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Earliest work of sci-fi to have a prequel
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Asked<br>9 days ago
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A number of "What's the right reading order" questions had me wondering what was the first sci-fi series to have prequels and side-books that placed the reading order into question.
This question came close to asking that question, but specified numbered chapters/films in a movies series. It pointed out a few classic poems were written out of order, but eventually descended into jokes about Leonard Part 6.
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote two "early" Sherlock Holmes story after the "last" one, before he decided to just bring him back. But they didn't reveal any new information (AFAIK) he just wanted to write more Holmes.
The Darkover and Dorsai series are some of the earliest examples I could think of off the top of my head to go back before the first book and provide catch-up information. Later books in the Dune series are prequels (and the recent TV show) but they were done by other writers, and they were far more recent.
I think I could argue that the first sci-fi series to do so is E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series. The original "first" story in the series was Galactic Patrol, the first serialized adventure. When he created the novel series, he made changes to another book, Triplanetary, and adapted it into the first book in the series, and then added First Lensmen, making Galactic Patrol the third books in the series. But I expect one could just as easily make the argument that the original serialized adventures and the novels are two discrete creations.
Now it's quite common, and I'd go so far to say that in many recent examples, the prequels are planned all along, and the writer if working with the information in mind even as they write the first book. I'm prepared to bet that's not the case in the aforementioned Dorsai and Darkover series, in comparison.
Any other nominees?
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edited Jun 1 at 16:36
DavidW
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asked Jun 1 at 14:23
VBartilucci
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By "earliest" do you really mean by the date of the original work (as the title seems to say) or the prequel? So a 2025 prequel to Gilgamesh would beat an 1825 prequel to Frankenstein?
user14111
user14111
2026-06-01 18:33:36 +00:00
Commented<br>Jun 1 at 18:33
More the publication date of the prequel novel than of the original.
VBartilucci
VBartilucci
2026-06-01 19:57:48 +00:00
Commented<br>Jun 1 at 19:57
Point of fact: Doyle didn’t want to bring Holmes back. tl;dr: He was sick of him and wanted to write other stories, but the appetite for Holmes was so voracious that Doyle did as any writer would when people are waving mad money at him.
Dúthomhas
Dúthomhas
2026-06-03 06:42:28 +00:00
Commented<br>Jun 3 at 6:42
You think modern fans are rabid - When the return of Sherlock Holmes was published in The Strand, people camped out at the PRINTER to get copies, didn't even want to wait till it got to the news stands.
VBartilucci
VBartilucci
2026-06-03 12:59:28 +00:00
Commented<br>Jun 3 at 12:59
"were written out of order" weirdly presupposes that some order is "right". Some folks prefer strongly to take in works in internal chroniclogical order (if possible). Some folks strongly prefer publication order (not least for conceptual coherence of the narrative arc, and for some so as to not be 'spoiled'). Neither is "right".
Lexible
Lexible
2026-06-03 17:28:17 +00:00
Commented<br>Jun 3 at 17:28
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H. Rider Haggard's "Allan Quatermain" series had several additions to the start with the first-written story King Solomon's Mines (1885) eventually ending up as the 15th story in the series.
The first prequels written were the short stories "Hunter Quatermain's Story" (1885, non-genre) and "Long Odds" (1886) which eventually became the 6th and 7th stories; those two were were given prequels A Tale of Three Lions (1887, 4th in series) and Maiwa's Revenge (1888, 5th in series). Those in turn were prequelled with Allan's Wife (1889, 2nd in series) and again with Marie (1912) the final "first" story.
Note that ISFDb and Wikipedia both record King Solomon's Mines as the first-written work in the series, with "Hunter Quatermain's Story" not given a specific month but implied to follow in publication order.
FWIW, in publication order the stories were:
Title<br>Date<br>Final position
King Solomon's Mines<br>1885<br>15
"Hunter Quatermain's Story"<br>1885
"Long Odds"<br>1886
Allan Quatermain<br>1887<br>18
A Tale of Three Lions<br>1887
Maiwa's...