Rho Agenda Books in Order: How to read Richard Phillips’s series?

Space Invaders of a new Kind.

What is the Rho Agenda series about?

Written by Richard Phillips, a West Point Class of 79 grad with a masters in nuclear physics who spent several years performing research at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories for the U.S. military before launching his writing career, the Rho Agenda is a science fiction series.

The series introduced us to the Rho Project, a top-secret research dedicated to reverse engineering technology from an Alien ship that fell from the New Mexico sky in 1948. When a second ship is found, everything changes. A trio of students is thrust into a violent world of secrets and corruption, becoming reluctant soldiers in a war destined to alter what it means to be human.

The Rho Agenda Series is divided into three trilogies that were not published in chronological order. You can follow the order you prefer.

How to read the Rho Agenda Books in Order?

Rho Agenda Series in Chronological Order

The Rho Agenda Inception

1. Once Dead – Jack Gregory, the CIA’s top assassin, bleeds out on a Calcutta operating table and is about to die. But an alien entity has other plans for him. If Jack is willing to act as a human host for this dark figure, he lives. Jack takes the deal. One year later, he is internationally known as The Ripper, fixer for hire, and finds himself increasingly drawn to dire, world-shattering events. Suffering strange premonitions and compulsions, Jack has more questions than answers. What destiny does this alien mind foresee? Why has it chosen him?
2. Dead Wrong – Jack has been hired for a suicide mission: journey to South America and rescue an imprisoned shaman. One problem…both the National Security Agency and a gang of neo-fascists are hot on his trail. Neither group plans to let Jack live. At stake is the immeasurably powerful Sun Staff, an ancient alien artifact that in the wrong hands will alter the course of human history. With the clock ticking, Jack must find and rescue the shaman before sinister forces get to him first.
3. Dead Shift – The NSA’s most brilliant hacker is abducted and the world stands on the brink of cyberwar. The Ripper and his ghost team commandos are called to action, battling a host of enemies ranging from a genius tech-billionaire and the Chinese government to an emerging superintelligence capable of bringing the world to its knees. With every threat in play, Jack must confront his alien passenger and regain some semblance of self-control.

The Rho Agenda

4. The Second Ship – In 1948, an alien starship fell from the New Mexico sky-and immediately vanished behind the walls of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Since that day the US military has endeavored to reverse engineer the ship’s alien technology through top-secret research known only as the Rho Project. Now, decades after the crash, the government is prepared tell all. Or so it claims…
5. Immune – The Project’s alien nano-serum is loosed upon the world, disguised as a miracle cure and leaving too many people-good people-dead. And anyone still alive to challenge the Project won’t be for long: an assassin known only as El Chupacabra is systematically eliminating any and all opposition. At the top of the hit list is NSA fixer Jack Gregory, along with Heather McFarland and Mark and Jennifer Smythe, the three teenagers who first exposed the Rho Project’s evil agenda.
6. Wormhole – In Switzerland, scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider have discovered a new threat, a scientific anomaly capable of destroying the earth-and only Rho Project technology can stop it. In exchange for a full pardon, Dr. Stephenson agrees to create a wormhole that will send the anomaly into deep space. But his promise masks the alien agenda that brought the Rho Ship to earth.

Rho Agenda Assimilation

7. The Kasari Nexus – Jennifer Smythe escapes Earth’s invasion by the insidious Kasari race, hijacks an alien starship, and survives the deadly passage through a wormhole. But escape is short-lived… When Jennifer emerges on the new world of Scion, she is confronted by the same deadly enemy. Now the Kasari have sided with the planet’s angel-like elite against the warrior underclass, but with the intent of ultimately ruling both. And when Jennifer is captured by the brutish Koranthians, her alien-enhanced abilities make her a crucial asset in battling the Kasari and their winged allies.
8. The Altreian Enigma – When Mark and Heather Smythe saved Earth from the conquest-hungry Kasari Collective, they thought their work was done. But the world’s vast new government continued its quest to make extraterrestrial contact. And now, as a new gateway is activated to welcome the Kasari, whom world leaders take to be benefactors, only the Smythes stand a chance of countering their planet’s invasion and subjugation by a race of ruthless conquerors.
9. The Meridian Ascent – In their battle to save Earth from becoming another conquest of the alien Kasari Collective, Mark and Heather Smythe have struck crucial blows against the enemy. But their best efforts have still failed to derail the completion of the wormhole gateway that would give the insidious extraterrestrial invaders access to the planet-and doom humankind as helpless slaves of the Kasari hive mind.

Rho Agenda Series in Publication Order

1. The Second Ship (2007)
2. Immune (2009)
3. Wormhole (2012)
4. Once Dead (2014)
5. Dead Wrong (2015)
6. Dead Shift (2015)
7. The Kasari Nexus (2016)
8. The Altreian Enigma (2016)
9. The Meridian Ascent (2017)

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