The
Middle Kingdoms
series

The Middle Kingdoms series comprises (so far) three novels that explore the first fantasy universe created by New York Times bestselling author Diane Duane. Started in 1979 with The Door Into Fire, and resulting in Duane being nominated two years running for the Astounding Award for best new writer in the SF/fantasy field, the series is based in a world where humanity is struggling back to normalcy millennia after the banishment of an ultimate evil. In the Middle Kingdoms— just one small part of this world—Dragons are real, magic (in numerous forms) is more or less a commonplace, and the Goddess who rules everything is not hidden away, but part of most people's lives. The pansexual, polyamorous, and broadly inclusive fictional culture Duane constructed for the Middle Kingdoms was an early example of non-straight representation in the epic fantasy genre, and garnered critical praise across its field.

The series, also called The Tale of the Five, continued with The Door Into Shadow in 1984 and The Door Into Sunset in 1992. After a hiatus spent working on other projects (such as her YA Young Wizards series), media tie-in work for various major licenses (Star Trek, Marvel and DC) and film and TV (for SyFy, among others), Duane returned to the Middle Kingdoms universe with short fiction featuring the Rodmistresses Sirronde (the Sirronde's World series, in progress) and Lior (Lior and the Sea), and more recently the "Tales of the Five" prose miniseries of novel- and novella-length works bridging the time period in the Middle Kingdoms between the end of book three, The Door Into Sunset, and the beginning of the fourth and final book in the series.

This last and long-awaited novel in the main sequence, The Door Into Starlight, is presently in progress. Please check this page at our site for more information.