Audiobooks narrated by Ray Chase

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

Developing video games-hero's journey or fool's errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today's hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes listeners on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius. Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands, and Donkey Kong-sized monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is more than Sisyphean-it's nothing short of miraculous. Taking some of the most popular, bestselling recent games, Schreier immerses listeners in the hellfire of the development process, whether it's RPG studio Bioware's challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age: Inquisition; indie developer Eric Barone's single-handed efforts to grow country-life RPG Stardew Valley from one man's vision into a multi-million-dollar franchise; or Bungie spinning out from their corporate overlords at Microsoft to create Destiny, a brand new universe that they hoped would become as iconic as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings-even as it nearly ripped their studio apart. Documenting the round-the-clock crunches, buggy-eyed burnout, and last-minute saves, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a journey through development hell-and ultimately a tribute to the dedicated diehards and unsung heroes who scale mountains of obstacles in their quests to create the best games imaginable.

Jason Schreier (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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For Honor We Stand

In 2315, the Earth Union is losing a thirty-year-long war with the Krag Hegemony. Having encountered the Krag before, Space Commander Max Robicheaux now faces daunting challenges aboard the USS Cumberland: the dangers from the enemy without... and clashes with crew and superiors within. Meanwhile, Doctor Sahin receives a coded message summoning him to a secret meeting that aims to forge an alliance that could change the balance of power in Known Space. But first, he must circumvent the fighter ships and heavily armed troops of the traitorous emir bent on killing him before he reaches the negotiating table. Both men must call upon their skill and friendship to bear the burden of carrying between the Krag Hegemony and the Earth Union a fateful ultimatum and the shocking answer—one that could spell eternal slavery, or even extinction, for all humankind.

H. Paul Honsinger (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Skin

Six months since the zombie plague struck, former librarian Roslyn Stewart has been holed up in a school with eight other survivors. But now the shelves in the school canteen are bare. The stranger at the gate has supplies that will ensure the group's ongoing survival, but at a cost. He wants a woman. Nick is a man with a plan. He'll treat Roslyn like a Queen, devoting the rest of his life to protecting and providing for her. In exchange, of course, for sexual favours. It's the deal of the century given the state of the world. But Roslyn doesn't see it that way. The first chance she gets she attacks the ex-army man and attempts to escape, forcing Nick to contain her. And so begins his awkward courtship of the woman, with her chained to the bed for security reasons. Chained like a dog and forced to spend her every waking moment with a creep, albeit a good looking one, Ros is determined to escape. When circumstances force them to band together against a common enemy their very survival depends on their ability to learn to trust each other. An uneasy partnership develops, but can a relationship with such a difficult beginning ever have a future? The hotly anticipated sequel to Flesh, Skin is set in the same universe with a different set of characters.

Kylie Scott (Author), Andi Arndt, Elena Wolfe, Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Finnegan's Week

Fin Finnegan, a San Diego police detective and wannabe actor heading straight for a midlife meltdown, is assigned a routine truck theft that turns into a toxic chemical spill, setting off a bizarre chain reaction of death and murder on both sides of the Mexican border. Fin is forced to team up with Nell Salter, a sexy female investigator, as well as an equally fetching U.S. Navy investigator who wants to learn all that Fin can teach her-and that's saying a lot.

Joseph Wambaugh (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Brothers in Valor

Sometimes Captain Max Robichaux fights by the book-and sometimes he throws the book away. This makes him one of the Union Space Navy's rising stars. It's also what has kept him and his green crew alive...thus far. When Max and his ship-the twenty-fourth-century space destroyer USS Cumberland-are boxed in by eight enemy battleships, the odds are against them at a million to one. It takes all their skill and guts just to escape...and surviving won't get easier. Sent on a covert mission behind enemy lines, Max and his crew are poised to strike a blow so hard that, if successful, it could turn the tide of the war. But if they fail, it will cost them their lives...and the lives of every human in the galaxy.

H. Paul Honsinger (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Indignation

In 1951, the second year of the Korean War, a studious, law-abiding, and intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner, begins his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at a local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hardworking neighborhood butcher, seems to have gone mad-mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees in every corner for his beloved boy. Far from Newark, Marcus has to find his way amid the customs and constrictions of another American world. Indignation, Philip Roth's twenty-ninth book, is a startling departure from the haunted narratives of old age and experience in Roth's recent books and a powerful exploration of a remarkable moment in American history. "Roth...demonstrates with subtle mastery the incomprehensible way ones most banal, incidental, even comical choices achieve the most disproportionate result."-New Yorker

Philip Roth (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey through Space, Time, and Beyond

Stephen Hawking's protégé and cowriter lifts the veil on the mysteries of our universe in a style that is wonderfully direct. Quantum physics, black holes, string theory, the big bang, dark matter, dark energy, parallel universes: even if we are interested in these fundamental concepts of our world, their language is the language of math. Which means that despite our best intentions of finally grasping, say, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, most of us are quickly brought up short by a snarl of nasty equations or an incomprehensible graph. Christophe Galfard's mission in life is to spread modern scientific ideas to the general public in entertaining ways. Using his considerable skills as a brilliant theoretical physicist and successful young-adult author, The Universe in Your Hand employs the immediacy of simple, direct language to show us, not explain to us, the theories that underpin everything we know about our universe. To understand what happens to a dying star, we are asked to picture ourselves floating in space in front of it. To get acquainted with the quantum world, we are shrunk to the size of an atom and then taken on a journey. Employing everyday similes and metaphors, addressing the listener directly, and writing stories rather than equations renders these astoundingly complex ideas in an immediate and visceral way. Utterly captivating and entirely unique, The Universe in Your Hand will find its place among other classics in the field. "If Mrs. Frizzle were a physics student of Stephen Hawking, she might have written The Universe in Your Hand, a wild tour through the reaches of time and space, from the interior of a proton to the Big Bang to the rough suburbs of a black hole. It's friendly, excitable, erudite, and cosmic."-Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times bestselling author

