New person with an inquiry.

[Synechdoche]

First, hello everyone, and thanks for creating/maintaining this corner of the site for FSS manga fans, not to mention the lovely scanlation of book 27 (by Hel).

QUESTION: I have books 1-27, in english. How many more parts of the story exist? I know book 27 is the first part of volume 11, and have seen books 28 and 29 mentioned here. I've also seen volume 12 mentioned, so would that be 30, 31, and 32? Have those been published in Japan?

I'm only reading the series now, and assumed it was finished until recently discovering otherwise.

Thank you to anyone who can offer some clarification.

[Nu Soard Graphite]

The story is continuously being developed by the author, who began writing/drawing it in 1986 and has been going strong ever since. He takes frequent (sometimes lengthy) breaks, which is why its taking so damned long.

Volume 12 of the Japanese version was the last book released, which would comprise English volumes 30, 31 and 32 if the English version were still being produced. Volume 26 was the last official English volume released, which covered up to Japanese volume 10. Volume 27, which composes the first 1/3 of Japanese Volume 11 was a fan-produced project. That project is on-going and hopefully it will continue and keep pace with the rate of the Japanese releases.

If you've just started, you've a long way to go before you catch up to the present story. Keep in mind also that there is a lot of background material that isn't covered directly in the manga itself, but revealed in supplemental material such a the Characters series of sourcebooks and the FSS Encyclopedia as well as the latest supplements, The Five Star Stories Designs series of books. So come back to these forums frequently when you have questions (and don't forget to check the old threads. There's a ton of good info in there) and for discussion of all the details and nuances found within this excellent series.