The Expanse Books in Order By James S. A. Corey
Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas. It’s attractive because it’s simple, it’s direct, it’s almost always available as an option. When you can’t think of a good rebuttal for your opponent’s argument, you can always punch them in the face.
― Abaddon’s Gate
Publication Order of The Expanse Books (Recommended Reading Order)
1. Leviathan Wakes (2011)
1.5 The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011)
2. Caliban’s War (2012)
2.5 Gods of Risk (2012)
2.7 Drive (2012)
3. Abaddon’s Gate (2013)
3.5 The Churn (2014)
4. Cibola Burn (2014)
5. Nemesis Games (2015)
5.5 The Vital Abyss (2015)
6. Babylon’s Ashes (2016)
6.5 Strange Dogs (2017)
7. Persepolis Rising (2017)
8. Tiamat’s Wrath (2019)
8.5 Auberon (2019)
9. Leviathan Falls (2021)
9.5 The Sins of Our Fathers (2022)
Memory’s Legion: Short Story Collection (2022)
Chronological Order of The Expanse Books
The chronological order isn’t the recommended reading order but some fans like to read the story as it takes place within the universe. However, The Vital Abyss takes place from Leviathan Wakes all the way to Nemesis Games. So it’s difficult to get a purely chronological order so many people decide to read in Publication Order.
0.1 Drive (2012)
0.3 The Churn (2014)
0.5 The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011)
1. Leviathan Wakes (2011)
2. Caliban’s War (2012)
2.5 Gods of Risk (2012)
3. Abaddon’s Gate (2013)
4. Cibola Burn (2014)
5. Nemesis Games (2015)
5.5 The Vital Abyss (2015)
6. Babylon’s Ashes (2016)
6.5 Strange Dogs (2017)
7. Persepolis Rising (2017)
7.5 Auberon (2019)
8. Tiamat’s Wrath (2019)
9. Leviathan Falls (2021)
9.5 The Sins of Our Fathers (2022)
Memory’s Legion: Short Story Collection (2022)
What is The Expanse about?
The Expanse is a science fiction series set in the future, where humanity has colonised the Solar System. Tensions between Earth, Mars, and the now inhabited Asteroid Belt create a complex political and military struggle for resources and power. The story follows a diverse group of characters, including James Holden, a small ice hauler officer; Detective Joe Miller, searching for a missing woman; and Chrisjen Avasarala, a UN diplomat.
As the series progresses, a mysterious alien technology emerges, capable of altering the Solar System’s balance of power and threatening humanity’s existence. The characters become entangled in a conspiracy that surpasses their initial conflicts, forcing them to unite and navigate the dangers of this new technology and the forces vying to control it.
Who is James S. A. Corey?
James S.A. Corey is a collaborative pen name used by two authors: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Daniel Abraham is known for works like “The Long Price Quartet,” and Ty Franck worked as an assistant to George R.R. Martin. Together, they combined their talents to create a compelling science fiction narrative in “The Expanse.”
Recommended Reading Order for The Expanse Series
WARNING: There may be spoilers for some of the books mentioned. These are taken from the official descriptions but can sometimes spoil parts of previous books. So please be careful!
1. Leviathan Wakes (2011) 
The Expanse #1
166,000 words, 592 pages, 19 hrs and 9 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.29 out of 5 on Goodreads
Humanity has colonised the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathiser Holden, he realises that this girl may be the key to everything.
Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
1.5 The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011) 
The Expanse #1.5
9,000 words, 40 pages, 1 hrs and 1 min to read.
Published by Orbit
4.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
A new story set in the world of The Expanse. One day, Colonel Fred Johnson will be hailed as a hero to the system. One day, he will meet a desperate man in possession of a stolen spaceship and a deadly secret and extend a hand of friendship. But long before he became the leader of the Outer Planets Alliance, Fred Johnson had a very different name. The Butcher of Anderson Station.
This is his story.
2. Caliban’s War (2012) 
The Expanse #2
171,000 words, 624 pages, 21 hrs to read.
Published by Orbit
4.37 out of 5 on Goodreads
We are not alone. On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.
In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .
2.5 Gods of Risk (2012) 
The Expanse #2.5
17,000 words, 72 pages, 2 hrs and 20 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
3.73 out of 5 on Goodreads
As tension between Mars and Earth mounts, and terrorism plagues the Martian city of Londres Nova, sixteen-year-old David Draper is fighting his own lonely war. A gifted chemist vying for a place at the university, David leads a secret life as a manufacturer for a ruthless drug dealer. When his friend Leelee goes missing, leaving signs of the dealer’s involvement, David takes it upon himself to save her. But first he must shake his aunt Bobbie Draper, an ex-marine who has been set adrift in her own life after a mysterious series of events nobody is talking about. Set in the hard-scrabble solar system of Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War, “Gods of Risk” deepens James S. A. Corey’s acclaimed Expanse series.
2.7 Drive (2012) 
The Expanse #2.7
7,000 words, 30 pages, 57 mins to read.
Published by SyFy
4.04 out of 5 on Goodreads
“Drive” highlights a key moment in The Expanse universe whose ramifications set the foundation for the show.
The story is a prequel taking place approximately 150 years prior to the main series, concerning Solomon Epstein and his invention of the Epstein drive.
3. Abaddon’s Gate (2013) 
The Expanse #3
165,000 words, 539 pages, 19 hrs and 42 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.27 out of 5 on Goodreads
For generations, the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt – was humanity’s great frontier. Until now. The alien artefact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark.
Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.
3.5 The Churn (2014) 
The Expanse #3.5
14,000 words, 60 pages, 2 hrs and 18 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.10 out of 5 on Goodreads
Before his trip to the stars, before the Rocinante, Amos Burton was confined to a Baltimore where crime paid you or killed you. Unless the authorities got to you first.
