Sci-Fi Series

Some people believe that great books come in threes; others are looking for the "long-term relationship" that they get with longer sagas. Whichever you prefer, you're sure to find something good in this list of popular Science Fiction series.

"The increasingly inappropriately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" by Douglas Adams
Join Douglas Adams' hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his alien pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. Filled with witty satire and unusual characters, including Marvin the paranoid android, this is a must-read for all fans of Monty Python and British humor. And don't forget to bring your towel!
1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2) The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3) Life, the Universe and Everything
4) So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
5) Mostly Harmless

The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire had ruled supreme. Now it is dying a slow death from entropy and corruption. Only Hari Seldon can preserve the accumulated wisdom of the ages and save mankind by gathering the best minds in the Empire and bringing them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind's last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice. They can either submit to the barbarians and live as slaves – or take a stand for freedom and risk total destruction. Also try Asimov's Robot Series.
1) Foundation
2) Foundation and Empire
3) Second Foundation
4) Foundation's Edge
5) Foundation and Earth
6) Prelude to Foundation
7) Forward the Foundation

The Grand Tour of the Solar System Series by Ben Bova
For more than a decade Ben Bova has been creating novels about the human race's expansion through the solar system. From the Moon to Mars, Venus, Jupiter and the Asteroid Belt, his novels show the adventure and excitement of our advance across the space frontier. Here is the complete Grand Tour series (which can be subdivided into other series) in chronological order according to the author (not publication order). However, Mr. Bova assures readers that the books do not need to be read in any particular order.
1) Powersat
2) Empire Builders
3) Mars
4) Moonrise
5) Moonwar
6) Return To Mars
7) The Precipice
8) Jupiter
9) The Rock Rats
10) The Aftermath
11) Saturn
12) Titan
13) The Silent War
14) Mercury
15) Venus

The Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card
Once again, the Earth is under attack. Alien "buggers" are poised for a final assault. The survival of the human species depends on a military genius who can defeat the buggers. But who? Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child. Recruited for military training by the world government, Ender's childhood ends the moment he enters his new home: Battleschool. Among the elite recruits Ender proves himself to be a genius among geniuses. In simulated war games he excels. But is the pressure and loneliness taking its toll on Ender? Simulations are one thing. How will Ender perform in real combat? After all, Battleschool is just a game. Isn't it?
1) Ender's Game
2) Speaker for the Dead
3) Xenocide
4) Children of the Mind
5) Ender's Shadow
6) Shadow of the Hegemon
7) Shadow Puppets
8) Shadow of the Giant
9) War of Gifts
also: First Metings in the Enderverse

The Foreigner Universe Series by C.J. Cherryh
After a small group of humans landed on a distant planet and learned that the world was already populated with an aggressive race known as atevi, giant black-skinned, yellow-eyed warriors, a short but fierce war ensued. Impossibly outnumbered, the technologically superior humans ended the bloodshed by agreeing to share their scientific advances in return for their own land. They are exiled to a large but remote island, and the only human who is allowed interaction with the atevi is known as the paidhi, a moderator and master diplomat. As the paidhi, Bren Cameron must deal with a society that has 14 different words for betrayal and none for friendship; and he must quickly learn how to stay alive.
1) Foreigner
2) Invader
3) Inheritor
4) Precursor
5) Defender
6) Explorer
7) Destroyer
8) Pretender
9) Deliverer

The Rama Series by Arthur C. Clarke
At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is massive and hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence. It will kindle their wildest dreams... and fan their darkest fears. For no one knows who the Ramans are or why they have come. And now the moment of rendezvous awaits – just behind a Raman airlock door.
1) Rendezvous with Rama
2) Rama II
3) The Garden of Rama
4) Rama Revealed

The Assiti Shards Series by Eric Flint and David Weber
When a cosmic accident transports a West Virginia community back in time and space to 17th-century Thuringia, the citizens of Grantville find themselves thrust into the midst of the bloody and savage conflict that history books would call the Thirty Years War. Surrounded by warring armies and burdened by the prospect of diminishing resources, Grantville residents, under the leadership of a council that includes a union leader, a doctor and a teacher, proceed to turn their new world upside down, beginning the American Revolution a century and a half before its time.
1) 1632
2) 1633
3) Ring of fire
4) 1634: The Galileo Affair
5) 1634: The Ram Rebellion
6) 1635: The Cannon Law
7) 1634: The Baltic War
8) 1634: The Bavarian Crisis
9) Grantville Gazette
10) Grantville Gazette II
11) Grantville Gazette III

The Forever Series by Joe Haldeman
Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself – a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite military unit and propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand – despite the fact that their fierce alien enemy is unknowable, unconquerable and very far away. The first in this trilogy was winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
1) The Forever War
2) Forever Peace
3) Forever Free

The Dune Series by Frank Herbert
Set on the desert planet Arakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family – and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and political intrigue, Dune won the first ever Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award and formed the basis of what is arguably the grandest epic in science fiction.
1) Dune
2) Dune Messiah
3) Children of Dune
4) God-Emperor of Dune
5) Heretics of Dune
6) Chapterhouse: Dune

The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
This trilogy chronicles the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom, who is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra. The two men are in need of a human sacrifice, and Dr. Ransom would seem to fit the bill. Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity.
1) Out of the Silent Planet
2) Perelandra
3) That Hideous Strength

The Ringworld Series by Larry Niven
A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it and sturdier than a Dyson sphere. There is gravity, high walls and with its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet is formed, three million times the area of the Earth. We can escape the intense overpopulation and the pending ecological collapse. We can start again!
1) Ringworld
2) Ringworld Engineers
3) The Ringworld Throne
4) Ringworld's Children

The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
The first men and women to colonize Mars bring to their awesome task not only their unique skills but also their private hopes, ambitions and fears. As the demands of the red planet are met and overcome, differences of opinion and struggles for leadership threaten to erupt into open warfare. This trilogy by an award winning author elicits a sense of drama from the dynamic interplay of diverse characters as well as from the risks involved in creating a human habitat in an inhuman land.
1) Red Mars
2) Green Mars
3) Blue Mars

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope – and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.
1) Hyperion
2) The Fall of Hyperion
3) Endymion
4) The Rise of Endymion

The Empire of Man / Prince Roger Series by David Weber (with John Ringo)
Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock has a problem. Thanks to terrorist sabotage, he and a company of space marines are marooned in the wilderness of the planet Marduk, noted for high mountains, high temperatures, low technology and the short tempers of its nine-foot, four-armed, slime-covered natives. In their effort escape, they win allies among the Mardukans and overcome others by judiciously combining sneakiness and firepower. Along the way, the prince turns from a spoiled brat into a useful, even valuable member of the company. Also try Weber's popular Honor Harrington Series.
1) March Upcountry
2) March To the Sea
3) March To the Stars
4) We Few

List Created: 4/05 – Last Updated: 1/08