Ben is the Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Animal Behavior from Anglia Ruskin University, a Master’s of Science in Wild Animal Biology from the Royal Veterinary College, and a PhD, which looked at monkey evolution on tropical islands, entitled ‘Primates of the Caribbean’ with the University College London and the Zoological Society of London. Ben has recently announced So You Think You Know About Dinosaurs…?! is now on sale as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 following his third UK tour earlier this year.
Category: History
Review: Fires That Forge
Murder. Betrayal. Magic? One knight takes up his hammer to hunt a killer concealed. When dark arts and faith face off, will sorcery or swordsmanship win out? What chance can a mere mortal have against vampires and demonic forces? Is King’s Inquisitor Dunewell prepared to break the laws he has sworn to serve to discover and defeat a master of shrouded evil? Where is the line between hero and villain, saint and sinner?
Kingdom of Lethanor, 1648. Inquisitor Dunewell stands strong in a city scarred by corruption. A true warrior for justice, the newly assigned investigator jumps into the fray when a close physician friend is accused of murder. Vowing to find the real monster, he enters a deadly race against time and the tip of the executioner’s blade.
Ordered by superiors to wrap up the case quickly, the honorable man-at-arms digs deeply into clues pointing to demons and forbidden powers. But as more aristocrats are found brutally slain and vampire attacks foment mayhem, Dunewell must hunt down a magical foe before his city falls into violent madness.
Fires that Forge is the first book in the gripping Lords of Order & Chaos epic fantasy series, one of four series in the Bloodlines Reforged Saga. If you like thrilling mysteries, hidden enemies, and fast-paced action, then you’ll love R. J. Hanson’s sword and sorcery tale.
Buy Fires That Forge and dispel the darkness today!
Review: The Priestess and the Dragon
The Cruel Prince meets Inuyasha in this slow-burn romantic fantasy. You won’t be able to put down this action-packed fantasy adventure!
Exiled to a mountain shrine, Suzume trains to become a priestess serving the god of the mountain. As she toils at the temple, she longs for a life beyond its walls. Until she awakens the slumbering god and unmasks the temple’s centuries-old secret.
The god is a fake. Five hundred years ago, the shrine’s founder sealed a dragon in a stone. And now that he’s free, he wants revenge. Unleashing the dragon wasn’t an accident. As Suzume learns, she’s the first priestess’ reincarnation.
He spirits her away and Suzume plots to kill him before he kills her. But the more time they spend together, she starts to question her feelings for him. Tangled threads of fate bind them together and Suzume must decide: will she follow her heart or will history repeat itself?
Start the adventure today with this epic romantic fantasy sure to please listeners who enjoy aching slow-burn romance, twists and turns, complex characters, and villains you love to hate!
Review: The Battle That Was Lost
When there is something you can’t do or won’t do yourself, you get a bastard to do it for you. They are thieves, cheats, and murderers, loyal to nothing but the coin. Everyone knows that,
Yet in war, payment in blood is more likely than payment in coin.
Staegrim knows coins better than he knows people, and he isn’t giving his life away for free. Not to the rebels, not for the lords, and not for all of the bloody coins in Rengas.
But then… Everyone has a price.
Review: The Red Scowl
The Black Death is approaching…but is there something more fearful in the forest outside the village?
Outside an isolated forest community, by the forbidden cursed “Red Scowl”, tracks are discovered that resemble no known animal. Fearful of getting in trouble with the village leader, Mor and Beathan keep this discovery to themselves.
Soon, however, Mor grows more alarmed as news of a great pestilence arrives, and he wonders if these two things are somehow linked. He wants to speak up—just as he wanted to speak up when a woman he loved from afar was burned as a witch—but Mor is a simple man, and the more cunning Beathan keeps him quiet.
Storms, murder, a witch hunt, old secrets, and something monstrous in the mist follow before a stranger comes to the village. Is he is the devil? Does he carry the plague? Is he responsible for all the ills that have befallen them? Most important of all—did he come from within the Red Scowl?
Review: Undercover: Operation Julie – The Inside Story
Meet some of the most sexually charged creatures in the world.
Bampires, with a “B,” crashed on earth. These creatures survive, not from blood, but sex. But not just any kind of sex… the purest sex there is, untouched humans. They also drink blood ofcourse, but only to blend there skin color in with humans. They can enter your mind and sex you in anyway they please. Are you interested now?
***** WARNING 18+ Adult content with strong language *****
If you think this is just another story about a girl that falls in love with a vampire, far from it. Everything you know about Vampire is wrong. For starters what is a Bampire? They are creatures that survive from sex. But not just any sex, the purest kind. Every hour and everywhere, there is a lot of steamy hot desires being satisfied at every turn. Are you curious enough to enter MIND NIGHT BLUE Now?
