Sean McCann – författare

Desperate to contact her children who may have fallen victim to zombie attacks, Misawa—a cleaner at the love hotel where Fumito is hiding—unlocks the door to Fumito’s room. But zombies aren’t the only malicious force present in the hotel, as its inhabitants will soon discover…

“I…want to vanquish that red dragon.” In the dungeon, Iarumas and his party retrieve the remains of a large-framed girl, Berkanan. A novice mage, she ran into a fire dragon, an unexpected presence in the shallow floors of the dungeon, and her party was wiped out. In order to overcome her helplessness, Berkanan resolves to defeat this dragon, but her goal is still a long way off…

A young man burdened with a heavy secret finds himself trapped, broke and alone, in a love hotel. As he falls deeper into despair, an echo of his past haunts him—“Live on so you can atone…” Meanwhile, chaos erupts on the streets as grotesque figures begin to appear all around the city.

Souma travels to Lagoon City to further his reforms, and he successfully convinces Castor, his former political foe, to join his new unorthodox military initiative. Meanwhile, to strengthen their familial bonds, Excel organizes a...bridal training course for Liscia and the other queens?! Then, Souma buckles down to manage the kingdom just in time for an envoy to arrive from the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State! The theocracy is politically powerful, and they wish to support Souma as a “Holy King,” which would make his land the greatest among all of mankind’s nations. But beneath all that power and glory lies a conspiracy that could shake the entire world. Religion should provide salvation, but this world needs deliverance from the clashing agendas of scheming state actors. Can Souma rise to the challenge?

Who rules over the dungeon? The adventurers who plunder its riches...or the fathomless foes that lurk in the gloom? When Crown Prince Festin visits Scale, he seeks to bring the adventurers to heel and assert the kingdom’s power over the dungeon. He soon meets Garbage, and though their statuses are polar opposites, the two bear a striking and uncanny physical resemblance. And then, the crown prince vanishes into the maw of the dungeon. Signs point to him being kidnapped and dragged to the depths. Sezmar’s, Schumacher’s, and Iarumas’s parties are sent in to rescue the prince, but when the adventurers descend, they are greeted with the mocking laughter of a bizarre and powerful enemy. Who rules over that unknowable abyss? Perhaps the truth can only be found within the dungeon.

Contains the full Volume 3 and 4!The Subjugation War Begins! With supplies in place, plans made, and alliances forged, Souma's mission to subdue the rebelling nobility has begun. With a pocket full of tricks, loyal subjects, and modern knowledge, this should be easy! Well... not if you want your civilians to escape unharmed. Or if adventurers keep treading across the battlefield. Or if your nosy neighbors think this might be the best time to launch an invasion of their own. As the conflict expands, it's up to the crew to find a way to win without falling prey to tricks, manipulations, and schemes behind the scenes. Can Souma survive? And with his reputation intact?

“Treasure awaits in a hidden room on the third floor of the dungeon”—so claims a dangerously suspicious rumor. But Iarumas has got nothing better to do, so with Sezmar of the All-Stars in tow, he and his party head toward the mysterious reward. To no one’s surprise, however, they’re greeted by a sudden alarm and a large horde of monsters. And to make matters worse, Garbage falls into a trap! Will she be able to face an army of foes all on her own?!

There is no more powerful symbol in American political life than the presidency, and the image of presidential power has had no less profound an impact on American fiction. A Pinnacle of Feeling is the first book to examine twentieth-century literature's deep fascination with the modern presidency and with the ideas about the relationship between state power and democracy that underwrote the rise of presidential authority. Sean McCann challenges prevailing critical interpretations through revelatory new readings of major writers, including Richard Wright, Gertrude Stein, Henry Roth, Zora Neale Hurston, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Norman Mailer, Don Delillo, and Philip Roth. He argues that these writers not only represented or satirized presidents, but echoed political thinkers who cast the chief executive as the agent of the sovereign will of the American people. They viewed the president as ideally a national redeemer, and they took that ideal as a model and rival for their own work.A Pinnacle of Feeling illuminates the fundamental concern with democratic sovereignty that informs the most innovative literary works of the twentieth century, and shows how these works helped redefine and elevate the role of executive power in American culture.