Christophe Galfard (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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To Honor You Call Us

Ruthless aliens intent on exterminating humankind. In 2315, the wily Max Robichaux is given command of the USS Cumberland, a destroyer with state-of-the-art capabilities but a combat record so bad, she’s known as the “Cumberland Gap.” Capt. Robichaux’s first mission: to take his warship to the Free Corridor, where the Krag have secretly been buying strategic materials, and to seize or destroy any ships carrying enemy cargo. Far from the fleet and under enforced radio silence, Max relies only on his determination and guile…and the support and friendship of his chief medical officer, the brilliant Dr. Sahin. Because even as he deals with the ship’s onboard problems and the stress of carrying out her risky assignment, Max and the doctor discover that the Cumberland and her misfit crew are all that stands in the way of a deadly Krag attack that threatens to end the war — and humanity — once and for all. A far-future story in the tradition of “ships of wood, men of iron” novels, To Honor You Call Us and the Man of War series combine the adventure of exploration, the excitement of war, and the dangers of the unknown through the eyes of a ship and her crew.

H. Paul Honsinger (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Flesh

Ali has been hiding in an attic since civilisation collapsed eight weeks ago. When the plague hit, her neighbours turned into mindless, hungry, homicidal maniacs. Daniel has been a loner his entire life. Then the world empties and he realises that being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be. Finn is a former cop who is desperate for companionship, and willing to do anything it takes to protect the survivors around him. When the three cross paths they band together; sparks fly, romance blooms in the wasteland and Ali, Daniel and Finn bend to their very human needs in the ruins of civilisation. Lust, love and trust all come under fire in Flesh as the three battle to survive, hunted through the suburban wastelands.

Kylie Scott (Author), Andi Arndt, Elena Wolfe, Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry

From the bestselling author of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels comes the next definitive, behind-the-scenes account of the video game industry: how some of the past decade's most renowned studios fell apart-and the stories, both triumphant and tragic, of what happened next. Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it. The business of videogames is both a prestige industry and an opaque one. Based on dozens of first-hand interviews that cover the development of landmark games-Bioshock Infinite, Epic Mickey, Dead Space, and more-on to the shocking closures of the studios that made them, Press Reset tells the stories of how real people are affected by game studio shutdowns, and how they recover, move on, or escape the industry entirely. Schreier's insider interviews cover hostile takeovers, abusive bosses, corporate drama, bounced checks, and that one time the Boston Red Sox's Curt Schilling decided he was going to lead a game studio that would take out World of Warcraft. Along the way, he asks pressing questions about why, when the video game industry is more successful than ever, it's become so hard to make a stable living making video games-and whether the business of making games can change before it's too late.

Jason Schreier (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Audio Collection, Vol. 1

Gothic master Edgar Allan Poe's complete works are collected in this multivolume set by Blackstone Audio. Here are his short stories, detective fiction, and poems in all their mysterious and macabre glory. Also included are Poe's literary reviews and editorial musings, comprising an often caustic analysis of the poetry, drama, and fiction of the period. This collection includes Poe's famous stories "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Tell-tale Heart." Poe's poetry features prominently in this collection, with well-known classics such as "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," and "Lenore" presented alongside lesser-known works like "Eulalie" and "The Conqueror Worm." Poe fans will be treated to his fearless and acerbic analysis of then-modern works, a practice earning him the reputation as a "tomahawk man" in artistic circles.

Edd Mcnair, Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Cassandra Campbell, Donald Corren, Grover Gardner, Kirby Heyborne, Ray Chase, Various, Various Narrators (Narrator)

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An Uncommon Bond

This intimate and revealing love story is told through the eyes of Lowen as he experiences the heights and depths that come with meeting his beloved, Sarah. In this remarkably engaging story, we walk beside the lovers as they touch the divine and struggle to ground their love in daily life. From the heights of sacred sexuality to the depths of human foible, they ultimately have to choose: surrender to this love or shrink back to mediocrity, work through their emotional baggage or flee the connection, open to the next portal of possibility or postpone it until the next lifetime. Shaped and reshaped in love’s cosmic kiln, Sarah and Lowen become a symbol of our own longing for wholeness in the presence of another. This book is a rare and unique gem, one of the first of its kind. Rivetingly real and magically poetic, it sheds new light on the evolving relational paradigm of “uncommon bonds,” “soulmates,” and Jeff Brown’s unique term “wholemates.” In a world that yearns for deep soul connection, An Uncommon Bond provides a blueprint of conscious relationship for us all—reminding us of the luminous nature of great love and showing us the opportunities for expansion that live at its heart. “Jeff Brown weaves powerful teachings and wisdom into a vulnerable tale of love, pain, and truth.”—Kelly McNelis, founder of Women for One

Jeff Brown (Author), Ray Chase (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Ray Chase