Antiquities book series in reading order

by William Dietrich

by Brian B.K. Evenson

Alex Archer is the name on the Rogue Angel series, 66 catalogued books published between 2006 and 2025. Annja Creed, a woman archaeologist, is the recurring character, and the books mix antiquities, adventure and suspense with fantasy. Destiny (2006) opens the run, followed by Solomon's Jar (2006), The Spider Stone (2006) and a rapid 2007 sequence including Forbidden City, God of Thunder, Provenance, Secret of the Slaves, Serpent's Kiss, The Chosen and The Lost Scrolls. Shadow Highlanders (2025) is the newest title, at a median of 320 pages.

Lara McClintoch is an antique dealer who investigates thefts of antiquities, and Lyn Hamilton wrote 11 books about her. Hamilton (1944-2009) was Canadian, worked in communications in the public service, directed the Cultural Programs Branch for Ontario, and published a first novel at 50. Each title names a place or an object: The Xibalba Murders (1997), The Maltese Goddess, The Celtic Riddle, The Moai Murders. The series closed with The Chinese Alchemist in 2007.

Clive Cussler

104 books• 9 series

Clive Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. Cussler founded and chaired the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has located more than 60 shipwreck sites. Cussler's thrillers, many of them featuring Dirk Pitt, reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. The catalogue lists 105 books under Cussler's name, beginning with The Mediterranean Caper (1973), with The Serpent's Eye due in 2027. Robin Burcell shares credit on 6 of them, Jack Du Brul on 5 and Grant Blackwood on 3. Series include Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files and Sea Hunters.

Who HQ is the credit on 429 children's nonfiction biographies in the catalogue, published from 2002 to 2026. The run opens with Who Was Albert Einstein?, Who Was Amelia Earhart? and Who Was Ben Franklin? (all 2002) and reaches Who Is Vera Wang (2026). Subjects include biography, history and juvenile nonfiction for readers aged 8 to 12. Other names credited on some of the books include Megan Stine (7), John Hinderliter (7) and Nico Medina (4).

Matthew Reilly is an Australian action thriller writer, born 2 July 1974, whose books sell internationally. The catalogue lists 41 titles, from Contest (1996) and Ice Station (1998) to The Detective (2025). Reilly's series are Jack West Jr., Shane Schofield, Hover Car Racer, Troll Mountain and Tournament, plus a set of short stories. Subject tags include antiquities, automobile racing, action and adventure, and children's fiction.

Zecharia Sitchin wrote the Earth Chronicles, a non-fiction sequence arguing extraterrestrial influence on ancient civilisation. The 12th Planet (1976) opens the run, followed by The Stairway to Heaven (1980), The Wars of Gods and Men (1985), Genesis Revisited (1990) and The Lost Book of Enki (2001). Ancient history, the Bible, cosmogony and human-alien encounters are the subjects. Sixteen titles are catalogued through 2015.

William Dietrich writes historical adventure novels and natural-history non-fiction. The Ethan Gage series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, has been translated into 28 languages and includes Napoleon's Pyramids (2007) and The Rosetta Key (2008). Dietrich has also set novels in the Roman Empire, Antarctica and Australia, while his non-fiction covers the natural and environmental history of the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up and worked as a newspaper journalist. The catalogue holds 20 titles, from The Final Forest (1992) to The Trojan Icon (2016).

Erich von Däniken

31 books• 1 series

Erich von Daniken was a Swiss author of pseudoscientific books arguing that extraterrestrials shaped early human culture. Chariots of The Gods (1968) opens the catalogue and became a bestseller; Return to the Stars (1970), Gods from Outer Space (1972), Miracles of the Gods (1975) and Signs of the Gods (1980) followed. Thirty-one titles are catalogued to 2022. Scientists and academics reject the claims and class the work as pseudohistory and pseudoarchaeology. Ancient civilisations, UFOs and human-alien encounters are the recorded subjects.

