War stories book series in reading order

by Jim Butcher

by Richard Yancey

by Sarah J. Maas

W.E.B. Griffin was the best-known pen name of William Edmund Butterworth III (November 10, 1929 to February 12, 2019), an American author of military and detective fiction. Under the Griffin name Butterworth published 59 novels across seven series, 21 of them written with Butterworth's son, William E. Butterworth IV. The catalogue files 194 titles here, including 1960s books issued as W.E. Butterworth, Webb Beech and Walker E. Blake. Series include Brotherhood of War, Presidential Agent and M*A*S*H, and World War II and the U.S. Marine Corps recur in the subjects.

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.

Sarah J. Maas, born March 5, 1986, is an American fantasy author known for three series: Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City. The catalogue holds 45 books dated 2012 to 2027, starting in 2012 with The Assassin and the Pirate Lord and Throne of Glass, then Crown of Midnight in 2013. A Court of Splintered Harmony (2026) is the newest release, and A Court of Forgotten Melody is scheduled for 2027. Subjects across the books include fairies, assassins, magic, courts and courtiers, and romance. By 2024 Maas had sold more than 75 million copies, with translations in 40 languages.

Anne Perry

111 books• 14 series

Anne Perry (28 October 1938 – 10 April 2023), born Juliet Marion Hulme, was a British writer of historical detective fiction. Perry wrote the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels and the William Monk series. In 1994 it became public that Perry, at fifteen, had been convicted in 1954 in Christchurch, New Zealand, of murdering Honorah Parker, mother of Perry's friend Pauline Parker; after a five-year sentence, Perry took a new name and returned to the United Kingdom. The catalogue holds 111 Perry books, opening with The Cater Street Hangman (1979) and reaching Death Times Seven (2026). Other series include Daniel Pitt, Elena Standish, Timepiece and Tathea.

Jeff Shaara writes historical war fiction, and the 21 catalogued books cover the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II and the Korean War. Gods and Generals (1996) opens the list, followed by The Last Full Measure (1998) and Gone for Soldiers (2000). Series lines group the novels by conflict, among them World War II: 1939-1945 and Civil War: 1861-1865, Western Theater. The Unfinished Work of Abraham Lincoln (2026) is the newest title. Born Jeffrey M. Shaara on February 21, 1952, Shaara is the son of the Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Shaara.

Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell (1921-1994), known as James Clavell, was a British and American writer and filmmaker who served as a British Army officer in the Second World War. The Asian Saga novels, some adapted for film and television, are the work he is best known for. The catalogue lists 10 books from King Rat (1962) to Escape (1995), including Tai-Pan (1966), Shogun (1975), Noble House (1981), Whirlwind (1986) and Gai-Jin (1993). Clavell also wrote the screenplays for The Fly (1958) and The Great Escape (1963), and wrote and directed To Sir, with Love (1967). Subjects include prisoners of war, Hong Kong and World War II.

Herman Wouk

24 books• 3 series

The Second World War is Herman Wouk's largest subject, in naval and historical fiction alike. The Caine Mutiny (1951) and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1954) sit early in the catalogue, with Marjorie Morningstar (1955) and Youngblood Hawke (1962) after them. The Henry Family novels and Hope and the Glory are the two series. Twenty-four titles are catalogued, ending with Nature's Way in 2020, and the 1950s were the peak decade.

Military fiction is Harold Coyle's territory: soldiers, terrorism, and imaginary wars and battles. The American novelist, born in 1952, has 27 catalogued books published between 1987 and 2025, beginning with Team Yankee (1987) and reaching No Small Thing (2025). Series include Scott Dixon, Nathan Dixon, Cyber Knights, a U.S. Civil War sequence and Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc. Coyle graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, spent 14 years in the US Army, and served in the Persian Gulf War. He has also published as H.W. Coyle and written with Barrett Tillman and Jennifer Ellis.

Bernard Cornwell

67 books• 10 series

Bernard Cornwell is an English historical novelist, born on 23 February 1944, who has also written a history of the Waterloo campaign. The Richard Sharpe novels, about a rifleman in the Napoleonic Wars, are Cornwell's best-known work. The Saxon Stories run to thirteen novels about how England was unified. Cornwell's historical fiction draws mainly on English history across five series, alongside one series of contemporary thrillers, and the historical novels carry an end note comparing the story to the historical record. The catalogue lists 67 books from 1981, when Sharpe's Gold appeared, to Sharpe's Storm (2025).

Military aviation drives Dale Brown's technological thrillers. Patrick McLanahan and Brad McLanahan are the recurring characters across a catalogue of 52 books that opens with Flight of the Old Dog (1987) and reaches Devil's Fortress (2024). Dreamland, Puppet Master, Nick Flynn and the Jason Richter books are the named series. The United States Air Force, weapons systems, espionage and terrorism fill the subject tags.

Leigh Bardugo

25 books• 12 series

Leigh Bardugo is an American fantasy author, born April 6, 1975, best known for the young adult Grishaverse: the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows and King of Scars duologies. Ninth House was Bardugo's paranormal fantasy debut for adults. Netflix adapted Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows as the series Shadow and Bone, Amazon Studios holds Ninth House, and Bardugo is an executive producer on both. The catalogue lists 25 books from Shadow and Bone / The Gathering Dark (2012) to A Darker Shore (2026), with Alex Stern and Language of Thorns among the series.

Espionage, terrorism and the Second World War supply Jack Higgins with his material. Higgins published the earliest of 76 catalogued books as Harry Patterson, among them Sad Wind from the Sea (1959), Cry of the Hunter (1960) and Hell Is Too Crowded (1962). Sean Dillon, Paul Chavasse, Liam Devlin and Martin Fallon head series of their own, alongside standalone thrillers. The Midnight Bell, published in 2016, closes the catalogue.

