Order to read the books? Chronological or publication date?

[drunk71]

Hi all

Know this has prob been mentioned a million times before but can't quite find a thread about it in the millions of posts

How do people read the books and as a guy about to lend the books to a first timer how should I recommend the reading order?

Cheers

Guys

[Ramien]

In general, publication order or close to it, unless they've already been following the comic online. There can be some minor spoilers in the background/origin comics.

[Sir_Leorik]

Hi all

Know this has prob been mentioned a million times before but can't quite find a thread about it in the millions of posts

How do people read the books and as a guy about to lend the books to a first timer how should I recommend the reading order?

Cheers

Guys

Dungeon Crawlin' Fools
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
On the Origin of PCs (Prequel)
War & XPs
Start of Darkness (Prequel)
Don't Split the Party!

EDIT: There are spoilers in OtOoPCs for book two, and in SoD for book three.

[NerdyKris]

Origin can technically be read first, it spoils Haley's father's ransom, though. I'd say to read it after the first inn sequence if you don't want to be spoiled, but that's because I'm a big fan of Roy and Durkon's friendship prior to forming the Order being revealed as early as possible.

Start of Darkness should not be read first. It should be read after No cure for the Paladin Blues at the very earliest, after War and Xps would be best. It came out during the battle, and it assumes you already know these characters and the story of the gates.

[ChristianSt]

Best way would be publication order being aware of online publication.
I'm not in the mood to search which comics where up to date when OtOoPCs (somewhere in Book 2) and SoD (somewhere in Book 3) where released and easiest way would be to just schedule them after 2/3 anyway. I think reading OtOoPCs before Book 2 (or even before Book 1) would work, but I think starting with DCF is still better imo.

I would certainly NOT start with SoD, not only from a spoiler perspective, but also because it is somewhat of a different kind of genre than the other books, and might make the transition to the normal strips rather strange.

Someone mentioned (in another thread) that the Foreword/Introduction should state to skip the commentary while doing the first read, but it doesn't hurt to reiterate that point - since the commentary spoils the content of the followings arcs pretty hard.

Since it isn't mentioned yet: SSaDT can technically be read anywhere (from a strict sense it is chronological between Book 4 and 5, because of the narrative framing of the Stick Tales), but I would not start with (one could argue that all stories are pretty self-containing, but imo you get much more out of it if you know the characters already).

@NerdyKris: in a thread about the book reading order, especially if contains the order of the prequels, I think you should put ALL spoilers into spoiler tags. (I know the OP seems familiar with the comic, but maybe new fans jump in to know when to read which book)

[Grogmir]

Dungeon Crawlin' Fools
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
On the Origin of PCs (Prequel)
War & XPs
Start of Darkness (Prequel)
Don't Split the Party!

EDIT: There are spoilers in OtOoPCs for book two, and in SoD for book three.

Nailed it.

[Ghost Nappa]

Dungeon Crawlin' Fools
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
On the Origin of PCs (Prequel)
War & XPs
Start of Darkness (Prequel)
Don't Split the Party!

EDIT: There are spoilers in OtOoPCs for book two, and in SoD for book three.

Read it in this order the first time for the narrative, read it chronologically afterwards.

Naled it.

Fixed that for you.

[Sir_Leorik]

Read it in this order the first time for the narrative, read it chronologically afterwards.

Once someone's read it in publishing order, they can read it as often as they wish, in chronological order, or in reverse chronological order, or in an asynchronous order. Have a blast. But my suggested order will minimize spoilers the first time through.

Also, if possible, find a way to work Snips, Snails & Dragon Tales in at some point, if only to see the 4E!Order of the Stick. :smallbiggrin:

[drunk71]

Cheers Guys fab answers and reasoning :)

[Lexible]

So . . .

I think Order of the Books is a different webcomic, dude.



[beat]



I'll just see myself to the door, thanks. . . . . Sheesh! Rough crowd.

[Sir_Leorik]

Cheers Guys fab answers and reasoning :)

Glad to be of service! :smallsmile:

[DavidBV]

Dungeon Crawlin' Fools
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
On the Origin of PCs (Prequel)
War & XPs
Start of Darkness (Prequel)
Don't Split the Party!


Folks, why not just following the author's advice regarding Start of Darkness?

Rich states in the Introduction: read this after No Cure for Paladin Blues.

I think Redcloak's participation in the end of the battle makes much more sense after you have read the prequel.

[ChristianSt]

Folks, why not just following the author's advice regarding Start of Darkness?

Rich states in the Introduction: read this after No Cure for Paladin Blues.

I think Redcloak's participation in the end of the battle makes much more sense after you have read the prequel.

While it is stated like you quote - it doesn't state to read it directly after that :smalltongue:.
(also it would be really strange to state "read it after the next book, which I don't have published yet" :smallwink:, but yes there is no warning like in OtOoPCs to read the online strips until you have read a good part into the next book)

But after taking a quick read around through WaXPs, I think it doesn't really contain any things spoiled by SoD, so it shouldn't hurt to read it before Book 3.
But probably I would still use the proposed order, because it makes more sense regarding the publication order (factoring in the online strip - unless you want to figure out the best position in book 3 to squeeze it into) and I think continuing with the main story after OtOoPCs is better, too. Also I don't really think it adds real value to Book 3.
I really don't think that Redcloak's participation makes more sense after reading SoD (And I don't think it doesn't make no sense without, either) - Redcloak just realizes what he does to his fellow Hobgblinoids and that he needs to change.

