Genetic engineering book series in reading order

by Michael Crichton

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Lora Leigh, born March 6, 1965, is an American author of erotic romance with New York Times bestseller status. Leigh began publishing in 2003 with the electronic publisher Ellora's Cave. The Breeds is the longest-running series, and Elite Ops, Nauti Boys, Bound Hearts, Wizard Twins and Men of Summer are among the others. The catalogue holds 115 books from 2003 to Play Hard (2025). Leigh won the 2009 RT Award for erotica and was born in Ohio and raised in Martin County, Kentucky.

Nancy Kress

58 books• 10 series

Nancy Kress, born January 20, 1948, is an American science fiction writer who began writing in 1976. Beggars in Spain (1991), a novella that won both the Hugo and Nebula, later grew into a novel. Kress won further Nebula Awards for Best Novella in 2013 and 2015, and also writes a column for Writer's Digest. Series include Sleepless, the Probability Trilogy and the Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, alongside the Write Great Fiction series. The 58 catalogued books run from The Prince of Morning Bells (1981) to The Queen's Witch (2026).

Sophie McKenzie is a British author of young adult novels and adult thrillers who writes full time in London, with Simon & Schuster as the main publisher. Girl, Missing (2006) is the best-known of the award-winning novels, and Blood Ties (2008) and The Set Up (2009) have also won awards. The catalogue lists 38 books up to Storm of Lies (2024). Girl, Missing, All About Eve and White Wolves: Myths and Legends are the listed series. Genetic engineering, psychic ability, kidnapping, missing persons and the Medusa Project, an imaginary organization, appear in the subjects.

Margaret Atwood

89 books• 8 series

Margaret Atwood, born November 18, 1939, is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic and inventor. The Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian novel from 1985, is the best-known Atwood work. Atwood's output includes 18 poetry books, 18 novels, 11 non-fiction books, nine short fiction collections, eight children's books and two graphic novels. The catalogue opens with The Circle Game (1964) and runs to Book of Lives (2025), with The Edible Woman (1969) and Surfacing (1972) along the way. Series include MaddAddam, Handmaid's Tale and Angel Catbird. Awards include two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Franz Kafka Prize and the Order of Canada.

Alan Dean Foster

162 books• 30 series

Alan Dean Foster, born on 18 November 1946, is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, with several book series, more than 20 standalone novels and many film novelizations. Catalogued titles open with The Tar-Aiym Krang (1972), followed by Bloodhype (1973), Icerigger (1974), Star Trek Log One (1974) and Midworld (1975). Lost on Paradise (2026) is the newest title. Foster series include Pip & Flinx, Icerigger, Journeys of the Catechist, Damned, Star Trek: The Animated, Alien Movie and Transformers. Subjects include the Humanx Commonwealth, interplanetary voyages and human-alien encounters.

Vampires, genetic engineering and immortality are recurring subjects in the books of Lynn Viehl. The catalogue lists 19 titles from 2005 to 2014, tagged as paranormal romance and romantic suspense. Lynn Viehl series include Darkyn, Lords of the Darkyn, Kyndred, Youngbloods and Disenchanted & Co. If Angels Burn (2005) opens the list, followed by Private Demon (2005), Dark Need (2006) and Night Lost (2007). The Clockwork Wolf (2014) is the last listed book, and the catalogue is likely complete.

Ben Bova

138 books• 17 series

Ben Bova, born Benjamin William Bova on November 8, 1932, was an American writer and editor whose career lasted 60 years; Bova died on November 29, 2020. As editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Bova won the Hugo Award six times, later served as editorial director of Omni, and was president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. The catalogue holds 138 books of science fiction and science fact, from The Star Conquerors (1959) to Pluto (2025). Non-fiction such as The Milky Way Galaxy (1961) sits beside series including Grand Tour, Orion, Kinsman, Sam Gunn, Jake Ross and the Star Quest Trilogy. Subjects name space opera, lunar bases, space stations and space colonies.

Octavia E. Butler

23 books• 4 series

Octavia E. Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American author of science fiction and speculative fiction and a winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. In 1995 Butler became the first science fiction writer awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Born in Pasadena, California and raised by a widowed mother, Butler found refuge in library books as a shy child, started writing science fiction as a teenager, and attended community college during the 1960s Black Power movement. The catalogue opens with Patternmaster (1976) and includes Mind of My Mind (1977), Kindred (1979), Wild Seed (1980) and Dawn (1987). Series include Patternmaster, Xenogenesis and Earthseed, with graphic novel adaptations also listed.

Lauren DeStefano, born in 1984, is an American writer of young adult fiction, best known for the Chemical Garden novels and for her gallows humour. The catalogue holds 18 books dated between 2011 and 2024, opening with Wither (2011) and running to The Lost Ones (2024). Four series stand under the DeStefano name: Chemical Garden, Internment Chronicles, Pram and Glass Spare. Recorded subjects include science fiction, genetic engineering, utopias, orphans, grief and kidnapping. DeStefano continues to publish.

