Entertainment Science

From its unassuming beginnings as a casual home game between friends to the role-playing phenomenon it is today, Critical Role has become the stuff of legend. These pages chronicle how a circle of friends who all happen to be talented voice actors built the most-watched tabletop role-playing livestream of all time.

Eugenides, no stranger to desperate circumstances, has gotten himself into difficulties he can't get out of. Used to being treated with a certain measure of wariness, if not respect, he suffers the pranks, insults, and intrigue of the Attolian court with dwindling patience. As usual, nothing is as it appears when he rescues a hot-headed young soldier in the Palace Guard.

The ongoing mental battle between star quarterback Quentin Barnes and team owner Gredok the Splithead is coming to a head. Endless threats and the promise of ultra violence hangs on their every word. With sentients of several groups trying to manipulate or kill him, Quentin must chart a new course if he is to survive and overcome his injury to once again lead his beloved Krakens into battle.

The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat, the world’s biggest action stars have at last made peace. In this wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie, Nick de Semlyen charts Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War.

Amid rising gang violence, the crack epidemic, and police brutality, a group of unlikely voices cut through the chaos of late 1980s Los Angeles: N.W.A. Led by a drug dealer, a glammed-up producer, and a high school kid, N.W.A. gave voice to disenfranchised African Americans across the country. And they quickly redefined pop culture across the world. Their names remain as popular as ever: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube. Dre soon joined forces with Suge Knight to create the combustible Death Row Records.

Continuing their journey, Rudeus, Eris and Ruijerd have a run in with a figure from legend--none other than the Great Emperor of the Demon World, Kishirika herself! When the trio lend her their aid, Kishrika rewards Rudy with a strange new power...one that might just be more than he bargained for.

It's been exactly 10 years since the murders at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, and Charlotte (Charlie for short) has spent those 10 years trying to forget. Her father was the owner of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and the creator of its four adult-sized animatronic animals, and now Charlie is returning to her hometown to reunite with her childhood friends on the anniversary of the tragedy that ripped their town apart.

The final special exam of the semester is on the horizon: a cooperative written test where students answer problems in turn. Horikita's class is up against Sakayanagi's, and everyone rushes to prepare. As this goes on, Nagumo poses a question of his own--who will be the next student council president? The candidates are Horikita and Ichinose...or are they? Does Ichinose have other plans? December may be the end of the year, but the school's new state of chaos is only beginning.

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after....

Eadlyn didn't think she would find a real partner among the Selection's 35 suitors, let alone true love. But sometimes the heart has a way of surprising you...and now Eadlyn must make a choice that feels more difficult - and more important - than she ever expected.

Answers and vengeance are so close that Absalom Scryne can almost taste them. Perhaps if his consciousness had been transferred to a pair of shoes instead of a hat, he would've had the necessary tongue to do so . . . Having made it through the Badlands by the skin of his crooked yellow teeth, Ig the kobold celebrated the achievement by blowing everyone up. Now, separated from the unhygienic scalp of his apprentice, Absalom must navigate the pitch-black underworld.

Despite the school's tampering, Class C made it through the special exam without anyone being expelled. Now, they face the final event of their first year--the graduation ceremony. Horikita struggles to decide what to say to her brother before he leaves, while Ayanokouji puts in motion his plan to deal with Tsukishiro, seeking allies in the form of the other homeroom instructors. Meanwhile, his classmates' suspicions about him grow--including one girl who might be getting a little too fascinated by him.

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable--until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he's ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

If you can count on one thing from "Madea" Mabel Simmons, star of Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion, it's that she's got something to say. She's the beloved, hilarious, sharp-witted, pistol-packing grandmother who's watching out and speaking her mind. Now Madea is telling her own story, dishing her memoirs and hard-won, hilarious wisdom in her own inimitable voice (with a little help from her friend Tyler Perry).

The showdown in the Biheiril Kingdom may be done and over with, but for Rudeus Greyrat and those around him, life is just getting started! Now they have time to create--and lose!--an autonomous figure of Nanahoshi, visit Rudeus's grandmother and see the sights of Millishion, spar with the Sword God in Orstead, and enjoy the pleasures of daily life. Join the Greyrats and their friends in four more tales of the adventures that await them after the final battle!

Nineteen-year-old Greg Sestero met Tommy Wiseau at an acting school in San Francisco. Wiseau's scenes were rivetingly wrong, yet Sestero, hypnotized by such uninhibited acting, thought, "I have to do a scene with this guy." That impulse changed both of their lives. The Disaster Artist is Greg Sestero's laugh-out-loud funny account of how Tommy Wiseau defied every law of artistry, business, and friendship to make "the Citizen Kane of bad movies" ( Entertainment Weekly), which is now an international phenomenon.

After an attempted assassination and kidnapping, Sophos, heir to the throne of Sounis, disappears. Those who care for him - including the thief Eugenides and the queen of Eddis - are left to wonder if he is alive and if they will ever see him again.

After being reborn in the world of an otome game as an insignificant background character, Leon tries his best to lead an uneventful life, but someone else who reincarnated there has a different idea. Marie may be insignificant like Leon for now, but she's intent on slipping into the main character's role and claiming all the love interests for herself! Leon narrowly manages to impede her first attempt, but will this really stop her? Why does he have this sinking feeling that something's gone terribly wrong?!

A shadow has fallen on the shore of the Eastern sea, a shadow called Marshank. In this cold stone fortress, a stoat named Badrang holds dozens of innocent creatures as slaves, part of his scheme to build an empire where he will rule as unquestioned tyrant.

For the first time, Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor speaks directly to his fans and shares his worldview about life as a sinner. And Taylor knows how to sin. As a small-town hero in the early '90s, he threw himself into a fierce-drinking, drug-abusing, hard-loving, live-for-the-moment life. Soon Taylor's music exploded, and he found himself rich, wanted, and on the road. His new and ever-more-extreme lifestyle had an unexpected effect, however; for the first time, he began to actively think about what it meant to sin.