Alex Benedict Books in Order: How to read Jack McDevitt’s series?

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Written by American science fiction author Jack McDevitt, this series set in a distant future is about antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and his interstellar pilot, Chase Kolpath. Together, they run a company called Rainbow Enterprises.

Alex Benedict deals with antique items, but he also solves mysteries. The business of finding and selling ancient artifacts is full of danger and secrets. It is as much a science fiction series as a mystery one.

How to read the Alex Benedict Series in Order?

Every novel in the Alex Benedict book series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

  1. A Talent for War – Everyone knew the legend of Christopher Sim. Fighter. Leader. An interstellar hero with a rare talent for war, Sim changed mankind’s history forever when he forged a ragtag group of misfits into the weapon that broke the back of the alien Ashiyyur. But now, Alex Benedict has found a startling bit of information, long buried in an ancient computer file. If it is true, then Christopher Sim was a fraud. Alex Benedict must follow the dark track of a legend, into the very heart of the alien galaxy.
  2. Polaris – Sixty years after the disappearance of the wealthy passengers and crew of the luxury space yacht Polaris, found empty and adrift in space, antiquities dealer Alex Benedict sets out to uncover the truth about the Polaris and to reveal the fate of those aboard the ship.
  3. Seeker – Thousands of years after an entire colony mysteriously disappears, antiquities dealer Alex Benedict comes into possession of a cup that seems to be from the Seeker, one of the colony’s ships. Alex and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, follow a deadly trail to the Seeker, strangely adrift in a system barren of habitable worlds.
  1. The Devil’s Eye – Alex Benedict receives a cryptic message asking for help from celebrated writer Vicki Greene-who has been mind-wiped. She has no memory of her past life, or of her plea for assistance. But she has transferred an enormous sum of money to Alex, also without explanation. The answers to this mystery lie on the most remote of human worlds, where Alex will uncover a secret connected to a decades.
  2. Echo – Sunset Tuttle spent a lifetime looking for alien species. Twenty-five years after Tuttle’s death, Alex Benedict discovers a stone tablet inscribed with cryptic symbols, now in the possession of Tuttle’s one-time lover Rachel Bannister. Benedict is determined to decipher its secret-one Bannister doesn’t want revealed. Could it be that Tuttle’s obsessive quest was successful?
  3. Firebird – Forty-one years ago, the renowned physicist Chris Robin vanished. Before his disappearance, his fringe-science theories about the existence of endless alternate universes had earned him both admirers and enemies. Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath discover that Robin had several interstellar yachts flown far outside the planetary system, where they too vanished. And following Robin’s trail into the unknown puts Benedict and Kolpath in danger.
  1. Coming Home – Alex Benedict and his pilot, Chase Kolpath, head back home to be present when the Capella, the interstellar transport that vanished eleven years earlier in a time/space warp, is expected to reappear. With a window of only a few hours, rescuing it is of the utmost importance. Twenty-six hundred passengers–including Alex’s uncle, Gabriel Benedict, the man who raised him–are on board.
  2. Octavia Gone – After being lost in space for eleven years, Gabe finally makes his triumphant return to reunite with Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath and retrieve a possibly alien artifact-which may lead them to solve the greatest archaeological mystery of their careers.
  3. Village in the Sky – Centuries after a war with the Mutes, the first aliens to be encountered by humankind, a startling new discovery in the far reaches of the Orion Nebula appears. On a planet with conditions favorable to life, explorer vessel The Columbia comes across a small town seemingly inhabited by an intelligent species not yet discovered. But when a highly publicized follow-up mission is sent to make contact mere months later, the entire town has vanished, leaving no trace-or such is presumed to be the case until Alex Benedict and his archaeological crew show up to investigate.

If you like our article about the Alex Benedict series in order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in other sci-fi series like The Culture series.

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One Comment

  1. The first book is written from Benedict’s point of view. The rest are told by his assistant Chase. Chase is a MUCH better choice as narrator. I might not have continued with the series if I had started with the first. As it happens, I was hooked by Chase’s voice and this is one of my favorite series.

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