John Scalzi Books

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John Scalzi is an American science fiction author and popular blogger living in Ohio.

Scalzi was already a successful published non-fiction author and movie critic when he launched his career as a novelist by publishing his first book, Old Man’s War, as a series of online chapters on his personal website starting in 2002. The novel was a hit almost immediately and was subsequently picked up by science fiction imprint Tor Books. His second published novel Agent to the Stars was likewise first released on his website on a donation based model before being published by Subterranean Press.

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Order of Old Man's War Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Old Man's War 2005 Description / Buy
2 The Ghost Brigades 2006 Description / Buy
3 The Last Colony 2007 Description / Buy
4 Zoe's Tale 2008 Description / Buy
5 The Human Division 2013 Description / Buy
6 The End of All Things 2015 Description / Buy

Order of Old Man's War Short Stories/Novellas

# Read Title Published Details
1 Questions for a Soldier (Short Story) 2005 Description / Buy
2 The Sagan Diary (Short Story) 2007 Description / Buy
3 After the Coup (Short Story) 2008 Description / Buy

Order of The Dispatcher Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Dispatcher (Short Story) 2016 Description / Buy
2 Murder By Other Means 2021 Description / Buy
3 Travel by Bullet 2022 Description / Buy

Order of End of All Things Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Life of the Mind 2015 Description / Buy
2 This Hollow Union 2015 Description / Buy
3 Can Long Endure 2015 Description / Buy
4 To Stand or Fall 2015 Description / Buy

Order of The Interdependency Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Collapsing Empire 2017 Description / Buy
2 The Consuming Fire 2018 Description / Buy
3 The Last Emperox 2020 Description / Buy

Order of Human Division Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The B-Team 2013 Description / Buy
2 Walk the Plank 2013 Description / Buy
3 We Only Need the Heads 2013 Description / Buy
4 A Voice in the Wilderness 2013 Description / Buy
5 Tales From the Clarke (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
6 The Back Channel (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
7 The Dog King (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
8 The Sound of Rebellion (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
9 The Observers 2013 Description / Buy
10 This Must Be the Place (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
11 A Problem of Proportion (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
12 The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
13 Earth Below, Sky Above (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy

Order of Lock In Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome 2014 Description / Buy
2 Lock In 2014 Description / Buy
3 Head On 2018 Description / Buy

Order of Shadow War Of The Night Dragons Short Stories/Novellas

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Dead City (Short Story) 2011 Description / Buy

Order of The Android's Dream Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Android's Dream 2006 Description / Buy
2 Judge Sn Goes Golfing (Short Story) 2009 Description / Buy

Order of Whatever Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded 2008 Description / Buy
2 The Mallet of Loving Correction 2013 Description / Buy

Order of John Scalzi Standalone Novels

# Read Title Published Details
1 Agent to the Stars 2004 Description / Buy
2 The God Engines 2009 Description / Buy
3 The Dead City (Short Story) 2011 Description / Buy
4 Redshirts 2012 Description / Buy
5 Virtue Signaling and Other Heresies 2018 Description / Buy
6 A Very Scalzi Christmas (Short Story) 2019 Description / Buy
7 The Kaiju Preservation Society 2022 Description / Buy
8 Starter Villain 2023 Description / Buy
9 When the Moon Hits Your Eye 2025 Description / Buy

Order of John Scalzi Short Stories/Novellas

# Read Title Published Details
1 How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story (Short Story) 2006 Description / Buy
2 The Tale of the Wicked (Short Story) 2009 Description / Buy
3 The President's Brain is Missing (Short Story) 2010 Description / Buy
4 When the Yogurt Took Over 2010 Description / Buy
5 An Election (Short Story) 2010 Description / Buy
6 Muse of Fire (Short Story) 2013 Description / Buy
7 Everything but the Squeal (Short Story) 2016 Description / Buy
8 Automated Customer Service (Short Story) 2018 Description / Buy
9 Constituent Service (Short Story) 2024 Description / Buy

Order of John Scalzi Short Story Collections

# Read Title Published Details
1 Miniatures 2016 Description / Buy

Order of John Scalzi Non-Fiction Books

# Read Title Published Details
1 Rough Guide to Money Online 2000 Description / Buy
2 The Rough Guide to the Universe 2003 Description / Buy
3 Uncle John's Presents: The Book of the Dumb 2003 Description / Buy
4 Uncle John's Presents Book of the Dumb 2 2004 Description / Buy
5 The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies 2005 Description / Buy
6 You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi On Writing 2007 Description / Buy
7 24 Frames into the Future 2012 Description / Buy
8 Don't Live For Your Obituary 2017 Description / Buy

