Expeditionary Force reading order

A plan for the whole series

10 volumes, 2,552 pages, about 45 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 9 weeks.

• The series is still running; the last volume came out in 2026. You will wait for the next one anyway, so no need to rush.

Stages

3 stages, with 2 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around January 13, 2027, 7 days later than in one go.

1. 1
   Stage 116 habout 3 weeksby November 25, 2026

   • 1. Columbus Day2016 · 303 pages · 6 h
   • 2. SpecOps2016 · 275 pages · 5 h
   • 3. Paradise2016 · 186 pages · 3 h
   • 3.5. Trouble on Paradise2017 · 98 pages · 2 h
2. Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.82 h, by November 29, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
3. 2
   Stage 216 habout 3 weeksby December 20, 2026

   • 4. Black Ops2017 · 276 pages · 5 h
   • 5. Zero Hour2017 · 299 pages · 5 h
   • 6. Mavericks2018 · 289 pages · 5 h
4. Short breakThe Emperor's Soul · Brandon Sanderson · 96 pp. · score 8.82 h, by December 23, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
5. 3
   Stage 315 h20 daysby January 13, 2027

   • 7. Renegades2018 · 314 pages · 6 h
   • 7.6. Deathtrap2019 · 257 pages · 5 h
   • 19. Ground State2026 · ≈ 255 pages · 5 h
6. The end of the series

   January 13, 2027

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

≈ next to a page count: a volume with no page count in our data is counted at this series’s average.

Does the series hold up

Shape of the series: even. Volume scores differ by at most 0.2 points. You get the same level from the first page to the last.

Best volume: Columbus Day (8.0, 348 ratings). Weakest: Trouble on Paradise (7.8). The series is not finished; the last volume came out in 2026. The last volume (8.0) scores close to the series average or above it.