Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe is one of the noteworthy American authors, who has written some of the highly successful books in the fantasy and science fiction genres. He is particularly famous for his allusive and dense prose and the strong influence of the Catholic faith, which are often seen in his writings. Author Wolfe is also a prolific writer of short stories.

The best place to start is the R.A. Lafferty Collections series, the earliest of Gene Wolfe's multi-book series: it opens with Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970) and runs to 16 books across 1970–2019, ending with The Best of R. A. Lafferty (2019). Gene Wolfe's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Gene Wolfe has 253 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1967 and 2025. 134 of them belong to 12 named series — the largest being the R.A. Lafferty Collections series with 16 books — and 119 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. Gene Wolfe's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are R.A. Lafferty Collections (1970–2019, 16 books), Urth: Book of the New Sun (1980–1987, 5 books) and Soldier Of The Mist (1986–2006, 4 books), plus 5 more.

This guide splits Gene Wolfe's 253 books into 12 named series and 119 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: R.A. Lafferty Collections (16 books, 1970–2019); Urth: Book of the New Sun (5 books, 1980–1987); The Palencar Project (5 books, 2012); Soldier Of The Mist (4 books, 1986–2006); Urth: Book of the Long Sun (4 books, 1993–1996), plus 7 further series.