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Welcome to the Series Series pages

Reading Orders and Synopses for Popular Series

Welcome to the Series Series. A project dedicated to the perpetrators of trilogies in three parts or more. That means the writers, the commissioning editors, the book sellers, and you the hungry masses.

Have you got a favourite series? Why not submit a reading order of your own?

As a lowly writer learning my craft I was taught about queries, especially about promising publishers that I was not sending them a mere one-off, but the first of a burgeoning franchise that would make us all rich beyond our wildest dreams.

Of course, publishing being what it is, with small mark-ups and smaller royalties, our wildest dreams involve eating in restaurants where you don't have to carry your own trays (and we don't mean drive-throughs).

Although a reader of science fiction (and trilogies), my love of series started young with The Swallow and Amazons books, and a fascination with anything that had the sequel scent; later I would discover prequels! I loved movies that picked up were previous ones left off, television series with story arcs where characters developed. Even my mum's Georgette Heyers had sequels, and joy! an trilogy where the third book was the sequel to another book again!

Large bodies of work also caught my eye, and ate of my time like some voracious thing. When author Lawrence Block introduced me to P. G. Wodehouse I began a life-long love affair with artistically-twisted English. P.G. probably prepared me for another serial-writer, the great Terry Pratchett.

So, in the months to come, we will be stealing an idea from Australian science fiction fan Jack Herman, and producing a series series. These will be essays and reading guides covering authors with a series, or body of work.

Readers of such authors are welcome to contact the editors about submitting series series entries for their favourite writers.

At the same time we have two other projects in progress. The Usual Questions began in 1994 when I decided that comparing apples to apples was the fairest way. Thus I began to ask writers, actors, puppeteers, and so on who I interviewed or encountered unprotected in public places the same eight questions. Where possible we have a photograph and an autograph on these pages.

Series Series pages are selected bibliographies for some of the writers we encounter. In particular we are trying to give you a recommended reading order, and maybe introduce you to other works and new writers.

A lovely lady from Bell told me she went through our reviews and made a note of books to buy as gifts, and then set off to find an online store. Well, since the basis of the web is interlinking, we are bringing the stores to you, sort of. We are putting links on reviews, and on the book pages we create.

We're looking for participants as well as readers. Do you have a favourite author to whom you wish to introduce readers? A series that you think is worth of comment? Do you have information we are lacking?



submitted by Ali Kayn


Series Lists give a introduction to the series, and the characters of the series in reading or viewing order. Series include:

Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series

Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series

Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Robots series

J. Carson Black's Cyrill Landry and Jolie Burke series

Lawrence Block's Burglar (Bernie Rhodenbarr) series

Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who series

Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series

MaryJanice Davidson's Undead (Queen Betsy) series

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series

Janet Evanovich's Alex Barnaby (Motormouth) series

Janet Evanovich's Wicked series

Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg's O'Hare/Fox series

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series

Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series

Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series

Kerry Greenwood's Delphic Women series and other books

Wendy Hornsby's Maggie MacGowen series

Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson (Blood Ties & Smoke) series

Tanya Huff's Valor Confederation series

Ian Irvine series

K. W. Jeter Kim Oh Dangerous Girl series

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders series

Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer series

Anne McCaffrey's Brain Ships series

Anne McCaffrey's Talent series

Anne McCaffreys Powers That Be (Petaybe) series

Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series

Anne McCaffrey's Acorna series

Anne McCaffrey's standalone collections and novels

Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan series

Val McDermid's Tony Hill (Wire in the Blood) series

Shane Maloney's Murray Whelan series

George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series

Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski series

Terry Pratchett Discworld series

J D Robb's (Nora Roberts') Eve Dallas (In Death) series

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series

Spider Robinson's Callahan series

J K Rowling Harry Potter series

John Sandford's Lucas Davenport series

John Sandford's Virgil Flowers series

John Sandford's Kidd and LuEllen series

Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey series

Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox series

Michael W. Sherer's Blake Sanders series

Roger Zelazny's Amber series



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