James S. A. Corey

1 universe1 series17 books

James S.A. Corey is the pen name of collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the writing team behind The Expanse series. Abraham is an established novelist in his own right, with work spanning epic fantasy and science fiction; Franck began his career as an assistant to George R.R. Martin. The two met through that connection and began developing what would become The Expanse together. The series began with Leviathan Wakes in 2011 and ran to nine novels, following humanity several centuries into the future as it has colonised the solar system and fractured politically along the lines of Earth, Mars, and the outer planets. Praised for its scientific rigour, morally complex characters, and political realism, it is widely regarded as one of the defining works of contemporary science fiction. A television adaptation ran for six seasons. Abraham and Franck have continued writing together under the Corey name with a new series, The Captive's War, beginning in 2025.

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Reading Orders

The Expanse - 1 reading order for 17 books

Universes (1)

The Expanse
1 series by this author
Two hundred years from now, humanity has spread across the solar system but remains trapped within it. Earth is overcrowded and politically dominant, Mars is a century into a terraforming project that defines its culture, and the Belt is home to workers whose bodies have been reshaped by low gravity and whose relationship with the inner planets is one of economic dependency and mutual contempt. Into this tense three-way standoff comes the protomolecule: an alien substance billions of years old that does not behave like biology or technology but something in between. Its discovery drives the first half of the series. The second half opens outward, through a network of gates to thirteen hundred new solar systems, and the question shifts from what the protomolecule is to what happened to the civilisation that built it. Hard science fiction with real physics, grounded politics, and a small crew on a single ship who keep finding themselves at the centre of events that dwarf them.

Series (1)

The Expanse
The Expanse
Nine novels following the crew of the Rocinante - a salvaged Martian warship captained by James Holden - across more than four decades of solar system politics, war, and first contact. The series spans three loose acts: a conspiracy thriller set within the solar system, an expansion through alien gates to a thousand new worlds, and a final reckoning with whatever destroyed the civilisation that built them. Written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the pen name James S.A. Corey, the series won the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2020 and is complete at nine books.

Books (17)

Caliban's War

The Expanse

2012

A child goes missing on Ganymede, the solar system's most important agricultural station, during a firefight between Earth and Mars that nobody officially started. Holden and the Rocinante are drawn into the search while Martian marine Bobbie Draper tries to report what she actually saw, and UN politician Avasarala manoeuvres between the great powers trying to prevent a war that several parties are actively trying to start. Introduces the series' strongest supporting cast and significantly expands its political scope.

Drive

2012

A short story set roughly 150 years before the main series. Solomon Epstein, a Belter engineer, tests a new fusion drive modification on his personal shuttle and discovers he cannot turn it off. The story that explains how humanity got to the stars - or rather, to the edges of its own solar system. Essential context for understanding the physics and culture of the Expanse universe, told in minutes of accelerating terror.

Gods of Risk

2012

David Draper, nephew of Martian marine Bobbie Draper, is a chemistry student on Mars who gets pulled into supplying precursor chemicals to a drug operation. A ground-level view of Martian society during the events of Caliban's War - the claustrophobia of the domes, the weight of the terraforming project, and what the war looks like to people who aren't fighting it. Best read after Caliban's War.

Abaddon's Gate

The Expanse

2013

The protomolecule has built a massive ring structure beyond the orbit of Uranus and humanity has sent a fleet to investigate. Holden and the Rocinante are there, and so is a church pastor, a security officer, and a Martian marine with unfinished business. When the ring activates and traps the fleet in an alien space, the danger is less the unknown technology than the humans trapped alongside it. Closes the first act of the series and opens the door to everything that follows.

The Churn

2014

Baltimore, before the stars. Amos Burton - then still going by a different name - is a young man surviving in a city where the basic income has made unskilled labour worthless and crime is one of the few remaining economies. The story of how Amos became Amos, and why he left Earth and never looked back. Technically a prequel but best read after Nemesis Games, when you already know who Amos is and what this backstory costs him.

Cibola Burn

The Expanse

2014

The gates to new worlds have opened and the first wave of settlers has already landed on a habitable planet they are calling Ilus, only to find a corporate colony ship arriving to claim the same ground under a UN charter. Holden is sent to mediate. Neither side wants mediation. Meanwhile something on Ilus is waking up. The most self-contained novel in the series, structured as a siege story on an alien world, with the highest environmental stakes of any book in the sequence.

