Tim Powers Books in Order (Updated August 7, 2026)

Tim Powers is an American fantasy and science fiction author best known for secret-history novels that place supernatural explanations behind real historical events. His bibliography includes several genuine series, a few loosely connected historical fantasies, standalone novels, novellas, and revised editions that can make a complete reading list look more complicated than it is.

The important distinction is that Tim Powers does not write one continuous universe. Last Call, The Anubis Gates, Declare, On Stranger Tides, and most of his other novels should not be forced into a single timeline.

Two sequences require strict ordering: the Fault Lines trilogy and the Vickery and Castine series. Several shorter works also return to the worlds of earlier novels.

Quick Answer: Where Should You Start With Tim Powers?

There is no single mandatory first Tim Powers book.

Choose according to what you intend to read:

1. For the Fault Lines trilogy: start with Last Call.
2. For Vickery and Castine: start with Alternate Routes.
3. For The Anubis Gates material: start with The Anubis Gates.
4. For the Nephilim novels: start with The Stress of Her Regard.
5. For a standalone historical fantasy: Declare, On Stranger Tides, or The Drawing of the Dark can be read independently.
6. For Powers’s newest novel: The Mills of the Gods is currently a standalone and does not require earlier reading.

If you want to read Powers broadly rather than complete one series, publication order is useful but not necessary. His independent novels can be moved around freely.

Tim Powers Novels in Publication Order

This list treats The Skies Discrowned and its revised edition Forsake the Sky as the same underlying novel rather than two separate stories.

1. The Skies Discrowned (1976)
2. An Epitaph in Rust (1976)
3. The Drawing of the Dark (1979)
4. The Anubis Gates (1983)
5. Dinner at Deviant’s Palace (1985)
6. On Stranger Tides (1987)
7. The Stress of Her Regard (1989)
8. Last Call (1992)
9. Expiration Date (1995)
10. Earthquake Weather (1997)
11. Declare (2000)
12. Three Days to Never (2006)
13. Hide Me Among the Graves (2012)
14. Medusa’s Web (2016)
15. Alternate Routes (2018)
16. Forced Perspectives (2020)
17. Stolen Skies (2022)
18. My Brother’s Keeper (2023)
19. The Mills of the Gods (2025)

A bibliographic wrinkle affects Expiration Date. Its first UK edition appeared in 1995, followed by the first US hardcover in January 1996. For an author-wide publication list, 1995 is the earlier publication date.

Fault Lines Books in Order

Included, interconnected trilogy. Read in order.

1. Last Call (1992)
2. Expiration Date (1995)
3. Earthquake Weather (1997)

This is Powers’s clearest traditional trilogy.

The first two books establish different characters and supernatural mechanisms within the same larger setting. Earthquake Weather then draws those strands together, so skipping directly to the third novel means losing substantial character and continuity context.

Publication order and recommended order are therefore identical.

Can Expiration Date Be Read Before Last Call?

It can function more independently than many middle volumes, but that is not the preferred route.

Earthquake Weather depends on material from both earlier books. Reading Last Call first makes the trilogy’s eventual convergence much easier to follow.

Vickery and Castine Books in Order

Included, continuing series. Read in order.

1. Alternate Routes (2018)
2. Forced Perspectives (2020)
3. Stolen Skies (2022)

Sebastian Vickery and Ingrid Castine continue across all three novels.

Unlike Powers’s many standalone Los Angeles stories, these books have direct recurring protagonists and developing relationships. Starting with Forced Perspectives or Stolen Skies therefore sacrifices important background.

There is currently no fourth published Vickery and Castine novel.

The Anubis Gates Books and Stories in Order

The Anubis Gates began as a standalone novel, but Powers later returned to its characters and setting in shorter fiction.

For first-time readers, use publication order:

1. The Anubis Gates (1983)
2. Nobody’s Home (2014)
3. The Properties of Rooftop Air (2020)

The Anubis Gates

Included, main novel.

This is the foundation of the continuity. Later stories revisit nineteenth-century London and characters or elements established here.

Nobody’s Home

Optional, connected novella.

Nobody’s Home returns to the setting of The Anubis Gates and follows Jacky Snapp.

Because it assumes familiarity with events and characters from the novel, it belongs after The Anubis Gates even if a reader is tempted to reorganize the material according to internal chronology.

The Properties of Rooftop Air

Optional, connected story.

This later work again returns to the Anubis Gates setting, including Horrabin and the St. Giles underworld.

Read it after the main novel. There is little advantage in trying to construct a precise chronological sequence from the shorter pieces.

The Stress of Her Regard and Hide Me Among the Graves in Order

These books form another connected branch of Powers’s bibliography, centered on the Nephilim and historical literary figures.

The most useful order is:

1. The Stress of Her Regard (1989)
2. A Time to Cast Away Stones (2009)
3. Hide Me Among the Graves (2012)

The Stress of Her Regard

Included, starting novel.

The novel mixes the lives of Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and other historical figures with Powers’s supernatural mythology.

It establishes the Nephilim material needed to appreciate the later connected fiction.

