Entertainment Science

How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers - and also our brains - create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.

When Kanbara Kanata is whisked away from his mundane life to a world of adventure, he inadvertently offends the all-powerful being who brought him there. As punishment, he is sent to the bottom of the most dangerous dungeon without a single special power or ability! He is sure that he's a goner until he meets a lich girl named Lunaere--an undead powerhouse who hates humans, but grudgingly decides to assist him all the same. With Lunaere's help, Kanata may just grow into someone truly incredible!

Laurel Canyon was the neighborhood perched above the clubs and record companies of Sunset Strip where Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Graham Nash, Cass Elliot, Carole King, Don Henley, and Peter Tork, just to name a few, lived and collaborated to make an indelible mark on our music and our culture.

In his last life, Liam lived as a moral, responsible person...but died deep in debt and betrayed by his wife. Reborn into the ruling family of a vast interstellar empire, Liam knows that life is divided between the downtrodden and the ones who do the stomping, so this time he's going to take what he wants and live for himself. But somehow, things refuse to work out that way. Despite doing his best to become a tyrant, Liam's decisions lead to nothing but peace and prosperity for the empire under his rule, and he just gets more and more popular!

In Ivy's world, stars are everything. She's a Tamer, born to subdue monsters and animals, but she was also born starless! With her life in danger, Ivy flees into the forest where she befriends a weak little slime named Sora--the one creature she can tame. Together, the unlikely pair set off on a journey, salvaging rubbish to survive. Along the way they'll win hearts, evade danger, and discover there's more to starless Ivy than meets the eye!

Office worker Leon is reincarnated into a dating sim video game, where women reign supreme and only beautiful men have a seat at the table. But Leon has a secret weapon: he remembers everything from his past life, which includes a complete playthrough of the very game in which he is now trapped. Can Leon spark a revolution to change this new world order?

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?

Reincarnated as a sentient weapon with memories of his past life, but not his name, a magical sword saves a young beastgirl from a life of slavery. Fran, the cat-eared girl, becomes his wielder, and wants only to grow stronger, while the sword wants to know why he is here. Together, the strange duo's journey has only just begun!

Ever since the tragic death of his parents, Porsche's life has been a balancing act between attending college and bartending to support his younger brother and pay off his deadbeat uncle's gambling debt. When he witnesses a gang of thugs attacking a handsome young man in the alley behind his bar, he's reluctant to intervene--until he's offered fifty thousand baht to help the stranger escape. The stranger is known as Kinn, the second son of a notorious crime family.

Tossed to monsters to be feasted upon for her master's entertainment, Flum makes the desperate choice to reach for a cursed weapon...and something new awakens within her. A grimdark tale about one woman's blood-soaked quest to reclaim her life!

When one girl is reincarnated into an otome game, she's ready to clean house—literally! The light novel that inspired the manga, also available from Seven Seas. "I will become the world's most wonderful maid!" With her skirt fluttering in black and white, the girl shouted. Her name is Melody. A reincarnated former Japanese girl, she now pursues her dream in her new life, working as an all-purpose maid for a poor count's family in the kingdom of Theolas. When she makes it, even cheap tea turns into a luxury brew, and a dilapidated mansion is quickly restored to new!

Interstellar, from acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan, takes us on a fantastic voyage far beyond our solar system. Yet in The Science of Interstellar, Kip Thorne, the physicist who assisted Nolan on the scientific aspects of Interstellar, shows us that the movie's jaw-dropping events and stunning, never-before-attempted visuals are grounded in real science. Thorne shares his experiences working as the science adviser on the film and then moves on to the science itself.

Sakamori Kagami was one of the top players in the VRMMO Ark Earth Online as Danblf, a veteran summoner with the gravitas to match his elite status. When he falls asleep playing one day, he's transported to a world where the game is reality—but instead of his all-powerful avatar, he's stuck in the body of a cute young girl! He can't let anyone know that this little cutie is really Danblf, so he takes the name "Mira" and claims to be Danblf's disciple. If this gets out, he'll never live it down!

Fate Graphite is one of the forsaken. Cursed with the skill "Gluttony," he is ever starving, never sated...until the day he kills a dying thief and devours the man's strength--and his soul. The true hunger of Fate's Gluttony has awakened, and if he can learn to control his power, he will at last be the master of his own destiny.

An ordinary boy encounters the paranormal when a photo of the same girl starts inexplicably showing up in every book he opens. One day, the girl reaches out and pulls him into the photo to her location: a cell in a top-secret facility belonging to the SCP Foundation, an organization dedicated to the research and containment of people, objects and phenomena that defy reality!

Hunting pirates is hard…especially when your only assets are an unarmed ship, two ex-naval officers, a makeup artist, and a couple of pistols. But that’s exactly what Brad Mendoza and Jessica Lin have signed up to do on the edge of the Fringe: to help a bunch of farmers on a dead-end planet fight the pirate threat! Quickly, they find that they really don’t know what they’re doing…and not everything is what it seems.

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!

Zoey and Daniel were childhood sweethearts until a violent car crash took his life and left her shattered. When Daniel returned from the grave as a vampire, his only interest in Zoey was in keeping her safely apart from the secrets of his dark world. He has vowed to protect her, but his heart seems as cold as the night he calls home. Five years later, a mysterious new client named Lucas Halfer offers Zoey a fortune to steal the Light of Alhorra. The search for the Light leads Zoey into the arms of an earthbound faery prince.

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.

Though the dust has settled from the showdown at Biheiril Kingdom, for Rudeus Greyrat and his companions, another chapter is just beginning. This collection of stories details more of the post-battle ups and downs, including the worst crisis the Greyrat family has ever faced: the sudden elopement of Rudeus's son, Arus! The shocking story unfolds from both Rudeus's and Arus's perspectives. What is Arus thinking, and what will Rudeus do? Only one thing's for sure—after these events, life will never be the same!