In Gumshoe America Sean McCann offers a bold new account of the hard-boiled crime story and its literary and political significance. Illuminating a previously unnoticed set of concerns at the heart of the fiction, he contends that mid-twentieth-century American crime writers used the genre to confront and wrestle with many of the paradoxes and disappointments of New Deal liberalism. For these authors, the same contradictions inherent in liberal democracy were present within the changing literary marketplace of the mid-twentieth-century United States: the competing claims of the elite versus the popular, the demands of market capitalism versus conceptions of quality, and the individual versus a homogenized society. Gumshoe America traces the way those problems surfaced in hard-boiled crimefiction from the1920s through the 1960s. Beginning by using a forum on the KKK in the pulp magazine Black Mask to describe both the economic and political culture of pulp fiction in the early twenties, McCann locates the origins of the hard-boiled crime story in the genre’s conflict with the racist antiliberalism prominent at the time. Turning his focus to Dashiell Hammett’s career, McCann shows how Hammett’s writings in the late 1920s and early 1930s moved detective fiction away from its founding fables of social compact to the cultural alienation triggered by a burgeoning administrative state. He then examines how Raymond Chandler’s fiction, unlike Hammett’s, idealized sentimental fraternity, echoing the communitarian appeals of the late New Deal. Two of the first crime writers to publish original fiction in paperback-Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford-are examined next in juxtaposition to the popularity enjoyed by their contemporaries Mickey Spillane and Ross Macdonald. The stories of the former two, claims McCann, portray the decline of the New Deal and the emergence of the rights-based liberalism of the postwar years and reveal new attitudes toward government: individual alienation, frustration with bureaucratic institutions, and dissatisfaction with the growing vision of America as a meritocracy. Before concluding, McCann turns to the work of Chester Himes, who, in producing revolutionary hard-boiled novels, used the genre to explore the changing political significance of race that accompanied the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1950s and the 1960s.Combining a striking reinterpretation of the hard-boiled crime story with a fresh view of the political complications and cultural legacies of the New Deal, Gumshoe America will interest students and fans of the genre, and scholars of American history, culture, and government.

In Gumshoe America Sean McCann offers a bold new account of the hard-boiled crime story and its literary and political significance. Illuminating a previously unnoticed set of concerns at the heart of the fiction, he contends that mid-twentieth-century American crime writers used the genre to confront and wrestle with many of the paradoxes and disappointments of New Deal liberalism. For these authors, the same contradictions inherent in liberal democracy were present within the changing literary marketplace of the mid-twentieth-century United States: the competing claims of the elite versus the popular, the demands of market capitalism versus conceptions of quality, and the individual versus a homogenized society.Gumshoe America traces the way those problems surfaced in hard-boiled crimefiction from the1920s through the 1960s. Beginning by using a forum on the KKK in the pulp magazine Black Mask to describe both the economic and political culture of pulp fiction in the early twenties, McCann locates the origins of the hard-boiled crime story in the genre’s conflict with the racist antiliberalism prominent at the time. Turning his focus to Dashiell Hammett’s career, McCann shows how Hammett’s writings in the late 1920s and early 1930s moved detective fiction away from its founding fables of social compact to the cultural alienation triggered by a burgeoning administrative state. He then examines how Raymond Chandler’s fiction, unlike Hammett’s, idealized sentimental fraternity, echoing the communitarian appeals of the late New Deal. Two of the first crime writers to publish original fiction in paperback—Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford—are examined next in juxtaposition to the popularity enjoyed by their contemporaries Mickey Spillane and Ross Macdonald. The stories of the former two, claims McCann, portray the decline of the New Deal and the emergence of the rights-based liberalism of the postwar years and reveal new attitudes toward government: individual alienation, frustration with bureaucratic institutions, and dissatisfaction with the growing vision of America as a meritocracy. Before concluding, McCann turns to the work of Chester Himes, who, in producing revolutionary hard-boiled novels, used the genre to explore the changing political significance of race that accompanied the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1950s and the 1960s.Combining a striking reinterpretation of the hard-boiled crime story with a fresh view of the political complications and cultural legacies of the New Deal, Gumshoe America will interest students and fans of the genre, and scholars of American history, culture, and government.

Contains the full Volume 1 and 2! "O, Hero!" With that cliched line, Kazuya Souma finds himself summoned to another world and his adventure in administration begins! Upon presenting a plan to strengthen his new land economically and militarily, the king cedes the throne to him and Souma finds himself stuck with the top job! What's more, he's betrothed to the outgoing king's daughter?! In order to get the country back on its feet, Souma must summon the wise, the talented, and the gifted to his side. And even when he does manage to catch a break, a day off with his staff provides anything but: rebelling retainers, natural disasters, and the threat of war all await. Can Souma keep up without succumbing to the stress?

