Science book series in reading order

by Terry Deary

by Steve Hockensmith

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.

Terry Deary

340 books• 41 series

Terry Deary is a British children's author, born in 1946, best known as the writer of the Horrible Histories series. Deary has written 351 books, which have sold more than 38 million copies in over 45 languages, and has ranked among Britain's best-selling authors since 1994. In 2012 Deary was the tenth most-borrowed author in British libraries, and Books for Keeps magazine named Deary the Outstanding Children's Non-Fiction Author of the 20th Century. The catalogue lists 340 titles from Teaching Through Theatre (1977) onward, including the True Stories and Tudor Terror series.

Richard Dawkins

29 books• 2 series

Richard Dawkins, born 26 March 1941, is a British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator, author and noted atheist. Dawkins is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the first Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, serving from 1995 to 2008. Dawkins sits on the advisory board of the University of Austin, and awards include the 2005 Shakespeare Prize and the 2006 Lewis Thomas Prize. Catalogued books include River Out of Eden (1996), Unweaving the Rainbow (2000), A Devil's Chaplain (2003) and The Genetic Book of the Dead (2024). Evolution, natural selection, genetics and philosophy lead the subject tags.

Alan Lightman

30 books• 1 series

Alan Lightman, born in 1948, is an American physicist, writer and social entrepreneur who has taught at Harvard and at MIT, where he is a professor of the practice of the humanities and was among the first to hold a joint faculty post across the sciences and the humanities. Lightman contributes to The Atlantic and is a past member of the United Nations Scientific Advisory Board, and the writing works the seam between science, philosophy and religion. The catalogue holds 30 books, from a Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation (1975) to The Shape of Wonder (2025), taking in Einstein's Dreams (1992), Good Benito (1995) and The Diagnosis (2000). Cosmology, physics, philosophy and popular science head 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.

Carl Sagan

17 books• 2 series

Carl Sagan wrote popular science about astronomy, life on other planets and the search for signals from them. Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966) is the earliest catalogued title, followed by The Cosmic Connection, Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain and Cosmos (1980). Seventeen books make up the catalogue, fiction included, and it closed in 2006 with The Varieties of Scientific Experience.

Vaclav Smil

44 books• 2 series

Vaclav Smil, born December 9, 1943, is a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Environment in Winnipeg. Smil studies energy, environment, food, population, economics, history and public policy, and applies that work to China. The 44 books in the catalogue start with Energy In The Developing World: The Real Energy Crisis (1980) and include The Bad Earth (1984) and Energy In World History (1994). How to Feed the World (2025) is the newest.

Asia Citro writes children's fiction for grades 1 to 3, with 10 books published from 2017 to 2024. Catalogue subjects include science, experiments, ecology, rescue work, cats, dragons, unicorns, monsters and imaginary creatures. Dragons and Marshmallows (2017) is listed first, and Caterflies and Ice, Merhorses and Bubbles and Monsters and Mold also appeared in 2017. Unicorns and Germs (2018), Bips and Roses (2020) and Wishypoofs and Hiccups (2021) come later. Gnomes and Sneezes (2024) is the newest, and the median book runs to 96 pages.

Bill Bryson

28 books• 9 series

Bill Bryson (William McGuire Bryson, born 8 December 1951) is an American journalist and author who became a British citizen in 2014. Bryson writes nonfiction about travel, the English language and science. The site lists 28 books from Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (1984) through A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 (2025). Notes from a Small Island (1995) explores Britain, and A Walk in the Woods (1997) and The Mother Tongue (1990) are also listed. Bryson served as chancellor of Durham University from 2005 to 2011.

James Dashner

26 books• 7 series

The Maze Runner series and the young adult fantasy series The 13th Reality are what American writer James Dashner, born November 26, 1972, is best known for. Much of Dashner's speculative fiction is aimed at children or young adults. The Journal of Curious Letters (2008), first in The 13th Reality, was a Borders Original Voices pick. The Maze Runner reached cinemas in 2014, with further films in 2015 and 2018 grossing an estimated $949 million together. The catalogue lists 26 books from A Door in the Woods (2003) to The Infinite Glade (2025), with the Jimmy Fincher Saga, Mortality Doctrine and Maze Cutter among the series.

