Fantasy, collections & anthologies book series in reading order

by Brandon Sanderson

Robert E. Howard

158 books• 14 series

Robert E. Howard (January 22, 1906 to June 11, 1936) was an American pulp fiction writer across many genres. Howard created Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of sword and sorcery. Born and raised in Texas, Howard lived mostly in Cross Plains, with some time in nearby Brownwood. A bookish child and a boxing fan, Howard boxed as an amateur and took up bodybuilding in the late teens. Howard wanted to write adventure fiction from the age of nine but found real success only at 23. Early catalogued titles include Spear and Fang (1925), Skull-Face (1929) and Kings of the Night (1930). Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Cormac Mac Art and James Allison are other series on the author page.

Ray Bradbury

132 books• 13 series

Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is the novel Ray Bradbury is best known for, alongside the short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951) and The October Country (1955). Bradbury (22 August 1920 – 5 June 2012) was an American author and screenwriter whose work covered fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery and realistic fiction. Dandelion Wine (1957) is a coming-of-age novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) a dark fantasy, and Green Shadows, White Whale (1992) a fictionalized memoir. The catalogue reaches back to Kaleidoscope (1940) and Dark Carnival (1947), and Green Town and Crumley Mysteries are among the series.

Jane Yolen

237 books• 22 series

Jane Yolen (Jane Hyatt Yolen, February 11, 1939 to June 11, 2026) was an American author of fantasy, science fiction and children's books. The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella, is the best-known Yolen work, and Owl Moon and The Emperor and the Kite are among the others. The short works Sister Emily's Lightship and Lost Girls both won Nebula Awards. The catalogue counts 237 books from The Witch Who Wasn't (1964) to Daddy Plays a Mean Guitar (2026). Series include Commander Toad, How Do Dinosaurs...?, Pit Dragons, the Young Merlin Trilogy, Books of the Great Alta and Tartan Magic. Yolen worked as an editor, collaborated most often with Adam Stemple, and in 2012 became the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture.

Caitlin R. Kiernan

86 books• 9 series

Caitlín R. Kiernan, born 26 May 1964, is an Irish-born American writer of science fiction and dark fantasy who also works as a paleontologist. The output includes 10 novels, comic book series, and more than 250 short stories, novellas and vignettes. Kiernan has won both the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award twice. The catalogue lists 86 entries from 1997 to 2025, including issues of The Dreaming, Silk (1998) and Bright Dead Star (2025). Dancy Flammarion, Siobhan Quinn, Tinfoil Dossier and Chance Matthews are listed series, and horror, vampires and werewolves appear in the subjects.

George R.R. Martin

90 books• 19 series

George R.R. Martin, born George Raymond Martin on September 20, 1948 and known by the initials GRRM, is an American author, screenwriter and television producer. A Song of Ice and Fire, the epic fantasy series adapted by HBO as Game of Thrones (2011–2019) and the prequel House of the Dragon, is Martin's best-known work; the related Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas became A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The catalogue begins in 1976 with A Song for Lya, Starlady and Fast-Friend and The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr, followed by Dying of the Light (1977), Sandkings and Windhaven (1981), and Fevre Dream (1982). Science fiction, fantasy and short stories appear among the subjects.

Ursula K. Le Guin

121 books• 18 series

Ursula K. Le Guin (born Ursula Kroeber, 21 October 1929 to 22 January 2018) was an American writer of speculative fiction, including science fiction set in the Hainish universe and the Earthsea fantasy series. First published in 1959, Le Guin wrote for nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories alongside poetry, criticism, translations and children's books. Catalogued titles include April in Paris (1962), Rocannon's World (1966), A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). Le Guin series include Hainish Cycle, Catwings, Orsinia and Annals of the Western Shore.

Jeff VanderMeer

44 books• 11 series

Jeff VanderMeer, born on 7 July 1968, is an American author and literary critic first linked to the New Weird genre before writing the Southern Reach series. Annihilation, the first Southern Reach novel, won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards and became a film directed by Alex Garland. Shriek: An Afterword and Borne are among the other novels, and with Ann VanderMeer the author edited The New Weird, The Weird and The Big Book of Science Fiction. The New Yorker called VanderMeer the King of Weird Fiction. The catalogue lists 45 books from Dradin, In Love (1996), with Abdication due in 2027. Series include Ambergris and Borne.

