The franchise has expanded to include four novels, written by the show's creators, Doug Naylor and Rob Grant (under the combined name of Grant Naylor).
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (published 2 November 1989) — Rob Grant, Doug Naylor — ISBN 0-451-45201-1
Red Dwarf: Better than Life (published 25 October 1990) — Rob Grant, Doug Naylor — ISBN 0-14-012438-1
Last Human (published April 1995) — Doug Naylor — ISBN 0-14-014388-2
Backwards (published 2 May 1996) — Rob Grant — ISBN 0-14-017150-9
These novels contain deeper insights and more thorough backstories for the main characters, as well as more information on humanity's future state of affairs. Rather than adapting the show outright, the books provide yet another, possibly idealized version of the series' backstory. They reinterpret and reposition elements from past episodes, and even introduce ideas that would later be used in the show.
It was reported that both authors were working together on a sequel to Better than Life, called The Last Human, but after falling out with each other, and still owing Penguin Publishing two more Red Dwarf books, Grant and Naylor decided to each work alone on the novels. Two completely different, contradicting sequels were made as a result. Last Human (by Doug Naylor, who would go on to make two further television series) added Kochanski to the crew and places more emphasis on the science-fiction and plot elements, while Backwards (by Rob Grant) was more in keeping with the previous two books, borrowing more extensively from established television stories. The styles of these sequels vary wildly from the two predecessors and each other, and gave some insight into which author had been more responsible for different elements and characters in preceding works. While opinion differs strongly on which solo effort is superior, neither matched the widespread fan acclaim of the original co-written novels.
All four books were published in audiobook format, the first two read by Chris Barrie, Last Human read by Craig Charles, and Backwards read by its author Rob Grant.
The BBC World Service re-recorded the first two books as The Red Dwarf Radio Show, with Chris Barrie narrating and additional sound effects. These re-recordings were abridged versions of the original novels. The first series was broadcast from 3 December 1995 to 17 February 1996, and the second from 13 March 1997 to 28 March 1997.
An Omnibus edition of the first two books, including a few edits to the original text and some extra material such as the original script to the first episode of the TV series, was released in 1992 (ISBN 0-14-017466-4).
Other books include:
The Official Red Dwarf Companion — 1992 — Bruce Dessau — ISBN 1-85286-456-7
Red Dwarf VIII Scriptbook — 1999 — Doug Naylor (with Paul Alexander) — ISBN 1-85227-872-2
The Making of Red Dwarf — 1994 — Joe Nazzaro (with photographs by Nobby Clark) — ISBN 0-14-023206-0
Red Dwarf Programme Guide — 1993 — Chris Howarth & Steve Lyons — ISBN 0-86369-682-1 (with three subsequent revisions until 2000)
The Space Corps Survival Manual — 1996 — Doug Naylor & Paul Alexander — ISBN 0-7493-2374-4
The Red Dwarf Quiz Book — 1994 — Nicky Hooks & Sharon Burnett — ISBN 0-14-023662-7
Red Dwarf Log No. 1996 — 1995 — ISBN 0-434-00370-0 (Diary)
The Man in the Rubber Mask — 1994 — Robert Llewellyn — ISBN 0-14-023575-2 (Autobiography)
Red Dwarf: The Role Playing Game — 2003 — Todd Downing, Mark Bruno, John Sullivan, Andrew Kenrick, Lee Hammock, Gavin Downing, Allan McComas & Samantha Downing — ISBN 0-97-108203-0
There have also been two script books — Primordial Soup (1993, ISBN 0-14-017886-4) and Son Of Soup (1996, ISBN 0-14-025363-7) — each containing six scripts; and an extremely rare short book entitled Scenes From The Dwarf (ISBN 0-14-600243-1) was released in 1996 as part of the Penguin 60s series, containing scripts of a handful of scenes from the series.
The Log: A Dwarfer's Guide to Everything (1997, ISBN 0-14-026862-6), a collection of humorous observations on a wide variety of topics written by Craig Charles and Russell Bell, was not affiliated with Red Dwarf, Grant/Naylor or the BBC. However, Charles was pictured on the cover in costume as Lister and, in the introduction, describes the book (tongue in cheek) as an attempt to compile a comparative list of scientific and sociological milestones in the development of the human race from the viewpoint of the last human being alive (i.e. someone very much like Lister). This book can therefore be considered an unofficial Red Dwarf spin-off.
