Showing results by author "Robert Butler" in All Categories

Join the last vestiges of Humanity and their alien allies (the reptilian Thrynn, the insectoid Velox, and the plant-based Elowan) as they attempt to carve out their own territory in a sector of space filled with wondrous opportunity and deadly threats. Brave explorers seek out new worlds to colonize while merchants cruise from starport to starport, their holds laden with exotic goods. Not all in this futuristic setting have noble intent. For every prospector and trader attempting to make a difference, a dozen pirates, smugglers, and mobsters engage in all manner of criminal enterprise.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler tells a magical and humorous contemporary fable that captures the state of humanity at the cusp of a new millennium - as seen through the uniquely sensitive perspective of an empathetic extraterrestrial. An audible.com audio exclusive!

Fiction, poetry, and music come together to create something new: Verb. Original stories and poems you won't find anywhere else, by the best writers in the country, brought to you in an innovative format. Verb is the ancient oral tradition and the venerable literary magazine combined into a fresh new package: the audioquarterly.

Christopher Marlowe Cobb ("Kit"), the swashbuckling early 20th-century American newspaper war correspondent, travels to Mexico in April and May of 1914, during that country’s civil war and the American invasion of Vera Cruz. But covering the war in enemy territory and in sweltering heat isn't enough of a challenge for Cobb. Soon, he's falling in love with a young Mexican laundress, Luisa, who may not be as innocent as she seems, and he's witnessing the inexplicable attempted sniper assassination of a priest (miraculously, the bullet rebounds off the cross around his neck, leaving him unharmed).

When the color of your skin is the only thing society sees, even being a doctor is not enough. In this compelling book, Dr. Robert Butler shares his experiences growing up Black in America. From his time as a young boy in the Bronx - up until present day - Dr. Butler has experienced racism in all aspects of his life. The incidents will shock you, but his resilience will inspire you!

Autumn 1915. World War I is raging across Europe, but Woodrow Wilson has kept Americans out of the trenches - though that hasn't stopped young men and women to volunteer at the front. Christopher "Kit" Cobb, a Chicago reporter with a second job as undercover agent for the US government, is officially in Paris doing a story on American ambulance drivers, but his intelligence handler, James Polk Trask, soon broadens his mission. City-dwelling civilians are meeting death by dynamite in a new string of bombings, and the German-speaking Kit seems just the man to figure out who is behind them.

What happens to people's lives during times of battle and strife? From the American Revolution to the ongoing war in Iraq, the subject of this collection is how people cope with the dramatic shifts that come with war. Before Independence, a slave fights for freedom by taking up arms for the British; in World War I, a mother goes to the front lines to see her son; and in our time, a teenager in Oregon waits for e-mail from his father in the Middle East.

Robert Quinlan is a 70-year-old historian, teaching at Florida State University, where his wife Darla is also tenured. Their marriage, forged in the fervor of anti-Vietnam War protests, now bears the fractures of time, both personal and historical, with the couple trapped in an existence of morning coffee and solitary jogging and separate offices. For Robert and Darla, the cracks remain under the surface, whereas the divisions in Robert's own family are more apparent: he has almost no relationship with his brother Jimmy.

Set in contemporary New Orleans but working its way back in time, A Small Hotel chronicles the relationship between Michael and Kelly Hayes, who have decided to separate after 20 years of marriage. The book begins on the day that the Hays are to finalize their divorce. Kelly is due to be in court, but instead she drives to New Orleans and checks into the hotel where she and Michael fell in love some 20 years earlier.

When you're a space pirate sailing between stars and planets with nobody telling you where to go, you can always take a detour, especially when opportunity presents itself in the form of possible lost treasures from ancient civilizations, and a way to get through permastorms that have locked the galaxy's greatest powers out of...whatever lies beyond, for thousands of years. That's the situation that Captain Bonny Red of 'The Red Spark' finds herself in when she wins an ancient harmonic electron map off of a less than ethical gambler during a routine run of supplies and personnel to an ...

