“Annihilation,” the chilling first novel of a trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer that was released last week, tells the story of a scientific expedition to a mysterious place called Area X that has been cut off from the rest of the world.

Fans who want to know what happens in the second book won’t be on tenterhooks for long.

That book, “Authority,” will come out in May, only months after the first installment. On its heels is the third novel, “Acceptance,” to be published in early September.

While the television industry has begun catering to impatient audiences by releasing entire series at once, the book business is upending its traditional timetable by encouraging a kind of binge reading, releasing new works by a single author at an accelerated pace.

The practice of spacing an author’s books at least one year apart is gradually being discarded as publishers appeal to the same “must-know-now” impulse that drives binge viewing of shows like “House of Cards” and “Breaking Bad.”