Science fiction, hard science fiction book series in reading order

by David Sherman

Fred Saberhagen

75 books• 10 series

Fred Saberhagen (Fred Thomas Saberhagen, May 18, 1930 to June 29, 2007) was an American science fiction and fantasy author, most famous for the Berserker stories and novels. Saberhagen also wrote vampire novels with Dracula as protagonist, and a post-apocalyptic sequence that opens with Empire of the East and continues through the Swords and Lost Swords books. The site lists 75 books from The Golden People (1964) onward, including Berserker (1967) and The Dracula Tape (1975). Subjects include robots, artificial intelligence and space warfare.

Piers Anthony is the publishing name of Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob, born August 6, 1934, an American science fiction and fantasy writer. The long-running Xanth novels, set in the imaginary realm of Xanth, are his best-known work. Anthony has counted among his chief achievements the publication of a book beginning with every letter of the alphabet, from Anthonology to Zombie Lover, and a number of his books have reached The New York Times Best Seller list. This catalogue lists 195 titles from Chthon (1967) to Knicklepede Knight (2026), including the Apprentice Adept, Cluster, Battle Circle, Mode and Incarnations of Immortality sequences.

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.

David Weber

90 books• 23 series

David Mark Weber, born October 24, 1952, is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. The Honor Harrington books are his best-known work, and his first novel, written with Steve White, sold to Baen Books in 1989; Baen has remained his principal publisher. Weber's catalogue holds 90 titles from Insurrection (1990) to Challenges (2025), spanning the Honorverse, Safehold, War God, Dahak and Gordian Division series. Space warfare, women soldiers and imaginary wars and battles run through the recorded subjects.

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.

William Shatner

33 books• 8 series

William Shatner, born on 22 March 1931, is a Canadian actor who played Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek from 1966 to 1994, from the second pilot of the original television series to Star Trek Generations. Shatner started in Canadian film and television before guest roles on American shows. The catalogue lists 33 Shatner books, from Shatner: Where No Man ... (1979) to Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder (2022), including TekWar (1989), Star Trek Memories (1993) and The Ashes of Eden (1995). Series include Quest for Tomorrow, Star Trek: Odyssey, Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Trilogy and Star Trek: Totality.

Gregory Benford

48 books• 7 series

Gregory Benford, born January 30, 1941, is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist, professor emeritus in physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, and a contributing editor of Reason magazine. The Galactic Center sequence, which Benford opened with In the Ocean of Night (1977), sets sentient organic life against sentient electromechanical life across a galaxy at war. Benford wrote The Scarred Man in 1969, the first story about a computer virus, published in 1970. The catalogue holds 48 books from 1969 to 2021, including Timescape (1980) and Shadows of Eternity (2021), with Jupiter Project and Martian Race among the other groupings.

Julian May

50 books• 7 series

Julian Clare May (July 10, 1931 - October 17, 2017) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's books, working under several pseudonyms as well. The Saga of Pliocene Exile, titled Saga of the Exiles in the United Kingdom, and the Galactic Milieu books are the work May is best known for. The catalogue holds 50 titles dated 1961 to 2015, opening with Robots and Thinking Machines. Much of the run is juvenile writing: profiles of Johnny Unitas, Willie Mays, Bobby Orr, Ernie Banks, Fran Tarkenton, Gale Sayers, Roberto Clemente and Billie Jean King all fall between 1972 and 1974, and Sports Close-Up is among the series on record. Median length across the catalogue is 47 pages.

Ron Goulart

135 books• 26 series

Ron Goulart (13 January 1933 to 14 January 2022) was an American historian of popular culture who also wrote mystery, fantasy and science fiction. Goulart published novels and novelizations under several pseudonyms, among them Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, Josephine Kains and Zeke Masters. The catalogue lists 135 books from The Sword Swallower (1968) to The Phantom (2018). Series under the name include Barnum System, John Easy, Odd Jobs, Inc, Jack Conger, TekWar, Vampirella and Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, and Groucho Marx and comic books appear among the subjects.

Sean Williams

43 books• 15 series

Sean Williams, full name Sean Llewellyn Williams and born 23 May 1967, is an Australian science fiction author living in Adelaide, South Australia, with several New York Times bestsellers. Catalogue subjects include space opera, hard science fiction, space warfare and fantasy. The 43 books run from Doorway to eternity (1994) to Little Labyrinths: Speculative Microfictions (2021), and Shane Dix shares the credit on 3. Series include Books of the Cataclysm, Evergence, Orphans Trilogy, Astropolis, Twinmaker and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

David Sherman (1944–2022) was an American novelist whose work focused on military themes at the small-unit tactical level, drawing on service in the United States Marines. The catalogue holds 39 books from Knives in the Night (1987) to The Last Campaigns (2021). Series include Starfist, Starfist: Force Recon, Night Fighter Saga, Demontech and 18th Race. Subjects include Marines, the Vietnam War and military science fiction.

