great-grandfather's voyage to the North Pole, when the snowman first appeared. Oliver will need the snowman's magic, more than once. But when the time comes for Oliver to discover the truth, will he have the courage? If believing isn't enough, how will he save the snowman from melting away? Sometimes even magic needs a little help.
©2014 Tony Bertauski (P)2014 Tony Bertauski
The Socket Greeny Saga
Summary
One of IndieReader's BEST BOOKS of 2014! The entire Socket Greeny trilogy (Discovery, Training, and Legend) follows a white-haired teenager that discovers he's part of an evolved human race, how he trains to understand his true self, and the legendary conclusion of his true nature. DISCOVERY Work has always come first for Socket Greeny's mother, ever since his father died. But when she shows him the inner workings of the Paladin Nation, he discovers why. Paladins traverse the planet through wormholes to keep the world safe, but from what, they won't say. Although his parents were not actually one of them, Socket is different. He soon finds himself in the center of controversy and betrayal when he's anointed the Paladin Nation's prodigy. He didn't ask for the "blessing" of psychic powers and the ability to timeslice, and he doesn't want to be responsible for the world. He just wants to go home and back to school and be normal again. But, sometimes, life doesn't give us that privilege, his mother tells him. And when the world is soon threatened and the Paladins are forced into the public eye, Socket discovers what his mother means. If he doesn't embrace his true nature, life as we know it will change forever. TRAINING A year has passed since the Paladin Nation was exposed to the public. Their mission is still to protect humanity from whatever may threaten them. Previously, it was the human duplications, but now that they've been extinguished their biggest challenge is dealing with the complications of public image. Socket Greeny, now 17 years old, has been a Paladin cadet for the past year and is nearing the final test. But that's the least of his problems. He's trying to live two lives: one as a superhero while hanging onto his normal life. While fearlessly dealing with his masochistic trainer, he's trying to salvage his deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend back home.
©2013 Tony Bertauski (P)2015 Tony Bertauski
Ronin (The Last Reindeer): A Science Fiction Adventure
Summary
The sixth standalone novel in the Claus Universe. The holiday legends you never heard growing up. This is Ryder’s last stop. It’s a half million acre ranch and home to 40 teenagers. It’s also home to a famous and eccentric philanthropist with a peculiar obsession with the North Pole. His name is Billy “Big Game” Sinterklaas. But shortly after Ryder arrives, secret messages begin leading him to what’s really happening. Billy Big Game believes that Santa Claus is real. This is the year he proves it. He says there’s one Christmas story no one has ever heard, the legend of the biggest and baddest reindeer of them all, the one who leads the sleigh and protects the herd. But Billy Big Game doesn’t want to discover the last reindeer. He wants to capture him. That’s why he brought Ryder to the ranch.
©2018 Tony Bertauski (P)2018 Tony Bertauski
Jack
Summary
Sura is sixteen years old when she meets Mr. Frost. He's very short and very fat and he likes his room very, very cold. Some might say inhumanly cold. His first name isn't Jack, she's told. And that's all she needed to know. Mr. Frost's love for Christmas is over-the-top and slightly psychotic. And why not? He's made billions of dollars off the holiday he invented. Or so he claims. Rumor is he's an elven, but that's silly. Elven aren't real. And if they were, they wouldn't live in South Carolina. They wouldn't hide in a tower and go to the basement to make…things. Nonetheless, Sura will work for this odd little recluse. Frost Plantation is where she'll meet the love of her life. It's where she'll finally feel like she belongs somewhere. And it's where she'll meet someone fatter, balder, and stranger than Mr. Frost. It's where she'll meet Jack. Jack hates Christmas.
