Order to Read

“IN WHAT ORDER SHOULD I READ YOUR NOVELS?”

 As you might expect, I hear this question a lot at conventions. Ah, the doom of a universe writer. Not a bad doom to have, though, considering the question itself means a reader who: 1) Is reading more than one book, and; 2) Wants to enjoy the series as much as possible. With that in mind, I will gladly answer the question, both to any reader who asks me individually, and for all my readers and readers-to-be in this post.

“In what order?” is a multi-faceted question, which can be answered three different ways, with you, the reader deciding which you want to take. First is Chronological by Universe. Second will be Chronological by written date. Third will be grouped by main characters.

First (not evil) Order: Chronological by Universe Date

This is a list that already exists on the Shards Timeline page, but I’ll post the published books here for ease of access. Please note that this list contains only Shards Universe novels. So my YA fantasy adventure novel The Angel of St. Thomas vs. The Galactic Good Guys is not included. (Well, I guess it is now.)

Year(s) Title Notes
2117 A Piñata For Juanita Novella. First Chapter
2221 Redeeming the Plumb  
2250 Horizons  
2415 Promise Tide  
2432 TAU Multiple 21st Century Interlogues
2476 Shards: Book One Prologue in 2026
2479 Shards: Book Two  
2479 Shards: Book Three  
2479 Shards: Book Four  
2898 A Piñata For Juanita Novella. Chapters 1-3
2553 The Science of Magic Short story collection. Covers 2253-3062

 As I mentioned, there’s a complete list of the published and unpublished novels, novellas, and short stories, along with significant dates and technologies on their own page.

 

Second Order: Chronological by Publish Date

This one is pretty much the same as the first one, with two big exceptions. The first one, Shards, was my first novel in what would be predictably called the Shards Universe. It may be four books, but I’ve always considered it one novel. One looooong novel, checking in at 297,000 words. I didn’t write it for publishing; I wrote it for myself. Once I was urged to get it published, I knew I could never get that done as a first novel. I had originally written in a four-book format, but the publisher would have to take all four at once. Again, not a real possibility for a new author. Fortunately, I’d already written Horizons and others by that time, so I submitted them. The second exception is Redeeming the Plumb, which is the most recent published (to date), but the first chronologically. I omitted the novella, A Piñata for Juanita, because I can’t quite remember when it appeared as a dollar download on Amazon.

Here, then, is the order:

Year Pub. Title
2004 Horizons
2004 The Science of Magic
2005 Shards: Book One
2005 Shards: Book Two
2005 Shards: Book Three
2005 Shards: Book Four
2007 Promise Tide
2007 TAU
2018 Redeeming the Plumb

 

 Third Order: By Main Character(s)

This is a short one. For now. I enjoy using characters across novels; it takes a long time to define a significant character life. There are at this point only six pivotal characters in my universe. By pivotal, I mean their actions had a profound impact on the design of the Shards Universe. More are coming, but here they are by novel. I’ve also included planned novels, which will be denoted in quotes. At some point I’ll be creating a character page, which will include all their appearances. I’ll also update this list with titles and links to short stories they appear in. (And they all appear in other stories.

All appearances are in the order they occur to the character.

 

Character Titles
Pamela Carlson Redeeming the Plumb; “Troid Piracy War”; Horizons
Mahlon Stewart Redeeming the Plumb; “Troid Piracy War”; Horizons
Promise Tide Promise Tide; TAU
Abigail Marks (née Wyeth) Shards: Book 1; Shards: Book 2; Shards: Book 3; Shards: Book 4; “Shards: Coda” 
Kerry Marks The Science of Magic (5 stories); “Counting to i
Jennifer Navarra The Science of Magic (4 stories)

 

So, that’s it! If you have any questions you’d like answered about the Shards Universe, feel free to drop me a line. I’m easily found at my:

full name at this site’s domain.

(That’s me, trying to evade spam bots.)

Similar Posts