The Apache Novels Books in Order

The Apache Novels are Burroughs writing frontier adventure with the same forward drive he brings to Mars and the jungle. Instead of airships and lost cities, the landscape is the American Southwest, with desert distances, hard water, and the constant pressure of border conflict. These books focus on an Apache protagonist, Shoz-Dijiji, and follow him through violence, loyalty, and the personal costs of being seen as an enemy by nearly everyone outside his own people.

The War Chief sets up the world and the character. Shoz-Dijiji is brave and ambitious, but he’s also shaped by a community with its own rules, rivalries, and expectations. The story moves between Apache camps and the settlements and outposts pressing in around them, and it treats the land as an active force. Travel, raids, and pursuit are part of the daily math of survival, who has horses, who has water, who can move fastest, and who can read the terrain when everything looks the same for miles.

This is not a gentle series.

Burroughs builds tension by putting the hero in impossible positions. Shoz-Dijiji has to prove himself to his own people, but he also has to react to outsiders who already think they know what he is. The books are interested in the way a reputation gets made, and how quickly it turns into a trap. A single act of mercy can be treated as weakness. A single act of violence can follow you for years.

The arc carries into Apache Devil, which continues Shoz-Dijiji’s story as outside forces tighten and internal politics get more dangerous. The title fits the mood: the closer the hero gets to leadership, the more he becomes a symbol to other people, and symbols don’t get to be complicated. The sequel pushes deeper into feuds, betrayals, and hard choices about who gets saved when saving everyone is impossible.

Burroughs keeps the action close to the ground. You get tracking and counter-tracking, night rides, canyon ambushes, and the constant suspense of hearing hoofbeats before you see anyone. The books also spend time on camp life and leadership, showing how decisions ripple through families, not just fighters.

If you’re coming from Burroughs’ fantasy settings, you’ll recognize familiar ingredients, a fast pace, narrow escapes, a romance thread, and a hero who refuses to quit. What’s different is the grounded tension. The victories feel costly, and the setting keeps reminding you that survival can be a temporary thing. Read The War Chief first, then Apache Devil for the continuation and the sharper, darker turns.