©2013 Tony Bertauski (P)2013 Tony Bertauski
Maze: The Hunt for Freddy Bills, Book Two
Summary
There is no escape. There never was. Freddy Bills is retired. Back in the day, he was fishing people out of unreality tanks and pulling needles from their heads. That was when it was against the law. Now everyone is doing it, including him. In fact, he’s become quite proficient at dream-stitching unrealities for droppers to ride. He’s one of the best. His plans were to fade into retirement, just him and his dog. That was before someone from his past appeared. A string of clues leads him to dig up a past long buried and forgotten. As evidence mounts, he learns the truth about the Maze and it’s true purpose. There’s no escaping his past or future. He was destined to solve the Maze. He just has to figure out why.
©2019 TONY BERTAUSKI (P)2019 TONY BERTAUSKI
The Annihilation of Foreverland
Summary
When kids awake on an island, they're told there was an accident. Before they can go home, they will visit Foreverland, an alternate reality that will heal their minds. Reed dreams of a girl that tells him to resist Foreverland. He doesn't remember her name, but knows he once loved her. He'll have to endure great suffering and trust his dream. And trust he's not insane. Danny Boy, the new arrival, meets Reed's dream girl inside Foreverland. She's stuck in the fantasy land that no kid can resist. Where every heart's desire is satisfied. Why should anyone care how Foreverland works?
©2011 Tony Bertauski (P)2013 Tony Bertauski
The Essence of Sunny Grimm
Summary
Fans of Neuromancer, Inception, and The Matrix - the mind-bending conclusion of the Maze. A name was tattooed on his finger. Marcus woke in a cell. No memory of how he got there or what his name was. Just a tattoo. There were others like him. They called this place unreality. They told him this was where someone was hiding him. Clues lead him on a journey in search of who he is, who he was, and why someone did this to him. Each time he finds someone connected to a mysterious symbol, something inconceivable happens. Something even the people who live in unreality can't explain. Micah and the investors built the Maze, a massive alternate reality that feeds on the players who enter. But now, someone is pursuing them. One by one, the investors begin to vanish. When clues are left behind, Micah suspects who it is that’s taking them. It’s someone from a game played long ago and a promise she made. He believes she wants to avenge all those responsible for what they did to her. And her son. But she wants something much more than to destroy the Maze. He must stop her before all hope is lost. He thought she was dead. But he was wrong. She was only waiting.
©2020 Tony Bertauski (P)2020 Tony Bertauski
Maze: The Waking of Grey Grimm
Summary
Grey isn't sleeping. Sunny Grimm finds a strap around her son's head with an embossed symbol between his eyes. This is the mark of awareness leaping, where players launch into alternate realities and anything goes. Investors make millions. Critics, however, refuse to call it a game. They argue that reality confusion will end humanity. Labels aside, there are many who play. And many who lose. Sunny Grimm goes on a mad search for her son and the people responsible for allowing him to play. The only way she will find him is to not lose herself in the search. The Maze is more than a game.
©2017 Tony Bertauski (P)2018 Tony Bertauski
Humbug: The Unwinding of Ebenezer Scrooge
Summary
Jacob Marley is dead. His business partner, Eb Scrooge, is left to run Avocado, Inc., an innovative technology business, all alone. An introverted shut-in locked away in a Colorado mansion, he changes the company’s mission statement. Only his servant droids keep him company. Until the gifts arrive. Each Christmas, a messenger forces Eb to look at his life in hopes he will change. But change does not happen in a single night. And only Eb can make it happen. But who is sending the messengers? Interview with author: Where did you come up with the idea of writing science fiction for holiday characters? My nephew mentioned the “secret Santa ninja elves” that visit his school during Christmas, and this spawned the idea of writing a semi-serious sci-fi version of Santa. How the ideas flesh out is a long process. I started keep track of how the story arc of my latest novel evolves, just to remember where it began. It’s all over the place. I love the challenge of bringing a story to light, letting the characters get in my head and telling me where to go. Flury: Journey of a Snowman is the third book in the Claus series. It was originally "Frosty the Snowman", but Frosty is copyrighted. It didn’t matter, really. The character was better suited to be something other than Frosty. Flury is a bit more serious. Are you getting any backlash for rewriting these Christmas legends? Not at all. In fact, a lot of readers have connected to all the unanswered questions surrounding them, especially Santa Claus. How does he go around the world in a night? Why is he fat? Why does he live on the North Pole? How do reindeer fly? How does he carry all those presents? All of them answered with the magic wand of science fiction... I mean, the science wand of science fiction. The stories still have the fantasy element, of course. Some leaps of imagination. And also the romance angle. Why? Because all stories have love. What is your favorite character from the books that you have written? Socket Greeny is one of my favorites. That science fiction trilogy was my first story. I wrote it in first person and really connected with him. However, Jack Frost is in Claus: Legend of the Fat Man and Jack: The Tale of Frost and has become my all-time fave. He’s childish, irreverent, and dangerous, but at the same time lovable. What order should readers purchase the Claus books? Claus: Legend of the Fat Man is the best start. After that, any order works. They all can be read as stand-alone novels.
