Human-alien encounters book series in reading order

by John Norman

by Timothy Zahn

by Christopher Paolini

C.J. Cherryh

105 books• 23 series

C.J. Cherryh is the pen name of Carolyn Janice Cherry, an American writer of speculative fiction born September 1, 1942. The silent h came at the prompting of editor Donald A. Wollheim, who judged that Cherry read like the name of a romance writer. Downbelow Station (1981) and Cyteen (1988), both set in the Alliance-Union universe, each won the Hugo Award, and the Foreigner series sits alongside them among Cherryh's notable work. The catalogue holds 105 books from Brothers of Earth (1976) to Alliance Unbound (2024). Worldbuilding grounded in research across history, language, psychology and archeology is what Cherryh is known for.

John Ringo, born March 22, 1963, is an American author of science fiction and military fiction, with several New York Times best sellers. The work ranges from straight science fiction to military and political thrillers, and more than seven million copies are in print in seven languages. The catalogue starts with A Hymn Before Battle (2000), followed by Gust Front, March Upcountry and March to the Sea in 2001, and reaches Beyond the Rift (2026). Series include Posleen War, Black Tide Rising, Council Wars, Looking Glass, Troy Rising, Von Neumann's War and Special Circumstances. Subjects include space warfare, human-alien encounters, Navy SEALs and survival.

Whitley Strieber

49 books• 4 series

Whitley Strieber, born Louis Whitley Strieber on June 13, 1945, is an American writer best known for the horror novels The Wolfen (1978) and The Hunger (1980) and for Communion, a non-fiction account of Strieber's reported encounters with non-human entities. Alongside fiction, Strieber promotes metaphysical ideas through bestselling non-fiction, the Unknown Country website and the Dreamland podcast. The catalogue holds 49 books, including Black Magic (1982), The Night Church (1983), Warday (1984), Cat Magic (1986) and Nature's End (1986), and runs to Transformation 2026. Communion, Hunger and Alien Hunter are the series, and UFOs, alien abduction and vampires appear in the subjects.

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).

Timothy Zahn

98 books• 26 series

Timothy Zahn, born September 1, 1951, is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy who grew up in Lombard, Illinois. The Star Wars books, above all the Thrawn trilogy, are the core of Zahn's reputation, and those novels are credited with reviving interest in the franchise. Original series include Cobra, Blackcollar, Dragonback, Quadrail, Conquerors Saga, Icarus and Sibyl's War. The catalogue lists 99 books by Zahn, starting with The Blackcollar (1983); Trap Line appeared in 2025 and A Call to Deception is due in 2027.

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.

Joshua Dalzelle writes science fiction built on human-alien encounters, space colonies and imaginary wars. Omega Force is his first sequence, opening with Omega Rising (2013), and Terran Scout Fleet, the Black Fleet Trilogy, the Expansion Wars Trilogy, the Unification War Trilogy and Gates of Babylon follow it. Thirty-eight books reach Killshot (2026), and Dalzelle is still publishing.

Eric Brown was a British science fiction author and a critic for The Guardian, born on 24 May 1960 and died on 21 March 2023. Catalogue subjects include space opera, human-alien encounters, space colonies and mystery. The earliest listed book is The Time Lapsed Man And Other Stories (1990), followed by Meridian Days (1992) and Engineman (1994). Series credited to Brown include Langham and Dupré Mystery, Starship Seasons, Telemass Quartet, Virex Trilogy and Bengal Station.

Brian Lumley

67 books• 9 series

Brian Lumley wrote horror fiction in English. Lumley's early work entered the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft but brought in a new figure, Titus Crow; the Necroscope books, centred on Harry Keogh and his contact with the dead, reached a far wider readership in the 1980s. Sixty-seven books are catalogued between The Caller of the Black (1971) and Brian Lumley's The Best of the Rest (2023), across series including Titus Crow, Dreamlands, Psychomech, Tales of the Primal Land and House Of Doors. Vampires, human-alien encounters and short story collections recur throughout.

Joe Haldeman

48 books• 10 series

Joe Haldeman is an American science fiction writer whose 48 catalogued books begin with War Year (1972). The Forever War (1974) is his best known novel, drawn from his service as a combat soldier in Vietnam, and the Forever War name extends across later books, comics and graphic novel adaptations. The Hemingway Hoax (1991) and Forever Peace (1997) took Hugo and Nebula awards alongside it. Worlds, Marsbound and Attar The Merman are his other series. Human-alien encounters, space colonies, hard science fiction and war supply the subject matter. Haldeman received the SFWA Grand Master award, entered the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012, and taught writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1983 to 2014.

Liu Cixin

32 books• 1 series

Liu Cixin is a Chinese science fiction writer and computer engineer, born in 1963 and published in English translation as Cixin Liu. The Three-Body Problem (2006) took the 2015 Hugo Award and Death's End the 2017 Locus Award; Liu has also won China's Galaxy Award nine times and the Chinese Nebula Award, and serves as vice president of the Shanxi Writers Association. Thirty-three titles are catalogued from 1998 onward, among them Ball Lightning (2004), The Wandering Earth (2005) and The Dark Forest (2008). Human-alien encounters, imaginary wars and survival recur as subjects.

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.

Orson Scott Card

114 books• 29 series

Orson Scott Card, born August 24, 1951, is an American writer known chiefly for science fiction. Card is the only person, as of 2024, to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in consecutive years, for Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). Card coproduced the 2013 film of Ender's Game. The Tales of Alvin Maker won the Locus Fantasy Award. The catalogue counts 114 books from A Planet Called Treason / Treason (1978) to Ender's Tribe (2026), with Homecoming Saga, Mither Mages, Worthing and Women of Genesis among the other series.

