Todd McLaren has narrated 173 audiobooks on Listento.it by 98 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 6,318 ratings. The most-rated is The ONE Thing.
Endless Night
Summary
In the aftermath of the Great Galactic War, the Veetanho assumed control of the Mercenary Guild’s Inner Council, and with it, power over the guild’s affairs. The Goltar were marginalized, and the Veetanho did everything they could to make the galaxy forget the Goltar had ever existed. The Goltar went quietly, pretending to sulk and accept their fate but they never did. They worked in the shadows, amassing power and resources, always looking for the right time and right opportunity to re-emerge and strip the hated Veetanho of everything they owned. In the depths of the Spine Nebula, a fly-over region known only for the bad luck of its inhabitants and the dangers that lurks in its fringes, the Goltar have a secret weapon. Known only as the Infinite Flow, it's the source of their riches, and the crux on which their plans rest. But when a shadowy group learns of its existence and comes to wrest control of it from the Goltar, the crew of the Midnight Sun is thrown into its defense, and they find out that they may not have known their employers quite as well as they thought they did. As the guild wars heat up, the battle for ultimate power may well be fought in the Spine Nebula, with the Midnight Sun Free Company in the middle of it!
©2020 Tim C. Taylor (P)2020 Podium Audio
Daughter of the Pride
Summary
The lioness prowls where only darkness reigns. Months after the fall of Liberia, Lieutenant Sunshine of the Kakata Korps Mercenary Company finds herself adrift in the galaxy. Her last remaining mission, which she has sworn to complete, is to find a member of the Peacemaker Guild and pass along a message from the dead. There’s just one problem - nobody can find the message hidden inside the old, broken-down CASPer in which she escaped the final battle. As more time passes, the dead she chooses to honor are tossed into the dustbin of forgotten history. Footnotes and nothing more, the so-called “Lions of Liberia” will only be remembered for their apparent betrayal of Earth, not for their brave sacrifice in an effort to save their people and their homeland. Sunshine will not let their deaths be in vain, and she swears to complete her mission. It is her only goal in life...until a cry for help in the dark is heard that changes everything. And the galaxy will soon learn why a pride of lions is more dangerous than the solitary one.
©2020 Jason Cordova (P)2021 Podium Audio
The Dark Before the Light
Summary
It’s always darkest before the light.... Defeated in battle, the fractious alliance of Goltar, Spine Patriots, and the Midnight Sun Free Company are chased across the Spine Nebula by the Endless Night and their sea-monster allies, the Tyzhounes. Abandoning the nebula is not an option. For the free trader skipper, Lenworth Jenkins, the people of its 15 tormented worlds are the cause he’s been searching for all his life. The Midnight sisters, Sun and Blue, can’t abandon their people trapped in the nebula or its fabulous prospects of wealth and opportunity. On a water world behind enemy lines, Branco, the former Binnig spy, is dying. Can he make a difference one last time? As Endless Night stretches across the nebula, those who still resist must dig deep and believe that however dire the situation, this is the dark before the light.
©2020 Tim C. Taylor (P)2020 Podium Audio
The Midnight Sun
Summary
War has come to the worlds of Humans. The rich planet of Tau-Rietzke, however, is far from Earth and the Mercenary Guild’s invasion, and its alien-registered mercenary companies are a safe haven for humans on the run. Organizations like the Midnight Sun Free Company. Having just completed another successful mission and taken possession of three Raknars, it was party time for Saisho Branco and the personnel of the Midnight Sun, and they were enjoying a little down time...until the war spilled over into their corner of the galaxy and two competing mercenary organizations showed up to steal the Raknars. But no one takes the company owner’s toys, and Gloriana has given the Midnight Sun a new mission: return the Raknars to her at any cost…or don’t return at all. This is the hardest mission the Midnight Sun has ever taken, and it will test not only the military prowess of the company, but also its members’ loyalties as well. When everyone is against you, and your race calls you to war, do you heed the call or continue to trust your shadowy employer? Outnumbered and outgunned, the Midnight Sun must decide whether to fight or to give up the Raknars and save their lives. Little do they know, it’s a decision that will impact the war being fought hundreds of light years away!
