Railhead Books in Order

The Railhead trilogy is a science fiction adventure set across a huge network of worlds connected by K-gates and sentient trains. The trains are not just transport. They have personalities, loyalties, and a language of their own, and riding one can take a person from one planet to another in moments.

Zen Starling loves the railway system more than almost anything.

Zen is a young thief who steals to help support his mother, but his life changes when he is recruited for a difficult job. In Railhead, the mysterious Raven sends him after the Pyxis, an object connected to the secretive Guardians and the network that holds the Empire together. Zen is joined by Nova, a Motorik who looks human but is an artificial person with questions of her own.

The story keeps expanding in Black Light Express, as Zen and Nova reach unknown worlds beyond a new gate and discover that the familiar map of the galaxy may be far too small. Station Zero brings the trilogy's political tensions, family secrets, and questions about the railway's makers toward a conclusion.

There are emperors, data-gods, insect colonies, androids, prisons suspended in time, and stations built on worlds that barely resemble one another. The books move quickly, but the central concern is often simple: who gets to decide what people are for, and who gets to control the systems everyone depends on?

Zen is not a polished chosen hero. He is impulsive, observant, and often in over his head. Nova's search for independence gives the books another emotional center, while the friendship between the two keeps the huge setting from feeling remote.

Start with Railhead. The trilogy tells one continuing story, and the mysteries around the K-gates, the Railmakers, and the competing families make the most sense in order.