Alien Books in Order
There are 37 Alien books, published between 1979 and 2025: 36 in the 2 main-line series and 1 related title. The first book is Alien (1979) and the newest main-line book is Alien: Seventh Circle (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 37
- Published
- 1979–2025
- Confirmed
- 37 of 37 titles
- Pages on record
- 7,125 in 24 of 37 books
- Reading time
- 119–178 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 7,125 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 24 of 37 titles with a page count on record.
Alien is a shared science fiction and horror property whose book listing carries 37 titles published between 1979 and 2025. The listing takes in the Aliens and Predator series and runs from Alien (1979) to Alien: Seventh Circle (2025). No single writer accounts for the run: the credits name Steve Perry on four books, Alan Dean Foster and Mark Verheiden on three apiece, and Ian Edginton, Sam Kieth, Yvonne Navarro, Scott Sigler and Philippa Ballantine on two each. Novels, comics collections and reference works sit side by side, among them Earth Hive (1992), The Female War (1993) and Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual (1995).
How many Alien books are there?
Alien has 37 books, released between 1979 and 2025. 36 of them belong to the 2 main-line series (Alien, Aliens), and 1 related title sit outside it: other titles.
Alien Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 37 Alien books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 11979643/4
- 219872003/4
- 31990–3/4
- 419922783/4
- 519932773/4
- 619932933/4
- 719932883/4
- 819942963/4
- 919951593/4
- 101995–3/4
- 1119962153/4
- 1219962803/4
- 131997–3/4
- 141997–3/4
- 1519982273/4
- 161999–3/4
- 172011–3/4
- 1820161443/4
- 1920173683/4
- 2020173043/4
- 21Alien: Covenant Origins - The Official Prequel to the Blockbuster FilmAlien #62017 · 304 pages · confirmed 3/420173043/4
- 2220183203/4
- 2320193043/4
- 2420193363/4
- 2520193363/4
- 2620193843/4
- 2720205123/4
- 2820203403/4
- 292020–3/4
- 3020215603/4
- 3120213363/4
- 322022–3/4
- 332022–3/4
- 342022–3/4
- 352023–3/4
- 362023–3/4
- 372025–3/4
Alien Books in Chronological Order
By publication date, the books of the 2 main-line series run from Alien (1979) to Alien: Seventh Circle (2025), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Alien in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.
What order should you read Alien books in?
Read them in publication order, starting with Alien (1979), the earliest published book in the 2 main-line series. After it come Earth War (1990), Earth Hive (1992), Nightmare Asylum (1993) and The Female War (1993); the numbered table above continues from there.
What is the newest Alien book?
Alien: Seventh Circle (2025) is the newest book in the 2 main-line series.
Is there a new Alien book coming?
No next Alien book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Alien at a glance
- Still running
- Alien is still running, with a main-line title published as recently as 2025.
- Release pace
- Alien books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 7,125 pages across the 24 of 37 books with a recorded length, a median of 300 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Alien books, 14 of 37, were published in the 1990s.
- Attribution
- Of the 37 titles, 4 are credited to Steve Perry, 3 to Alan Dean Foster, 3 to Mark Verheiden and 2 to Yvonne Navarro. A further 27 writers are credited. One title carries no credit.
What the Alien books are about
20 of the 37 Alien books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: science fiction is tagged on 6 of 20. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Science fiction 6 of 20 books
- American literature 5 of 20 books
- Comics & graphic novels, science fiction 2 of 20 books
- Fiction - Science Fiction 2 of 20 books
- Horror 2 of 20 books
- Life on other planets 2 of 20 books
- Motion pictures 2 of 20 books
- Science Fiction - Series 2 of 20 books
- Science fiction, action & adventure 2 of 20 books
Series that include Alien books
Each series linked below has its own reading-order page.
- Predator books in order 18 books
- Aliens books in order 16 books