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James SA Corey Books in Order

Explore James SA Corey books in order, with Expanse novels and novellas, quick summaries, reading order help, and a simple guide to where to start.

Last updated: June 7, 2026

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17 books

Leviathan Wakes

by James SA Corey

2011

When ice hauler officer James Holden and detective Miller follow the trail of a missing girl, they uncover a conspiracy that could ignite war across the solar system. A smart, propulsive start with noir energy.

The Butcher of Anderson Station

by James SA Corey

2011

Before he was an OPA leader, Fred Johnson was the UN officer blamed for Anderson Station. This sharp prequel shows the choice that shattered his old life and shaped his place in the Belt.

Caliban's War

by James SA Corey

2012

On Ganymede, a Martian marine sees something impossible. As Earth and Mars edge toward war and the protomolecule threat grows, Holden and the Rocinante hunt for answers that could change humanity's future.

Drive

by James SA Corey

2012

Long before Holden and the Rocinante, Martian engineer Solomon Epstein tests a modified drive and changes human history. A brief, poignant prequel that explains the invention that made the whole Expanse possible.

Gods of Risk

by James SA Corey

2012

On Mars, teenager David Draper gets pulled into the drug trade while his aunt Bobbie tries to rebuild her life after Caliban's War. It's a smaller, street-level story with real pressure and family stakes.

Abaddon's Gate

by James SA Corey

2013

A mysterious Ring appears beyond Uranus, and a massive expedition rushes toward it. Holden and the Rocinante are caught between rival fleets, sabotage, and the terrifying question of what built the gate.

Cibola Burn

by James SA Corey

2014

Humanity races through the gates to new worlds, and the first colony on Ilus is already on the edge of violence. Holden arrives to keep the peace, only to find old grudges and alien dangers waiting.

The Churn

by James SA Corey

2014

In a brutal future Baltimore, young Timmy, the boy who will become Amos Burton, grows up inside crime, poverty, and violence. It's a hard, tense backstory about survival and the people who taught him it.

Nemesis Games

by James SA Corey

2015

As the Rocinante crew scatters on separate journeys, old enemies strike the inner planets with devastating force. Personal histories collide with systemwide catastrophe in one of the series' most character-driven entries.

The Vital Abyss

by James SA Corey

2015

A group of prisoners waits in limbo, haunted by the crimes that put them there. Then a Martian visitor arrives, and the hidden story behind Eros and the protomolecule starts to come into focus.

Babylon's Ashes

by James SA Corey

2016

Marco Inaros and the Free Navy control the chaos after their attacks on Earth. Holden and his allies must hold a fragile coalition together and fight for the gates before the system tears itself apart.

Persepolis Rising

by James SA Corey

2017

Decades later, the Rocinante is older, the colonies are thriving, and a hidden empire returns with overwhelming force. Holden's crew faces a new kind of conquest, and the balance of human power shifts again.

Strange Dogs

by James SA Corey

2017

On the colony world Laconia, young Cara explores an alien landscape while soldiers build a new order around her family. Her discovery of strange local creatures turns a child-sized adventure into something eerie and important.

Auberon

by James SA Corey

2019

On the colony world Auberon, a new imperial governor arrives expecting order and obedience. Instead he finds a place with its own power structure, led by Erich, where politics, crime, and ambition are tightly tangled.

Tiamat's Wrath

by James SA Corey

2019

With Holden imprisoned and Laconia tightening its grip, the Rocinante crew joins a dangerous underground resistance. At the same time, Elvi Okoye digs into an ancient mystery that may be even deadlier than the empire.

Leviathan Falls

by James SA Corey

2021

The Laconian Empire is cracking, but the ancient force behind the gates is awake. Holden, Elvi, and their allies chase one last impossible solution as humanity faces a threat bigger than any war.

The Sins of Our Fathers

by James SA Corey

2022

After the collapse of the ring network, Filip Inaros lives under another name on an isolated colony world. This quiet epilogue follows a man trying to outrun his father's legacy when danger reaches the settlement.

Where should I start?

If you want the main story in order: Leviathan WakesCaliban's WarAbaddon's GateCibola Burn
If you want the fullest Expanse experience: DriveThe Butcher of Anderson StationLeviathan WakesCaliban's War
If you want more backstory on Amos and the crew: The ChurnLeviathan WakesNemesis Games
If you want the later, stranger alien arc: Strange DogsPersepolis RisingTiamat's WrathLeviathan Falls

Author bio

James SA Corey is the shared pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Abraham was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Franck was born in Portland, Oregon, and later became part of the science fiction community in New Mexico. These days, both writers live in Albuquerque, and that long partnership is still the center of the name.

The collaboration started because Franck had built a detailed future setting for a game. It began as a video game idea, then became a roleplaying setting he kept developing because he wasn't done with it yet. Abraham played in that world, saw how much groundwork Franck had already done, and suggested they turn it into a novel. That became Leviathan Wakes, and from there the project grew into one of the biggest modern space opera series around.

They didn't split the work in a flashy way. They built it together. Franck handled a lot of the worldbuilding and big-picture story shape, while Abraham brought structure and prose to the page. Over time, the voice of James SA Corey became its own thing, not just one author writing and the other assisting.

Most readers come to them through The Expanse. Starting with Leviathan Wakes, the series mixes detective fiction, political thriller, survival story, and big-idea science fiction. Readers tend to like the scale of it, but also the way it stays close to working people: ship crews, station workers, soldiers, scientists, and political fixers trying to get through impossible situations without losing themselves.

They like big ideas, but they never forget the people trapped inside them.

Books like Caliban's War, Nemesis Games, and Leviathan Falls keep widening the frame, from a tense solar system cold war to something much stranger and much larger. The shorter works matter too. The Butcher of Anderson Station, The Churn, Strange Dogs, and the rest of the Expanse fiction fill in character histories and side roads that make the main series feel even more lived in.

A lot of what makes their work stick is the mix of motion and consequence. Their stories are full of spaceships, sabotage, alien mysteries, and battles, but also labor politics, family damage, class tension, and questions about power. Earth, Mars, and the Belt all feel different. So do the people who come from them. That attention to culture and pressure is a big part of why the books feel grounded even when the stakes get huge.

When The Expanse moved to television, Abraham and Franck stayed closely involved as writers and producers. After finishing the nine-book Expanse arc, they moved on to a new space opera with The Mercy of Gods, which showed they weren't interested in simply repeating the old formula.

That mix of scale and intimacy is really the whole James SA Corey trick.

For all the ships, politics, and alien weirdness, the work keeps coming back to ordinary human choices. That may be why the books feel so readable. The future is vast, but the people in it are still recognizably human.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 17 James SA Corey Books in Order (Complete List 2026)