Below is the complete list of Wilbur Smith’s Courtney books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Courtney Books
- Assegai (2009)
Assegai is a 2009 release and appears as book #13 in the Courtney series. 
- Nemesis (2023)
(With Tom Harper)
Published in 2023, Nemesis is listed as book #22 in the Courtney series. 
- Crossfire (2025)
(With David Churchill)
In the Courtney series, Crossfire is book #24 and was published in 2025. 
About Courtney
The Courtney series is the largest and most important family saga created by Wilbur Smith, stretching across centuries of African and international history. Beginning in publication with When the Lion Feeds in 1964, the novels follow successive generations of the Courtney family through exploration, trade, warfare, mining, colonial expansion, political upheaval, and intense rivalries within the family itself. Later novels greatly expanded the chronology, turning what began with Sean Courtney in nineteenth-century southern Africa into a sprawling historical sequence with roots reaching back to the seventeenth century.
When the Lion Feeds introduces Sean Courtney and his twin brother Garrick in Natal. Their complicated relationship establishes a pattern that recurs throughout the saga: Courtneys can be fiercely loyal to their relatives, but ambition, jealousy, love, money, and inheritance can also make members of the same family formidable enemies. Sean’s experiences take him from frontier life and the Zulu conflict into the Witwatersrand gold rush, beginning a family story in which personal fortunes repeatedly intersect with major historical events.
Sean’s story continues through The Sound of Thunder and A Sparrow Falls. Together, these early novels carry the Courtneys through the Boer War and the changing political and economic landscape of South Africa. Sean develops from an adventurous young man into a powerful patriarch, while the next generation begins assuming greater importance.
Smith later shifted attention to another branch of the family in The Burning Shore. The novel introduces Centaine de Thiry, a Frenchwoman whose connection with Michael Courtney brings her into the dynasty during the First World War. Her journey to Africa and struggle for survival make her one of the saga’s defining characters. Through Centaine and her descendants, Smith created a second major Courtney storyline that eventually connects with characters and conflicts from the earlier books.
Power of the Sword, Rage, Golden Fox, and A Time to Die develop this twentieth-century branch across several turbulent decades. Shasa Courtney becomes particularly important, while family relationships become entangled with South African politics, wealth, international espionage, and the country’s racial conflicts. Historical events increasingly operate alongside private rivalries, with the Courtneys gaining enough wealth and influence that decisions within the family can have consequences far beyond their homes.
The series became more complicated when Smith began writing novels set centuries before When the Lion Feeds. Birds of Prey moves the family history back to the seventeenth century and introduces Sir Francis Courtney and his descendants in a world of maritime warfare, privateering, trade, and competition between European powers. Monsoon and Blue Horizon continue this earlier lineage, following later Courtneys across Africa, Arabia, India, and the Indian Ocean.
These books transformed the Courtney novels from a South African family saga into a much broader historical adventure. The family becomes involved in seafaring, commerce, exploration, military campaigns, and empire long before Sean Courtney’s era. Later additions continued filling gaps in this extensive chronology rather than simply moving forward from the most recently published story.
Smith also brought the Courtneys together with his other great fictional dynasty, the Ballantynes. The two families had originated in separate series, but later novels connect their histories more directly. This has led some bibliographies to describe parts of the later work as the Courtney and Ballantyne series rather than treating every novel as belonging exclusively to one family line.
The sheer chronological range creates an unusual reading-order question. Publication order and chronological order are substantially different. A reader following fictional history from the earliest Courtney ancestors will encounter characters and information in a sequence very different from the order in which Smith created the saga.
Publication order generally provides the strongest introduction. When the Lion Feeds establishes the original conception of the Courtney family and allows the saga to expand in the same way it did for Smith’s readers. The later historical novels can then be understood as deliberate extensions of an already established family mythology. Chronological reading is a viable alternative for returning readers, particularly those interested in following the genealogy from its earliest period.
The series also changed during the later stage of Smith’s career. He began collaborating with other writers, and further Courtney adventures appeared with co-authors including Giles Kristian, Tom Harper, and David Churchill. New books continued exploring different generations and periods, extending a saga that had already grown far beyond the characters of the original trilogy.
Despite its scale, the Courtney series remains unified by recurring concerns. Each generation confronts some combination of ambition, survival, family inheritance, love, betrayal, and competition for land or power. Africa remains central even when individual stories range far beyond it, and Smith repeatedly places private family struggles against wars and historical transformations.
What began as Sean Courtney’s story therefore became something much larger: a fictional dynasty whose fortunes rise and fall across generations. The changing protagonists and historical periods make individual sections feel distinct, but the accumulated family history—the alliances, rivalries, inherited wealth, and consequences passed from one generation to another—is what gives the Courtney saga its exceptional scale.