A Time to Cast Away Stones

Optional, but directly connected.

This shorter work acts as a postscript to The Stress of Her Regard and involves Edward John Trelawny and the same supernatural mythology.

It has appeared in collections including The Bible Repairman and Other Stories and Down and Out in Purgatory.

Read it after The Stress of Her Regard. It fits naturally before the much later historical period of Hide Me Among the Graves.

Hide Me Among the Graves

Included, connected novel.

Published more than two decades after The Stress of Her Regard, this novel shifts attention to Victorian London and the Rossetti family while continuing the underlying Nephilim mythology.

It has sometimes been described as a sequel of sorts rather than a conventional Book Two. For reading-order purposes, however, treating it as the second major novel is the clearest option.

Standalone Tim Powers Novels

The following books do not require readers to complete one of Powers’s established series first.

The Skies Discrowned

1. The Skies Discrowned (1976)

Separate continuity.

Powers later revised this early science fiction novel and republished it as Forsake the Sky in 1986.

Do not buy both titles expecting two different novels. Forsake the Sky is the revised version of The Skies Discrowned.

An Epitaph in Rust

1. An Epitaph in Rust (1976)

Separate continuity.

This early post-apocalyptic novel stands on its own.

The Drawing of the Dark

1. The Drawing of the Dark (1979)

Separate continuity.

No earlier Powers book is required.

Dinner at Deviant’s Palace

1. Dinner at Deviant’s Palace (1985)

Separate continuity.

This is another self-contained novel rather than the beginning of a continuing series.

On Stranger Tides

1. On Stranger Tides (1987)

Separate continuity.

The novel combines piracy, voodoo, and historical fantasy in the Caribbean. It has no required sequel in Powers’s bibliography.

Its title was later used for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but the novel itself is not part of a Tim Powers book series.

Declare

1. Declare (2000)

Separate continuity.

This Cold War supernatural spy novel is entirely readable on its own.

Three Days to Never

1. Three Days to Never (2006)

Separate continuity.

Its supernatural espionage and time-travel elements can resemble ideas found elsewhere in Powers’s fiction, but that does not make it part of Declare, The Anubis Gates, or another formal series.

Medusa’s Web

1. Medusa’s Web (2016)

Separate continuity.

The Los Angeles setting and supernatural concerns may feel compatible with the later Vickery and Castine books, but no firm series relationship should be inferred from those similarities.

Read it independently.

My Brother’s Keeper

1. My Brother’s Keeper (2023)

Separate continuity.

This historical supernatural novel centers on the Brontë family in nineteenth-century Yorkshire.

It is not a continuation of the Nephilim books simply because both use historical literary figures and supernatural secret history.

The Mills of the Gods

1. The Mills of the Gods (2025)

Separate continuity.

Set in Paris in 1925, the novel involves expatriate American Harry Nolan, supernatural forces, and Ernest Hemingway.

No earlier Tim Powers novel is currently required reading for it.

Tim Powers Novellas and Connected Short Fiction

Powers has published substantial shorter fiction in chapbooks, limited editions, anthologies, and collections. Readers interested only in novel continuity do not need to track down every individual first edition.

The most important pieces for reading order are:

1. A Time to Cast Away Stones (2009), connected to The Stress of Her Regard
2. Salvage and Demolition (2013), standalone
3. Nobody’s Home (2014), connected to The Anubis Gates
4. Down and Out in Purgatory (2016), standalone title story
5. The Properties of Rooftop Air (2020), connected to The Anubis Gates

For most readers, Powers’s larger collections are easier than collecting the original limited editions.

Tim Powers Short Story Collections in Order

The principal collections include:

1. Night Moves and Other Stories (2000)
2. Strange Itineraries (2005)
3. The Bible Repairman and Other Stories (2011)
4. Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers (2017)

There is considerable overlap among these books.

That means a complete Powers reader does not need to purchase every collection simply to obtain every story. The 2017 Down and Out in Purgatory gathers a broad selection of his shorter work, including Salvage and Demolition, Nobody’s Home, and A Time to Cast Away Stones.

One notable exception is The Properties of Rooftop Air, which was published after that collection.

Where Do the Collaborative Books Fit?

Powers has also collaborated with James P. Blaylock, sometimes around the fictional poet William Ashbless.

Works such as The Devils in the Details and the Ashbless material should be kept separate from Powers’s main novel reading order.

Optional. These are useful for completists, but they are not missing installments of Fault Lines, Vickery and Castine, or another major Powers novel sequence.

Chronological Order

A single chronological list for Tim Powers would be misleading.

His fiction ranges across different universes and historical periods. A story set earlier in real-world history is not automatically a prequel to a later-set Powers novel.

There are only a few places where chronology is useful.

Nephilim Continuity Chronology

1. The Stress of Her Regard
2. A Time to Cast Away Stones
3. Hide Me Among the Graves

Here chronology and recommended order align well.

Fault Lines Chronology

1. Last Call
2. Expiration Date
3. Earthquake Weather

Again, publication order already provides the correct progression.

