SJ Morden Books in Order
Explore S.J. Morden's books in order, with short summaries, series guides, background on his sci-fi and fantasy, and simple advice on where to begin.
Last updated: July 15, 2026
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SJ Morden books in publication order
15 books
Heart
by SJ Morden
2002
A thriller set in the 1980s slowly opens into a stranger story of ancient forces, buried history, and Atlantis. As one man's life is drawn into that hidden world, the past becomes impossible to ignore.
Another War
by SJ Morden
2005
An old manor house is sealed inside an impenetrable bubble, where life is withering away. The army finds two men missing for a century, plus evidence of a machine that may open doors between dimensions.
The Lost Art
by SJ Morden
2007
A thousand years after devastating wars erased much of civilization, Benzamir Michael Mahmood returns to a Dark Age Earth. He must face a Church that fears technology and a buried power capable of unleashing another catastrophe.
Degrees of Freedom
by SJ Morden
2011
A stolen nuclear threat brings Samuil Petrovitch back into danger in the decaying Metrozone. Pursued by enemies and forced to rely on his allies, he races to stop a disaster before the city pays the price.
Equations of Life
by SJ Morden
2011
In a battered future London, Russian physicist Samuil Petrovitch rescues a young woman from kidnappers and becomes entangled with gangsters, powerful corporations, and a dangerous new intelligence. Keeping his head down is no longer an option.
Theories of Flight
by SJ Morden
2011
Petrovitch's breakthrough in artificial gravity makes him a target just as the Metrozone faces attack from the OutZone. With old enemies and a machine intelligence still in play, he must keep the city from tearing itself apart.
Arcanum
by SJ Morden
2013
In an alternate medieval Europe, Carinthia relies on magic for power, trade, and defense. When that magic begins to fail, ordinary people and rulers alike must face invasion, unrest, and a world suddenly stripped of certainty.
The Curve of the Earth
by SJ Morden
2013
When Petrovitch's adopted daughter Lucy disappears, he suspects the powerful enemies he has made beyond the Metrozone. Finding her means confronting Reconstruction America and risking the fragile life he has fought to build.
The White City
by SJ Morden
2016
Mary and Dalip continue their journey through the dangerous world of Down, heading toward the legendary White City in search of answers. Treacherous terrain, shifting alliances, and the world's hidden rules make every step risky.
One Way
by SJ Morden
2018
Life prisoner Frank Kittridge joins seven other convicts sent to build the first permanent Mars base. When lethal accidents begin, Frank must find a killer while surviving a planet where rescue is almost impossible.
Bright Morning Star
by SJ Morden
2019
An alien probe sent to survey Earth lands in the middle of a war zone. As it observes humanity's cruelty and kindness, its limited programming is tested by choices that could shape the planet's future.
No Way
by SJ Morden
2019
Stranded alone on Mars, Frank Kittridge refuses to die where his corporate employers left him. To earn a way home, he must survive new dangers and solve a mystery that could make every possible rescue worse.
Gallowglass
by SJ Morden
2020
Jack van der Veerden escapes his billionaire parents and climate-strained Earth by joining an asteroid-mining crew. But the promise of a fortune turns the isolated mission into a deadly struggle over trust, greed, and survival.
The Red Planet
by SJ Morden
2021
Planetary geologist Simon Morden traces Mars from its violent formation to its cold modern surface. This nonfiction tour explores impacts, volcanoes, vanished oceans, thinning air, and the clues left in the Red Planet's rocks.
The Flight of the Aphrodite
by SJ Morden
2022
Commander Mariucci and her research crew investigate an impossible radio signal near Jupiter's largest moons. With their ship deteriorating and tensions rising, they must learn what is calling to them and whether humanity is alone.
Where to start with SJ Morden
For a Mars murder mystery: One Way → No Way
For post-apocalyptic cyberpunk: Equations of Life → Theories of Flight → Degrees of Freedom → The Curve of the Earth
For portal fantasy: Down Station → The White City
For an epic fantasy standalone: Arcanum
For a nonfiction tour of Mars: The Red Planet
SJ Morden sub-series and character series
Down Station books in order
Explore this seriesFrank Kittridge books in order
Explore this seriesSamuil Petrovitch books in order
Explore this seriesStandalone SJ Morden books
Author bio
S.J. Morden, also published as Simon Morden, is a British writer and planetary geologist whose fiction often starts with a practical question: what happens when ordinary people are dropped into a world that has stopped making sense?
He was born in Gateshead, England, and trained in geology and planetary geophysics. His studies gave him the scientific grounding that later shows up in his work, from the hazards of Mars missions to the long, complicated history written into a planet's rocks. He has said that he realised he was unlikely to get into space himself, so he started writing about it instead.
That choice led him into science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the places where those genres overlap. His first published short story, “Bell, Book and Candle,” appeared in 1998. His first novel, Heart, followed in 2002, a thriller that gradually opens into something much stranger.
Morden's books are full of people adapting under pressure.
That idea drives the Samuil Petrovitch novels, beginning with Equations of Life. Petrovitch is a Russian scientist trying to survive in a battered future London, where gangs, corporations, artificial intelligence, and old grudges make staying uninvolved almost impossible. The first three Petrovitch books, published in quick succession in 2011, won the Philip K. Dick Award together.
He also writes with a sharp eye for the physical work of surviving. In One Way, prisoners are sent to build a Mars base, only to find that isolation turns a difficult job into a murder mystery. No Way keeps Frank Kittridge on Mars, facing the question of whether getting home is worth trusting the people who left him there.
Space is never just a backdrop in these stories. It is cold, expensive, unforgiving, and full of systems that can fail at the worst possible moment. That same interest in real constraints carries into Gallowglass, about an asteroid-mining crew, and The Flight of the Aphrodite, where a research team investigates an impossible signal near Jupiter.
Morden is happy to step away from science fiction, too. Arcanum imagines a medieval Europe built around magic, then asks what happens when the magic starts to fail. His portal-fantasy Down books move Londoners into a dangerous other world shaped by the memories and legends of many different Londons.
He has also written nonfiction. The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars brings his scientific training to Mars itself, following the planet from its early formation through impacts, volcanoes, lost water, and its cold modern surface.
Outside his novels, Morden has edited the British Science Fiction Association's writers' magazine Focus, served as a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and spoken regularly about faith and fiction. Publisher biographies have listed Worthing, England, as his home. Across the different pen names, settings, and genres, his work keeps returning to resourceful people facing systems, worlds, and choices bigger than they expected.
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