Tanith Lee

132 books• 22 series

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction and fantasy, born 19 September 1947, who died on 24 May 2015, leaving more than 90 novels and 300 short stories. Death's Master (1980) made Lee the first woman to take the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the August Derleth Award, and Lee also won several World Fantasy Awards plus lifetime achievement honours from the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards. Lee wrote the Blake's 7 episodes "Sand" and "Sarcophagus", poems, and the picture book Animal Castle (1972). The catalogue lists 132 books from The Betrothed (1968) to The Earth is Flat (2023), including The Birthgrave (1975) and Don't Bite the Sun (1976). Series include Tales from the Flat Earth, Secret Books of Paradys, Claidi Journals, Blood Opera and Piratica.

Storm Constantine

52 books• 8 series

Storm Constantine, who lived from 1956 to 2021, was a British science fiction and fantasy author. Her Wraeththu books, about an androgynous race that succeeds humanity, started as a trilogy and grew into the Wraeththu Histories, the Wraeththu Mythos and a set of associated magical texts. Constantine published more than 30 novels and non-fiction titles, much of it examining sex and gender, and her short fiction appeared in genre magazines and anthologies from the 1980s. Her debut, The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist; the catalogue holds 52 titles through to Mythotenebrae in 2020.

M. John Harrison

26 books• 3 series

Michael John Harrison, born 26 July 1945 and published as M. John Harrison, is an English author and literary critic. Harrison's work takes in the Viriconium novels and short stories, published 1971 to 1984, Climbers (1989), and the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy of Light (2002), Nova Swing (2006) and Empty Space (2012). Harrison is widely regarded as a major stylist in modern fantasy and science fiction, and as a genre contrarian. The listing holds 26 titles, from The Committed Men (1971) to The End of Everything (2026), and recorded subjects include English science fiction and fantasy, short stories, and rock climbing.

Robin Hobb

25 books• 9 series

Robin Hobb is one of two pen names of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, an American writer of speculative fiction born on March 5, 1952; the other is Megan Lindholm. As Hobb she writes fantasy set in the Realm of the Elderlings, made up of the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain Wild Chronicles and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. The catalogue lists 25 books from 1991 to 2026, with Assassin's Apprentice (1995), Royal Assassin (1996) and Assassin's Quest (1997) among the early titles, and also includes the Soldier Son Trilogy. As of 2018 her fiction had been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 4 million copies.

Mercedes Lackey

230 books• 52 series

Valdemar, a country in the world of Velgarth, is the setting for many of Mercedes Lackey's interlinked fantasy novels and trilogies. Lackey, an American writer born on June 24, 1950, brings human and non-human protagonists from many cultures together in the Valdemar books. A second Lackey setting resembles Earth but hides populations of elves, mages, vampires and other mythical beings. Bedlam's Bard follows a young man who works magic through music, SERRAted Edge features elves who race cars, and the Diana Tregarde thrillers star a Wiccan fighting evil. Arrows of the Queen (1987), Arrow's Flight (1987) and Arrow's Fall (1988) are among the listed titles, and Elemental Masters and Five Hundred Kingdoms are further series.

Joe R. Lansdale

156 books• 24 series

Joe R. Lansdale, born Joe Richard Lansdale on October 28, 1951, is an American writer and martial arts instructor who works across Western, horror, science fiction, mystery and suspense and has also written comic books and screenplays. Lansdale's honours include the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award and eleven Bram Stoker Awards, and several novels have been adapted for film and television. The catalogue begins with Act of Love (1981) and includes Dead in the West (1986), The Magic Wagon (1986), The Nightrunners (1987), The Drive-In (1988) and Cold in July (1989); Petrified Dreams (2026) is the newest. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine head the Hap and Leonard series, and Texas features in the subjects.

Andre Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 to March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy who also produced historical and contemporary fiction, and used the names Andrew North and Allen Weston as well. Norton was the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master, and the first inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The catalogue carries 209 books from The Prince Commands (1934) onward. Witch World, Solar Queen, Time Traders, Beast Master and Forerunner are series.

C.J. Cherryh

105 books• 23 series

C.J. Cherryh is the pen name of Carolyn Janice Cherry, an American writer of speculative fiction born September 1, 1942. The silent h came at the prompting of editor Donald A. Wollheim, who judged that Cherry read like the name of a romance writer. Downbelow Station (1981) and Cyteen (1988), both set in the Alliance-Union universe, each won the Hugo Award, and the Foreigner series sits alongside them among Cherryh's notable work. The catalogue holds 105 books from Brothers of Earth (1976) to Alliance Unbound (2024). Worldbuilding grounded in research across history, language, psychology and archeology is what Cherryh is known for.