How does a former dlamisan military scout, a sailor of the void, go from a soldier class, to a merchant class...to a pirate class? There's only one way. Encountering humans and finding out about pirate movies...video games... and liquor, lots...and lots... of liquor. Herein lies the record of the rise of Bonny Red, Captain of the Red Spark, Pirate Queen of the endless void, and where her legend began... Set in the universe of 'Adopted By Humans'

Contains: Boozehounds I: In which Captain Bonny Red encounters humanity for the first time and finds true kindred spirits from across the stars. Boozehounds II: In which a raid reveals a change in the behavior of the Zenti Expanse and the pirates of The Red Spark embark on a rescue. Boozehounds III: Captain Bonny Red and company find themselves trapped on a primitive world and become embroiled in a fight between a group of marauders, and a people who have just begun to settle down. Bonus Content: Previously unpublished shorts and the author's failed attempt at a story's first few chapters.

One simple trip. Just take some xaxa fruit from point A to point B, sell it this cheap stuff at the nearest spaceport where they pay a premium for fresh food, then restock the bar of the Red Spark and move on. But for Captain Bonny Red and her crew, life can just never be that simple. Taking a shortcut to reach their destination, they encounter some zenti raiders, and some most unexpected people who will take the merry band of dlamisan space pirates on yet another misadventure that will end with their plans ruined...and an unexpected treasure along the way.

Nephew of the Emperor, the Firstborn Son of Terror's Mother, the next in line for the throne of the Jabarian Empire, victorious general, unbeatable warrior.. Gottfried Jabara has all that one could want in life despite being barely a man's age... everything that is... except a choice about what to do with his life. Iris Vansi Valoisin is a slave. The daughter of a once noble house which committed treason against the Jabarian Empire. And yet deprived of all choice, she has her cunning and her iron will. Conspiracy, treason, and terror in the heart of the Empire clash against desire, family, ...

Carcosa is a fictional land that first appeared in Bierce’s 1886 story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” (included in this collection), and later is appeared Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow. It has since been used by many other fantasy and horror writers and poets. This collection explores Carcosa and other fictional cities found in nineteenth-century poetry and short stories. The works of these classic and innovative writers are given new life, and a new generation of listeners will have the chance to voyage to Carcosa … and beyond.

The struggle for power has created challenges that even for all her preparations, Nua could not have planned for. There are always unknowns, always enemies, and sometimes? Sometimes even the strongest of people need to turn to for help. To that end, she welcomes Gottfried Jadara, the firstborn son of the Mother of Terror with a delivery of enchanted equipment meant to give her members of the faith an edge over all others. There are however, levels upon levels, layers upon layers to her motives, as Gottfried represents not only her greatest hope, but also her greatest fear. If her budding ...

The rising tide of the House of Aiwenor has swept away some, while others on board with it have seen themselves rise to new heights. But the even floods must ebb and fight against the dams built to bar the way forward. Ahead of Nua, the Red City, fallen Komestra, prepares to rise again, its armies reformed, its power renewed, her promise... all but fulfilled. Her promise though, was not her ambition. To rule one city is good, to rule them all? Better. And so the wars begin, with sides being taken and armies on the march, new strategies are needed, and old allies from home must be introduced...

The turn of the 20th century saw radical developments in all art forms and particularly in poetry. The first volume of this series features the work of nine significant poets whose careers cover the period from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

For Speranzi Jadara, the paladin archer and Commander of the Black Quiver mercenary company, it was supposed to be a simple job. Escort a merchant on his journey into a neighboring region, ensure his safety, and come home alive. But for the devotee of the gods of mankind and veteran of the war against the Demon God, Damaxa, nothing ever goes as planned. After encountering Skana, a bold brigand made hard bitten by her life as a peasant, and razor sharp by her life disguising herself as a man to hide her identity from her teachers among the raiders, Speranzi Jadara's whole world turns upside ...

Victory brings with it many burdens, who to trust, who not to trust, who will betray, who will refrain from betraying... and why? Nua strives to win the hearts of those whose bodies she possesses, the fear of those in her way, and the faith of those closest to her, but challenges from beyond from the ever watchful orchestrators of the careful balance of Mict'aratz are not an idle bunch. Enemies lurk in shadows, and the hunt for a stolen life so trivial that she once did not even have a name, turns everything on its head.