Looking for Information on Authors with Big, Spawling Settings
I’ve been thinking lately about something that my gut instinct says used to be more common in fantasy writing than it is now, and in particular to see if I’m right about it. And that is the idea that it used to be a fairly common phenomenon for authors to have a sort of “signature setting” in which they set lots of their novels and which became strongly associated with them and their “brand.” I feel like it’s less common for authors to do this today, and that instead we’re seeing more of either long ongoing series or disconnected trilogies/short series from long-running authors, though I may be completely off base. I thought I’d go ahead and compile a list of the sorts of settings I was thinking of and see if I was right or not, and I thought I’d ask around to see if anyone else has any further suggestions I’ve missed.
For context, my criteria is as follows. 1. It has to be secondary-world fantasy, at least primarily; settings that are primarily sci-fi or urban fantasy don’t make the list (though a few of these have a foot in one of those genres). 2. It has to be a setting driven by either a single author or a couple of authors working closely together, no big corporate shared settings (so no D&D settings, no Warhammer, etc.). 3. It has to be a setting, not just one big story, so I feel to qualify it has to have at least three reasonably separate arcs or storylines (a couple of my examples are edge cases, admittedly, with distinct arcs that nonetheless tie together), and in terms of length I’m a bit looser but I think should probably have more than six individual installments.
My list is below. I formatted it with the name of the setting, the name of the author, the year the first installment was released, and the total number of novels in the setting, arranged roughly in chronological order. Does anyone else have any further examples? I’m especially interested in more recent examples and/or by self-published authors (because I think there are some examples of those floating out there that I’m less aware of) but I’d appreciate any examples you can think of that fit! Note, I’m trying to catalogue these sorts of settings, not looking for recs, so don’t worry too much about quality.
Darkover Universe – Marion Zimmer Bradley – 1958 – approx. 30 novels (including those published posthumously and/or not primarily written by Bradley) and a whole lot of short fiction
Witch World Universe – Andre Norton – 1963 – approx. 22 novels and some short fiction
Deryni Universe – Katherine Kurtz – 1970 – 16 novels
Shannara Universe – Terry Brooks – 1977 – approx. 30 novels (more if we count the Word and Void urban fantasy trilogy which is a distant prequel)
Riftwar/Midkemia Universe – Raymond E. Feist – 1982 – approx. 30 novels (counting Magician as one volume, more if you include the Firemane Saga trilogy which crosses over with it)
Tortall Universe – Tamora Pierce – 1983 – approx. 18 novels and some short fiction
Drenai Universe – David Gemmell – 1984 – 11 novels
Mithgar Universe – Dennis L. McKiernan – 1984 – approx. 11 novels and two short story collections (counting Iron Tower and Silver Call as one novel each)
Deverry Universe – Katherine Kerr – 1986 – 16 novels
Chronicles of an Age of Darkness – Hugh Cook – 1986 – 10 novels (originally planned for ten more chronicles novels and two more series, for a total of 60(!) novels in the setting)
Valdemar Universe – Mercedes Lackey – 1987 – approx. 40 novels and some short fiction
Videssos Universe – Harry Turtledove – 1987 – 12 novels
Saga of Recluce Universe – LE Modesitt, Jr.- 1991 – approx. 26 novels (Modesitt also, to my knowledge, has a couple of other ‘big settings’ as well)
Realm of the Elderlings Universe – Robin Hobb – 1995 – 16 novels and some short fiction
Essalieyan Universe – Michelle West – 1995 – 18 novels and some short fiction
Corona Universe – RA Salvatore – 1997 – 16 novels
Malazan Universe – Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont – 1999 – 24 novels and some novellas (AFAIK currently planned to be complete at 29 novels)
Obsidian Universe – Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory – 2003 – 9 novels
Elantra Universe – Michelle Sagara – 2005 – 23 novels and some short fiction
The Cosmere – Brandon Sanderson – 2005 – 18 novels and some short fiction (if you count it as one big setting instead of a bunch of interlinked settings; a 19th novel forthcoming)
Elan Universe – Michael J. Sullivan – 2011 – approx. 20 novels (counting Riyria Revelations as six books rather than three)