About this directory
This directory catalogues 526,472 books, with reading orders for 6,531 series, 12,461 authors and 1,366 recurring characters. Its purpose is narrow and practical: to tell you what order to read a series in.
Where the data comes from
It is compiled from four independent public book listings, then checked and filled in against open reference sources:
- Open Library (openlibrary.org)
- Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
- Wikidata (wikidata.org)
- Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org)
- ISFDB, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (isfdb.org)
- Library of Congress (loc.gov)
- Publisher catalogues, such as the University of Chicago Press, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press and Routledge
Records from the four listings were merged and deduplicated on the Amazon ASIN, which they share for the same edition. That collapsed roughly 1.4 million listing rows, the same book repeats across each listing’s publication and chronological lists, down to 526,472 distinct books. What each reference source contributes is described below.
Open reference sources
Details the four listings do not publish, and checks on what they do publish, come from open catalogues and reference works. Each is used only where its record matches the specific book or person:
- Open Library: cover images, page counts and subject headings matched by ISBN, plus author records and edition dates used to check credits and publication order.
- Wikipedia: series articles, bibliographies and novel lists used to check who wrote a book and the order a series was published in.
- Wikidata: author and series descriptions, series numbering, and identifiers that link a person to their books.
- Wikimedia Commons: author photos, used only under a free licence and only when the person is confirmed against at least two of their books here. The photographer and licence are shown when you hover over a photo.
- ISFDB (Internet Speculative Fiction Database): bibliographies used to confirm authorship and series order for science fiction, fantasy and horror.
- Library of Congress: catalogue records used to confirm authorship.
- Publisher catalogues, such as the University of Chicago Press, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press and Routledge: official series numbering for the publisher lines they publish.
Most descriptions on author, series and character pages are written from these catalogue facts rather than copied, and state only what the records show. Where a book listing carried a short premise for an author’s books, the premise is restated in neutral terms, without the listing’s promotional wording. There are no star ratings or review counts, because none of these sources provide them.
Not every book has every detail. A cover is missing where Open Library has none for that edition, and a drawn placeholder is shown instead of a broken image.
How authorship and order are checked
Books are credited to the person who wrote them, not to the page they were listed on. Where a listing filed a publisher line or a shared world under one name, the credit follows the writer the listing names, and uncertain credits are left off rather than guessed.
Publication order is the order the books were released and is the default view. A chronological view appears only where a source records an in-universe sequence; its absence means no source listed one, not that none exists. For publisher lines that were researched further, positions follow an official series number or a confirmed first-publication date, and books that could not be confirmed keep their listed position.
Affiliate links
The Amazon links are affiliate links using this site’s own tags. As an Amazon Associate, the site earns from qualifying purchases; it does not change the price you pay or which books are listed. The links are marked rel="sponsored nofollow".
Who edits this directory
The directory is edited by Nick Frost. Corrections sent through the contact page are checked against the sources described above before anything changes.
Corrections
If a reading order, credit or detail looks wrong, the contact page explains what to send so it can be checked against the sources.