Helix (Eric Brown) Books in Order

The Helix books begin with a rescue mission for humanity, then turn that rescue into a journey through one of Eric Brown's biggest imagined settings. Earth is dying, and the colony ship Lovelock has spent five centuries searching for a world where its passengers might survive.

When the ship crashes on an ice-bound planet, the survivors think their mission has failed. Then daylight reveals the truth: they are standing on the lowest level of an enormous artificial spiral, a Helix made up of thousands of worlds wrapped around a central sun.

It is a refuge, but not a simple one.

In Helix, the human survivors head upward in search of a habitable world. Their route takes them through strange environments and into contact with many alien peoples. The Helix was created by the mysterious Builders as a haven for endangered species, but the structure has its own history, conflicts, beliefs, and rules that newcomers do not understand.

The scale is large, but the first book stays close to people trying to survive a journey they never planned to make. There are explorers, religious tensions, hostile terrain, alien allies, and the looming question of whether humanity can avoid repeating the mistakes that destroyed its home planet.

Helix Wars returns to the setting two centuries later. Humans have settled on New Earth and become the Helix's peacekeepers, charged with helping maintain order among thousands of worlds. That arrangement is tested when the Sporelli invade neighboring planets, pulling shuttle pilot Jeff Ellis into a conflict that could spread far beyond one colony.

The sequel changes the shape of the story from migration and discovery to diplomacy, war, and responsibility. It also makes clear how much the Helix has become humanity's home, and how dangerous it is for any one species to believe it can manage such a vast, diverse place alone.

Expect colorful planetary adventure with a hopeful streak. Brown gives readers unusual aliens, wrecked ships, cults, landscapes, and action, but the series is also interested in cooperation. The Helix only works when different peoples find a way to live beside one another.

Start with Helix. Helix Wars takes place much later but depends on the first novel's setting, history, and sense of wonder.