Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taylor’s Ark | 1993 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 2 | Medicine Show | 1994 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 3 | The Lady and the Tiger | 2004 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 4 | An Unexpected Apprentice | 2007 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 5 | A Forthcoming Wizard | 2009 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
Jody Lynn Nye’s Taylor’s Ark series follows Dr. Shona Taylor, a physician who travels through space with an unusual crew: a collection of bioengineered animals that help her diagnose and treat patients. The “ark” in the title refers to Shona’s menagerie, which includes animals modified to detect diseases and provide medical support. It is a fun concept that gives the series a distinctive feel within space opera fiction.
The core trilogy begins with Taylor’s Ark (1993), where Shona is called to investigate a mysterious plague on a remote colony world. Medicine Show (1994) sends her to a frontier planet where she uncovers medical fraud, and The Lady and the Tiger (2004) picks up the story after a decade-long gap with a new adventure for Shona and her animal companions.
Note that the last two books listed below, An Unexpected Apprentice and A Forthcoming Wizard, actually belong to Nye’s separate Tildi Summerbee fantasy series and are not part of the Taylor’s Ark storyline. The three core Taylor’s Ark novels are the science fiction books listed first.