Esther M. Friesner

When Helen's twin sets off to wed with the Prince of Mykenae, Helen is among those who escort her to her new kingdom. Her brothers Polydeuces and Castor decide to go to Calydon to hunt for a rabid boar at some point, and Helen is left all alone with her sister. It is then that she decides that she would never be an average queen.

The best place to start is the Twelve Kingdoms series, the earliest of Esther M. Friesner's multi-book series: it opens with Mustapha and His Wise Dog (1985) and runs to 4 books across 1985–1989, ending with The Water King's Laughter (1989). Esther M. Friesner's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Esther M. Friesner has 282 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1985 and 2026. 222 of them belong to 19 named series — the largest being the Author's Choice Monthly series with 13 books — and 60 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Esther M. Friesner's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Twelve Kingdoms (1985–1989, 4 books), New York (1986–1989, 3 books) and Demons (1988–1990, 3 books), plus 11 more.

This guide splits Esther M. Friesner's 282 books into 19 named series and 60 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Author's Choice Monthly (13 books, 1989–1991); Chicks In Chainmail (8 books, 1994–2015); Dragonflight (6 books, 1990–1997); Twelve Kingdoms (4 books, 1985–1989); Demons (3 books, 1988–1990), plus 14 further series.