Vickery and Castine Chronology

1. Alternate Routes
2. Forced Perspectives
3. Stolen Skies

There is no reason to deviate from publication order.

For The Anubis Gates material, publication order remains preferable because the later stories were written for readers already familiar with the original novel.

Recommended Tim Powers Reading Order

Trying to read all nineteen novels as though they formed a saga adds structure that Powers did not intend.

A better plan is to finish each continuity before moving to another.

Route 1: Start With His Major Connected Books

1. The Anubis Gates
2. Nobody’s Home
3. The Properties of Rooftop Air
4. Last Call
5. Expiration Date
6. Earthquake Weather
7. The Stress of Her Regard
8. A Time to Cast Away Stones
9. Hide Me Among the Graves
10. Alternate Routes
11. Forced Perspectives
12. Stolen Skies

After those sequences, the standalones can be read in any order.

Route 2: Read Only the Novels

If shorter fiction is not important to you:

1. The Anubis Gates
2. Last Call
3. Expiration Date
4. Earthquake Weather
5. The Stress of Her Regard
6. Hide Me Among the Graves
7. Alternate Routes
8. Forced Perspectives
9. Stolen Skies

Then add whichever standalones interest you.

Route 3: Read Everything by Publication Date

Publication order works well for readers interested in seeing Powers’s writing develop from his 1970s science fiction through his later secret histories.

Its disadvantage is that related books can be separated by many years. The Stress of Her Regard and Hide Me Among the Graves, for example, were published more than two decades apart.

For continuity rather than literary chronology, grouping the connected books is more practical.

Boxed Sets, Omnibuses, and Revised Editions

The most important duplicate-title issue is The Skies Discrowned.

It was revised and republished as Forsake the Sky. These are versions of the same novel, not Books One and Two.

Some editions also combine existing Powers works. An omnibus does not create an additional installment and should not be counted again when building a reading order.

The same rule applies to collections that reprint previously published novellas and stories.

Latest Tim Powers Book

Tim Powers’s latest published novel as of August 2026 is:

1. The Mills of the Gods (2025)

Baen published the novel in December 2025.

It is set in Paris in 1925 and is currently best classified as a standalone. No sequel or preceding volume is required before reading it.

Is There a New Tim Powers Book Coming After The Mills of the Gods?

As of August 7, 2026, I could not verify a subsequently announced Tim Powers novel with a firm publication date from reliable current publisher information.

The Mills of the Gods should therefore be treated as his latest confirmed novel rather than assuming an unannounced follow-up.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first Tim Powers book?

Powers’s earliest published novels were The Skies Discrowned and An Epitaph in Rust, both from 1976.

Readers do not need to begin there. Neither is the opening installment of his later series.

What is the best Tim Powers series to read in order?

The Fault Lines trilogy has the strongest need for sequential reading:

1. Last Call
2. Expiration Date
3. Earthquake Weather

The Vickery and Castine novels should also be kept in order.

Is The Anubis Gates a series?

Originally it was a standalone novel.

Powers later wrote Nobody’s Home and The Properties of Rooftop Air in the same setting, so it is now useful to treat those works as a small continuity centered on The Anubis Gates.

What comes after The Anubis Gates?

For connected reading, continue with Nobody’s Home, followed by The Properties of Rooftop Air.

Both are shorter works rather than full-length sequels.

Is Hide Me Among the Graves a sequel to The Stress of Her Regard?

Yes, they share Powers’s Nephilim mythology and historical continuity.

A Time to Cast Away Stones also connects to that material and fits between the two novels for readers including shorter fiction.

Are Last Call and Expiration Date connected?

Yes.

They are the first two books of the Fault Lines trilogy, which concludes with Earthquake Weather.

Is Alternate Routes part of a series?

Yes.

It begins the Vickery and Castine sequence and is followed by Forced Perspectives and Stolen Skies.

Is Declare connected to Three Days to Never?

They share some broad interests, including espionage, history, and supernatural conspiracies, but they should be treated as separate novels.

No series order requires one before the other.

Is On Stranger Tides part of Pirates of the Caribbean?

The Tim Powers novel predates the film series and stands on its own.

Its title and elements influenced the later Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides film, but there is no Powers-written sequence of Pirates of the Caribbean novels to follow.

Should I read Tim Powers in publication order?

Only if you want an author-wide chronological reading project.

For most readers, series order is better. Finish Fault Lines, Vickery and Castine, or the connected Anubis Gates material together, then choose freely among the standalones.

Conclusion

Tim Powers’s bibliography becomes much easier once its separate continuities are kept apart.

Read Fault Lines as Last Call, Expiration Date, then Earthquake Weather. Read Vickery and Castine as Alternate Routes, Forced Perspectives, then Stolen Skies. Begin the Anubis Gates material with The Anubis Gates, and begin the Nephilim continuity with The Stress of Her Regard.

Everything else can largely be chosen by interest rather than chronology. For readers who want one representative starting point without committing to a trilogy, The Anubis Gates is a practical place to begin.