Revelation Space

Revelation Space is the gateway drug that got me hooked on Reynolds' strange vision of the future. It forms a loosely connected trilogy with Redemption Ark (featuring a riveting near-light-speed chase between the stars spanning decades) and Absolution Gap (with a virus-induced religious cult, moving cathedrals and a vanishing gas giant).

Aurora Rising and Elysium Fire form the Prefect Dreyfuss Emergency sub-series. They're police procedurals set in the Glitter Band, a swarm of thousands of orbital habitats.

• Revelation Space, 2000 ✓
• Chasm City, 2001 ✓
• Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, 2002 ✓
• Redemption Ark, 2002 ✓
• Absolution Gap, 2003 ✓
• Galactic North, 2006
• The Prefect / Aurora Rising, 2007 ✓
• Elysium Fire, 2018 ✓
• Inhibitor Phase, 2021

Poseidon's Children

• Blue Remembered Earth, 2012 ✓
• On the Steel Breeze, 2013 ✓
• Poseidon's Wake, 2015 ✓

Revenger

• Revenger, 2016 ✓
• Shadow Captain, 2019
• Bone Silence, 2020

Merlin

There are four Merlin stories to date, ...

• Hideaway, 2000
• Minla's Flowers (included in Zima Blue), 2009 ✓
• The Iron Tactician, 2016
• Merlin's Gun, 2012 ✓

House of Suns

• Thousandth Night, 2013
• House of Suns, 2008 ✓

Other Stories

• Century Rain, 2004 ✓
• Pushing Ice, 2005 ✓
• Terminal World, 2009
• Troika, 2010 ✓
• Sleepover, 2010
• Slow Bullets, 2015 ✓
• Permafrost, 2019

Collections

Reynolds' short stories are like small bite-sized versions of his novels. Notably, the stories Zima Blue and Beyond the Aquila Rift come to life in episodes of the animated series Love, Death & Robots.

• Zima Blue, 2006 ✓
• The Six Directions of Space, 2008
• Deep Navigation, 2010
• Beyond the Aquila Rift, 2016