LB is the most powerful Bampire to ever walk the earth. He fell in love and accidentally killed her. Now he roams the earth until he finds this young woman again. Will this be his second chance at life, or something completely different? But at this same time, his past comes back to haunt him. This young woman gets caught between a love triangle that uses her to get back at LB. There are 3 days of sexy, seductive, and erotic world. Can you (the reader) handle all of these delicious scenes? Will you be able to figure out what is going to happen, while your desires are on an all time high?
Let’s get started shall we.
Can you figure out what is going to happen before its revealed? Will you be able to hold off your own desires and emotions while reading what happens? Hmmm lets see if you can handle your first night in MIND NIGHT BLUE? Lets get started shall we?
Review: Bullets and Bandages: Bond of Brothers
Bullets and Bandages: Bond of Brothers is a story inspired by the words of a US Army Field Medic, 21st Infantry, and his stories about his tour in Vietnam 1968-69. Through those stories, the author was given the unique insight into the men who struggled to survive in a war many of us didn’t understand. The author also brings to us some of his own experiences, in this challenging time in our history. Fast paced and full of action and drama, this raw and powerful story takes you on a journey into the jungles, villages, and hamlets of Vietnam, and the men in the thick of the fight. The new fourth edition has new details to more accurately reflect the tour of soldiers in the Vietnam war. The author dedicates this story and all of his work to our Veterans and those that serve to protect our freedom today.
Review: Hades
Stephanie Costas has always had a passion for humanity. As a digital forensics examiner, she fights bad guys from the technical front. When a closed cold case is dug up, she finds herself becoming consumed to set things right. No amount of ’80s music or repeated viewings of her favorite movie Dirty Dancing were enough to distract her. She needed a vacation in the worst of ways.
When she set foot in the gorgeous tropical resort in Greece, she had no idea she’d meet a man claiming to be Hades, god of the Underworld. And she certainly had no idea that he was telling the truth. Her Greek vacation was about to become very…interactive.
A Hades/Persephone reimagining.
The Contemporary Mythos series will feature a different Greek god in each book, reexploring their myths and combining contemporary romance tropes. Though they will all stand alone, the stories will also intersect for those that listen to them all.
Review: The Secret of Heaven
When investment banker Lazzaro de Medici is found dead, Professor of Biblical Studies at University of Illinois at Chicago Aiden Leonardo is the prime suspect. In possession of an encrypted letter given to him by Lazzaro, Aiden utilizes his extensive knowledge of Scripture to piece together clues that lead to a Lost Bible dating back to the time of Christ.
Hidden within the text is an ancient truth about the most controversial message Jesus left to his disciples. But as Aiden embarks on his quest to unravel the mystery of redemption and faith, a secret organization known only as The Group hunts him down to destroy the Lost Bible and tie up loose ends.
With the help of his fiancé, Dr. Miriam Levin – a cultural anthropologist and a professor of historical archaeology in her own right, their friend, Nagi, a philologist, religious historian, and an eccentric cryptographer, Aiden soon realizes the Lost Bible was written by the only disciple who walked with Jesus and had his gospel omitted from Scripture.
Things are further complicated when a mysterious stranger warns Aiden that possessing the secret of heaven could cost him his life. Pursued by the FBI for the ancient black-market relic, and the Chicago PD in connection to the murder of Lazzaro de Medici, Aiden races against the clock to prove his innocence and fulfill his mentor’s dying wish.
Expose the secret of heaven….
Review: Interview with the Sphinx
In this provocative and immensely irritating comic play, the Sphinx from ancient Greece is interviewed in modern times as though she were a celebrity pop star. The problem is she never answers any questions—never directly, anyway. Instead, she prefers just dishing the dirt on everybody.
On Homer: “I never was exactly sure which one Homer was. I’m positive he wasn’t the blind one, though; that was just a silly story they started telling a few centuries later.”
On Oedipus: “Eddie was terribly conceited, you know…of course he was smart and handsome and oh, just had a way of carrying himself that impressed everybody. In spite of his foot.”
Bit by bit, the interviewer learns that what happens in Greek legend didn’t happen exactly the way Sophocles described it. Fortunately, the Sphinx offers the interviewer another riddle; if only he could figure out what exactly it is!
This witty 67-minute audio play stars Jill Brumer as the Sphinx and Neal Gage as the interviewer. Part Tom Stoppard, part Monty Python, part Oscar Wilde, this play by Jack Matthews combines philosophical paradoxes with fast-paced verbal pyrotechnics. It offers the perfect antidote to people who remembered ancient literature as nothing but stuffy and melodramatic characters with hard-to-pronounce names.
About the Cast
Neal Gage is a Houston actor and teacher who has appeared in several features and comic sketch videos on Funny or Die. Jill Brumer has an MFA in Media and Performing Arts and teaches theater at Houston colleges. Jack Matthews (1925-2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, and former professor in Ohio.
The play was first published and performed in 1992; later, it was revised and expanded for the 2013 audio production.