Are you sick of trying to decide what book to pick up next? Do you get paralysed by indecision looking at your TBR? We have the antidote: read a series!

A long series, or even a nice hefty trilogy, will take away the need to decide as you're pulled from one gripping instalment to the next. Here are some top picks for great series to pick up, no matter your genre of preference.

Fantasy

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, book one of The Poppy War Trilogy

When Rin aced the Keju – the test to find the most talented students in the Empire – it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who had hoped to get rich by marrying her off; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free from a life of servitude. That she got into Sinegard – the most elite military school in Nikan – was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, book one of The Rivers of London

My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.

Now I’m a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . .

Crime

Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham, book one of the Cyrus Haven series

Six years ago, Evie Cormac was discovered, filthy and half-starved, hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a shocking crime. Now approaching adulthood, Evie is damaged, self-destructive and has never revealed her true identity. Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven, a man haunted by his own past, is investigating the death of champion figure-skater Jodie Sheehan. When Cyrus is called upon to assess Evie, she threatens to disrupt the case and destroy his ordered life. Because Evie has a unique and dangerous gift – she knows when someone is lying. And nobody is telling the truth.

Book four in the series, Storm Child, came out earlier this year, following Cyrus as he takes on another complex and haunting puzzle . . .

Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood, book one of the Phryne Fisher series

This is a great series to jump into, since like a lot of crime series, you don't need to read them in a particular order. You can easily jump in at book one, Cocaine Blues, or book twenty-one, Murder in Williamstown.

The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honourable Phryne Fisher is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversation with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia. Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops and communism.

Historical fiction

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, book one of the Thomas Cromwell series

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell.

Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, book one of the Outlander series

1946, and Claire Randall goes to the Scottish Highlands with her husband Frank. But one afternoon, Claire walks through a circle of standing stones and vanishes into 1743, where the first person she meets is a British army officer – her husband’s six-times great-grandfather.

Unfortunately, Black Jack Randall is not the man his descendant is, and while trying to escape him, Claire falls into the hands of a gang of Scottish outlaws, and finds herself in danger from both Jacobites and Redcoats. Marooned amid danger, passion and violence, her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior.

Sci-fi

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, book one of Lilith's Brood

When Lilith lyapo wakes in a small white room with no doors or windows, she remembers a devastating war, and a husband and child long lost to her.

She finds herself living among the Oankali, a strange race who intervened in the fate of humanity hundreds of years before. They spared those they could from the ruined Earth, and suspended them in a long, deep sleep. Now they want Lilith to lead her people back home. But salvation comes at a price – to restore humanity, it must be changed forever . . .

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, book one of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

It was an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent, until his house was demolished. Then Earth followed shortly afterwards, to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and then his best friend announced that he’s an alien.

At this moment, they’re hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed, in large friendly letters, with the words: DON’T PANIC.

The weekend has only just begun . . .