Space colonies book series in reading order

by Allen M. Steele

by John Scalzi

by Paul J. McAuley

by Patrick Ness

by Christopher Paolini

Anne McCaffrey

96 books• 20 series

Anne McCaffrey (1 April 1926 to 21 November 2011) was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction, for the novella Weyr Search (1968), and the first to win a Nebula, for Dragonrider (1969). The White Dragon (1978) was among the earliest science fiction books on the New York Times Best Seller list. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master in 2005. The catalogue lists 96 books, from Restoree (1967) to Sky Dragons (2011), plus the Acorna, Crystal Singer and Tower and Hive series.

Space colonies, interplanetary voyages and space flight appear in the subject records for Allen M. Steele, a science fiction author tagged for both hard science fiction and space opera. The catalogue counts 45 books from Orbital Decay (1989) to Lemuria 7 (2026). Clarke County, Space (1990), Lunar Descent (1991), Labyrinth of Night (1992) and Rude Astronauts (1993) are early titles. Coyote is a listed series, and Coyote and Near-Space short fiction are grouped separately.

Alastair Reynolds

46 books• 7 series

Alastair Preston Reynolds, born 13 March 1966, is a Welsh science fiction author who specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Forty-nine books sit in the catalogue, from A Spy in Europa (1997) to Halcyon Years (2026). Revelation Space (2000), Chasm City (2001), Redemption Ark (2002) and Absolution Gap (2003) come early in the run. Revelation Space, Revenger, Poseidon's Children, Medusa Chronicles and the Inspector Dreyfus books are the series credited to Reynolds. Subjects on record include life on other planets, space colonies, space warfare, time travel and human-alien encounters.

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.

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.

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.

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.

John Scalzi

75 books• 17 series

John Scalzi, born May 10, 1969, is an American science fiction author and a former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The Old Man's War series is Scalzi's best known work, and three of its novels earned Hugo Award nominations. Scalzi has kept the blog Whatever since 1998, won the 2008 Hugo for Best Fan Writer largely on its strength, and used it for charity drives. Non-fiction subjects include finance, video games, film, astronomy, writing and politics, and Scalzi consulted on the series Stargate Universe. The catalogue holds 75 titles from Rough Guide to Money Online (2000) to Monsters of Ohio (2026), including Agent to the Stars (2004), Old Man's War (2005) and The Android's Dream (2006).

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.

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.

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.

Kim Stanley Robinson

43 books• 11 series

Kim Stanley Robinson, born March 23, 1952, is an American science fiction writer best known for the Mars trilogy. Robinson's novels and stories frequently carry ecological, cultural and political themes and make scientists the heroes. Robinson has won the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic described the work as the gold standard of realistic, highly literary science fiction. Catalogued titles include Icehenge and The Wild Shore (both 1984), The Memory of Whiteness (1985) and The Best Journey in the World (2026), plus The Novels of Philip K. Dick (1984). Series include Mars Trilogy, Three Californias Triptych and Capital Code/Science In The Capital.

Sharon Lee, born September 11, 1952, is an American author of science fiction, fantasy and mystery who lived in Winslow, Maine, from 1988 to 2018 and then moved to Waterville. Lee co-writes the Liaden universe novels and stories with Steve Miller and has written mystery and fantasy novels alone. The catalogue lists 99 books from The Naming of Kinzel (1987) to Civilized Behavior (2025), including Agent of Change (1988) and Conflict of Honors (1988). Other series include Archers Beach, Jennifer Pierce and Duainfey.

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.

Stuart Gibbs

46 books• 10 series

Stuart Gibbs writes mystery and adventure fiction for readers in grades six to eight. Belly Up (2010) opens the FunJungle series, set around a zoo, and Spy School, Moon Base Alpha, Charlie Thorne, The Last Musketeer and Once Upon a Tim follow. Forty-two catalogued books reach 2027, when There's No Place like Rome arrives.

Andre Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 to March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy who also produced historical and contemporary fiction, and used the names Andrew North and Allen Weston as well. Norton was the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master, and the first inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The catalogue carries 209 books from The Prince Commands (1934) onward. Witch World, Solar Queen, Time Traders, Beast Master and Forerunner are series.

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.

Charles Stross

74 books• 13 series

Charles Stross is a British science fiction and fantasy writer, born 18 October 1964, who specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. The Laundry Files, featuring Bob Howard, mixes intelligence work with demonology. Other series are Merchant Princes, Singularity Sky, Halting State, Empire Games and Freyaverse. The catalogue lists 74 entries from Deathwing (1980) to Apostle (2026), including A Colder War (2000), Antibodies (2000) and Lobsters (2001).

Brian Herbert

61 books• 14 series

Brian Patrick Herbert, born 29 June 1947, is an American author known for his work on the Dune franchise created by his father, Frank Herbert. Herbert's own novels include Sidney's Comet (1983), Sudanna Sudanna, Prisoners of Arionn and Man of Two Worlds, written with Frank Herbert. Dreamer of Dune (2003) is Herbert's biography of his father, and Herbert has edited Songs of Muad'dib and the Notebooks of Frank Herbert's Dune. The catalogue lists 61 books to 2024, with Kevin J. Anderson sharing the credit on 6. Series include Legends Of Dune, the Timeweb Chronicles, the Hellhole Trilogy, Stolen Gospels and several Dune graphic novel sets.

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.

Ken MacLeod

31 books• 8 series

Ken MacLeod, born in 1954, is a Scottish science fiction writer whose novels The Sky Road and The Night Sessions each won the BSFA Award, with further nominations for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Campbell Memorial awards. A techno-utopianist, MacLeod works libertarian socialist themes through his fiction and has taken the Prometheus Award three times. He was a Guest of Honour at the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow in 2024 and sits on the advisory board of the Edinburgh Science Festival. Twenty-six books span 1995 to 2024, including the Fall Revolution, Engines of Light and Corporation Wars sequences.

Paul J. McAuley

44 books• 7 series

Paul J. McAuley, born 23 April 1955, is a British botanist and science fiction author who writes mostly hard science fiction. Biotechnology, alternative history and space travel are recurring themes in McAuley's novels. The first was the far-future space opera Four Hundred Billion Stars (1988), followed by Eternal Light and the planetary-colony adventure Of the Fall. Red Dust (1993) is set on a far-future Mars colonised by the Chinese. The catalogue holds 44 McAuley books running to Loss Protocol (2026), and the series include Quiet War and Confluence.

K.B. Wagers writes science fiction, including the NeoG, Indranan War and Farian War series. Subjects cover space opera, space colonies, space warfare, princesses and suspense. The 10 books run from 2016 to 2024, starting with Behind the Throne (2016) and After the Crown (2016). A Pale Light in the Black (2020) and The Ghosts of Trappist (2023) come later, and And the Mighty Will Fall (2024) is the newest. Median length is 432 pages.

Pierce Brown

10 books• 2 series

Pierce Brown writes science fiction, and the Red Rising saga accounts for the whole catalogue. Red Rising (2014), Golden Son (2015) and Morning Star (2016) come first, followed by the Iron Gold tetralogy, which runs from Iron Gold and Dark Age (2018) to Lightbringer (2023). Ten catalogued books carry Brown's name, graphic novels made with Rik Hoskin among them. Dystopia and resistance to government are the recurring subjects.