New on OpenFiction: Dune, Middle-earth, and 41 Discworld Novels

OpenFiction has been growing quickly. Here's a round-up of the major content additions from the past few weeks, including three universes that between them cover some of the most important works in science fiction and fantasy.

Dune

Frank Herbert's Dune is one of those series where the cast of characters spans millennia and the political landscape shifts dramatically between books. We've added the complete original six-novel series:

Along with 9 key characters (including Paul Atreides, Lady Jessica, Baron Harkonnen, and Duncan Idaho - whose story across the series is one of the more unusual character arcs in fiction) and 7 groups covering the major factions: House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the Fremen, Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, House Corrino, and the Tleilaxu.

We've focused on Herbert's original novels for now. The Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson prequels and sequels may follow if there's interest - let us know via a content request.

Middle-earth

Tolkien's world needs no introduction, but it does benefit from structured character tracking. We've added:

The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings (three volumes), and The Silmarillion as core books
Unfinished Tales, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin as supplementary works
10 Fellowhip characters with full descriptions: Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Sam, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Pippin, Boromir, and Bilbo
Species data for Hobbits, Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Maiar
Publication Order and Recommended Reading Order

The character data currently focuses on the Fellowship. We'll be expanding to cover characters from The Silmarillion and the wider legendarium over time.

Discworld - All 41 Novels

This was a big one. We've added every Discworld novel - all 41 of them - organised into the six recognised sub-series plus standalones:

The City Watch (8 books)
Rincewind / The Wizards (8 books)
The Witches (6 books)
Death (5 books)
Moist von Lipwig / The Industrial Revolution (3 books)
Tiffany Aching (5 books)
6 standalone novels

Each sub-series has its own reading order, and we've written a detailed reading order guide covering every approach. Discworld is one of the most searched reading order topics in fantasy, and rightly so - 41 books with multiple valid entry points is a lot to navigate.

Character data for Discworld is still on our list of things to do. If you'd like to help, contributions are welcome.

The Cosmere - Now Complete

We've filled in the remaining gaps in the Cosmere coverage. All four Secret Project novels (Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, The Sunlit Man) plus Isles of the Emberdark are now in the database with full descriptions and reading order positions. Arcanum Unbounded is also included.

Both the Publication Order and Recommended Cosmere Order reading orders have been updated to include everything.

What Else

Beyond the major universes, we've also added:

The Culture by Iain Banks (9 novels)
Sprawl Trilogy by William Gibson (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive)
The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch
The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
Various standalone novels including The Martian and Pride and Prejudice

What's Next

We're continuing to expand character data - appearances, relationships, and life events - for the universes already in the database. The next major content priorities are deeper character coverage for Dune and Middle-earth, and starting on A Song of Ice and Fire (the most-requested universe we don't yet cover).

If there's a book, series, or universe you'd like to see on OpenFiction, submit a content request. Community votes help us decide what to work on next.