When one thinks of fantasy, it is often the series novel that springs first to mind. Fantasy is a very broad church, yet the series is close to being its dominant form. Why should this be? This chapter aims both to address the question of the appeal of this mode of writing within the genre and to offer a preliminary typology of the form.

Series fiction is, of course, found over the full range of literature, but most particularly within genre fiction – detective novels, historical and military novels, science fiction and fantasy – and in children's books. And in all cases, series are popular. What is the reader looking for when he or she opens a series novel? In Reading Series Fiction, Victor Watson proposed that ‘Reading a series involves a special relationship between reader and writer which the reader has made a conscious decision to sustain.’ Watson was writing about children's fiction, but his observation applies equally to fantasy, and indeed to other forms of series fiction. In writing, any author is effectively promising to provide her readers with adventure, pleasure, exploration and experience. But the series author holds out an often reassuring offer of familiarity and continuity. The series reader undertakes to stay with a group of characters or a place or a problem over a prolonged period. There is thus a commitment on both parts of the relationship. How is this relationship built and sustained? How do authors create familiarity and continuity without destroying suspense or becoming overly predictable?