Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vagabonds | 2016 | Hao Jingfang | Buy |
| 2 | Jumpnauts | 2024 | Hao Jingfang | Buy |
Hao Jingfang’s standalone novels available in English both deal with large-scale science fiction concepts grounded in social and political commentary. Vagabonds (2020) is set in 2201 and follows a group of Martian teenagers returning home after five years studying on Earth, caught between two civilizations with very different ideas about governance and freedom. Jumpnauts (2024) is a first-contact story set in the near future, weaving together geopolitics, archaeology, and Confucian philosophy as an unlikely team races to make peaceful contact with a returning alien race.
Both novels were translated by Ken Liu and published by Saga Press. Though they share Hao’s interest in how societies organize themselves and treat their members, the two books are completely independent of each other and can be read in any order.