Before the Odyssey Books in Order

Before the Odyssey is the on-ramp to Evan Currie’s Odyssey One universe, a prequel strand that looks at the world before the starship launches and the aliens show up.

These books are set on Earth, in a near-future geopolitical landscape where rival blocs jockey for power, and where new military technology can tip the balance overnight. The focus is on people inside the machine, soldiers, engineers, and operators who are trying to do their jobs while the rules of the world shift under their feet. It’s the kind of setting where a breakthrough can become a bargaining chip, and where a single leak can turn a quiet competition into open conflict.

Holy Ground works as a prologue: it’s about a secret project, the kind that’s hidden behind layers of clearance because it could change warfare if it succeeds, and it could provoke a war if it fails. Currie leans into the tension between what a government wants to admit publicly and what it’s willing to do privately when it believes the next conflict is inevitable. You’ll get field operations and tense moments, but also the institutional friction that comes with any big program.

Infamy widens that view. A team in Hawaii works on advanced fighter technology and weapon systems while wars and proxy conflicts burn elsewhere, and the line between ally and enemy gets blurry fast. The people doing the work aren’t insulated from the consequences, and the series makes time for the “who are we serving” questions that show up whenever a project gets too big and too secret.

The tone is still action-forward, but it’s less about fleet battles and more about pressure, sabotage, and decisions that can’t be rolled back. It’s about the origin of capability, how later starship and special-operations programs become possible, and what gets sacrificed along the way when security becomes a way of life instead of a temporary measure.

Small choices echo for decades.

If you’re reading for the first time, these books aren’t required, but they add texture. They also work well if you enjoy near-future military thrillers with a little extra science fiction edge. Start with Holy Ground, then move to Infamy to see how Currie builds the world’s political fault lines and the early tech race that will eventually make Odyssey One possible.