Ship captains book series in reading order

by Patrick O’Brian

by Naomi Novik

by J.D. Davies

Dudley Pope wrote nautical fiction and naval history. Pope lived from 1925 to 1997 and published 37 catalogued books between Flag 4 (1954) and Ramage & the Dido (1989). The Nicholas Ramage novels are the best known work, set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and Ramage (1964) and Ramage and the Drum Beat (1968) sit early in that sequence. Buccaneer Ned Yorke is the second series. Histories of naval actions stand beside the novels, among them The Battle of the River Plate (1956) and 73 North: The Battle of the Barents Sea 1942 (1958). C.S. Forester was the acknowledged influence, and Pope's work is often set beside Patrick O'Brian's.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, a ship's captain and a ship's physician, carry Patrick O'Brian's sea novels from Master and Commander (1969). The catalogue holds 41 books reaching back to Caesar (1930), with standalone novels, short stories and non-fiction beside the Aubrey/Maturin run. Naval history and sea adventure supply the material, and the 1990s were the densest decade.

Naval historical fiction is Dewey Lambdin's genre, following the Royal Navy officer Alan Lewrie through sea stories set in British waters and the Caribbean. The King's Coat (1989) opens the sequence, followed by The French Admiral, The King's Commission, The King's Privateer, The Gun Ketch, H.M.S. Cockerel and A King's Commander. Twenty-seven titles make up the catalogue, which ends with Much Ado about Lewrie in 2019.

Clive Cussler

104 books• 9 series

Clive Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. Cussler founded and chaired the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has located more than 60 shipwreck sites. Cussler's thrillers, many of them featuring Dirk Pitt, reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. The catalogue lists 105 books under Cussler's name, beginning with The Mediterranean Caper (1973), with The Serpent's Eye due in 2027. Robin Burcell shares credit on 6 of them, Jack Du Brul on 5 and Grant Blackwood on 3. Series include Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files and Sea Hunters.

Naomi Novik

20 books• 3 series

Naomi Novik is an American author of speculative fiction. The Temeraire series (2006–2016) is an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons, and the Scholomance trilogy ran from 2020 to 2022. The standalone novels Uprooted (2015) and Spinning Silver (2018) draw on Polish folklore and the Rumpelstiltskin tale. Novik helped create the Organization for Transformative Works and co-founded the organisation's Archive of Our Own project. Awards include the Nebula, Locus and Mythopoeic. The catalogue lists 20 titles from His Majesty's Dragon (2006) to The Summer War (2025), with Liberty Vocational as a third series.

Harry Turtledove

141 books• 28 series

Harry Turtledove, born June 14, 1949, is an American historian and novelist of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and mystery, based in Southern California. The catalogue counts 142 books, starting with Wereblood and Werenight (1979), published as Eric G. Iverson, and listing The Succulent Succubus for 2027. Other pen names are H. N. Turteltaub, Dan Chernenko and Mark Gordian. The Videssos Cycle, Southern Victory / Timeline-191, Worldwar, Colonization, Crosstime Traffic, The War That Came Early and Gerin the Fox are among the series. World War II and the American Civil War are frequent subjects.

Carla Kelly (Carla Sue Kelly, born 1947) is an American Regency romance writer and a two-time winner of the Romance Writers of America RITA Award. Kelly calls the books "dukeless" regencies, stories of ordinary people solving their own problems. An interest in the American West shapes the earliest work and the nonfiction. Since 2011 Kelly, who has a Mormon background, has written five novels about young Mormon women, among them Borrowed Light and Safe Passage. The site lists 58 books from Daughter of Fortune (1985) to Navy Captain's Convenient Wife (2026).

Captain Richard Woodman (1944-2024) was an English merchant navy officer, novelist and naval historian who served mainly with Trinity House and retired in 1997 after a 37-year career at sea to write full time. Nathaniel Drinkwater carries the Napoleonic naval fiction, opening with An Eye of the Fleet (1981) and running through A King's Cutter (1982), A Brig of War (1983), The Bomb Vessel (1985) and Baltic Mission (1986). William Kite, Kit Faulkner, James Dunbar and Sword of the State follow, with A History of the British Merchant Navy and Keepers of the Sea on the nonfiction side. The catalogue holds 74 books through 2023, at a median 250 pages.

Joan Druett is a New Zealand historian and novelist working in maritime history and crime fiction. Exotic Intruders (1983) opens a catalogue of 28 titles that ends with The Discovery of Tahiti in 2019. The history covers whaling, ship captains, seafaring life and shipwreck survival, in Petticoat Whalers (1992), Hen Frigates (1998), She Captains (2000) and In the Wake of Madness (2003). The Wiki Coffin Mysteries supply the fiction, and the median Druett book runs 280 pages.

Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Stephanie Laurens is an Australian romance novelist and a winner of the Romance Writers of America RITA Award. The catalogue counts 105 books between Tangled Reins (1992) and Who Killed The Earl Of Moran? (2026). Cynster Next Generation, Bastion Club, Black Cobra Quartet, Casebook of Barnaby Adair and Legend of Nimway Hall are among the series, and subject tags name the Cynster family. Subjects also include historical Regency romance, England and the nobility.

Gilbert Morris produced Christian historical fiction at length: 248 catalogued books between 1977 and 2014. The House of Winslow follows one family across American history; the Appomattox Saga and Bonnets & Bugles take up the Civil War; Cheney Duvall, M.D. follows a woman physician; the Seven Sleepers, Dixie Morris and Too Smart Jones series sit alongside, with children's fiction among the subjects. The catalogue opens with Race Against Time (1977), reaches Raina's Choice, and is listed as likely complete.

Anita Stansfield writes Christian romance and family sagas, much of it with Mormon characters and settings. First Love and Forever (1994) opens a catalogue of 90 books built largely from sagas, Byrnehouse-Davies & Hamilton, the Trevor Family, the Buchanans, the Barringtons, the Keane-Morrisons and Shadows of Brierley. The Scoundrel's Widow (2022) is the newest catalogued title.

Jennifer Moore writes Regency historical romance, with 24 books catalogued from Becoming Lady Lockwood (2014) to A Lady's Guide to Love and Pirates (2026). Ship captains, socialites, widows and the Peninsular War are among the recorded subjects. The Blue Orchid Society is a series. Other titles include Lady Emma's Campaign (2014), Miss Burton Unmasks a Prince (2015), Simply Anna (2015) and Spring in Hyde Park (2016).

James L. Nelson

34 books• 6 series

Ships and sea warfare are James L. Nelson's material. Nelson writes naval historical fiction across the Isaac Biddlecomb novels of the American Revolution, the Thomas Marlowe books, the Samuel Bowater series, the Norsemen Saga and Blood, Steel, and Empire. Ship captains, naval operations and pirates recur throughout. Thirty-four catalogued titles run from By Force of Arms (1996) to Hispaniola Gold (2026).

Amanda McCabe writes historical romance and also publishes as Laurel McKee and Amanda Carmack. McCabe wrote a first romance at sixteen, a historical epic composed secretly during algebra class. Award nominations for the books include the Holt Medallion, the National Readers Choice Award, the RITA Award, the Booksellers Best and a Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers' Choice Award. The catalogue lists 73 books from Her Kind of Man (2000) to Secretary to the Socialite (2025). Series include Regency Rebels, Renaissance trilogy, Daughters of Erin, Bancrofts Of Barton Park, Debutantes in Paris, Dollar Duchesses and Tudor Queens. Regency romance, nobility, England and Ireland feature in the subjects. McCabe lives in Oklahoma.

Douglas Reeman wrote naval fiction under his own name and as Alexander Kent. Richard Bolitho heads one series and the Blackwood Family books form a second. The catalogue lists 69 titles published between 1958 and 2011, from A Prayer for the Ship (1958) to In the King's Name (2011). Sea stories, the Royal Navy, the Second World War and the Napoleonic wars run through the subjects. The books are long, at a median 320 pages, and output peaked in the 1970s.

Miranda Jarrett is a pen name of Susan Holloway Scott, who also publishes as Isabella Bradford. Under Jarrett the books are historical romance, much of it at sea: the Sparhawk series, ship captains, pirates and the Fairbournes of Cape Cod. The Penny House Novels, the Lordly Claremonts and Grand Passion on the Grand Tour complete the series list. The catalogue holds 30 books from Columbine (1992) to The Duke's Governess Bride (2010), at a median of 304 pages.

J.D. Davies writes about the Royal Navy in both history and fiction, with 21 catalogued books from 1991 to 2024. The nonfiction includes Gentlemen and Tarpaulins (1991), Pepys's Navy (2008), Britannia's Dragon (2013) and The Naval History of Wales (2024). The Journals of Matthew Quinton series follows a ship captain, opening with Gentleman Captain (2009) and continuing with Blood of Kings (2010) and The Mountain of Gold (2011). Davies also writes the Jack Stannard of the Navy Royal and Philippe Kermorvant series.

Sean Thomas Russell, born on 30 January 1952, is a Canadian writer of fantasy and of historical novels about the Royal Navy. Russell has published as Sean Russell and S. Thomas Russell, and wrote with Ian Dennis under the shared pseudonym T.F. Banks. The catalogue holds 15 books from The Initiate Brother (1991) to Until the Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead (2014). Six series are listed: Initiate Brother, Moontide and Magic Rise, River Into Darkness, Swan's War, Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner and Adventures of Charles Hayden. Titles include Gatherer of Clouds (1992), World Without End (1994), The One Kingdom (2001) and The Isle Of Battle (2002).