Entertainment Science

In this eloquent and persuasive book, Neil Postman examines the deep and broad effects of television culture on the manner in which we conduct our public affairs, and how "entertainment values" have corrupted the very way we think. As politics, news, religion, education, and commerce are given less and less expression in the form of the printed word, they are rapidly being reshaped to suit the requirements of television.

Their training complete, Fran and Teacher decided to head to the Magic Academy in Belioth to fulfill a request from Aristea. Unfortunately, Teacher's hopes for Fran to get in some normal student time alongside her peers are thwarted by an unexpected reunion--and a campus conspiracy!

Things in Locklore just keep getting more complicated! Kanata meets a dragon-girl on the run from mysterious enemies, and he and his friends agree to help her out. But soon she leads them into dangerous, uncharted territory—the homeland of dragons! Meanwhile, Kanata may have eked out a win and saved the city of Manaloch, but his actions have also drawn attention from the beings he wants to avoid most: the gods who sent him to the world of Locklore in the first place! What lies in store once they find the level 1 character who escaped the inescapable labyrinth?

Every night, Adachi transforms into a nightmarish creature--and every morning, he reverts to human form. When he encounters his ostracized classmate Yano Satsuki in his monstrous state, the two develop a peculiar bond. But daylight brings its own form of terrors. Which is worse, the monsters at night, or the cruel realities of the classroom by day?

Junior high schooler Marii Yukari sees all humans, aside from herself, as robots through her vivid, purple eyes. Yet even with such a strange perspective on the world, her classmates treat her like an unassuming, strange girl, including Manabu "Gaku" Hatou, her sole friend. Yet strange things start occurring around Yukari, and when she is recruited into an underground organization due to her unique talents, Manabu finds herself tangled up in a realm of dangerous experiments and quantum physics unlike anything she could have ever imagined!

As Ayanokouji and his classmates begin their second year at the Advanced Nurturing High School, they're greeted by a fresh gauntlet of exams and a fresh batch of rather unique first-year students. They'll have to get to know each other quickly, because the first special exam pairs the first-years with the second-years on a written test--with only the second-years facing expulsion if their team performs poorly! Worse yet? It seems one of the new first-years is also from the White Room. Can Ayanokouji avoid expulsion while sussing out the identity of this hidden foe?

To save her people, she will destroy everything. An exciting sci-fi assassin and heist thriller set thousands of years in the future, in a time when humanity has spread through the stars. Everyone wants Heather Kilgore dead, even those she once called friends. Pursued by her own agency, she flees to the Outer Rim, where she’ll attempt one last time to put an end to a war that will kill billions. Her target: an interstellar arms manufacturer bent on destabilizing the Fringe and Heather’s star nation for profit. But she won’t be able to do it alone.

Emma has just taken her first step as a knight. Emma's new job? Commander of a squad of useless layabouts. Just as her efforts start to change minds, a pirate base is discovered on Alias. What will happen when an elite force is sent in from the home planet to eliminate them?! An epic new tale of a failure's rise to glory in the Intergalactic Empire begins!

Starting her new mission aboard the Melea, aspiring knight of justice Emma crosses paths with former classmate Russell. He's an elite knight now, and his jabs at the Melea—and at her—could turn idealistic Emma into a nervous wreck. When top knight Marie takes a shot at training Emma personally, it's a chance for the young knight to prove her former classmate's trash talk wrong. But how badly did Russell rattle Emma? Can this B-rank knight still buckle down and bring her A game?!

Severely wounded in battle with Armaros, Shinji struggles to shoulder the responsibility of being Earth's savior yet again. Meanwhile, Asuka adjusts to her strange new body, and the clones Trois and Quatre continue their quest for their own identity. But their enemy wields the power of a god, and it's going to take every single one of them working together to prevent a reprise of the Human Instrumentality Project.

The game is over for Yoshio. His villagers are gone, all dead as far as he can tell. But just as he is overcome with despair, one final gift arrives from the Village of Fate--a package containing the NPC Carol, and she's clearly a real, live girl. With Carol in tow, Yoshio leaves the safety of his home to travel to Hokkaido, where the developers are located. He will uncover the truth of this mysterious game once and for all!

Leon thinks he's finally made a breakthrough in his relationship with Noelle, even if Marie's still accusing him of being a total incompetent. But all Leon's resolve may come to naught in the face of the platoon of problems rocketing toward him. He'll have to contend with everything from deteriorating parent-child relationships to a grudge-based coup d'etat to a full-blown AI uprising before he earns a happy ending for Noelle--and maybe even himself.

The year is 1877. Automatons and steam-powered dirigible gunships have transformed the nation in the aftermath of the Civil War. Everything on the other side of the Mississippi has been claimed for Russia. Lincoln is still president, having never been assassinated, but the former secretary of war Edwin Stanton is now the head of the Department of Public Safety, ruling with an iron fist as head of the country's military.

The rescue of a noble girl gets Hiro and his crew in more trouble than they bargained for. The heat is on, and their enemies are closing in, so Hiro decides to...take a vacation? There's no better place to lie low than a high-class resort in a tropical paradise!

Yoshio is thirty years old, and his life is a mess. A shut-in living with his parents, he has no job, no relationship, and no prospects. When he receives a new sim computer game that boasts characters created with a new kind of A.I., he doesn't think much of it--until he gets drawn into a fantasy world so vibrant and lifelike that its residents can't just be game characters. Suddenly finding himself the benevolent god of a scrappy fantasy village is a lot for Yoshio to handle, but it might be the key to the change he is desperate for.

Leon may have saved Noelle from a life in chains, but her future is far from certain. Bound as she is to the Sacred Tree Sapling, she is a prize for every nation in the world. Worse, Leon's fiancees disagree over her fate: does Noelle have a responsibility to serve a nation, or should she be free to choose how she lives her life? Meanwhile, Noelle's own villainess, Louise, faces the same dire question. It seems the Sacred Tree has demanded a sacrifice in exchange for continuing to protect the Republic--and it wants Louise.

When sarcastic loner Haruka gets transported with his class to another world, he's not wild about adventuring, but he wouldn't mind having some cool powers. Unfortunately, he's last in line when the magic cheat skills get divvied up, so by the time it's Haruka's turn, there are no good choices left. Now Haruka will have to take on this fantasy world the hard way—on his own, with a hodgepodge of bizarre skills! When infighting and chaos break out among his classmates, can this loner come to the rescue?

Kaori lives in an otherworldly bookstore with her adoptive father. Together, they provide books to the strange denizens of the spirit realm. But Kaori's peaceful days come to an end when she rescues an injured boy from the streets--a human, like her, from the mortal realm. The boy's name is Suimei, and he's an exorcist, the natural enemy of all spirits. Can Kaori convince Suimei that the line between human and spirit is far hazier than he thinks? A touching supernatural tale where humanity and Japanese folklore intertwine!

Zoey Donovan-Quinn is growing restless. After months of searching, her crew hasn’t been able to locate the resting place of the one man who could save Daniel. While they frantically continue their quest, Zoey is still struggling to recover from the devastating losses she suffered in Faery. In the midst of her grief and worry, Louis Marini appears and demands the Blood Stone he forced Zoey to steal. Zoey has no choice but to hand it over. When the giant ruby’s true nature is revealed, Zoey discovers she has given their greatest enemy a weapon of unimaginable power.

Available only in audio, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Makers, Mysteries and Magic lifts the lid on the moviemaking secrets behind the latest installment in J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts series. Narrator Dan Fogler (who plays No-Maj Jacob Kowalski) will guide you through the process of creating the magical on-screen world and explore the story, themes, and characters of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.