Deathlands books in order

Reading order

Deathlands is one of the longest-running post-apocalyptic fiction series in print, launched in 1986 under the Gold Eagle imprint with Pilgrimage to Hell and still publishing new entries as of 2025. The setting is a 22nd-century North America shattered by nuclear war, where the land itself has been transformed by the blasts and their aftermath. Ryan Cawdor, a one-eyed warrior with a scarred face and a pragmatic moral code, leads a small group of companions through this world using a network of pre-war military teleportation devices called mat-trans units to jump between locations.

Each book in the series plants the group somewhere new: a mutant-controlled settlement, a surviving military installation, a baron’s territory held together by force. The format is deliberately episodic, which is what allows the series to sustain itself across such an enormous run. The villains, the landscapes, and the specific threats change with each volume, but the core group and its dynamics remain the consistent draw. Ryan, the scholar Doc Tanner (displaced from the 19th century by government experiments), the Cajun Jak Lauren, medic Mildred Wyeth, and others each carry enough personality to make the ensemble feel like more than a collection of action archetypes.

The later books, particularly those published from 2016 onward as digital titles, maintain the same setup while reflecting changes in authorship over the decades. Readers who find the 1980s and 1990s entries too dated in their sensibilities may find the more recent volumes smoother reads, while long-time fans often cite the Laurence James-era books as the series at its most inventive. Either way, the sheer scope of Deathlands, more than 150 books over nearly 40 years, makes it one of the more durable examples of collaborative pulp fiction in the genre.