Edmund Cooper Books In Order

Publication Order of The Expendables Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Edmund Cooper was an English poet and writer who wrote under numerous pseudonyms. He published books under the names of Geroge Kinley, Broderick Quain, Martin Lester, Richard Avery, and, of course, Edmund Cooper. He wrote in a wide variety of genres from speculative fiction to romances to detective stories and children’s books.

Cooper was born in Marple, near Stockport, Cheshire in April of 1926. He attended school until the age of fifteen before deciding to leave school. At the age of sixteen, Edmund met a teacher who has four years older than him and the two became engaged. They would eventually marry in APril of 1946. At this time, Cooper held a number of jobs. He worked as a labourer and civil servant before joining the Merchant Navy in 1944. Once the war was over, he trained as a teacher and began his writing career.

He started publish verse before moving on to short stories and then, eventually, novels. His first novel released under his own name was Deadly Image. The book was completed in 1957 and finally saw publication in the United States in 1958. In addition to his work as an author, Cooper also reviewed science fiction for the Sunday Times from 1967 until his death.

Cooper actually had a couple of his works adapted for film and television. His first was the short story, “The Brain Child”, which became the film The Invisible Boy in 1957. The movie featured Robby the Robot, of Forbidden Planet fame. The film was been released on DVD as an extra for Forbidden Planet, Edmund Cooper has a writing credit on the film. The second, Uncertain Midnight, was adapted for Swiss television in 1969, but it was done without his authorization.

In his personal life, Cooper was an atheist and an individualist. He was pretty original in his time of writing as many science fiction novels of the time would feature male heroes in unfamiliar environments. However, Cooper’s work often had a diverse cast of characters and those characters would talk about topics like race and sexuality. Cooper passed away in March of 1982 at the age of 55.

The first book in the Expendables series, written under the pen name Richard Avery, is The Deathworms of Kratos. The book features a misfit group who are sent on a mission to settle planets. They are called the “Expendables” because they are all criminals and misfits, with no future on earth. Their job is to tame the planets so that humans can live there. The first planet they land on is Kratos which seems to be perfect for colonization. However, there are deep ruts and throbbing domes that mar the planet’s surface and they need to figure out what caused them. The holes are because of giant worms, hostile life forms, that could destroy them and end the mission before it gets started.

The series continues with The Rings of Tantalus. This one sees a crew of seven heading to a planet called Tantalus. There are seven on the mission, four men and three women, and they each have their own tainted history. The creatures of Tantalus are scary and alien to them, but there is something much more deadly to fear for them. There is someone in the group that is a saboteur who wants to destroy the mission from within. They will need to figure out who it is before it cost them their lives.

A popular book written in his own name is Transit. The story sees a man named Richard Avery wandering along the streets and minding his own business when he finds himself transported to a sealed room with no door and no windows. Avery deduces that he is being “tested” by something or someone, and that the experimenter is probably not human. He see s his intelligence tested by computer. Soon, Avery is not alone and other people start to appear. The tests start to escalate and then all of the survivors are transported to a tropical island. They’ll need to survive on this island, but the island itself is alien. There are two moons and rabbits have six legs, the survivors are a long ways from home.

Merry Christmas, Ms. Minerva is a horrific novel set in the early 21st century in the country of England. Maggie Minerva is an attractive widow who is trying to get on, but on Christmas Eve she is the victim of some terrifying and tragic events. The events do not go unnoticed and end up having startling repercussions not only for the people involved but also for the social structure of Britain.

Another future set book by Cooper is A Far Sunset. The story takes place in 2032 A.D. when a star ship called The Gloria Mundi touches down on the planet of Alatair Five. The ship is manned by the United States of Europe, but when disaster strikes there is only one survivor – an Englishman named Paul Marlow. His travels lead him to a strange primeval race known as the Bayani. Paul must risk everything to head to the Temple of the White Darkness where The Bayani God is located, the omnipotent Oruri, who reveals an unlimited power. Oruri holds the key to great secrets, but are they worth the cost of finding out?

Cooper wrote a lot of short stories and The World of Difference features quite a few of his best. The stories in this book were written and published over a number of years in various magazines, but two of them were written specifically for this collection. All of the stories in this collection are in the fantasy genre, with elements of tragic fantasy and also of humorous and satirical fantasy. The book includes: The Firebird, Jahweh, The Diminishing Dragon, The Snow Crystals, Second Chance, and I Am a Ghost. The main draw here is “The Firebird” which is a long novella that some critics consider to be Cooper’s finest work.