DECISIONS, DECISIONS The nation of Japan is connected via wormhole to a place called the Holy Eldant Empire in a parallel fantasy world. It had been Japan’s little (or big) secret, but after an aircraft carrier got caught in the time slip, the Americans know about it, too. The Americans have an extralegal idea for how to get their hands on the extraordinary technology of the Eldant Empire—and their target is Petralka! Can Shinichi and his friends stand against the modern world’s most powerful military force? What waits beyond this final battle? Welcome to the final installment of Outbreak Company!

The year is 20XX, and Shinichi Kanou is a pretty typical otaku: he loves anime, manga, games, and light novels, but his devotion to the two-dimensional hasn't always made him the most popular guy around. What he doesn't know is that Japan has discovered a portal to another world in the vicinity of Mount Fuji. The people of the Eldant Empire, though, only have eyes for one of Japan's traditional exports: pop culture. Enter Amutech, a purveyor of "general entertainment" that's secretly run by the Japanese government. Shinichi lands a job as the company's general manager. Now he finally has a chance to put his nerd know-how to good use spreading the otaku gospel in the Eldant Empire. And wait... he has to work with a half-elf maid, an empress, AND a female soldier to get the job done?

THE NEW GIRL IN TOWN On the far side of a mysterious wormhole somewhere in Japan is a fantasy world, and in it, a country called the Holy Eldant Empire. Amutech is a company established to bring otaku culture to the people there (or maybe foist it on them), and now it’s getting a new staff member: Hikaru, who comes in as assistant to the general manager, Kanou Shinichi. She’s also strikingly beautiful, a heckuva communicator, and almost immediately a big hit at both the palace and the school. Eldant will only get even more otaku on her watch, but the beloved cultural export starts to show a dark side, too. At the same time, something is happening in the Eldant Empire, and Shinichi may be in danger (again). What can he do? Anything?!

CAN YOU GO HOME AGAIN? So you’ve got the Eldant Empire, a fantasy world somehow connected to Japan by a mysterious “hole.” And you’ve got Kanou Shinichi, general manager of Amutech, a company whose whole purpose is to promote cultural exchange with this new land—using otaku stuff! Shinichi’s father is a master at churning out popular light novels, but when something happens to him, Shinichi rushes home. His Eldant friends, worried this is another ploy by the Japanese government, send Myusel and Elvia with him—and the Empress Petralka sneaks along for good measure. The Big Three—America, China, and Russia—know something’s up in Japan. That’s why the kids’ sightseeing jaunt to Akihabara turns into a war zone. That’s how Minori gets captured by the Russians. And that’s why Shinichi’s house is surrounded by a mysterious armed squadron. Can Shinichi and his friends rescue Minori and get back to Eldant, or does their journey end here?!

So you’ve got the Eldant Empire, a fantasy world somehow connected to Japan by a mysterious “hole.” And you’ve got Kanou Shinichi, general manager of Amutech, a company whose whole purpose is to promote cultural exchange with this new land—using otaku stuff! Shinichi’s father is a master at churning out popular light novels, but then word reaches Shinichi that his dad’s series has been put on indefinite hiatus. Shinichi may have kept his family at arm’s length in his days as a shut-in, but he can’t ignore this, and makes plans for a visit home. His Eldant friends, worried that this is another ploy on the part of the Japanese government, convince the JSDF to let them send Myusel and Elvia along as bodyguards. Call it the first Eldant embassy to Japan—and they have a lot to learn. An unexpected interloper, a series of accidents, and more international [interdimensional?] intrigue are waiting in the wings for Shinichi and his friends!

"A strange plague called the 'Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget--small things at first, like where they left their keys, then the not-so-small things like how to drive or the letters of the alphabet. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. There is no cure. But far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a universal healer hailed as 'ambrosia' has been discovered. In order to study this phenomenon, a special research lab has been built eight miles under the sea's surface. When the station goes incommunicado, a brave few descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths...and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine"--Page [4] of cover.

You’ve never, ever read a story like this. Ashley Young is stuck in an unsatisfying marriage and a dead-end job. But when a sexually transmitted plague breaks out in her small town—one that slowly transforms everyone infected into crazed zombielike sex fiends—everything about her life changes. Facing quarantine, National Guard barricades, the onset of winter, and a rapidly spreading, mysterious sex plague, Ashley and everyone else in her small Colorado town find their deepest feelings for one another surfacing…both amorously and violently. When everyone in Ashley’s life begins taking comfort in one another’s arms, no one really knows who’s infected and who’s not. And because the disease perpetuates itself as an aphrodisiac, sex—the very thing that offers comfort—only contributes to spreading the plague. In a crumbling world with little to lose, Ashley begins to discover a resilience she didn’t know she possessed and a strength she’s never had before. Her newly acquired agency may come at a price, however, when Ashley must ultimately choose between her own survival and saving the people she loves. DEAD IN BED by Bailey Simms delivers a tour-de-force series that’s as emotionally incisive as it is shockingly sexy, as heartbreaking as it is hilarious, and as frightful as it is impossible to put down.

The fourteenth novel in the classic Aubrey-Maturin series finds Aubrey and Maturin shipwrecked, harassed by pirates and then in the brutal penal colonies of New South Wales.

IS THAT REALLY A SPY?! It's already been a few months since Shinichi came to Eldant, where dragons are commonplace and magic is real. His job is simple: spread otaku culture to the masses of this other world. But of course, things aren't that easy (are they ever?). Eldant is in a state of war, and war includes espionage... so how will Shinichi and company deal with a spy in their midst? Add that to his growing suspicions about his own government's motives, and Shinichi definitely has his hands full. Heavy is the head that wears the otaku crown...

The East India Company at Home, 1757–1857 explores how empire in Asia shaped British country houses, their interiors and the lives of their residents. It includes chapters from researchers based in a wide range of settings such as archives and libraries, museums, heritage organisations, the community of family historians and universities. It moves beyond conventional academic narratives and makes an important contribution to ongoing debates around how empire impacted Britain. The volume focuses on the propertied families of the East India Company at the height of Company rule. From the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to the outbreak of the Indian Uprising in 1857, objects, people and wealth flowed to Britain from Asia. As men in Company service increasingly shifted their activities from trade to military expansion and political administration, a new population of civil servants, army officers, surveyors and surgeons journeyed to India to make their fortunes. These Company men and their families acquired wealth, tastes and identities in India, which travelled home with them to Britain. Their stories, the biographies of their Indian possessions and the narratives of the stately homes in Britain that came to house them, frame our explorations of imperial culture and its British legacies.