Characters and characteristics in literature book series in reading order

by Bill Willingham

by Jasper Fforde

by Jane B. Mason

by Jen Calonita

Mike Carey

109 books• 30 series

Mike Carey, born in 1959, is a British writer of comics, novels and films who also uses the pen name M. R. Carey. Carey's credits include Lucifer, a spin-off from The Sandman; three years on Hellblazer; Crossing Midnight and The Unwritten for DC's Vertigo imprint; an extended stint on Marvel's X-Men; and the 2014 novel The Girl with All the Gifts, adapted for film in 2016. The catalogue lists 109 books from 2000 to 2025, with series including Felix Castor, X-Men Legacy, Suicide Risk and Rampart Trilogy.

Bill Willingham, born William Willingham in 1956, is an American comics writer and artist known for work on Elementals and Fables. The catalogue lists 69 books from Ironwood, Vol. 1 (1993) to Fables: No More Happily Ever After (2026). Other titles include Legends in Exile (2002), Animal Farm (2003), Storybook Love (2004) and March of the Wooden Soldiers (2004). Willingham's other series include Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Shadowpact, Ironwood, Bill Willingham's Pantheon, Warriors Three and Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham. Subjects include fantasy comics, fairy tales and legends. Down the Mysterly River (2001) also appears in the catalogue.

Jasper Fforde

19 books• 5 series

Thursday Next, a woman detective, heads Jasper Fforde's main series, where books and reading and the characters of literature supply the subject matter. The Eyre Affair (2001) opens a catalogue of 19 fantasy titles that reaches Dark Reading Matter (2025), with the Nursery Crime books, the Chronicles of Kazam and Shades of Grey beside the Next novels. Dragons, magic and time travel fill the subject tags.

Jane B. Mason writes children's books, and the catalogue lists 79 of them between 1993 and 2021. Early entries include Jurassic Park (1993), Apollo 13 (1995) and Balto (1995). Series include Zoey 101, Princess School, Bella Baxter, Rescue Dogs, A Dog and His Girl Mysteries and Tales from the Cryptkeeper. Subjects include dogs, schools, princesses, boarding school students, dinosaurs and superheroes. Sarah Hines Stephens is credited alongside Mason on 4 books, and Gem (2021) is the newest title.

Chris Colfer

20 books• 6 series

The Land of Stories is Chris Colfer's main series, with fairy tales, twins and the characters of literature among its subject tags. The Wishing Spell (2012) and Struck by Lightning (2012) are the earliest of 20 catalogued titles, which reach Roswell Johnson Saves the Galaxy! (2025). A Tale of Magic, the Land of Stories picture books and the graphic novels extend the work. Magic, fairies, secrets and books and reading recur.

Picture books and early fiction for grades 1 to 3 make up Tom Percival's list of 45 titles, published from 2010 onward. The Big Bright Feelings series sits alongside Dream Defenders, Little Legends and Squirrel and Duck. Friendship, magic, animals and best friends recur across the subjects, and the median Percival book runs 32 pages. Tobias and the Super Spooky Ghost Book (2010) is the earliest entry and Quack to the Future (2026) the newest.

Clive Cussler

104 books• 9 series

Clive Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. Cussler founded and chaired the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has located more than 60 shipwreck sites. Cussler's thrillers, many of them featuring Dirk Pitt, reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. The catalogue lists 105 books under Cussler's name, beginning with The Mediterranean Caper (1973), with The Serpent's Eye due in 2027. Robin Burcell shares credit on 6 of them, Jack Du Brul on 5 and Grant Blackwood on 3. Series include Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files and Sea Hunters.

Virginia Woolf

74 books• 6 series

Modernist writing in English owes a great deal to Virginia Woolf, who lived from 1882 to 1941 and did more than most to establish stream-of-consciousness narration as a working technique. Woolf was born in South Kensington, the seventh child of Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep Jackson, and grew up among eight siblings, the painter Vanessa Bell among them. The catalogue collects her diaries, journals, letters and Collected Essays, together with biography and criticism of Woolf herself.

