Books in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 3 series

HOMECOMING Joyce Summers is dead. Spike has been slain and Faith, rogue Slayer, is gone as well. Southern California has fallen under vampire rule. And Rupert Giles is Vampire King. Buffy can hold no one but herself responsible for this grim possible future; her own insecurities and petty jealousies led to this moment. She must now gather her inner strength and combat the demon that inhabits the corpse of her most trusted mentor. With the help of Willow and the Slayerettes, Buffy must invoke the elements, stave off a vampire stronghold, and return to her real-time body -- but not before identifying and preventing the misstep that brought about the oppression of those she holds closest.... The Conclusion

"But I mean, what is it? How do you get it?Who doesn't have it? And who decides who doesn't have it? What is the essence of'cool'?" Most teens have trouble finding themselves now and then, but when you're living on a hellmouth, "trouble" is an understatement -- especially if you're Xander Harris. He has never been very popular, and has never had much luck with women, but he is uniquely Xander. After a Sunnydale High field trip to the zoo, Xander becomes obnoxious and aggressive. Giles thinks it's typical adolescent male behavior, but Buffy knows better. And when he finally scores "cool" points by making the Sunnydale High swim team, he's thrown into the middle of something, well...fishy. Still, once Xander is excluded from the Slayer's most recent anti-apocalyptic campaign, he finds himself battling his own private evil -- and saving Sunnydale High from a fate it never imagined.

Willow's magickal distribution of the Slayer essence has left girls across the world discovering the full extent of their latent power. Giles races to reorganise the remnants of the Watchers Council, while the Scoobies relocate to Europe. In Rome, Buffy is drawn to a charismatic figure known as The Immortal. But then comes word that the novice slayers are being coerced to join the self-styled Queen of the Slayers -- an awesome evil who wants to claim the intoxicating Slayer essence for herself. Sent to Africa to learn more about the origins of the Slayer essence, Xander returns with chilling news. There is not enough good in the world to counteract the overbundance of evil, and that far from being averted, the Apocalypse is drawing much too near. Alliances are formed and loyalties betrayed as it comes down to slayer versus slayer, leading to an ultimate battle of champions from Buffy's past and present. And then an unimaginable gift arrives...

Buffy Season Eight Volume 6 showcases the first failure of the Slayer legion. Vampires have solid footing at the top of the totem and Slayers have been crushed to the bottom - in short, no one likes Buffy anymore... least of all this season's mysterious Big Bad, Twilight, who is hot on her magical trail! Now that it's the world against Slayers, Buffy must find a way to return the status quo to... status quo - and keep her girls alive long enough to do it! Enter Oz, the only person/werewolf Buffy knows who is down with the suppression of magic, and can take the Slayer army off of Twilight's magic-specific radar. With Oz's assistance the Slayers and Wiccans try to become "normal" through meditation and hard labor - although, not everyone sees the advantage of being magicless, namely, Willow, Giles, and Andrew. And they could be right; after all, is a peaceful life for a Slayer even possible?

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAMEBuffy and Dawn are having difficulty settling into their new roles, now that their mother is gone. Buffy herself is reluctant to cross over to the role of parent, and the two are bickering more than usual.In fact, Buffy's distraction prevents her from noticing strange behavior among the video-game crowd. One of Xander's friends goes medieval outside the Sunnydale movie theatre, laughing and babbling that he can't be stopped -- he's only in town on a temporary visa. Puzzled, Anya and Xander investigate. It seems that people who've been testing a new video game have been demonstrating creepy tics.As the Slayer attempts to put all of the pieces together, Anya is abducted into an alternate demon universe. Buffy had better figure out how to get her friend back to Sunnydale, before the game is over, for good...

A collection of stories from top genre writers which feature the battles of Slayers both past and present. "Into every generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, to find the vampires where they gather and to stop the spread of their evil..." In our time the Chosen One is Buffy Summers. But Buffy is merely one Slayer in an eternal continuum of warriors for the Powers That Be. Others are known to us: The Primal Slayer, who stalked the earth and the forces of darkness in fiercelyguarded solitude. Nikki, the funky hipster whose death at the hands of Spike lent an urban edge to his wardrobe and a bigger bounce to his swagger. Kendra, called when Buffy briefly drowned in her epic contest with The Master before Xander revived her with CPR, and then murdered by Drusilla with her razor-sharp nails. Slayers by nature have a limited life expectancy. It goes with the job description. And for each one who falls another is summoned at once to take her place. Tales of the Slayer Volume One tells of past Slayers in various times and places from ancient Greece to revolution-era France, and from Hungary in the days of the blood-soaked countess Elizabeth Bathory to the decadent Munich of the 1920s. Each has a personal history, a shared moral code, and a commitment to conquer evil, regardless of the cost. Contributing authors include Nancy Holder, Mel Odom, Yvonne Navarro, Christie Golden, Doranna Durgin and Greg Rucka.