Words for Series

[forestofglory]

I wish English had more words for Series. There are words for how many works are in a series (trilogy, quartet ect) but not words for what a series is like. For example I have long wished for a word for the thing that Know Space or Le Guin's Ekumen or Cherryh's Union/Alliance are. You know where many stories are set in the same universe, but they aren't about the same people or even set in the same time period. It would be nice to have words for other types of series as well, like the one book in multiple volumes series (eg LotR), or the following a one character through a series of adventures type of series (eg Lord Peter Wimsey).

I speculate that this lack of words is related to the lack of series in Literary Fiction and thus a lack of literary criticism of series. But why there should be so very few series in mainstream literature simply baffles me. Most other genres are full of them -- and there are things you can do with a series that you simply can't do in a single volume.

So yes there should be more words for series in English; also it puzzles me that literary fiction rarely exists in a series form.