Jen Calonita is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of books for teens and middle grade readers, with sales above one million copies and translations into 15 languages. A Boston College graduate, Calonita worked as an entertainment journalist at Teen People, which inspired Secrets of My Hollywood Life (2007); that first book won the Louisiana Young Readers Award and grew into a six-book series. The catalogue counts 46 books through Practically Magic (2026), with The Vanishing Isle listed for 2027. Other series include Fairy Tale Reform School, Disney's Lost Legends, Isle of Ever, Royal Academy Rebels and Enchanters.

Nancy Springer, born July 5, 1948, is an American author of fantasy, young adult literature, mystery and science fiction. Larque on the Wing won the 1994 Tiptree Award, and the Mystery Writers of America gave Springer Edgar Awards for Toughing It in 1995 and Looking for Jamie Bridger in 1996. I am Mordred earned the Pennsylvania Library Association's Carolyn W. Field Award in 1999. The first Enola Holmes book appeared in 2006. The catalogue lists 90 Springer books from The White Hart (1979) to Enola Holmes and the Clanging Coffin (2026), with the Book of Isle, Rowan Hood and Tale of Camelot series alongside.

Christopher Golden is an American writer, born in 1967, with 139 catalogued books published between 1994 and 2026. Horror, fantasy and science fiction run through the work, alongside vampires, the supernatural and murder. Of Saints and Shadows (1994) opens the catalogue and Carry Me to My Grave (2026) is the newest entry. Golden's series include the Shadow Saga, Baltimore, Joe Golem, Body of Evidence, Prowlers, Hollow, Hidden Cities and the Secret Journeys of Jack London, and the listing also carries Buffy the Vampire Slayer and X-Men titles. Mike Mignola is credited alongside Golden on 4 books.

Nancy Kress

58 books• 10 series

Nancy Kress, born January 20, 1948, is an American science fiction writer who began writing in 1976. Beggars in Spain (1991), a novella that won both the Hugo and Nebula, later grew into a novel. Kress won further Nebula Awards for Best Novella in 2013 and 2015, and also writes a column for Writer's Digest. Series include Sleepless, the Probability Trilogy and the Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, alongside the Write Great Fiction series. The 58 catalogued books run from The Prince of Morning Bells (1981) to The Queen's Witch (2026).

Splintered (2013) opens A.G. Howard's catalogue and gives the main series its name. Fairy tales and folklore, supernatural material, mental illness and the bond between mothers and daughters run through 13 catalogued books, which reach Seasons of Flesh and Flame (2024). Haunted Hearts Legacy, Shades of Rust and Ruin and a set of standalone novels complete the list, and Howard continues to publish.

E.D. Baker writes fairy-tale fantasy for children. The Frog Princess (2002), a parody of the Grimm story The Frog Prince, opened the Tales of the Frog Princess and partly inspired the 2009 Disney film The Princess and the Frog. The Wide-Awake Princess, Fairy-Tale Matchmaker, Magic Animal Rescue, Fairy Wings and More Than a Princess follow. Princesses, witches, dragons and magic run through the subject headings. The catalogue holds 30 books reaching Power of a Princess (2019), at a median of 272 pages.

Michael Buckley

28 books• 7 series

Michael Buckley, born August 16, 1969, is an American children's author. Buckley's catalogue holds 28 books published between 2005 and 2025, opening with The Fairy Tale Detectives (2005) and reaching The Weirdest One of All (2025). Sisters Grimm, Weirdies, Undertow Trilogy and Finniverse are among the recorded series, and the subject headings cover mystery and detective stories, magic, spies and humorous stories for grades 3 to 5. Buckley also co-created the animated television series Robotomy.

Sarah Prineas is an American fantasy author based in Iowa, where she has worked for the University of Iowa honors program. Prineas grew up in Lyme, Connecticut, went to college in Minnesota and has lived in Germany. HarperCollins published a first novel, The Magic Thief, in 2008; foreign rights went to thirteen countries within months, and Lost (2009) and Found (2010) followed. The catalogue lists 16 books to 2022 across the Magic Thief, Winterling, Ash & Bramble and Lost Books series, with wizards, apprentices, witchcraft, fairy tales, and good and evil among the subjects.