©2018 Seventh Seal Press (P)2018 Podium Publishing
Gale Force
Summary
In the aftermath of Peepo’s war against humanity, the Mercenary Guild is still in chaos. On Earth, the moratorium on mercenary contracts is disrupting Jim Cartwright’s efforts to stand up the new Terran Federation. Making matters worse, Jim has received intelligence that someone is squatting on asteroids in our Solar System...and Sansar Enkh is pretty sure they don’t have Earth’s best interests in mind. Fearing the aliens have plans for another invasion - or worse - Jim takes his ship, Bucephalus, and sets off to investigate. While the mercenary guild is in recess, Nigel Shirazi has an opportunity to make some credits, and when he leaves to pursue an illicit contract, Alexis Cromwell decides to follow up on some information she’s received on the mysterious Weapons Conglomerate. Nigel wouldn’t approve of her running off, especially eight months pregnant, but Alexis has never been one to listen to instructions - or orders for that matter. She gathers a squadron of Hussars and heads off on her quest. Events in the galaxy are happening at a frantic pace as the guilds battle each other in the shadows…and sometimes in the open. The Four Horsemen are once again at the center of it all, and as the guilds squabble, the Dusman aren’t sitting on the sidelines. They have their own plans, and humanity is only part of them. The Guild Wars aren’t over; they’ve only just begun.
©2020 Chris Kennedy, Mark Wandrey (P)2021 Podium Audio
Sinclair's Scorpions
Summary
The Omega War is in full swing. Earth has fallen to General Peepo’s army, and the surviving human mercenaries have taken refuge at the hidden Winged Hussars’ base in New Warsaw. As humanity begins to think about how to recover the planet, one thing is obvious - more powerful weapons of war will be needed in the effort. One of the keys to recapturing Earth will be the Raknar of Cartwright’s Cavaliers, but the power sources of many of the giant mecha have become unusable over the course of history. More are needed, and Alistair Sinclair knows someone who may have a line on where to get them...a secret Science Guild base where they’re being developed for the Mercenary Guild to power the Raknars Peepo has been collecting. While the Four Horsemen try to hold back the Mercenary Guild forces, Alistair volunteers his Scorpions to track down and bring back the power sources the Raknar need for the assault on Earth. The Scorpions operate by guile, not overwhelming power, but will guile be enough when all the forces of the Mercenary Guild are arrayed against them?
©2018 Seventh Seal Press (P)2019 Podium Publishing
Dirty Deeds
Summary
Old mercs don't die, you do. Abraham Murdock left his home of Sheridan, Arkansas, at 17 to start a merc career that spanned almost 50 years, working for dozens of companies, killing aliens and getting paid across the galaxy. Near the end of his career, he landed a gig with Cartwright’s Cavaliers. The storied Four Horsemen unit was just coming back from near catastrophe, and the battle-proven Murdock was an ideal choice for their top sergeant. It would have been a perfect last contract, but then his dropship was destroyed in the Chimsa system, killing the flight crew and him. Or did it? Nobody was more surprised than Murdock when he found himself alive. After weeks of surviving in a failing CASPer, floating in space amid the ruins of dead starships, he was rescued by an alien salvage crew. Deciding retirement was the right call, he headed to Valais, a beautiful aquatic paradise not unlike the South Pacific on Earth. Warm sun, sandy beaches - peace and quiet. That is, until the alien mercs arrived, and he suddenly found himself back in his old trade and up to his ass in the Omega War. What good is a 70-year-old merc in a star-spanning war? Never trust an old man in a career where most die young. Murdock isn’t quite done...yet.
