Jao Books in Order

Jao is the big-space end of David Carrico’s bibliography, though he joins an existing series rather than starting it. The setup is sharp: Earth has already been conquered by the Jao, a powerful alien empire, when a far worse enemy hangs over everything. The Ekhat are exterminators, and the question is not simply who rules humanity, but whether humanity survives at all.

That gives the series a tense mix of occupation story, first-contact aftermath, and military science fiction. Humans are not dealing with noble saviors or simple monsters. The Jao are status-conscious rulers who have subjugated Earth, yet they are also part of the only coalition that might stand against the Ekhat. Every alliance comes with mistrust built in.

Nobody gets to relax.

As the books move forward, the focus widens from Earth’s immediate crisis to a larger interstellar struggle. Human and Jao forces begin building a fragile partnership, and the Lleix join that picture as another crucial people in the fight. Fleets, command decisions, and diplomacy all matter, but the series works because the pressure lands on recognizable people trying to do hard jobs in impossible conditions.

Carrico’s part of the story is The Span of Empire, where Caitlin Kralik leads an exploration fleet out into deep space to find allies before the Ekhat strike again. That mission gives the series a strong sense of discovery, but it is discovery under wartime rules. The expedition keeps finding the wreckage the Ekhat leave behind, dead worlds, lost species, and proof that time is running short.

What makes Jao interesting is that it never treats strategy as separate from culture. Different species bring different assumptions, loyalties, and blind spots, so every plan has a political edge as well as a military one. Friends are real, but fragile. Victory, if it comes, has to be built across habits and histories that do not line up neatly.

If you like space opera that balances fleet action with alliance-building, this is the appeal. Carrico’s entry sits in the later, more outward-looking phase of the saga, when survival depends on finding partners beyond the worlds already under threat. Expect big stakes, careful teamwork, and a story that keeps asking whether former enemies can become something sturdier before the galaxy runs out of chances.