Charles de Lint, a Canadian writer born December 22, 1951, works mainly in fantasy, covering urban fantasy, contemporary magical realism and mythic fiction. During the 1980s de Lint, together with Terri Windling, Emma Bull and John Crowley, helped establish urban fantasy as a subgenre. The output includes novels, novellas, short stories, poetry and song lyrics. The catalogue records 95 books from Moonheart (1984) to Juniper Wiles Does Not Want to Be Queen (2025), with Mulengro (1985), Yarrow (1986), Greenmantle (1988) and Wolf Moon (1988) among the early titles. Newford, an imaginary place in the subject headings, names a series, alongside Moonheart, Cerin Songweaver, Jack of Kinrowan and Juniper Wiles.

L. Frank Baum

84 books• 12 series

L. Frank Baum, born Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) in Chittenango, New York, was an American author of children's fantasy best known for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Beyond 14 Oz books, Baum produced 41 other novels, 83 short stories, more than 200 poems and at least 42 scripts, and four further novels were lost unpublished. The 1939 film of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20th-century cinema. The catalogue opens with Our Landlady (1891), Mother Goose in Prose (1897) and Father Goose, His Book (1899), and series include Aunt Jane's Nieces, Boy Fortune Hunters, Mary Louise, Flying Girl and Trot & Cap'n Bill. Baum moved west after an unsuccessful spell as a theater producer and playwright.

H. Rider Haggard

78 books• 6 series

Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was an English writer of adventure romances set in exotic locations, Africa above all, and a pioneer of the lost world genre. The eighteen Allan Quatermain stories begin with King Solomon's Mines (1885), and Ayesha is the other named series. Haggard also worked on land reform across the British Empire. The catalogue holds 78 titles dated 1882 to 2013, from Cetywayo and His White Neighbours to a complete anthology, and covers novels, non-fiction and short fiction.

Clark Ashton Smith

75 books• 12 series

Clark Ashton Smith was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction, a poet and an artist, who lived from 1893 to 1961. Smith first drew notice in California for traditional verse in the manner of Swinburne, and is grouped with the West Coast Romantics beside Joaquin Miller, George Sterling and Nora May French, under the names The Last of the Great Romantics and The Bard of Auburn. Tales of Zothique, the Averoigne cycle and the Book of Hyperborea gather his invented worlds. The catalogue records 75 Smith titles from The Star-Treader (1912) onward.

Jay Lake

44 books• 6 series

Jay Lake, born Joseph Edward Lake Jr., was an American science fiction and fantasy writer who lived from June 6, 1964 to June 1, 2014. Lake placed first in a quarter of the Writers of the Future contest in 2003 and won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2004. Based in Portland, Oregon, Lake worked as a product manager for a voice services company, and Lake's writing appeared in Interzone, Realms of Fantasy and Asimov's Science Fiction. The catalogue lists 44 books from 2000 to 2022, including Trial of Flowers (2006), Mainspring and Escapement (2007), and the series Clockwork Earth and Green Universe.

Angela Carter

35 books• 2 series

Angela Carter was the writing name of Angela Olive Pearce (1940-1992), an English novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist whose work is read as feminist, magical realist and picaresque. Her story The Company of Wolves became a film in 1984, and Nights at the Circus was later named the best winner in the history of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The Times placed Carter tenth among the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. The catalogue holds 35 books opening with Shadow Dance (1966), The Magic Toyshop (1967) and Heroes and Villains (1969), at a median of 158 pages.

Jeffrey Ford

25 books• 1 series

Jeffrey Ford, born November 8, 1955, is an American writer of the fantastic whose books cross into science fiction and mystery. Ford studied with the novelist John Gardner at Binghamton University, lives in Ohio and teaches writing part-time at Ohio Wesleyan University. Humour, literary allusion and stories nested within stories mark his fiction. His series is the Well-Built City Trilogy. The 25 catalogued books run from Vanitas (1988) to Pandemonium Waltz (2026) and include The Physiognomy, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque and several story collections.

Terry Dowling

17 books• 2 series

Terence William Dowling, born in 1947, is an Australian writer and journalist working in speculative fiction. Dowling uses the self-coined label imagier, one who imagines, in place of a genre name. Seventeen books are catalogued from 1982 to 2020, and the Tom Rynosseros sequence belongs to him. Recorded subjects include Australian science fiction, horror, fantastic fiction, and fantasy collections and anthologies. Titles include Blue Tyson (1986), Rynosseros (1990), Twilight Beach (1992) and The Complete Rynosseros Vol 3 (2020).