©2018 Seventh Seal Press (P)2019 Podium Publishing
Sons of the Lion
Summary
Dragon Award Finalist for Best Military Science Fiction Novel When you take the Emperor's gold, you become the Emperor's man. For Colonel Mulbah Luo and the Kakata Korps, their initial contracts with the Mercenary Guild had them defending Earth. Honest work, they were led to believe, keeping the citizens of Earth safe from alien pacification in their own way. As the occupation continues, however, their eyes are opened to the fact that the hand gripping their throat is slowly tightening. After an outside attempt to throw western Africa into unending civil war, the Kakata Korps must choose sides. Will they honor their oaths and fight their own people at the cost of their very souls? Or will the call of freedom - freedom from the Merc Guild - sway even the most hardened of souls? The war for Earth rages on. The souls of a people hangs in the balance.
©2019 Jason Cordova (P)2020 Podium Publishing
When the Axe Falls
Summary
The clouds of war continue to build...and not everyone is blind. Bjorn Tovesson III, the owner of Bjorn’s Berserkers, is a man tied to the past but who’s not afraid to innovate. Whether it is new tactics or new equipment, Bjorn is willing to try anything once, in an effort to grow his company into the status of the fabled Four Horsemen. Looking to the future with his eyes open, though, he has seen a series of unfortunate occurrences running through the ranks of Earth’s mercenaries. Companies in financial troubles, some taking huge losses on contracts...and others not returning from their contracts at all. His father always taught him to prepare, and Bjorn is working to diversify his operations, including moving the company to a planet with a sizable portion of aliens who are already members of the Galactic Union. Nothing bad could happen to them there, right? But as the storm clouds continue to gather, his past is on a collision course with the present, as another of Earth’s mercenary companies is out to get him...and with the support of the Mercenary Guild, they have the forces to overwhelm him! Will Bjorn’s preparations keep the Berserkers safe, or will they become yet another unfortunate occurrence?
©2019 Seventh Seal Press (P)2019 Podium Publishing
Billy the Kid
Summary
From the best-selling author of Route 66 comes this long-awaited biography of one of America's most legendary folk heroes. Award-winning historian Michael Wallis has spent several years re-creating the rich, anecdotal saga of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), a deeply mythologized young man who became a legend in his own time and yet remains an enigma to this day. With the Gilded Age in full swing and the Industrial Revolution reshaping the American landscape, "the Kid", who was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the New Mexico Territory at the age of 21, became a new breed of celebrity outlaw. He arose amid the mystery and myth of the swiftly vanishing frontier and, sensationalized beyond recognition by the tabloids and dime-store romances of the day, emerged as one of the most enduring icons of the American West: not to mention one of Hollywood's most misrepresented characters. This new biography separates myth from reality and presents an unforgettable portrait of this brief and violent life.
©2007 Michael Wallis (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.
A Question of Will
Summary
Will Stark is a self-made multibillionaire, happily married, and a proud father. He arrives home to find his house destroyed and his family murdered and is himself rescued from certain death by a mysterious trio. His rescuers are part of a splinter faction of a centuries-old secret society that has developed incredible technological advances and unlocked the method to release humanity's innate potential. Will was mistakenly believed to be a key dissident and fugitive, on the run from the primary group, known as the Aliomenti. Society believes him dead, and Will elects to work from the shadows to learn the secrets of the Aliomenti - secrets that can help him seek his own form of vengeance. Or, perhaps, become the man they'd sought all along.
©2012 Alex Albrinck (P)2016 Tantor
Man in Control & Take Me, Cowboy
Summary
An undercover affair... Ever since DEA agent Alexander Cobb gave Jodie Clayburn a Texas-size brush-off, they've been sworn enemies. When he pushed Jodie out of his life, he told himself he was doing the right thing. But eight years later, this cynical Texan can't believe the baby-faced schoolgirl has turned into such a beauty. Or that he'd have to beg her to help him crack a drug-smuggling case that threatens Jacobsville. Tantalized to the core, Alexander would risk everything to protect her. In a hot pursuit, the two are drawn closer together. Will the man in control finally get caught in his own web of danger...and desire? Bonus story included in this volume! Take Me, Cowboy by New York Times best-selling author Maisey Yates Rancher Chase McCormack is Anna Brown's best friend. To him she's just one of the boys, but she's determined to convince him she can be so much more.... Previously published.
