Discovery and exploration book series in reading order

Isaac Asimov

553 books• 31 series

Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer who also taught biochemistry at Boston University. Hard science fiction is the core of Asimov's reputation, and the Foundation series about a fallen space empire is the most famous work; Asimov ranked with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke as one of the "Big Three" of the genre. The output also covers mysteries, fantasy and popular science, with non-fiction lines such as How Did We Find Out and the Library of the Universe. Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books. This catalogue opens with the story Marooned Off Vesta (1939) and names Asimov on 400 of the listed books.

Farley Mowat

38 books• 1 series

Farley Mowat (1921-2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist whose work was translated into 52 languages and sold more than 17 million copies. People of the Deer (1950) opens a catalogue of 38 titles and begins Mowat's writing on the Canadian north, its Inuit peoples and the Arctic. Never Cry Wolf (1963), an account of life among Arctic wolves, was filmed in 1983. Mowat wrote for children as well, taking the Vicky Metcalf Award in 1970, and the catalogue closes at Eastern Passage (2010).

Martin Dugard writes narrative non-fiction. Exploration, discovery, travel, biography and endurance sport are his subjects, drawn from a career that began in 1988 writing for endurance sports magazines and took in the Tour de France from 1999 to 2008. Dugard's 16 catalogued books run from On the Edge (1995) to The Long Run (2026), taking in Knockdown (1999), Survivor: The Ultimate Game (2000), Chasing Lance (2001), Farther Than Any Man (2001), Into Africa (2002), The Last Voyage of Columbus (2005) and To Be a Runner (2011). The 1998 Sydney-Hobart race, yachting accidents and search and rescue sit among the catalogued subjects.

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).

Ranulph Fiennes

33 books

Ranulph Fiennes writes out of a life of expeditions. Born in 1944, Fiennes served eight years in the British Army, including counter-insurgency work attached to the Army of the Sultanate of Oman, then became the first person to reach both Poles by surface travel and the first to cross Antarctica on foot, and stood on the summit of Everest in 2009 at the age of 65. The catalogue lists 33 books dated 1970 to 2023, at a median of 329 pages, from A Talent For Trouble through To the Ends of the Earth (1983) and Atlantis of the Sands (1992) to Lawrence of Arabia (2023). Travel, exploration and biography are the standing subjects.

Dame Beryl Bainbridge was an English writer who lived from 21 November 1932 to 2 July 2010, known for psychological fiction and macabre tales set among the English working class. Bainbridge won the Whitbread prize for best novel in 1977 and again in 1996, was nominated six times for the Booker Prize, and was described in 2007 as a national treasure; The Times placed Bainbridge on a 2008 list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. The 28 catalogued books run from A Weekend with Claude (1967) through The Bottle Factory Outing and The Dressmaker (1974), Sweet William (1975) and Young Adolf (1978), at a median of 184 pages.

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.

Graham Hancock

27 books• 1 series

Graham Hancock writes about ancient civilisations, lost continents and the record of early exploration. The catalogue starts in travel and reportage, with Africa Guide 1980 (1979), Journey Through Pakistan (1982), Ethiopia (1985), AIDS (1986) and Lords of Poverty (1989). 27 titles are catalogued in all, the last being Visionary: The Mysterious Origins of Human Consciousness in 2022.

Arthur Conan Doyle

164 books• 18 series

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 to 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories about the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson. A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of Four (1890) and A Scandal in Bohemia (1891) are among the catalogued titles. The Lost World (1912) introduced Professor Challenger and gave its name to a subgenre of speculative fiction. Doyle also produced over 200 stories and articles, four volumes of poetry and stage works, and was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours. The Captain of the Polestar (1883) is the earliest catalogued title.

Sarah Moss FRSL, born 1975, is an English writer and academic with eight novels, two memoirs, non-fiction and academic works to date, and a ninth novel, Ripeness, published in 2025. Moss has been nominated three times for the Wellcome Book Prize and became assistant professor of Creative Writing at University College Dublin in September 2020. The catalogue lists 15 books, from Scott's Last Biscuit (2004) and The Frozen Ship (2006) through Night Waking (2011), Names for the Sea (2012), Bodies of Light (2014) and The Tidal Zone (2016). Polar exploration and travel writing appear in the subjects.

Nevil Shute

29 books• 1 series

Nevil Shute was the pen name of Nevil Shute Norway, an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who lived from 1899 to 1960 and spent his later years in Australia. The two names were kept apart on purpose, so that his employers at Vickers and his fellow engineers took the engineering seriously. On the Beach and A Town Like Alice are among the novels. Twenty-nine titles are catalogued, from Marazan (1926) onward, with the Second World War, exploration, scientists and Australia recurring as subjects.

James Alexander Thom (1933-2023) was an American novelist of the frontier and of colonial American history, working from heavy documentary research. Follow the River (1981), drawn from the Draper's Meadow massacre of 1755, is Thom's best-known book. Long Knife (1979), From Sea to Shining Sea (1984), Panther in the Sky (1989) and The Children of First Man (1994) stand beside it, with the Shawnee, western exploration and Clark's 1778-1779 Illinois expedition among the subjects. Sixteen titles are catalogued, from Let the Sunshine In (1976) to Once Upon a Time It Was Now (2017). Thom served in the Marine Corps in Korea and taught journalism at Indiana University.

Don Coldsmith (February 28, 1926 - June 25, 2009) was an American writer mainly of Westerns and a past president of Western Writers of America. Coldsmith produced more than 40 books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. The Spanish Bit Saga, a sequence of related novels, reshaped the Western by telling events from the Native American point of view. The catalogue lists 41 books from Horsin' Around (1975) to Moon of Madness (2013), including Trail of the Spanish Bit (1980), Buffalo Medicine (1981) and Pale Star (1986). The Great Plains and horses recur in the subjects.

Jennifer Niven

13 books• 1 series

Jennifer Niven is an American author whose best known book is the young adult novel All the Bright Places (2015). The catalogue opens in non-fiction with The Ice Master (2000) and Ada Blackjack (2003), both drawing on Arctic exploration, then turns to the Velva Jean series in 2009 and to young adult fiction with Holding Up the Universe (2016). Thirteen books are catalogued, reaching Meet the Newmans (2026). Women pilots, friendship, suicide and the Second World War recur as subjects.

Richard Harding Davis

70 books• 1 series

Journalism came first for Richard Harding Davis, who covered the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War and the First World War as the earliest American correspondent to report from all three. Davis lived from 1864 to 1916, wrote fiction and drama as well, helped shape the American magazine, and assisted Theodore Roosevelt's political career. 70 catalogued books start at Gallegher (1891) and mix short stories with travel writing such as The West from a Car Window and Three Gringos in Venezuela and Central America. The median title runs 108 pages.

Tim Severin (1940-2020) was a British explorer and historian who retraced the voyages of legendary travellers and wrote about them. The Sindbad Voyage (1982) won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and Severin received medals from both the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. His 27 books begin with Tracking Marco Polo (1964). Later fiction includes the Viking novels and the Hector Lynch pirate series.

Buddy Levy writes nonfiction on exploration, frontier life and biography, with 10 books catalogued from Echoes on Rimrock (1999) to Crockett (2025). American Legend (2005), Conquistador (2008) and River of Darkness (2011) are early titles. Labyrinth of Ice (2019), Empire of Ice and Stone (2022) and Realm of Ice and Sky (2025) followed. Born on 2 February 1960, Levy teaches writing at Washington State University as a professor and also works in television and as a freelance writer for magazines.