Science Fiction & Fantasy Series,
Sequels, and Related Items
discussed at Troynovant;
listed by Author

 
The marginal economics of science fiction publishing, colliding with the long-term creativity required to develop a consistent otherworld, affected science fiction from its beginnings. Even before the earliest true SF magazine began in 1926, authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs went in for episodic development across the months and years of magazine issues. Fortunately they had a clear precedent in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The perceived value of the series approach — for authors, editors, publishers, and readers — carried easily into books when book publication became common for science fiction and fantasy (labeled as such) beginning in the late 1940s.

Some of these sequences are covered as a whole at Troynovant, others piecemeal as we get to them; a key component may receive a separate review, or feature in the history of science fiction. Some series integrate smoothly, essentially as multi-part novels or story arcs that really should be read in order even when not written in order; while others are looser or more independent. Many groups or sequences are small-stuff albeit extended: poor and uncreative; and plenty of others are fun but minor; but the best of them are colossal syntheses of imagination, arguably the king-works of science fiction.