Order of Black Tide Rising Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Under a Graveyard Sky ( By: John Ringo) 2013 Description / Buy
2 To Sail a Darkling Sea ( By: John Ringo) 2014 Description / Buy
3 Islands of Rage & Hope ( By: John Ringo) 2014 Description / Buy
4 Strands of Sorrow ( By: John Ringo) 2014 Description / Buy
5 Black Tide Rising ( With: John Ringo, Jody Lynn Nye, Sarah A. Hoyt, Eric Flint, Michael Z. Williamson, Eric S. Brown) 2016 Description / Buy
6 The Valley of Shadows ( By: John Ringo) 2018 Description / Buy
7 Voices of the Fall ( By: John Ringo) 2019 Description / Buy
8 River of Night ( By: John Ringo) 2019 Description / Buy
9 At the End of the World ( By: Charles E. Gannon) 2020 Description / Buy
10 At the End of the Journey ( By: Charles E. Gannon) 2021 Description / Buy
11 We Shall Rise ( By: John Ringo, Gary Poole) 2021 Description / Buy
12 United We Stand ( By: John Ringo, Gary Poole) 2024 Description / Buy
13 Mountain of Fire ( By: Jason Cordova) 2024 Description / Buy
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Order of Fuzzy Sapiens Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Little Fuzzy ( By: H. Beam Piper) 1962 Description / Buy
2 The Other Human Race ( By: H. Beam Piper) 1964 Description / Buy
3 Fuzzy Sapiens ( By: H. Beam Piper) 1964 Description / Buy
4 The Fuzzy Papers ( By: H. Beam Piper) 1977 Description / Buy
5 Fuzzy Bones ( By: William Tuning) 1981 Description / Buy
6 Golden Dream ( By: Ardath Mayhar) 1982 Description / Buy
7 The Adventures of Little Fuzzy (Short Story) ( By: H. Beam Piper) 1983 Description / Buy
8 Fuzzies and Other People ( By: H. Beam Piper) 1984 Description / Buy
9 The Complete Fuzzy ( By: H. Beam Piper) 1998 Description / Buy
10 Fuzzy Nation 2011 Description / Buy
11 Caveat Fuzzy ( By: Wolfgang Diehr) 2012 Description / Buy
12 The Fuzzy Conundrum ( By: John F. Carr, Wolfgang Diehr) 2016 Description / Buy
13 Fuzzy Ergo Sum ( By: Wolfgang Diehr) 2019 Description / Buy
14 Fuzzy Logic ( By: Wolfgang Diehr) 2022 Description / Buy
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Order of Far Reaches Collection Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Slow Time Between the Stars 2023 Description / Buy
2 How It Unfolds ( By: James S. A. Corey) 2023 Description / Buy
3 The Long Game ( By: Ann Leckie) 2023 Description / Buy
4 Void ( By: Veronica Roth) 2023 Description / Buy
5 Falling Bodies (Short Story) ( By: Rebecca Roanhorse) 2023 Description / Buy
6 Just Out of Jupiter's Reach (Short Story) ( By: Nnedi Okorafor) 2023 Description / Buy
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Order of METAtropolis Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 METAtropolis ( With: Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Karl Schroeder) 2008 Description / Buy
2 Cascadia ( By: Ken Scholes) 2010 Description / Buy
3 Green Space ( By: Jay Lake) 2013 Description / Buy
4 A Symmetry of Serpents and Doves ( By: Ken Scholes) 2014 Description / Buy
5 Byways ( By: Tobias Buckell) 2014 Description / Buy
6 The Wings We Dare Aspire ( By: Ken Scholes) 2014 Description / Buy
7 Stochasticity (Short Story) ( By: Tobias Buckell) 2016 Description / Buy
8 Tensegrity (Short Story) ( By: Tobias Buckell) 2016 Description / Buy
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John Scalzi Anthologies

# Read Title Published Details
1 Space Opera 2007 Description / Buy
2 Rip-Off! 2012 Description / Buy
3 Tor.com: Selected Original Fiction, 2008-2012 2013 Description / Buy
4 Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2014 edition 2015 Description / Buy
5 Black Tide Rising 2016 Description / Buy
6 Robots vs. Fairies 2018 Description / Buy
7 Love, Death and Robots: The Official Anthology: Volume One 2021 Description / Buy
8 Uncanny Magazine Issue 60: September/October 2024 2024 Description / Buy
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John Scalzi graduated from the University of Chicago in 1991 with a degree in philosophy. During his time in college he was the editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon, and also did freelance writing for the Chicago Sun-Times while still a student. After graduation he would move back to California where he would work for the Fresno Bee. He wrote opinion columns and film reviews before eventually being hired as an in-house writer and editor for AOL. He was laid off in 1998 and went to full-time freelance work after that experience.

