The Childe Cycle is an unfinished series of science fiction novels by Gordon R. Dickson. The name Childe Cycle is an allusion to Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, a poem by Robert Browning, which provided considerable inspiration for elements in Dickson's magnum opus.

The series is sometimes referred to as the Dorsai series, as the Dorsai people are central to the series. The related short stories and novellas all center around the Dorsai, primarily members of the Graeme and Morgan families. The first story published, Dorsai! was originally to have been titled The Swissman, a reference to the Swiss pikemen of centuries past. It was published as a novel in Astounding Science Fiction.

While, on the face of it, the Childe Cycle is a science fiction series, it is also an allegory. In addition to the six science fiction novels of the Cycle, Dickson had also planned three historical novels and three novels taking place in the present day. It is known that one of the three historical novels would have dealt with John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost. Judging from the frequent mentions of him in the published science fiction portion of the Cycle, Sir John Hawkwood, a 14th century mercenary, would probably have been the subject of another. At least one of the contemporary novels was expected to deal with issues of space colonization, beginning a thread continuing through Necromancer and concluding with the full formation of the Splinter Cultures.^{[citation needed]}