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Undying Mercenaries Books in Order

Part ofBV Larson Books in Order

See the Undying Mercenaries books by BV Larson in order, with quick summaries, series background, and a simple guide to where to start.

Last updated: July 1, 2026

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Publication Order

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17 books

1

Steel World

by BV Larson

2013

James McGill joins Earth's mercenary legions and heads to a mineral-rich alien world for his first campaign. It is a brutal introduction to a galaxy where humanity survives by fighting other people's wars.

2

Dust World

by BV Larson

2014

An illegal lost colony reaches out to Earth, and Legion Varus is sent to deal with the problem before the wider empire notices. McGill arrives with sealed orders, secret agendas, and his usual lack of restraint.

3

Tech World

by BV Larson

2014

Tau Ceti looks like a luxurious city-world assignment, but James McGill's easy posting does not stay easy for long. Invasion, imperial weakness, and frontier danger crash into one another at the trading capital.

4

Death World

by BV Larson

2015

Unknown aliens strike Earth from a world no one even knew existed. McGill and Legion Varus chase them back to a vicious planet and uncover a growing threat moving through the region.

5

Machine World

by BV Larson

2015

Up for promotion at last, James McGill is sent beyond imperial borders and into a campaign full of conspiracy, alien politics, and relentless squid troopers. The battlefield is new, but the trouble feels familiar.

6

Home World

by BV Larson

2016

A rival empire invades Earth, and James McGill's legion is thrown into the defense of humanity's homeworld. While the brass plans the war, McGill goes hunting for a dangerous technological edge.

7

Blood World

by BV Larson

2017

Humanity needs allies fast, so Earth's legions head to a brutal frontier world where strength is the only language anyone respects. The prize is an army of loyal troops, if McGill can help win it.

8

Rogue World

by BV Larson

2017

Earth's alien overlords are finally coming back in force, and humanity has a lot to hide. Legion Varus is sent to erase dangerous mistakes, but James McGill is rarely the man you want on a tidy cleanup job.

9

Dark World

by BV Larson

2018

Humanity's new frontier holdings start disappearing as a rival power moves in from deep space. What should be a sharp military raid becomes a bloodbath, and McGill keeps dying his way through it.

10

Storm World

by BV Larson

2018

McGill is sent to the core of imperial politics to prove Earth is worth keeping around. On a world lashed by storms, he fights a brutal campaign while angry alien rulers decide humanity's future.

11

Armor World

by BV Larson

2019

An enormous object of compressed stardust is hurtling toward Earth, and nobody can stop it or explain it. As panic spreads, James McGill is dragged into negotiations over the fate of far more than one planet.

12

Clone World

by BV Larson

2019

A sabotage mission goes too well, Rigel erupts, and a wider imperial civil war spills into humanity's corner of space. McGill has a talent for making history, usually the messy kind.

13

Edge World

by BV Larson

2020

Legion Varus is sent to defend a border planet where one side burns, the other freezes, and only a narrow twilight zone can support life. McGill's diplomacy goes about as well as you would expect.

14

Glass World

by BV Larson

2020

Humanity sees a chance to steal a technological edge from Rigel on a strange planet of crystal formations. McGill is sent in first as an agent, then as a soldier, and the quiet mission does not stay quiet.

15

Green World

by BV Larson

2021

Rebels build a hidden base to retake the worlds humanity has seized, and the search for them sparks a wider border crisis. When McGill stumbles onto the camp, the whole war lurches into the open.

16

Ice World

by BV Larson

2021

Old thefts from Tau Ceti come back to haunt James McGill when Tau agents arrive on Earth looking for revenge. The hunt for the missing loot sends Legion Varus to a frozen, hostile world.

17

City World

by BV Larson

2022

Earth's fleet and legions are drafted into an alien war, and Centurion James McGill is given a mission that could change everything. He must decide whether to serve humanity's overlords or strike at them directly.

Series background & context

Earth is not the top dog in Undying Mercenaries. It survives by joining a huge alien empire and finding one thing it can sell better than almost anyone else, soldiers. Human legions are hired out to fight other peoples' wars on distant planets, which gives the series its basic rhythm. Every book drops readers into a new deployment, a new world, and a new political mess that is usually much bigger than it first looks.

At the center of it all is James McGill of Legion Varus.

McGill is brave, reckless, funny, disobedient, loyal when it counts, and almost impossible for his superiors to keep under control. He signs up because military service offers a way forward, but he quickly becomes the sort of soldier who keeps stumbling into history. He is good in a fight, better at improvising than following orders, and forever one bad decision away from making a bad situation worse.

The hook that makes the series feel different is right there in the title. Death usually is not permanent. Legion troops can often be printed back into fresh bodies, so battle has a strange texture here. It is still brutal, still painful, and still full of consequences, but the existence of revival machines changes everything about courage, discipline, punishment, and fear. Larson gets a lot of mileage out of that idea without forgetting that permanent death is always possible, especially when politics get involved.

Each novel tends to revolve around a specific planet or campaign. Books like Steel World, Tech World, Blood World, and Storm World use their settings well. The local terrain matters. Alien customs matter. Hidden orders and rival empires matter even more. What begins as a straightforward military science fiction setup gradually widens into something bigger, with border wars, civil conflicts, core-world intrigue, and humanity trying to figure out how far it can push its luck inside a galactic system built by stronger species.

McGill is also the main engine of the series' dark humor.

That tone is important. These books have firefights, invasions, and a lot of soldiers dying in ugly places, but they are not joyless. McGill's voice gives them a sly, pulpy energy. He is the guy who can talk himself into trouble, out of trouble, and then right back into worse trouble before the chapter is over.

The longer arc is about more than one man's career. As the series goes on, Earth stops behaving like a minor client world and starts becoming a real problem for its neighbors and overlords. That shift gives the books room to grow while keeping the core appeal intact. You still get a dangerous mission on a strange world. You also get the feeling that every one of those missions is pushing humanity toward a bigger role than anyone in the Empire intended.

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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