The Slayers novels, volume by volume
Seventeen volumes, two endings, one eighteen-year pause in the middle.
The main Slayers novels run in three movements: the first arc (volumes 1–8, 1990–94), the second, darker arc (volumes 9–15, 1995–2000), and the return (volume 16 in 2018, with volume 17 opening a third arc in 2019). Every volume is by Hajime Kanzaka with illustrations by Rui Araizumi, serialized first in Dragon Magazine and collected by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko.
A note on the pictures: Araizumi redrew the covers for Japan’s 2008 revised edition, the edition J-Novel Club’s English hardcovers follow, so most volumes exist under two different covers. Only the first volume’s cover is pictured here, from a verified source; where a cover could not be verified, this gallery documents the book in text rather than borrow an image.
THE MAIN SERIES
Fujimi Fantasia Bunko · 1990–2019
Vol. 1 · Slayers!
January 17, 1990 · The first volume’s cover, Araizumi’s Lina as Japan first met her. One of only a handful of covers in this cluster shown from a verified source; the rest of the gallery documents every volume in text.
Vol. 2 · The Sorcerers of Atlas
August 20, 1990 · A sorcerers’ council power struggle in Atlas City. Kanzaka deliberately set it in a city so Lina could not end the story with one big spell.
Vol. 3 · The Ghosts of Sairaag
February 18, 1991 · A bounty on Lina’s head, a dead city, and a copy of Rezo with a will of his own. Sairaag is wiped off the map.
Vol. 4 · The Battle of Saillune
October 17, 1991 · Court intrigue in the holy capital; Amelia joins the party. Kanzaka’s Japanese title puns on the city’s name: “Turmoil in the Holy Royal Capital.”
Vol. 5 · The Silver Beast
July 13, 1992 · A cult of Shabranigdu, a sealed spellbook hunt, and the first appearance of the priest Xellos, who is not what he claims to be.
Vol. 6 · The Darkness in Vezendi
March 12, 1993 · The assassin Zuma returns with both arms and a demon fused inside him. Xellos finally tells Lina, alone, what he is.
Vol. 7 · Gaav’s Challenge
December 10, 1993 · The Chaos Dragon moves against his fellow demon lords, and Lina reads the Claire Bible itself at Dragons’ Peak.
Vol. 8 · King of the Phantom City
July 28, 1994 · Hellmaster Fibrizo forces the perfected Giga Slave, and gets the Lord of Nightmares instead. The first arc ends here.
Vol. 9 · The Mystic Sword of Bezeld
June 20, 1995 · The second arc opens smaller and stranger: treasure hunters Luke and Mileena, and a black sword that is itself a demon.
Vol. 10 · Conspiracy in Solaria
December 21, 1995 · A kingdom quietly fusing humans with demons. The masked inspector Wizer Freion returns from the Special stories.
Vol. 11 · Delusion in Crimson
July 25, 1996 · The sword Dulgoffa changes hands and a whole town’s sorcerers’ council is turned into puppets. The second arc at its bleakest.
Vol. 12 · The Dynast Plot
April 18, 1997 · Demon spawnings across Dils, and a trusted “mercenary” rising too fast at court: Sherra, general of Dynast Graushera.
Vol. 13 · Presages of Incarnation
November 27, 1998 · The king of Gyria is not the king of Gyria. Dynast’s corporal form falls, but his real body is elsewhere, and his plot is never fully learned.
Vol. 14 · Hatred in Selentia
July 21, 1999 · A succession fight among priests turns into the series’ tragedy: Mileena dies, and Luke’s grief starts the countdown to the final volume.
Vol. 15 · The Demon Slayers!
May 10, 2000 · The original ending. A masked Shabranigdu challenges Lina in a world of abundant magic, and is unmasked. Kanzaka left the last page open-ended on purpose.
Vol. 16 · A Chance Encounter in Atessa
October 20, 2018 · Eighteen years later. Kanzaka wrote it for Dragon Magazine and Fujimi Fantasia Bunko’s 30th anniversary; it sold out into immediate reprints.
Vol. 17 · The Long Road Home
October 19, 2019 · The third arc begins. Kanzaka describes it as one possibility among several, a parallel existence beside the anime’s Try and the Aqualord manga.