Nemesis Games

The Expanse

2015

For the first time in the series, the crew of the Rocinante splits up. Each goes home, or to whatever passes for home, while Holden stays with the ship. Then the solar system falls apart. The most character-driven novel in the sequence, revealing backstories that were carefully withheld across the first four books, and delivering consequences that reshape the series from this point forward. Widely considered the best entry point for readers who bounced off the earlier books.

The Vital Abyss

2015

A scientist who worked on the Eros incident is being held in a Belter detention facility with other Protogen researchers, years after the events of Leviathan Wakes. Told from his perspective as he waits to learn his fate, reconstructing what his colleagues did and why, and what it means that he is still alive. A cold, unsettling portrait of how good people participate in atrocities. Best read between Nemesis Games and Babylon's Ashes.

Babylon's Ashes

The Expanse

2016

The Free Navy has shattered the inner planets' supply chains and humanity is starving. Holden and a coalition of desperate allies have to stop a war of attrition they are already losing. The most politically complex novel in the series, told through the largest cast of POV characters, including the enemy. Asks seriously whether the Belt's grievances justify its methods and does not give a clean answer.

Persepolis Rising

The Expanse

2017

Thirty years have passed since the gates opened. The crew of the Rocinante is older, the political landscape has shifted, and a new faction with overwhelming military force has come through one of the gates to claim the entire network. The beginning of the third act. Darker in tone than its predecessors, structured more as an occupation narrative than a thriller, with the series' most morally complex antagonist to this point.

Strange Dogs

2017

On Laconia, one of the new worlds accessible through the alien gates, a young girl named Cara discovers animals that are not quite what they appear to be. The shortest and most deliberately unsettling of the novellas, laying groundwork for revelations in Tiamat's Wrath and Leviathan Falls that will not make sense without it. Best read before Tiamat's Wrath.

Auberon

2019

One of the first and most important colony worlds through the gates is getting a new governor, sent by the emerging Laconian Empire to bring order to a planet that has developed its own complex culture and economy. A study in imperial administration, local resistance, and the limits of power at a distance. Best read alongside Persepolis Rising.

Tiamat's Wrath

The Expanse

2019

The Laconian Empire controls the gates and the solar system, and the underground resistance is outgunned at every turn. Something is attacking ships near the gates, the same force that destroyed the builders of the protomolecule, and it is becoming more active. The penultimate novel tightens the series' two largest threads - the human political story and the alien mystery - into a single existential question, and answers several of them at significant cost.

Leviathan Falls

The Expanse

2021

The final novel. The entity beyond the gates is accelerating its campaign and the only solution anyone can find would end human individuality as a concept. Holden, Naomi, Amos, and Bobbie face the end of the story they have been living for forty years. The series concludes the way it began - with a small crew on a single ship, a problem too large for any of them, and the stubborn insistence that it matters how you behave even when the stakes are civilisational.

The Sins of Our Fathers

2022

Set after the events of Leviathan Falls. Filip Inaros, son of the Free Navy's leader, is trying to build a quiet life on a colony world when the past catches up with him. The final piece of fiction set in the Expanse universe, providing closure for one of the series' most conflicted characters. Best read after Leviathan Falls.

Life Events

Universes

Series

Books

James S. A. Corey

Reading Orders

Universes (1)

The Expanse

Series (1)

The Expanse

Books (17)

The Butcher of Anderson Station

Leviathan Wakes

Caliban's War

Drive

Gods of Risk

Abaddon's Gate

The Churn

Cibola Burn

Nemesis Games

The Vital Abyss

Babylon's Ashes

Persepolis Rising

Strange Dogs

Auberon

Tiamat's Wrath

Leviathan Falls

The Sins of Our Fathers

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Life Events

Universes

Series

Books

James S. A. Corey

Reading Orders

Universes (1)

The Expanse

Series (1)

The Expanse

Books (17)

The Butcher of Anderson Station

Leviathan Wakes

Caliban's War

Drive

Gods of Risk

Abaddon's Gate

The Churn

Cibola Burn

Nemesis Games

The Vital Abyss

Babylon's Ashes

Persepolis Rising

Strange Dogs

Auberon

Tiamat's Wrath

Leviathan Falls

The Sins of Our Fathers