The Battle Continues! Souma presses Elfrieden’s siege on the Amidonian principality, whose soldiers fight tooth and nail to keep him at bay. The violence on the front lines is bad enough, but a surprise attack at the rear will confound the bloody battle further. Souma and Carla must fend off Gaius themselves in a life-or-death test of nerves, loyalty, and steel. When hard-fought victory finally dawns over the capital, it’s time for the realist hero to get to work. Souma now needs to win over the citizens of the former enemy nation, and he has a most unusual plan that just might do the trick.

The Tense Aftermath Unfolds!Souma has now proven his military might in the successful siege of Van, but the Amidonian foothold he's secured continues to be a hotbed of contention. Disgruntled Prince Julius calls upon the Gran Chaos Empire in an attempt to tip the scales during the ensuing peace talks. Souma thus finds himself meeting directly with Jeanne, sister to the empress, and the negotiations take an unexpected turn. Elfrieden isn't out of the woods yet, however. With the fates of Georg Carmine and Castor Vargas in his hands, Souma has more tough decisions to make...

Souma resumes control of Van in the wake of Prince Julius’s renewed tyranny, and the shifting political landscape initiates an eye-opening talk between Souma and Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire. Afterward, he returns his attention to the domestic front. Countless refugees have been displaced by the Demon Lord’s Domain and taken up in his lands. With no easy solution in sight, Souma arranges a meeting with their leader and proposes an ultimatum.

Contains the complete volumes 5-6!Sorawo and Toriko have been spending their days surrounded by the supernatural. They managed to successfully spend a night together in the Otherside and can now venture even deeper! As they go back and forth between the normal and abnormal, they continue to encounter even more strange events...The two discover a mysterious lady living in a mansion in the Otherside, go searching for a missing man named Abarato, run into Hasshaku-sama yet again, and...some of Sorawo’s memories begin to mysteriously vanish?!Don’t miss the third collection of the girls’ bizarre tale of exploration and survival!

Contains the Complete Volumes 7-8Satsuki Uruma—a young woman of considerable importance to Toriko who disappeared while studying the Otherside. She has menaced Toriko and Sorawo many times as an apparition, but now, she makes her boldest move yet towards the latter. In an act of desperation, Sorawo resolves to use everything she knows about the occult to finally “exorcize” her. Enlisting the help of not just Toriko, but Kozakura, DS Research, and even former cult leader and high schooler Runa Urumi, Sorawo leads the charge on a funeral operation. But once that’s behind them, there’s something else Sorawo must face; a genuine confession of love from Toriko, with only one week to respond. Through a series of conversations with herself and those around her, Sorawo begins to reinterpret their relationship... Sorawo and Toriko’s bizarre tale of exploration and survival is coming to a climax!

Deep in the unexplored reaches of the dungeon, a corpse is discovered—one that shouldn’t exist. After Iarumas is resurrected, his memories of life before death are gone, and he spends his days delving into the dungeon to retrieve the bodies of dead adventurers. Can they be revived as well? Or will God reduce them to piles of ash on the altar? Either way, Iarumas collects his finder’s fee. And though his skills earn him some grudging respect, he’s also scorned for this cold, utilitarian attitude. The living keep their distance—Iarumas consorts primarily with the dead. That is, until he meets Garbage, a feral young swordswoman who’s the sole survivor of a massacred party. With Garbage by his side, Iarumas ventures deeper, scouring the dungeon for clues to his past, avoiding monsters, traps, and the inevitability of a permanent ashen demise.

Scorch marks blacken the wireframe dungeon, and the smell of burnt meat hangs in the air. Iarumas’s party stumbles upon a corpse, more charcoal than flesh, and Raraja insists on dragging it out. Murmur—Chant—Pray—Invoke. A largeframed girl named Berkanan gulps the fresh air of her second chance at life. Her confidence is low and her skills as a fledgling mage are inadequate, but despite all that, she has a serious goal—kill the red dragon that burned her party alive. This dragon, an interloper from the lower levels of the dungeon, has become so notorious that even the most seasoned parties refuse to engage. Even so, Garbage and Raraja agree to aid Berkanan, and Iarumas lends his support. The chances of failure are high, but in the dungeon, immolation is not a permanent end…as long as someone is willing to pay. Can Iarumas’s party douse the flames of the dragon, or will they all succumb to a menacing red death?

Blade & Bastard is a dark fantasy light novel series set in worldview of the Wizardry franchise.

Blade & Bastard is a dark fantasy light novel series set in worldview of the Wizardry franchise.