©2017 Harlequin Books, S.A. (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited.
The Children's Game
Summary
A Thriller of Russian Cyber Warfare, Fake News, and Modern Espionage
The CIA has learned that the Kremlin is about to launch a sophisticated propaganda operation aimed at discrediting and disrupting the United States and ultimately restoring Russia to great nation status. Intercepted intelligence suggests that the operation will hinge on a single, breaking news event in Eastern Europe, supported by a sustained campaign of disinformation and cyberattacks. Code-named the "Children’s Game" - a chess stratagem that leads to checkmate in four moves - it was probably conceived by a Russian billionaire and former FSB officer named Andrei Turov. For years Turov has been developing the infrastructure for a new kind of warfare that exploits weaknesses in western democracies and manipulates public opinion. His organization offers the Kremlin plausible deniability.
But the United States has its own secret weapon: Christopher Niles, a former CIA intelligence officer, who understands Turov's ambitions and capabilities. It falls to him and his small team - composed of his journalist half-brother Jon, a special forces operative he would trust with his life, and Anna Carpenter, a resourceful US senator with deep roots in the intelligence community - to unravel Turov's plot and restore truth to a world spiraling into chaos.
The Children's Game is a frighteningly realistic, timely thriller that delves into the secret corners of Vladimir Putin's Russia, exploring the shifting world order and the murky realm of US-Russia relations.
©2018 Max Karpov (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Luck of the Draw
Summary
He may get a second chance at his one true love - if someone doesn’t kill her first. When Garrett Sterling leaves for a horseback ride through his family’s sprawling Montana property, he’s expecting a relaxing break from the construction at the Sterling guest ranch. What he gets is something far more sinister. It all happens so fast that it’s hard for Garrett - and the authorities - to sort out the facts. Two things are certain, though: Someone is dead, and the killer knows there was a witness. But when the one woman he could never forget emerges as a key suspect in the investigation, Garrett will do anything he can to help clear her name. She’s still keeping secrets from him - that much is clear. But Garrett won’t rest until he uncovers what really happened that day, how she’s involved - and why everything she’s ever told him is a lie.
©2019 B.J. Daniels (P)2019 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
The War That Came Early: West and East
Summary
In 1938, two men held history in their hands. One was Adolf Hitler. The other was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who, determined to avoid war at any cost, came to be known as "the great appeaser". But Harry Turtledove, the unrivaled master of alternate history, has launched a gripping saga that springboards from a different fateful act: What if Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler? What would the Nazis' next move have been? And how would the war---which Hitler had always regretted waiting 11 months to start---have unfolded and changed our world? Here, Turtledove takes us across a panorama of conflict fueled by ideology and demagoguery. Nations are pitted against nations, alliances are forged between old enemies, ordinary men and women are hurled into extraordinary life-and-death situations. In Japanese-controlled Singapore, an American marine falls in love with a Russian dance-hall hostess, while around him are heard the first explosions of Chinese guerilla resistance. On the frontlines of war-ravaged rural France, a weary soldier perfects the art of using an enormous anti-tank gun as a sniper's tool---while from Germany a killer is sent to hunt him down. And in the icy North Atlantic, a U-boat bearing an experimental device wreaks havoc on British shipping, setting the stage for a Nazi ground invasion of Denmark. From an American woman trapped in Germany who receives safe passage from Hitler himself to a Jewish family steeped in German culture and facing the hatred rising around them, from Japanese soldiers on the remote edge of Siberia to American volunteers in Spain, The War That Came Early: West and East is the story of a world held hostage by tyrants - Stalin, Hitler, Sanjuro - each holding on to power through lies and terror, even in the face of treacherous plots from within.