Alan Furst wrote espionage novels set in Europe before and during the Second World War, among resistance movements and intelligence services. The catalogue opens with earlier crime writing, Your Day in the Barrel (1976), The Paris Drop (1980), The Caribbean Account (1981) and Shadow Trade (1984), then turns to the Night Soldiers books with Night Soldiers (1988) and Dark Star (1991). 22 titles are catalogued in all, closing with Under Occupation in 2019.

Jim Butcher

48 books• 7 series

Jim Butcher, born October 26, 1971, is an American author of the contemporary fantasy series The Dresden Files, as well as Codex Alera and Cinder Spires. Storm Front (2000) opens the catalogue, which includes Fool Moon (2001), Grave Peril (2001), Summer Knight (2002) and Furies of Calderon (2004), and runs to Out Law: A Dresden Files Novella (2026). Harry Dresden, wizards, private investigators and Chicago appear among the subjects. Butcher is still publishing.

Adrian Tchaikovsky

83 books• 21 series

Adrian Tchaikovsky is the name under which British author Adrian Czajkowski, born in June 1972, publishes fantasy and science fiction. The natural world shapes the writing, which often treats artificial intelligence and alienness through non-human characters. Tchaikovsky is best known for Shadows of the Apt and for the Children of Time series, which won a Hugo Award; Children of Time also took the 30th Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016. The catalogue holds 86 books, opening with Empire in Black and Gold (2008), and Last Song of Ash is due in 2027. Further series include Final Architecture, Tyrant Philosophers, Dogs of War and Echoes of the Fall.

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.

P.T. Deutermann writes naval fiction and thrillers drawn from United States Navy service. Scorpion in the Sea (1992), The Edge of Honor and Official Privilege sit early in a catalogue of 29 books, the World War II Navy novels form its largest strand, and the Cam Richter mysteries run alongside. The Screaming Sands is scheduled for 2027.

G.A. Henty wrote historical adventure stories for young readers. The catalogue holds 109 Henty titles, opening with A Search for a Secret (1867) and closing at The Plague Ship (2002). War, military history and the conduct of life are the recurring subjects, and much of the work sits in England and the wider British past. Early titles include The March to Magdala (1868), Out on the Pampas (1870) and The Young Franc Tireurs (1872).

Jane Yolen

237 books• 22 series

Jane Yolen (Jane Hyatt Yolen, February 11, 1939 to June 11, 2026) was an American author of fantasy, science fiction and children's books. The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella, is the best-known Yolen work, and Owl Moon and The Emperor and the Kite are among the others. The short works Sister Emily's Lightship and Lost Girls both won Nebula Awards. The catalogue counts 237 books from The Witch Who Wasn't (1964) to Daddy Plays a Mean Guitar (2026). Series include Commander Toad, How Do Dinosaurs...?, Pit Dragons, the Young Merlin Trilogy, Books of the Great Alta and Tartan Magic. Yolen worked as an editor, collaborated most often with Adam Stemple, and in 2012 became the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture.

Scott Westerfeld

42 books• 18 series

Scott David Westerfeld, born May 5, 1963, is an American young adult writer known for the Uglies and Leviathan series. Other series include Midnighters, Peeps, Impostors, Zeroes and Spill Zone. The 42 catalogued books include Polymorph (1997), Fine Prey (1998), Evolution's Darling (2000) and The Risen Empire (2003). Subjects include science fiction, personal beauty, brainwashing and teenage girls. The Mortons (2026) is the newest title.

Sven Hassel was the pen name of Borge Willy Redsted Pedersen, a Danish writer who lived from 1917 to 2012 and published in Denmark as Sven Hazel. The novels follow German soldiers through the Second World War, across the Soviet Union, Italy, Poland and Germany. Legion of the Damned (1953) opens a run of 16 catalogued books, among them Wheels of Terror (1958), Assignment Gestapo (1963), Monte Cassino (1963), Liquidate Paris (1967), SS General (1969) and Reign of Hell (1973), with a comic book adaptation following in 2019. Hassel presented himself as a Wehrmacht veteran who fought at the Battle of Berlin in 1945, but post-war investigations established those claims as fabrications. Hassel ranks among the bestselling Danish authors.

Daniel Abraham

17 books• 5 series

Daniel Abraham (Daniel James Abraham, born November 14, 1969) is an American novelist, comic book writer, screenwriter and television producer who also writes as M. L. N. Hanover and, with Ty Franck, as James S. A. Corey. The Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin are fantasy series, and The Expanse, co-written with Franck, became a television series (2015 to 2022). A Shadow in Summer (2006) is the first of 18 catalogued books. Kithamar is another series, and Judge of Worlds is due in 2027.

Michael Morpurgo

171 books• 5 series

Sir Michael Morpurgo, born 5 October 1943, is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist best known for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). Morpurgo served as the third Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005 and is President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity. Recurring themes include outsiders who triumph, survival and bonds with nature, set in places such as the Cornish coast and the First World War trenches. The catalogue holds 171 books from It Never Rained (1974) to Down Burrow Lane (2026), including the Mudpuddle Farm series.

William H. Keith writes military fiction and science fiction. Naval warfare supplies much of the subject matter, from Navy SEALs and aircraft carriers to submarines, naval battles and the Vietnam War, with men's adventure and espionage alongside. The catalogue runs to 116 titles dated between 1985 and 2021, and the 1990s are its busiest decade. SEAL Team Seven, Carrier, Warstrider, Silent Service, Freedom's Rangers, Cybernarc and Renegade Legion are among the series. The listing also carries tabletop game material, sourcebooks and CD-ROM game guides under Keith's name, including Twilight: 2000 titles. No book is listed after 2021.