Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Voyage | 1996 | Stephen Baxter | Buy |
| 2 | Voyage - 1 | 1996 | Stephen Baxter | N/A |
| 3 | Voyage - 2 | 1996 | Stephen Baxter | N/A |
| 4 | Titan | 1997 | Stephen Baxter | Buy |
| 5 | Moonseed | 1998 | Stephen Baxter | Buy |
Voyage is probably the most satisfying of the three as a novel, following the political and human drama of getting a Mars mission funded and flown in an alternate 1980s where Nixon made different decisions after Apollo. Baxter did extensive research into the real proposals that were on the table at NASA during that era, and the book feels grounded in a version of history that could have happened.
Titan is more brutal, following a crew sent on a mission to Saturn’s moon knowing they will never come back. Moonseed shifts the tone entirely to disaster fiction. The trilogy is not Baxter at his most ambitious in terms of scale, but the attention to real space engineering and history makes it rewarding for readers interested in what the space program could have been.