Penric's Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by theducks

The Authors note suggests it belongs with Chalion. Location 4.5 in the 5 Gods series.

BTW it (Penric) is a good read

It is in the same universe, but the stories are stand-alone.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Do you want the start of her long Mil-SF series? Then Shards of Honor

That's actually #2 of the Vorkosigan Saga. #1 is Falling Free.

Here is the reading list from the author.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That's actually #2 of the Vorkosigan Saga. #1 is Falling Free.

Here is the reading list from the author.

Falling Free is a totally different matter. You don't get Miles' universe with that book.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Falling Free is a totally different matter. You don't get Miles' universe with that book.

Doesn't matter about Miles. What matters is that the author says it is book 1 and so Falling Free is book 1.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Doesn't matter about Miles. What matters is that the author says it is book 1 and so Falling Free is book 1.

If you really read the Author's Note, the author says "Falling Free takes place 200 years earlier in the timeline and does not share settings or characters with the main body of the series. Most readers recommend picking up this story later. It should likely be read before Diplomatic Immunity, however, which revisits the “quaddies”, a bioengineered race of free fall dwellers, in Miles’s time."

At the end there's not a reading list but a chronology, which is more detailed in the author's page.

So, please, read and don't confuse people.

[JSWolf]

When you go to Amazon and look at the listings for the new versions (with the new covers), Falling Free is listed as Vorkosigan Saga Book 1. To me, that means it's the first book regardless that it takes place 200 years before the next book.

I'm not using chronological order or published order. I'm using the author's order.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When you go to Amazon and look at the listings for the new versions (with the new covers), Falling Free is listed as Vorkosigan Saga Book 1. To me, that means it's the first book regardless that it takes place 200 years before the next book.

I'm not using chronological order or published order. I'm using the author's order.

Author's words on the subject.

"It was always my intention to write each book as a stand-alone so that the reader could theoretically jump in anywhere, yes, with that book that’s in your hand right now, don’t put it back on the shelf! While still somewhat true, as the series developed it acquired a number of sub-arcs, closely related tales that were richer for each other. I will list the sub-arcs, and then the books, and then the caveats.

Shards of Honor and Barrayar. The first two books in the series proper, they detail the adventures of Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony and Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar. Shards was my very first novel ever; Barrayar was actually my eighth, but continues the tale the next day after the end of Shards. For readers who want to be sure of beginning at the beginning, or who are very spoiler-sensitive, start with these two."

(bold added).

[Graham]

The other consideration is that if you're looking for a series to get hooked on, Shards of Honor will do it. Falling Free will give you no particular reason to read on.

Graham

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Graham

The other consideration is that if you're looking for a series to get hooked on, Shards of Honor will do it. Falling Free will give you no particular reason to read on.

Graham

Why is that?

[Terisa de morgan]

Because Falling Free is not a part of the series aside of being a description of the ancestors of a beings which appears in a book in the series. And it has a quite different feeling.

[Dr. Drib]

I'm showing this as the first book in the series.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'm showing this as the first book in the series.

That's where I would start.

[Dr. Drib]

Further research on this issue by ME (which, surprisingly no one has yet fully addressed), is that - APPARENTLY - there are different TYPES of a recommended reading order involved

1) Publication
2) Chronological
3) One's own reading order
4) Omnibus reading order

which seems to be a reason for the FRIENDLY debate here in this thread over a 'PROPER' reading order.

Thoughts?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

1) Publication
2) Chronological
3) One's own reading order
4) Omnibus reading order

Sounds right. Many series this long lived involve the same 4 reading order "versions".

[Terisa de morgan]

3, I know, 4 I'm at a loss. And she has explained some times the difference between 1 and 2. Shards of Honor was written before but not published (Nobody wanted a romance-sci-fi-whatever), so she was able to publish Apprentice of Warrior.