Book: Hatred in Selentia

Hatred in Selentia (Slayers #14)
Hajime Kanzaka
Rui Araizumi (Illustrator)
Elizabeth Ellis (Translator)
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Whew! After settling all that demonic drama in Gyria, Gourry and I stop by Selentia City for a little sightseeing. There’s just one question on my mind when we get there... What are swordsmen and assassins doing duking it out in the streets of the so-called City of Temples?! Turns out a recent alleged arson-slash-murder has the local church bigwigs at each other’s throats. Men of the cloth, am I right? This is NOT the chill vacation I had in mind, but hey, at least it’s nice, normal human politics without a demon Priest or General in sight... Wait, wait, wait! Okay, now I have a second question—what are Luke and Mileena doing here?!

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Potential spoilers.

This installment picked up a little bit more and so was more riveting than the past few. Previous few books were like “yeah I’m a demon so I’m causing havoc here!” But this one had a little more substance. It’s a little sad to see Mileena go but she didn’t grow on me (I don’t think I’ve ever seen her on the anime series and any of the SNES/PS/PS2/SS games). I was surprised by Luke for his potential for evildoing, and I had thought it was because he touched that other sword (er…. Forgot the name of it) a couple books ago.

In the end it was still the act of a demon but at least it had a little of a twist or whodunit element.