Below is the complete list of John Connolly’s Samuel Johnson books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Samuel Johnson Books
About Samuel Johnson
John Connolly’s Samuel Johnson series is a comic fantasy trilogy that mixes supernatural adventure, horror, science, and absurdist humor. Beginning with The Gates in 2009, the books follow Samuel Johnson, an intelligent and inquisitive English boy who discovers that his neighbors have accidentally opened a gateway to Hell. Accompanied by his loyal dachshund, Boswell, Samuel becomes an unlikely defender of the world against demons whose plans for humanity are considerably more ambitious than their competence sometimes suggests.
The series is markedly lighter than Connolly’s Charlie Parker novels, although it shares his fascination with supernatural evil. Instead of the brooding Gothic atmosphere surrounding Parker, Samuel’s adventures treat the forces of Hell with irreverence. Demons can be genuinely dangerous, but they can also be vain, bureaucratic, argumentative, confused by human behavior, and frustrated by the practical difficulties involved in conquering the Earth.
In The Gates, Samuel decides to begin trick-or-treating several days before Halloween, hoping that being early will improve his chances of receiving more sweets. While visiting the Abernathys at 666 Crowley Road, he witnesses something very strange. The adults inside have been experimenting with an occult ritual and inadvertently create an opening between Earth and another dimension.
Their activities coincide with experiments involving the Large Hadron Collider, allowing Connolly to combine demonic fantasy with ideas drawn from particle physics. The resulting gateway offers the forces of Hell an opportunity to invade, but Samuel has considerable difficulty persuading adults that anything is wrong.
Samuel is particularly well suited to Connolly’s style of comedy because he takes extraordinary events seriously while the world around him frequently does not. He is curious, persistent, and willing to ask questions that adults either dismiss or cannot answer. Boswell provides companionship throughout his increasingly dangerous encounters and helps give the adventures their warmth.
One of the most memorable figures introduced in the first book is Nurd, the Scourge of Five Deities, a demon who is considerably less terrifying than his title suggests. Nurd’s relationship with Samuel complicates the simple division between humans and demons. He becomes an important recurring character and one of the series’ strongest sources of humor and friendship.
The second novel, The Infernals, published in some markets as Hell’s Bells, takes Samuel’s story directly into Hell. After the events of The Gates, the conflict is far from finished, and Samuel finds himself confronting the infernal realm much more closely than any sensible child would prefer.
Connolly’s version of Hell is simultaneously threatening and ridiculous. It has hierarchies, rivalries, incompetent servants, monstrous inhabitants, and administrative problems. The humor frequently comes from applying mundane frustrations to cosmic evil: even demons attempting to destroy civilization have to deal with personalities, bad planning, and colleagues who are not particularly good at their jobs.
The trilogy concludes with The Creeps. By this stage Samuel has acquired considerable experience with supernatural threats, but his previous victories have also ensured that the forces aligned against him know exactly who he is. The final book brings together characters and ideas from the earlier installments while increasing the scale of the danger.
Because the novels form one continuing adventure, publication order is essential: The Gates, followed by The Infernals/Hell’s Bells, and then The Creeps. The second title can cause some bibliographic confusion because the same novel appeared under different names in different markets; The Infernals and Hell’s Bells should not be treated as separate installments.
The books are often categorized as children’s or young-adult fantasy, but Connolly writes on more than one level. Samuel’s adventures are accessible to younger readers, while adults can appreciate the literary references, scientific jokes, footnotes, wordplay, and satirical treatment of bureaucracy and authority. The narrator frequently steps outside the immediate action to explain an idea or make an observation, giving the trilogy a distinctive conversational personality.
Science and the supernatural coexist throughout the books. Quantum physics and cosmology sit beside demons, portals, and infernal armies without requiring the reader to choose one explanatory system over the other. Connolly uses both primarily as sources of imagination and comedy, while Samuel’s curiosity provides the connection between them.
The Samuel Johnson trilogy ultimately turns an apocalyptic struggle into a story about curiosity, friendship, and refusing to accept that adults necessarily understand what is happening. Samuel may lack magical powers or heroic stature, but he pays attention when everyone else looks away. Faced with the gates of Hell opening almost on his doorstep, that willingness to notice the impossible proves to be exactly the quality the world needs.