Dan Gutman

198 books• 23 series

Dan Gutman is an American writer of mainly children's fiction, born in 1955. The best-known lines are the My Weird School books, The Genius Files and the Baseball Card Adventures, which began with Honus & Me. The catalogue holds 198 books from It Ain't Cheating If You Don't Get Caught (1990) to Mrs. Towne Is a Clown! (2026), including early baseball titles such as Baseball Babylon (1992). Subjects include schools, teachers, baseball, time travel and humorous stories.

Arthur C. Clarke

74 books• 10 series

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (16 December 1917 to 19 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer and television host. Clarke promoted space travel in books and magazine essays, received UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for popularising science in 1961, and was called the Prophet of the Space Age. The Space Odyssey and Rama series appear in the catalogue with A Time Odyssey and Blue Planet, and Against the Fall of Night (1948), Prelude to Space (1950) and The Sands of Mars (1951) are among the early titles.

Steve Hockensmith is an American author born August 17, 1968, in Louisville, Kentucky. The catalogue holds 35 books from Tricks (2004) to Strong Medicine (2026). Series include Holmes On the Range, Nick and Tesla, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Tarot Mystery, Secret Smithsonian Adventures and the Double-A Western Detective Agency. Subjects cover mystery and detective stories, cowboys, science experiments and time travel.

Marthe Jocelyn, born 1956, is a Canadian author of more than 40 children's books. The Writers' Trust of Canada gave Jocelyn the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People in 2009, recognising a body of work judged inspirational to Canadian youth. The catalogue lists 39 books from The Invisible Day (1997) to One Kiss (2025), including Hannah and the Seven Dresses (1999), Earthly Astonishments (2000) and Mable Riley (2004). Invisible, Ready For and Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen are the series, and picture books and board books appear in the subjects.

Trudi Trueit writes for readers in grades 3 to 5. Beetles (2010) and Grasshoppers (2010) open a catalogue of 20 titles that reaches The Forbidden Island in 2024. Recorded subjects cover insects, science, identification, explorers, schools and boarding schools, food, and mystery and detective stories, so the listing mixes children's non-fiction with children's fiction. The median Trueit book runs 124 pages. Nanci R. Vargus shares the credit on one title.

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.

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.

H.G. Wells

152 books• 8 series

H.G. Wells, born Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946), was an English writer of more than forty novels and dozens of short stories. Science fiction novels are the work Wells is most known for today, and Wells shares the title of father of science fiction with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. The non-fiction covers social commentary, politics, history, popular science, satire, biography and autobiography. The catalogue opens with The Chronic Argonauts (1888) and includes The Time Machine (1895), The Wonderful Visit (1895) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896). Utopias, civilization and philosophy appear among the subjects.

Andrew Clements

83 books• 10 series

Andrew Clements (May 29, 1949 to November 28, 2019) was an American children's author. Frindle, the first Clements novel, won an award decided by the votes of schoolchildren in about 20 U.S. states, and received the 2016 Phoenix Award, given to a book that missed a major prize on first publication. The catalogue lists 83 books from Bird Adalbert (1985) to The Frindle Files (2024). Schools, teachers, friendship and dogs recur in the subjects. The Clements series include Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School, Jake Drake, Pets to the Rescue and Real Monsters.

Simon Winchester

36 books

Simon Winchester is a British-American author and journalist whose 36 catalogued books are largely narrative nonfiction: history, travel writing and biography. Winchester reported for The Guardian, covering Bloody Sunday and the Watergate scandal, and has contributed to magazines including Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian and National Geographic. The catalogue runs from In Holy Terror (1975) through Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (1985) and Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles (1988) to The Breath of the Gods (2025). One novel sits among the nonfiction.

Brian Greene

7 books

Brian Greene is an American physicist whose books take cosmology, physics and string theory as their subjects. Born in 1963, Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, directs its center for theoretical physics, and co-founded the World Science Festival in 2008. Seven books are catalogued: The Elegant Universe (1999), The Fabric of the Cosmos (2003), Icarus at the Edge of Time (2008), The Hidden Reality (2011), Al and Al and Light Falls (both 2016), and Until the End of Time (2020).

Richard Preston, born 1954, writes for The New Yorker and reports on infectious disease. The Hot Zone (1994) and Crisis in the Red Zone (2019) take up Ebola, molecular virology and epidemiology, and The Demon in the Freezer (2002) turns to bioterrorism. Preston also writes on astronomy in First Light (1987), on the steel trade in American Steel (1991) and on redwoods in The Wild Trees (2007), and writes fiction as well. Nine Preston titles are catalogued between 1987 and 2019.

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.

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.