©2016 Tony Bertauski (P)2017 Tony Bertauski
Toyland: The Legacy of Wallace Noel
Summary
The seventh stand-alone novel in the Claus Universe. If you want to play and stay out all day, I know the place where we can do it. Great aunt Annie was a storyteller. It was mostly Christmas stories she told. No one had ever heard her tales about giant reindeer, living snowmen, and Santa Claus. There were no movies about them. No books. When she passed away, everyone thought they’d never hear such stories again. But she saved the best for the last. When Tin’s family inherits an enormous rural estate, they discover the hidden treasures of Toyland. The eccentric mansion was built long ago by a toy magnate named Wallace Noel, a man made famous by his beloved Noel toys. Tin and her family spend Christmas at Toyland and find abandoned workshops, old photos, and forgotten toys in strange rooms. When Tin discovers an authentic-looking elf hat, everything changes. She comes to know the truth behind the urban legends of Wallace Noel and what made his toys so special. And where Great aunt Annie got her stories.
©2019 Tony Bertauski (P)2019 Tony Bertauski
Foreverland Boxed
Summary
The Annihilation of Foreverland: When kids awaken on an island, they're told there was an accident. Before they can go home, they will visit Foreverland, an alternate reality that will heal their minds. Foreverland Is Dead: Six teenage girls wake with no memories. One of them is in a brick mansion, her blonde hair as shiny as her shoes. The others are in a cabin, their names tagged to the insides of their pants. Their heads shaved. Slashes mark the cabin wall like someone has been counting. Hundreds of them. Ashes of Foreverland: Tyler Ballard was in prison when his son created a dreamworld called Foreverland, a place so boundless and spellbinding that no one ever wanted to leave. Or did. Now his son is dead, his wife is comatose, and Tyler is still imprisoned. But he planned it that way.
©2015 Tony Bertauski (P)2016 Tony Bertauski
Claus Boxed
Summary
Get a triple dose of holiday sci-fi magic with all three novels, and discover how the elven live on the North Pole, how reindeer fly, and what makes a snowman live. (Ten percent of the profits is annually donated to WINGS for Kids.) The Christmas stories you never heard as a kid. Claus: Legend of the Fat Man In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica, and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat, and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient. Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions - time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically modified reindeer that leap great distances. They've even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace. Until now. An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He's tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold One and total chaos. He's white bearded and red coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven known as...Claus. Jack: The Tale of Frost Sura is 16 years old when she meets Mr. Frost. He's very short and very fat, and he likes his room very, very cold. Some might say inhumanly cold. His first name isn't Jack, she's told. And that's all she needs to know. Mr. Frost's love for Christmas is over the top and slightly psychotic. And why not? He's made billions of dollars off the holiday he invented. Or so he claims. Rumor is he's an elven, but that's silly. Elven aren't real.
©2016 Tony Bertauski (P)2016 Tony Bertauski