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.

Greg Bear

52 books• 12 series

American science fiction writer Greg Bear was born on August 20, 1951 and died on November 19, 2022. Conflict, consciousness and accelerated evolution run through the work. Two novels, The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars, established Bear's reputation, and Moving Mars won a Nebula Award. Series include Eon, Queen of Angels, Songs of Earth and Power, Darwin's Radio and Halo: The Forerunner Saga. The 52 catalogued books begin with Psychlone (1979) and close with The Unfinished Land.

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.

Greg Egan is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, born in 1961 and known above all for hard science fiction. Egan has won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award and the Locus Award. Forty-four titles are catalogued from An Unusual Angle (1983) to Morphotrophic (2024), among them Quarantine (1992), Permutation City (1994), Distress (1995) and Diaspora (1997), with the Subjective Cosmology Cycle and Orthogonal as the two series. Short stories make up a large share of the catalogue.

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.

Mike Moscoe, born 2 August 1947, is an American science fiction writer living in Vancouver, Washington, who also publishes as Mike Shepherd. Moscoe grew up in a Navy family and moved often as a child. The catalogue holds 44 books from First Dawn (1996) to The South Shall Rise Again (2022), including Mutineer (2004) and Audacious (2007). Series include Kris Longknife, Vicky Peterwald, Rita Longknife: Iteeche War, Jump Universe, Lost Millennium and BattleTech: Mechwarrior Dark Age. Subjects cover space opera, navies, space warfare and women soldiers.

Pat Cadigan

30 books• 5 series

Pat Cadigan is a British-American science fiction author whose work sits with the cyberpunk movement and returns to the relationship between the human mind and technology. Mindplayers, the 1987 debut, drew a Philip K. Dick Award nomination the following year, and Synners (1991) and Fools (1992) follow it. The catalogue lists 30 books through 2025, at a median of 280 pages, with the 1990s the heaviest decade. Virtual reality, computer hackers and conscious automata recur as subjects, and Alita: Battle Angel and Artificial Reality Division are the named series.

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.

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.

Peter F. Hamilton

48 books• 18 series

Peter F. Hamilton is a British author of science fiction space opera, born in 1960. Catalogue entries run from Mindstar Rising (1993) to The Helium Sea (2026). Series include Greg Mandel, Night's Dawn, Commonwealth Saga, Commonwealth: Chronicle of the Fallers, Salvation Sequence, Arkship Trilogy, Archimedes Engine and Queen of Dreams. The Suspect Genome (1993), A Quantum Murder (1994) and The Reality Dysfunction (1996) are among the earlier titles. Space colonies, telepathy and space warfare appear in the subjects.

Larry Niven

93 books• 21 series

Larry Niven, born Laurence van Cott Niven in 1938, is an American science fiction writer working primarily in hard science fiction, with elements of detective fiction and adventure. Ringworld (1970) took the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Ditmar awards, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named Niven its Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in 2015. Jerry Pournelle co-wrote The Mote in God's Eye (1974) and Lucifer's Hammer (1977) with Niven. The catalogue holds 93 titles from The Coldest Place (1964) to Starborn and Godsons (2020). Series listed include Known Space, Ringworld Prequel / Fleet of the Worlds, Dream Park, Heorot, Moties, State and Magic Goes Away, a fantasy sequence treating magic as a non-renewable resource.

William R. Forstchen is an American historian and author, a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College in North Carolina, holding a doctorate from Purdue University. Military and alternative history, thrillers and speculative events run through the work. Three alternate Civil War novels were written with the politician Newt Gingrich, two of those with the writer Albert S. Hanser as well, and three further novels cover George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. The catalogue records 41 books from Ice Prophet (1983) to Five Years After (2023), with Lost Regiment and After/John Matherson among the series listed.

Stephen Baxter

78 books• 19 series

Time travel, alternative history, space exploration and prehistoric peoples run through the 78 catalogued books of Stephen Baxter, an English hard science fiction author born in 1957 who holds degrees in mathematics and engineering. Raft (1991), Timelike Infinity (1992), Anti-Ice (1993), Flux (1993), Ring (1994), The Time Ships (1995), Voyage (1996) and Titan (1997) are among the early titles, and Hearthspace (2025) is the newest. Series include the Xeelee Sequence, Manifold, Destiny's Children, Time's Tapestry, Northland, NASA Trilogy, Mammoth, Flood and World Engines.