©2010 HarryTurtledove (P)2010 Tantor
Defender
Summary
The man who shattered her trust is back to protect her....New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer delivers a breathtaking story of second-chance love. When Paul Fiore disappeared from Isabel Grayling's life, he told himself it was for all the right reasons. She was young and innocent, and he was her millionaire father's lowly employee. Three years on, Paul is the FBI agent assigned to Isabel's case. Too late, he realizes what life in her Texas mansion was really like back then - and how much damage he did when he left. Once love-struck and sheltered, Isabel has become an assistant district attorney committed to serving the law, no matter how risky it gets. But right now, the man she can't forgive is the one thing standing between her and a deadly stalker. She knows Paul won't hesitate to protect her life with his own. But if she can't trust herself to resist him, how can she trust him not to break her heart all over again?
©2016 Diana Palmer (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Last Orders
Summary
In an extraordinary saga of nations locked in war, master storyteller Harry Turtledove tells the story of World War II, which begins over Czechoslovakia rather than Poland, eleven months earlier than it really came. Now comes the final installment in Turtledove's landmark World War II series. Hitler's Plan A was to win in a hurry, striking hard and deep into France. There was no Plan B. Now the war grinds on, and countries have been forced into strange alliances. For the United States, the only enemy is Japan. Then Hitler becomes desperate and declares war on the United States. But is it too late? His own people are rising up in revolt. The German military may have to put down the violence - even perhaps bomb its own cities. In this epic drama, real men and women are shaped by the carnage, and their individual acts in turn shape history. Drawing on the gritty, personal reality of war and on a cast of unforgettable characters, Turtledove has written an alternate history that intrigues, fascinates, and astounds.
©2014 Harry Turtledove (P)2014 Tantor
Unbridled
Summary
A lone wolf takes on the threat endangering everything he loves in an unforgettable story in the sensational Long, Tall Texans series Widowed Texas Ranger and single dad John Ruiz hardened his heart years ago. Day after day, he tracks the roughest criminals in the Lone Star State, leaving little room for love. So when John butts heads with the beautiful nurse who’s helping his young son, he’s floored by how quickly the sparks fly. Ever since her mother’s and brother’s brutal murders, Sunny Marlowe has devoted her life to helping save others. Adorable Tonio Ruiz is just another youngster she’s trying to help - or so she tells herself. Little does she know he’s John’s son. When her life comes under fire, can one mysterious rancher rescue her?
©2018 Diana Palmer (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Ascent of the Aliomenti
Summary
The Aliomenti village is in ruins, destroyed by one of their own, its population nearly eliminated in the calamity. From the ruins, the Aliomenti rise to international prominence, influencing buyers and sellers, warriors and bureaucrats, as they patiently and invisibly expand their empire. Will Stark serves as the driving force behind that expansion. Whether he's creating their innovations or offering subtle hints, few of their revolutionary progressions are made without his influence. But Will is dealing with his own private heartache. Even as he watches his fellow Aliomenti ascend to heights few of them imagined possible, his long journey becomes one he'll make alone. He's haunted by the knowledge that what enables him to make that journey will also prevent him from seeing his most important mission to its completion. Will must persevere, fighting through his own gloom, an organization that threatens to tear itself apart, and a reunion with old friends at an inopportune time. He'll come to realize that his own decisions, his own inability to understand even those he knows not to trust, have enabled a tyrant to seize control of the Aliomenti in the aftermath of a crisis.
©2013 Alex Albrinck (P)2016 Tantor
Preserving Will
Summary
He's provided for each of them the opportunity to lead a life of health, wealth, and power far beyond their imagination. By his own example, he's shown them that such gifts are meant to be shared, used to make the world a better place. And he's never asked them for anything in return, showing a willingness to risk even his own life to live to his own ideals. Now Will Stark needs their help. He's helpless, he's uneducated, and he's about to meet men who can utterly destroy him. And they'll need to make sure that's exactly what happens. Prodded by memories, and with the aid of future hindsight, they'll work tirelessly, take on alternate personalities, and ensure that the plan is carried out in its entirety. In the process they'll learn that selfless sacrifice can demand a heavy price. They'll know that even high technology can't overcome the human spirit. And they'll understand that even with perfect hindsight, surprises beyond expectation can - and do - occur.
©2013 Alex Albrinck (P)2016 Tantor