Since becoming a full time novelist Scalzi has continued to maintain his popular blog, Whatever, where he published his popular 2005 essay “Being Poor” which was later republished in newspapers across the country. He is also active on social media, often being asked to weigh in on controversial topics and using his site as a place to promote other authors and creatives through his Big Idea series of promotional posts as well as for regular blog entries on his life and family, and even cat pictures such as his now infamous “bacon cat” meme.

Scalzi’s first book, Agent to the Stars was written in 1997 and published free to read on his website in 1999. Instead of charging, he asked readers to donate whatever they would like if they enjoyed the book and he ended up making about $4,000 from the book. The book was later released in paperback by Tor.

After this, his first published novel was Old Man’s War which was released one chapter a day in December of of 2002 before being scooped up by Tor Books for publication.

In 2015 he signed a multi-million dollar deal with Tor Books which will cover his next 13 books, making him one of the best paid authors in the science fiction genre. The deal includes the sequel to “Lock In”, titled “Head On” which was released in 2018.

John Scalzi Awards

Scalzi’s work has been well received by critics and readers alike. He picked up the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer at the 2005 World Science Fiction convention and since then has also taken home several more Hugos across a range of categories as well as the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, and Kurd Lasswitz awards. He regularly appears as a guest at science fiction conventions and other literary events.

In 2016, he was awarded the Ohio Governor’s Award by the Ohio Arts Council in the Individual Artists category. Scalzi currently resides in Bradford, Ohio as his family moved there to be closer to his wife’s family.

Also in 2016, he was named as a Critic-at-Large by the Los Angeles Times and would begin contributing to the paper as a columnist covering culture and literature.

John Scalzi Books Turned Into Movies/TV

Scalzi worked as a consultant for the television series Stargate Atlantis and currently three of his books are under development for the small screen as well.

Legendary Television is working on an adaptation of his thriller Lock In, while FX is adapting the bestselling comic novel Redshirts into a miniseries. Meanwhile Syfy has tapped Wolfgang Petersen to create a series set in the Old Man’s War universe, entitled Ghost Brigades after the second book in that series.

Best John Scalzi Books

Old Man’s War: Scalzi’s first novel launched what is still his most popular series of books, which now includes six novels and multiple short stories. The books consistently tops readers polls of the best science fiction books of the past few decades.

The novel is set in a space-faring future in which wars a fought by volunteers recruited from people past retirement age. These volunteers are given new bodies in exchange for their military service off-planet defending the human Colonial Defense Forces from alien threats.

John Perry is one such volunteer who joins up at the age of 75 after the sudden death of his wife. As he navigates this strange new life he finds the universe is far bigger and scarier than he could have imagined before joining up and he will need every bit of his lifelong experience and wisdom to get him through this second shot at life.

Lock In: This near future thriller follows the aftermath of a new viral epidemic that leaves a small percentage of those exposed with a debilitating condition known as Haden’s Syndrome. Those affected by it are in a state of paralysis and can only interact with the outside world by using sophisticated robotic interfaces. Decades after the epidemic a series of possibly Haden-related murders baffle the FBI and a team of agents, one of whom is a Haden herself, must figure out who the killer really is before it’s too late.

Redshirts: This comic novel follows the misadventures of five new ensigns serving on a disaster prone starship whose crew seems to be dropping life flies. They slowly become aware of a strange pattern; the command staff seem to be immune to the incredibly high death rate among the enlisted crew. As they dig into this strange statistical anomaly they discover the shocking truth, which is that the universe they inhabit is absurd in a way that can only be explained by one thing; they are the fictional creations of bad television writers!

When Does The Next John Scalzi book come out?

The next book by John Scalzi is When the Moon Hits Your Eye and will be released on March, 25th 2025.

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