Gena Showalter is an American novelist, born in Oklahoma in 1975, who writes contemporary romance, paranormal romance and young adult fiction. Showalter sold a first book at age 27 and has reached the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. The catalogue lists 116 books from The Stone Prince (2004) to The Kraken Bride (2026). Lords of the Underworld, Alien Huntress, Angels of the Dark and the White Rabbit Chronicles are among the linked series, and vampires and demonology recur in the subject headings.

Nnedi Okorafor

40 books• 11 series

Nnedi Okorafor, born Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor on April 8, 1974, is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for children and adults. The Binti series and the novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control lead Okorafor's body of work, which also takes in comics and film. Okorafor coined the terms Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism for this writing and has won the Hugo, Nebula, Eisner and World Fantasy awards. The catalogue lists 40 books from Zahrah the Windseeker (2005) to The Daughter Who Remains (2026).

Evan Currie, born in 1976, is a Canadian writer of space opera, military science fiction and techno-thrillers. His 41 catalogued books span 2011 to 2026, from Into the Black (2011) to Once and Future (2026), grouped into sequences including Odyssey One, Warrior's Wings, Archangel One, Imperium of Terra, Scourwind Legacy, Superhuman, Anselm Gunnar and SEAL Team 13. Human-alien encounters, interplanetary voyages, space warfare and conspiracies are the recurring subjects. Currie studied computer sciences and has worked in the lobster industry, and his books have been translated into Polish and German.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, born June 4, 1960, is an American writer and editor who works across science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance and mainstream fiction under several pen names, Kristine Grayson among them. Awards to Kristine Kathryn Rusch include the 2001 Hugo for Best Novelette (Millennium Babies), the 2003 Endeavour Award (The Disappeared) and two Sidewise Awards, for Recovering Apollo 8 in 2008 and The Enemy Within in 2015. Rusch is married to the writer Dean Wesley Smith, who shares credit on 4 catalogued books. The listing runs from the 1988 short story Stained Black to 2026 and includes the Retrieval Artist, Diving Universe, Fey and Oregon Coast / Seavy Village series plus Star Trek tie-ins.

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.

Jennifer L. Armentrout is an American writer of young adult novels, with subjects spanning romance, fantasy, science fiction, gods, magic and human-alien encounters. The catalogue begins in 2011 with Daimon and Half-Blood, followed by Obsidian, Onyx and Opal in 2012. Listed series include Covenant, Lux, Wait for You, Dark Elements, Origin, de Vincent, Wicked Trilogy, Blood and Ash and Flesh and Fire. The catalogue also carries dramatized audio adaptations of the Blood and Ash books.

Steven Erikson

33 books• 5 series

Steven Erikson writes epic fantasy. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, opened by Gardens of the Moon (1999), is the central sequence, and 33 catalogued books reach Legacies of Betrayal in 2026 by way of the Kharkanas Trilogy, the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas and the Willful Child science fiction. Imaginary wars, magic and invented places run through the subjects.

Neal Asher

44 books• 10 series

Neal Asher, born in 1961, is an English science fiction writer living near Chelmsford. Asher's fiction works in space opera and military science fiction: artificial intelligence, human-alien encounters, space warfare and dystopias run through it. The Polity universe holds most of the catalogue, with Agent Cormac, Spatterjay, Rise of the Jain and Far Future Polity set inside it, and the Owner Trilogy standing apart. Forty-four books span 1994 to 2026, from Africa Zero to Dark Agent.

William C. Dietz

66 books• 18 series

William Corey Dietz, January 30, 1945 to March 15, 2026, was an American science fiction writer working principally in military science fiction and video game novelizations. Sixty-six titles are catalogued, from Galactic Bounty / War World (1986) to Red Dawn (2025). Series include Sam McCade, Drifter, Winds of War, Mutant Files, America Rising and Star Wars: Dark Forces, and Legion of the Damned stands as the recurring character entry. Subjects name space opera, space warfare, human-alien encounters and imaginary wars. David Drake shares credit on one title.

Dan Abnett

224 books• 95 series

Dan Abnett, born 12 October 1965, is an English novelist and comic book writer. Abnett has written for Marvel Comics and its UK imprint Marvel UK since the 1990s, for 2000 AD and for DC Comics, often in partnership with Andy Lanning. Abnett's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 novels and graphic novels for Games Workshop's Black Library number several dozen and have sold more than two million copies. Abnett's first original novels came from Angry Robot in 2009. The catalogue lists 224 books from Uther, the Half Dead King (1993) to Legends of the Waaagh! (2026), across series such as Gaunt's Ghosts, Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Guardians of the Galaxy and Aquaman graphic novels.

Robert J. Sawyer

36 books• 6 series

Canadian and American science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer was born in Ottawa on April 29, 1960. Sawyer has published 25 novels, and short fiction by Sawyer has appeared in Analog, Amazing Stories, On Spec and Nature. Awards include the Nebula for Best Novel in 1995, the Hugo for Best Novel in 2003, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2006 and the Robert A. Heinlein Award in 2017, plus more Aurora Awards than any other writer. The catalogue has 36 books from Golden Fleece (1990) to Sawyer on Science Fiction (2026), including the Quintaglio Ascension, Neanderthal Parallax and WWW series.