Iris Johansen writes crime fiction, suspense and romance, and was born on April 7, 1938, in St. Louis, Missouri. The catalogue lists 120 books from Stormy Vows (1983) to Wait and See (2026), with the 1980s as the busiest decade. Eve Duncan, Kendra Michaels and Catherine Ling are the recurring characters, and facial reconstruction and women sculptors appear among the subject headings. Johansen's series also include Sedikhan, Wind Dancer, Clanad and Delaneys.

Douglas Preston

54 books• 9 series

Douglas Preston writes thrillers with horror and science fiction edges, built on serial murder, antiquities and government investigation. Aloysius Pendergast is the character the catalogue is best known for, with Nora Kelly, Gideon Crew, Wyman Ford and the Cash & Colcord books beside him. Fifty-seven catalogued titles run from Dinosaurs in the Attic (1986) through Relic (1995) and Riptide (1998) to Pendergast, and Resurrection is scheduled for 2027.

Elizabeth Lowell is one of the names used by American writer Ann Maxwell, born April 5, 1944, who also writes as A.E. Maxwell. Alone and with co-author and husband Evan, Maxwell has produced more than 50 novels and one non-fiction book, spanning science fiction, historical fiction, romance, mystery and suspense. The Elizabeth Lowell catalogue lists 52 books from 1983 to 2015, from To the Ends of the Earth / The Danvers Touch (1983) to Perfect Touch (2015). Series include St. Kilda, Rarities Unlimited, Donovans and MacKenzie-Blackthorn.

D.H. Lawrence

146 books• 3 series

David Herbert Lawrence, 11 September 1885 to 2 March 1930, was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, travel writer, literary critic and painter. Lawrence's modernist writing examines modernity, social alienation and industrialisation while arguing for sexuality, vitality and instinct. Four novels went through censorship trials over their treatment of sex and their explicit language: The Rainbow (1915), Sons and Lovers (1913), Women in Love (1920) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). The catalogue lists 146 entries, among them The White Peacock (1911), The Trespasser (1912) and the story collection The Prussian Officer (1914), and groups some of them under Sons and Lovers and the Brangwen Family.

Gertrude Chandler Warner (April 16, 1890 to August 30, 1979) was an American author who wrote mostly for children. Warner wrote the original book of The Boxcar Children, published in 1942, and the next 18 books in the series. Earlier catalogued titles include The House of Delight (1916) and The World in a Barn (1927), and Surprise Island (1949) and The Yellow House Mystery (1952) came after The Boxcar Children. Orphans, brothers and sisters, and mystery stories are among the subjects. The catalogue also carries Boxcar Children lines such as Adventures of Benny and Watch and Boxcar Children Great Adventure under Warner's name.

Tony Abbott, born in 1952, is an American author of children's books. His Secrets of Droon fantasy series runs to more than 40 titles and is his most widely read work; he also wrote Firegirl and The Copernicus Legacy. Abbott has sold over 12 million copies and been translated into Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, Japanese, Polish, Turkish and Russian. The 105 catalogued books span Danger Guys (1994) to Junk Boy (2020), aimed largely at grades 1 to 3.

James Rollins

48 books• 10 series

James Rollins is the pen name of James Paul Czajkowski, an American writer born August 20, 1961, who gave up a veterinary practice in Sacramento, California to write full time. Rollins writes action-adventure, mystery and techno-thriller novels, often set underground or underwater, drawing on experience as an amateur caver and certified scuba diver. The catalogue opens with Subterranean (1999) and Excavation (2000), counts 49 books through Trust No One (2026), and lists Into the Serpent's Nest for 2027. Series include Sigma Force, the Order of the Sanguines, Tucker Wayne and Jake Ransom. Under a second pen name, James Clemens, Czajkowski publishes fantasy.

Donna Leon

42 books• 4 series

Venice is where Donna Leon sets her police procedurals, and Guido Brunetti is the character the books return to, in cases of murder and criminal investigation. Leon's 42 catalogued titles open with Death at La Fenice (1992) and reach Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life in 2025, with a Brunetti companion volume and non-fiction beside the novels. Leon remains actively publishing.

