Alastair Reynolds books

Alastair Reynolds is a Welsh-born hard science fiction author and former astrophysicist, best known for the Revelation Space universe and other far-future space opera novels.

Anthologies

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Ant-Men of Tibet and Other Stories 1999 Buy
Space Soldiers 2001 Buy
Infinities 2002 Buy
The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 15 2002 Buy
The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 16 2003 Buy
The Hard SF Renaissance 2003 Buy
Constellations 2005 Buy
One Million A.D. 2005 Buy
The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction 2006 Buy
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection 2006 Buy
Year’s Best SF 11 2006 Buy
Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 2006 Buy
The Space Opera Renaissance 2006 Buy
The Best of the Best, Vol 2 2007 Buy
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection 2007 Buy
The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 21 2008 Buy
The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 22 2008 Buy
Federations 2009 Buy
The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF 2009 Buy
Shine: An Anthology of Near-Future Optimistic Science Fiction 2010 Buy
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection 2011 Buy
Lightspeed: Year One 2011 Buy
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection 2012 Buy
Rock On: The Greatest Hits of Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012 Buy
Aliens: Recent Encounters 2013 Buy
Best New SF 26 2013 Buy
Memoryville Blues: A Postscripts Anthology 30/31 2013 Buy
Robot Uprisings 2014 Buy
Dead Man’s Hand 2014 Buy
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 6 2014 Buy
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection 2014 Buy
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 7 2015 Buy
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One 2016 Buy
Bridging Infinity 2016 Buy
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Two 2017 Buy
The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume Three 2017 Buy
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection 2017 Buy
Infinite Stars 2017 Buy
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 10 2018 Buy
2001: An Odyssey in Words 2018 Buy
The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories 2019 Buy
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Five 2020 Buy
Love, Death and Robots: The Official Anthology: Volume One 2021 Buy
Best of British Science Fiction 2023 2024 Buy

Doctor Who: Third Doctor Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Curse of Peladon 1975 Buy
Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice 2012 N/A
The Paradise of Death 1993 Buy
Harvest of Time 2013 Buy
Dancing the Code 1995 Buy
The Ghosts of N-Space 1995 Buy
Doctor Who: In The Blood 2016 N/A
The Scales of Injustice 1996 Buy
Doctor Who: The Magician’s Oath 2009 Buy
Council of War 2013 Buy
Damascus 2016 N/A
Doctor Who: Damascus 2016 N/A

Inspector Dreyfus / Prefect Dreyfus Emergency Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Aurora 2007 N/A
Aurora Rising / The Prefect 2007 Buy
Open and Shut 2018 N/A
Elysium Fire 2018 Buy
Machine Vendetta 2024 Buy

Merlin Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Interzone 157 2000 N/A
Thousandth Night / Minla’s Flowers 2009 N/A
The Iron Tactician 2016 Buy
Merlin’s Gun 2000 Buy

Poseidon’s Children Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Blue Remembered Earth 2012 Buy
On the Steel Breeze 2012 Buy
Poseidon’s Wake 2015 Buy

Revelation Space Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Revelation Space eBook Collection 2011 N/A
Aurora 2007 N/A
Elysium Fire 2018 N/A
Machine Vendetta 2023 N/A
Kaldera 2 2001 N/A
Migotliwa Wstęga t1. Pościg 2001 N/A
Migotliwa Wstęga t2. Odwet 2001 N/A
Revelation Space 2000 Buy
Unendlichkeit 2000 N/A
Diamond Dogs 2001 Buy
Chasm City 2001 Buy
Archa 1 2002 N/A
Offenbarung 2003 N/A
Galactic North 2006 Buy
Redemption Ark 2002 Buy
Susien aika 2021 N/A
Turquoise Days 2003 Buy
Absolution Gap 2003 Buy
Inhibitor Phase 2021 Buy

Revenger Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Kostaja 2016 N/A
Revenger 2016 Buy
Shadow Captain 2019 Buy
Varjokapteeni 2019 N/A
Bone Silence 2020 Buy

Short Stories/Novellas

Title Published Buy on Amazon
A Spy in Europa 1997 N/A
Great Wall of Mars 2000 N/A
Weather 2006 Buy
The Six Directions of Space 2008 Buy
Zima Blue 2009 Buy
Troika 2011 Buy
Sleepover 2012 Buy
Thousandth Night 2013 Buy
Slow Bullets 2015 Buy
Detonation Boulevard 2023 Buy
The Dagger in Vichy 2025 Buy

Short Story Collections

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Zima Blue and Other Stories 2006 Buy
Deep Navigation 2010 Buy
Beyond the Aquila Rift 2016 Buy
Belladonna Nights and Other Stories 2021 Buy
The Revelation Space Collection Volume 1 2025 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Century Rain 2004 Buy
Pushing Ice 2005 Buy
House of Suns 2008 Buy
Terminal World 2010 Buy
Permafrost 2019 Buy
Eversion 2022 Buy
Halcyon Years 2026 Buy

The Medusa Chronicles

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Medusa Chronicles 2016 Buy

Alastair Reynolds worked as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency before becoming a full-time writer, and that scientific background shows in his fiction. His debut novel, Revelation Space (2000), established a far-future universe spanning centuries of human expansion across the galaxy, threatened by alien machine intelligences. The Revelation Space series grew to include Chasm City, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, and the 2021 return to the setting with Inhibitor Phase.

Outside Revelation Space, Reynolds has written several well-regarded standalone novels. House of Suns (2008) follows a group of clones exploring the Milky Way over millions of years. Pushing Ice (2005) begins with a crew chasing a departing moon of Saturn and ends somewhere far stranger. The Revenger trilogy (2016-2020) takes a more accessible, adventure-oriented approach to far-future treasure hunting in a dying solar system.

Reynolds has also written extensively for the Doctor Who franchise, contributed to dozens of science fiction anthologies, and published numerous novellas and short story collections. His story “Zima Blue” was adapted for the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots. He continues to publish both novels and shorter works at a steady pace.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Alastair Reynolds written?

Alastair Reynolds has written 116 books across eleven series.

What was Alastair Reynolds's first book?

Alastair Reynolds’s first book is The Curse of Peladon, published in 1975.

What is Alastair Reynolds best known for?

Alastair Reynolds is best known for his Revelation Space series, a hard science fiction space opera set in a far future where humanity has colonized much of the galaxy but faces existential threats from ancient machine intelligences called Inhibitors.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We may receive commissions for purchases made through links on this site.

Privacy Policy