Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear is an American author from Hartford Connecticut who has written numerous novel in several sub genres in fantasy. Sharing a birthday with Bilbo Baggins and Frodo and a love for reading the dictionary, the young Bear was doomed to early friendlessness, intransigence, penury, and a penchant for penning speculative fiction. With the exception of two years when she lived in the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont, Elizabeth for the most part grew up in central Connecticut in what is famously the last house connected to the grid before you reach the Canadian border.

The best place to start is the Jenny Casey series, the earliest of Elizabeth Bear's multi-book series: it opens with Hammered (2004) and runs to 3 books across 2004–2005, ending with Worldwired (2005). Elizabeth Bear's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Elizabeth Bear has 205 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1996 and 2025. 103 of them belong to 19 named series — the largest being the METAtropolis series with 8 books — and 102 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Elizabeth Bear's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Jenny Casey (2004–2005, 3 books), Promethean Age (2006–2014, 5 books) and New Amsterdam (2007–2012, 5 books), plus 12 more.

This guide splits Elizabeth Bear's 205 books into 19 named series and 102 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: METAtropolis (8 books, 2008–2016); Promethean Age (5 books, 2006–2014); New Amsterdam (5 books, 2007–2012); Jenny Casey (3 books, 2004–2005); Jacob's Ladder (3 books, 2007–2011), plus 14 further series.