Jennifer A. Nielsen

27 books• 6 series

Jennifer A. Nielsen writes adventure and fantasy for younger readers, with conspiracies, courts and imaginary wars in some books and goblins, fairies and magic in others. The Ascendance Trilogy begins at The False Prince (2012), and the Underworld Chronicles, Mark of the Thief and The Traitor's Game make up her other series. Twenty-five catalogued books run from Elliot and the Goblin War (2010) to Magnitude in 2026.

Cozy mystery is Tamar Myers's form, and 49 catalogued books carry her name across three series: Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery, Den of Antiquity and Amanda Brown. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth (1993) opens the catalogue and Cousins From a Distant Sun (2026) is the newest entry. The recurring sleuths are Magdalena Yoder and Abigail Timberlake, and the books' subjects take in Mennonites, hotelkeepers, antique dealers, women detectives and cooking.

Marine archaeologist Jack Howard is the figure David Gibbins built his fiction on. Gibbins, born in 1962, is an underwater archaeologist as well as a novelist, and the 14 catalogued books mix archaeological expeditions, treasure troves and antiquities with action and suspense. The catalogue opens with Atlantis (2005) and reaches Daughter of Attila (2025); Total War Rome is a second series beside Jack Howard. Gibbins remains actively publishing.

Boyd Morrison

15 books• 4 series

Boyd Morrison, born February 17, 1967, is an American novelist, engineer and actor. After an engineering career, Morrison self-published a first novel and was later signed by Simon and Schuster. Morrison has co-written 5 books with Clive Cussler and several with sister Beth Morrison. The catalogue lists 15 books from The Ark (2009) to Duel of Beasts (2026), including The Tsunami Countdown (2009), The Vault / The Midas Code (2011) and Piranha (2015). Series include Tyler Locke and Tales of the Lawless Land, and the catalogue also links Oregon Files.

Chris Kuzneski

13 books• 3 series

Chris Kuzneski writes treasure-hunt thrillers. Thirteen books are catalogued between The Plantation (2000) and The Malta Escape (2018), across two series, Payne & Jones and Hunters: Origins. Antiquities, tombs, treasure troves and archaeologists supply the subject headings. Kuzneski, an American novelist born in 1969, took the International Thriller Writers award for 2016 Book of the Year with The Prisoner's Gold, and the work has also been honoured by the Florida Book Awards. Nothing new has appeared since 2018.

Robert Silverberg

240 books• 17 series

Robert Silverberg, born January 15, 1935, is an American science fiction author and editor with multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, a place in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and Grand Master status since 2004. Nightwings (1969), a novella, and the novels Downward to the Earth (1970), The World Inside (1971), Dying Inside (1972) and Lord Valentine's Castle (1980) are among the most noted Silverberg works, and Lord Valentine's Castle was the first Majipoor book. By 2015 Silverberg had attended every Hugo Award ceremony since the first in 1953. The catalogue lists 240 books from Revolt on Alpha C (1955) to Beast Hunt: Volume 1 (2024), with The Shrouded Planet (1957) and Collision Course (1958) among the early ones. Series include Majipoor: Lord Valentine, Majipoor: Lord Prestimion, New Springtime, Time Gate and New Dimensions.

Donald E. Westlake

127 books• 11 series

Donald E. Westlake (July 12, 1933 to December 31, 2008) was an American writer credited with more than one hundred novels and non-fiction books. Crime fiction was Westlake's specialty, comic capers above all, with occasional science fiction. Westlake created two professional criminals with long-running series: the hardboiled Parker, published under the pen name Richard Stark, and John Dortmunder, the lead of a more humorous series. Westlake won the Edgar Award three times. The catalogue holds 127 Westlake books from 1959 to 2022, and other listings include Alan Grofield, Sam Holt and the Mitch Tobin books written as Tucker Coe.

Heather Terrell is an American novelist and lawyer, who publishes some of her novels under the pen name Marie Benedict. Archaeological theft, antiquities, maps, manuscripts and church history supply the plots, with legal fiction and fantasy for younger readers alongside. Terrell's 7 catalogued books run from The Chrysalis (2007) through The Map Thief (2008), Brigid of Kildare (2009), Fallen Angel (2010), Eternity (2011) and Relic (2013) to Boundary (2014). The catalogue names two series, Mara Coyne and Books of Eva.