The only thing it impacts perhaps is the scene between Redcloak and Miko - because SoD features pretty prominently how the Sapphire Guard has dealt with Redcloack's family/home. But we already saw in the Crayons of Time in Book 2 that the Sapphire Guard hunted the Goblins and from the start of the dialogue it is pretty clear that they did kill Redcloack's family. It is not explicated stated under which circumstances that happened, so without SoD it is possible to think that those killing where "real-just" and not "Miko-just"* (at least from Redcloack's perspective). But as the scene was released online before SoD most people have probably read it before SoD. (SoD release date is somewhere in 2007, the scene between Redcloak and Miko has a copyright timestamp of 2006)

*I don't wart to start discussing Miko, but I hope everyone understands what I mean with it and it just sounded like a fun way to phrase it :smallcool:


It might be even possible to argue that you should read it after Book 5 or even later, since it IS optional. Rich has stated that no one will have any drawbacks by not reading it in regards to the main story and I believe he will keep that promise.
I think it drastically changes the impact of Tsukiko's death/reveal of Redcloak's betrayal. It is hinted in dialogue between Redcloak and Jirix in Book 4, but it might certainly be possible that some people would like to be more surprised about that reveal, but for reader of SoD the whole betrayal/Gate-backround is no surprise.

[malloyd]

Honestly, I don't understand why this comes up in so many fiction series. It seems obvious to me you should go through anything in publication order, which pretty much guarantees you won't hit any spoilers the creator didn't intend, lack background you were assumed to have, or suffer sudden quality drops from placing an early unpolished work right after a late career masterpiece.

The exceptions are when there has been a significant rewrite of older material to bring it into alignment with later stuff, which can have dependencies in both directions, or when early unpublished material is printed much later that it was composed (i.e. the series is popular enough to make some cash on this crap grand-dad or his editors rejected 40 years ago...)

[MtlGuy]

In order of publication. There are sections of the prequels that depend on you having knowledge of events that have transpired in the main comics.

[Sir_Leorik]

Honestly, I don't understand why this comes up in so many fiction series. It seems obvious to me you should go through anything in publication order, which pretty much guarantees you won't hit any spoilers the creator didn't intend, lack background you were assumed to have, or suffer sudden quality drops from placing an early unpolished work right after a late career masterpiece.

The exceptions are when there has been a significant rewrite of older material to bring it into alignment with later stuff, which can have dependencies in both directions, or when early unpublished material is printed much later that it was composed (i.e. the series is popular enough to make some cash on this crap grand-dad or his editors rejected 40 years ago...)

What order to read the books is an issue for "OotS" because it's a webcomic. Parts of NCftPB would be spoiled by OtOoPCs, even though the latter was published first. The reason is that the comics first appeared on the web before OtOoPCs was published. Likewise some parts of W&XPs would be spoiled by SoD.

[137beth]

What order to read the books is an issue for "OotS" because it's a webcomic. Parts of NCftPB would be spoiled by OtOoPCs, even though the latter was published first. The reason is that the comics first appeared on the web before OtOoPCs was published. Likewise some parts of W&XPs would be spoiled by SoD.
I read DCF, OoOTPCs, NCFPB, and SoD before I started the online comics.

I didn't have any issues with reading SoD before the battle for Azure City. In fact, I felt like I understood Redcloak, and his development in WaXP, better because of it. That being said, I can understand that some people would prefer to read WaXP first. Anyways, the order I read them in was:
DCF
OoOTPCs
NCFPB
SoD
Then I caught up on online strips.

I'd probably actually recommend reading NCFPB before OoOTPCs, I think I made a mistake doing it in reverse. But that's just me.

[NerdyKris]

Here, I looked up the exact dates.

It was announced 4/11/2007, when strip 438 was posted. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0438.html)

It shipped 6/23/2007, when Strip 469 came out, (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0469.html) which is actually after the battle. I don't know why I thought it was earlier.

It can be read before or after the battle, though. The only real spoilers are from NCftPB. We find out Redcloak is more than just a goblin in a red cloak during War and Xps, but I don't think that's too spoilery.

[ChristianSt]

I'd probably actually recommend reading NCFPB before OoOTPCs, I think I made a mistake doing it in reverse. But that's just me.

I think you are correct in stating that reading OtOoPCs before NCftPB is a mistake (but not a large one). Even the author says so:



In fact, I would go so far as to say you should read all of the strips online at www.GiantITP.com before reading this prequel (or read the forthcoming third book, which will compile them). For example, I already assume the reader knows [redacted by me] - information not revealed until OOTS #131 of the main strip.

[sam79]

Personally, I'd recommend the same order as Sir Leorik. I'd add that there is a good case for reading the Stick Tales portion of 'Sticks, Snails and Dragon's Tales' right after finishing Book 4, if you have that book too.

If you don't have that book, get that book.:smallwink:

Failing that read all the online strip compilations, then go on to the bonus stuff.

[Tass]

I think really the best thing would be to read OoPCs halfway into book two and SoD halfway into book three. But if you want to finish a whole book at a time then move them to after two and after three respectively, as suggested many times.