The Best Serial Fiction You Should Be Reading

Serial fiction isn't a new thing—Dickens was doing it back in the 1800s. But there's been a new surge of serial fiction, some of it driven by the popularity of fan fiction and web comics and some propelled by the growing number of internet-style readers. The new readers are looking for a quick read on cell phones: that could be an article on a really excellent geek news website, or it could be shorter-than-novels fiction. The rise in contemporary serial fiction is looking to find a place in that niche reading time.

So if you're looking for something to read in line at Starbucks, while you're waiting for your kids at the bus stop, or just something that you can read in the same amount of time as you can watch a TV episode, serial fiction may be just the thing for you. 

Here are some serial options to check out. Click the links to get taken right to them...

Queendom

Queendom by Kim Antieau takes a different outlook on the serial: she's releasing a fully written and realized novel of a post-apocalyptic, non-dystopian future in five parts.

Because an important aspect of the book is the Unified Field Theory of Spices--an almost religious philosophy that the way food and spices are gathered and added to a recipe can create specific outcomes for those who eat them--the serial chapters include recipes that won't be available in the print book. Other extras, such as poetry from the world of the novel and photographs of art important to the plot, are also serial-only material.

Readers who wait for the full novel to be released in print in spring 2016 will get the full story--a politically driven plot in which a cook becomes a spy and an elected queen searches for those who are seeking to destroy her nation's economy--but readers who follow each section as it's released not only get the enjoyment of a serial event, but all the extra insights into the world.

Bookburners

Bookburnersis the first serial from Serial Box Publishing, whose mission is creating serial fiction in the model of television dramas. To that end, each serial has a team of writers, like a television show would, with individual writers taking the lead on each episode released. In Bookburners, Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Brian Francis Slattery, and Mur Lafferty launch readers into a world where demonic activity is real, and often pours into the world through mysterious old books.

Sal Brooks, a detective whose brother becomes possessed by a demon, joins a team of Vatican-sponsored relic hunters who collect and contain books that threaten the world. As a newcomer, Sal questions the tactics the church sometimes uses to keep magic outbreaks quiet, and the more she learns about magic, the more she realizes there are wonders--and dangers--in the world she's never imagined.

The set-up is perfect for urban-fantasy readers and watchers, and each episode is stand alone--but amps up the tension as the season continues. Serial Box's second serial, Tremontaine, from lead writer Ellen Kushner in her Riverside world, is also available.

Clean Sweep and Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews

These two now-completed short novels were originally released as free reading on the website of author husband-and-wife team Ilona and Gordon Andrews. Dina is an Innkeeper, host for interstellar travelers that include familiar mythological figures like werewolves and vampires, as well as more outlandish aliens. Her inn feeds magic into her, so she can change reality on her inn's grounds to better accommodate--and defend against--her guests. When a supernatural danger threatens her non-magical neighbors, Dina isn't supposed to get involved. But Dina's not the type to let what she's supposed to do stop her from doing what's right.

Andrews creates a very cool world mixing fantasy and science fiction tropes and populates it with a fully realized cast, including not only Dina but the local werewolf-in-denial and Dina's struggling inn's only regular guest, a vampire noble claiming asylum on earth due to her previous ruthless acts.

Indexing

Indexingby Seanan McGuire and its sequel, Indexing: Reflections, take fairy tale characters and insert them into a noir-style modern world. In the world of the serial, fairy tales can come to life among normal families, unless they're disrupted by the ATI Management Bureau, who stop storybook intrusions before they can take over--when they're lucky.

Rather than being written in chapters, each serial segment was released as an episode, so reading them back to back is like binge-watching Grimmor Supernatural. Indexing was a part of Amazon's Kindle Serial fiction experiment in 2012, and there are somewhere around seventy other finished serials in the Kindle store.

The Daring Adventures of Captain Lucy Smokeheart

The Daring Adventures of Captain Lucy Smokeheartby Andrea Phillips is a children's fantasy originally published in twelve monthly installments. Funded by Kickstarter, the original serial also gave readers a chance to treasure hunt alongside the daring pirate captain Lucy Smokeheart by solving a riddle in each chapter. The complete edition includes the puzzles and the key to solving them. Phillips' world involves carnivorous mermaids, praise for both bacon and chocolate, magic, and danger suitable for middle grader readers and adults alike.

If you're looking to dabble in free fiction, you can always check out Tuesday Serial, a collection of serials from around the web, submitted by the writers who create them. The site has been active since 2010, so there are years worth of chapters to read and enjoy. And if you're a nook user, Barnes and Noble has launched its Serial Reads program, which offers a serial as part of the new free Readouts nook feature, with Kristin Higgins's In Your Dreams.

If you're an old-school reader who'd rather wait until the whole story is complete, there are a bunch of finished serials to pick up, too.

The best part about serials is that they're happening live--and if enough people are reading them, they make great Internet water-cooler conversation. So if you're catching up on the latest issue of Bookburners or Queendom and need to gush--come on over and find me on Facebook. I'd love to geek out with you!