Paranormal romance is Christine Feehan's field, with vampires, shapeshifters and the Carpathians recurring across the work. Feehan's 119 catalogued books open with Dark Prince and Dark Desire (1999) and reach Dark Joy (2026). The Dark books head the list, joined by GhostWalkers, Leopard People, Torpedo Ink, Shadow Riders and the two Sea Haven sequences, Drake Sisters and Sisters of the Heart. The 2010s hold the largest share of the catalogue.

Robert A. Heinlein

83 books• 11 series

Robert A. Heinlein wrote science fiction from 1939, starting with the short story Life Line. Interplanetary voyages, space colonies, space opera and time travel are the recurring subjects, and the catalogue carries a Hugo Award winner. The Future History timeline groups a large part of the early work; the Juveniles were written for younger readers, and World As Myth came later. Eighty-two titles are catalogued, with editions dated through 2025.

F. Paul Wilson

102 books• 26 series

F. Paul Wilson (Francis Paul Wilson, born May 17, 1946) is an American author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers and science fiction, based in Wall, New Jersey. Repairman Jack is the recurring character of novels such as Ground Zero, The Tomb and Fatal Error, and a young adult series follows Jack as a teenager. The Adversary Cycle includes The Keep (1981). Healer (1976) is the first catalogued title. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award and the Horror Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award.

Seanan McGuire

160 books• 32 series

Seanan McGuire, born January 5, 1978, is an American writer and filker known for urban fantasy. McGuire writes science fiction and horror as Mira Grant, and the Up-and-Under children's portal fantasy series as A. Deborah Baker. McGuire received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2010, and the work has earned the Alex, Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards. The catalogue records 162 titles, starting with Rosemary and Rue (2009) and A Local Habitation (2010), with A Divided Duty (2026) the newest and A Song of Sugar Sparrows due in 2027. Series include October Daye, InCryptid, Wayward Children, Newsflesh, Velveteen, Alchemical Journeys and Parasitology.

Keri Arthur

68 books• 16 series

Vampires and werewolves fill Keri Arthur's paranormal fantasy and romance, with serial murder and horror in the mix. Riley Jenson heads the Guardian series, and Dark Angels, Lizzie Grace, Souls of Fire, the Damask Circle, Nikki & Michael, Spook Squad and the Kingdoms of Earth & Air stand beside it. Sixty-eight catalogued books run from Hearts in Darkness (2000) to Geitha's Tears in 2026.

Max Allan Collins

199 books• 34 series

Max Allan Collins, born March 3, 1948, is an American mystery writer who also works in comics, graphic novels and screenplays. Collins created the Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition comics, the second of which became a film, and the series characters Quarry, a hitman, Nolan, a thief, and private investigator Nate Heller. Collins wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for years, and the Mystery Writers of America named Collins a Grand Master in 2017. Catalogue entries run from Bait Money (1973) to Quarry's Reunion (2026), with Eliot Ness, Mallory and Disaster among the other series.

Scott Westerfeld

42 books• 18 series

Scott David Westerfeld, born May 5, 1963, is an American young adult writer known for the Uglies and Leviathan series. Other series include Midnighters, Peeps, Impostors, Zeroes and Spill Zone. The 42 catalogued books include Polymorph (1997), Fine Prey (1998), Evolution's Darling (2000) and The Risen Empire (2003). Subjects include science fiction, personal beauty, brainwashing and teenage girls. The Mortons (2026) is the newest title.

Paolo Bacigalupi

18 books• 3 series

Paolo Bacigalupi, born August 6, 1972, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and a National Book Award nominee. Bacigalupi's awards include the Hugo, the Nebula, the Michael L. Printz, the Theodore Sturgeon, the Compton Crook and the John W. Campbell Memorial. Stories have run in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and High Country News, and essays in Salon.com. The catalogue lists 18 books from Pocketful of Dharma (1999) to Navola (2024), including The People of Sand and Slag (2004), Pump Six and Other Stories (2006), The Windup Girl (2009) and Ship Breaker (2010). Series are Ship Breaker, Windup Universe and Khaim, and subjects name dystopia, genetic engineering and survival.

Garth Stein, born in 1964, is an American novelist and film producer from Seattle. The Art of Racing in the Rain (2008) is the best known book, and the Enzo titles that followed carry dogs and motor racing into children's fiction. Eleven books are catalogued, from Raven Stole the Moon (1998) to The Cloven: Book Two (2023), the Cloven books among them. Stein also makes documentary films, writes plays, teaches and races as an amateur. No new title has been recorded since 2023.

Lydia Kang is an American author of adult and young adult fiction, poetry and non-fiction, and practises internal medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. Opium & Absinthe (2020) sets a young woman from a wealthy New York family hunting the killer of her sister, found dead with bite wounds to the neck. A Beautiful Poison (2017) turns on a run of deaths during the Spanish flu pandemic that draws the suspicion of its central character, Allene. Kang has also written Star Wars novels. The catalogue holds 13 books from Control (2013) to K-Jane (2025), with genetic engineering, survival, kidnapping and conspiracies among the subjects.