The Expanse is great. But you want me to start a nine book series? you ask. Yes. Yes I do. But 1. It’s basically three distinct trilogies you can space out, and 2. it’s finished, and it finished well. And anyway there’s actually ten books if you loop in all the short fiction. Have I sold you yet?
The short fiction made for great bites while waiting for the main novels, and I definitely recommend folding them into the reading order.
The Protomolecule
- Leviathan Wakes (2011)
- “The Butcher of Anderson Station” (2011)
- Caliban’s War (2012)
At this point you can try out The Expanse RPG – “Salvage Op” and “Cupbearer” are great starting points (and the latter is free!).
- “Gods of Risk” (2012)
- “Drive” (2012)
- Abaddon’s Gate (2013)
The Ring Gates
- “The Churn” (2014)
- Cibola Burn (2014)
The latest book of the RPG, Beyond the Ring advances the timeline to this point.
- Nemesis Games (2015)
- “The Vital Abyss” (2015)
- Babylon’s Ashes (2016)
Laconia
- “Strange Dogs” (2017)
- Persepolis Rising (2017)
- Tiamat’s Wrath (2019)
- “The Last Flight of The Cassandra” (2019)
- “Auberon” (2019)
- Leviathan Falls (2021)
- “The Sins of Our Fathers” (2022)