Set in the hard-scrabble solar system of the Expanse, The Churn deepens James S. A. Corey’s acclaimed series.
4. Cibola Burn (2014) 
The Expanse #4
171,000 words, 581 pages, 20 hrs and 7 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.21 out of 5 on Goodreads
The gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity’s home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world. Among them, the Rocinante, haunted by the vast, posthuman network of the protomolecule as they investigate what destroyed the great intergalactic society that built the gates and the protomolecule.
But Holden and his crew must also contend with the growing tensions between the settlers and the company which owns the official claim to the planet. Both sides will stop at nothing to defend what’s theirs, but soon a terrible disease strikes and only Holden – with help from the ghostly Detective Miller – can find the cure.
5. Nemesis Games (2015) 
The Expanse #5
161,000 words, 536 pages, 16 hrs and 44 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.43 out of 5 on Goodreads
A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.
Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.
And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.
5.5 The Vital Abyss (2015) 
The Expanse #5.5
16,000 words, 75 pages, 2 hrs and 26 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
3.90 out of 5 on Goodreads
Somewhere in the vast expanse of space, a group of prisoners lives in permanent captivity.
The only company they have is each other and the Belters who guard them. The only stories they know are the triumphs and crimes that brought them there. The only future they see is an empty life in an enormous room.
And then the man from Mars came along . . .
6. Babylon’s Ashes (2016) 
The Expanse #6
167,000 words, 532 pages, 19 hrs and 58 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.24 out of 5 on Goodreads
A revolution brewing for generations has begun in fire. It will end in blood.
The Free Navy – a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships – has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets. The colony ships heading for the thousand new worlds on the far side of the alien ring gates are easy prey, and no single navy remains strong enough to protect them.
James Holden and his crew know the strengths and weaknesses of this new force better than anyone. Outnumbered and outgunned, the embattled remnants of the old political powers call on the Rocinante for a desperate mission to reach Medina Station at the heart of the gate network.
But the new alliances are as flawed as the old, and the struggle for power has only just begun. As the chaos grows, an alien mystery deepens. Pirate fleets, mutiny and betrayal may be the least of the Rocinante’s problems. And in the uncanny spaces past the ring gates, the choices of a few damaged and desperate people may determine the fate of more than just humanity.
6.5 Strange Dogs (2017) 
The Expanse #6.5
21,000 words, 112 pages, 2 hrs and 29 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.06 out of 5 on Goodreads
Like many before them, Cara and her family ventured through the gates as scientists and researchers, driven to carve out a new life and uncover the endless possibilities of the unexplored alien worlds now within reach.
But soon the soldiers followed and under this new order Cara makes a discovery that will change everything.
7. Persepolis Rising (2017) 
The Expanse #7
169,000 words, 608 pages, 20 hrs and 34 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.37 out of 5 on Goodreads
In the thousand-sun network of humanity’s expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace.
In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity and the power to enforce it.
New technologies clash with old as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient patterns of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity — and of the Rocinante — unexpectedly and forever…
8. Tiamat’s Wrath (2019) 
The Expanse #8
164,000 words, 534 pages, 19 hrs and 8 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.57 out of 5 on Goodreads
Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper.
In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay.
At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father’s godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortázar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrigue, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father the emperor doesn’t guess.
And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rear-guard action against Duarte’s authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia’s eternal rule — and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose — seems more and more certain. Because against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough…
8.5 Auberon (2019) 
The Expanse #8.5
16,000 words, 78 pages, 2 hrs and 25 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.20 out of 5 on Goodreads
Auberon is one of the first and most important colony worlds in humanity’s reach, and the new conquering faction has come to claim it. Governor Rittenaur has come to bring civilization and order to the far outpost and guarantee the wealth and power of the Empire.
But Auberon already has its own history, a complex culture, and a criminal kingpin named Erich with very different plans. In a world of deceit, violence, and corruption, the greatest danger Rittenaur faces is love.
9. Leviathan Falls (2021) 
The Expanse #9
159,000 words, 528 pages, 19 hrs and 40 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.54 out of 5 on Goodreads
The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again.
In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before.
As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance to unite all of humanity, with the promise of a vast galactic civilization free from wars, factions, lies, and secrets if they win.
But the price of victory may be worse than the cost of defeat.
9.5 The Sins of Our Fathers (2022) 
The Expanse #9.5
15,000 words, 64 pages, 2 hrs and 23 mins to read.
Published by Orbit
4.15 out of 5 on Goodreads
Through one of the gates, a colony stands alone. Their supplies are low. Their defenses, weak. The leadership is uncertain, and the community fragile. Huge alien beasts threaten the little they have left.
But the worst monsters are human, and the greatest dangers are the past they brought.
Overall
The Expanse has quickly become one of the most popular new sci-fi series of recent memory with an accompanying TV show, graphic novel series and now even a Telltale video game.
Find more from James S. A. Corey here – https://www.jamessacorey.com/
Which one is your favourite or most looking forward to picking up next?
Let us know!
Happy reading!
Total Word Count of The Expanse Series
Total Words: 1,608,000
Total Pages: 5,605
Total Time to Read/Listen: 192 hrs and 21 mins
More of the same, but different:
For More of Anything:
Things to Note:
- Word count is an approximation.
- Amount of pages may differ due to different publications, font style and/or size etc.
- Time spent reading is generally an approximation based on the word count and the average reading time. The average reader will read 250 WPM (Words Per Minute).
- This is the original publisher of the books.
- The current Goodreads score at the time of writing.
- For more information on word lengths and what they mean, check out our handy guide here.
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