Riva Zmajoki's Blog

A Philosopher

Exploration of life, freedom, circumstances, self, God and the world is a task of every human. A Philosopher is a person that keeps lingering on those subjects a bit longer than usual.

In a way, I was a philosopher before I knew what that entailed. When I discovered Philosophy through Sophie’s World in grade school, I was quite enchanted with it. To be able to study Philosophy at University later in life, was a great privilege but to think of myself as a philosopher was far fetched and conceited. I wasn’t as bold, was I?

Of course I was.

What is the main trait of an author and a philosopher, a big inflated ego that thinks big of itself. Without it, no one would dare to impose their world-view on the unsuspecting population.

Keeping myself small, I kept thinking of the worldly matters not taking on a bigger burden to bear. To think of the present is presumptuous enough.

To think of more is grandiose.

I need to get a bit older and cockier to get there.

For now, I dabble thinking of this and that but nothing too consequential.

Instead, all of my musings went to my fiction to make it a bit more believable.

For what the future holds, we shall see, or at least those who live to see it will know.

Queuing

Queuing to Begin is to risk Something completely new.

To let something new to enter the world

is to lose control over your own creation.

Curiously exploring Boundaries of what might happen,

of Shapes our future, or past, might hold fur us is to try to find pitfalls that might entrap us

somewhere where we don’t want to be.

Cube of our predestined path might lead us astray

while exploring new options might secure happiness where none was expected.

Queer experience might be our identity but it doesn’t mean

that we are free from morality and decency.

More often we are Bound to hold higher Standards

for ourselves to be accepted as necessary companions.

Survival through procreation sexuality brings might be out of bounds for some.

Science opposes Spirituality

but sometimes they are made from the same cloth threaded by destiny.

Whatever our cause, source or reason for existence is,

when we find ourselves awoken into the reality,

we will fight to keep the spot under the light of survival as long as we can.

Riva Zmajoki, QuBoS

Why is it a Road and not Simply a Novel?

When QuBoS Road started I wasn’t even aware that it was a journey I started yet there it was already under my feet.

Often in life, we barely know we’re moving and then we arrive.

This series of novels started as many disconnected dots of short stories. Time went on and as stories multiplied and grew they connected in a coherent whole.

It wasn’t a simple feat to combine it into a whole that could be easily explained. Sure, there was an interlinking of stories, threads and themes but what is the reoccurring theme that could be found like a red thread in every story that passes through me to reality?

When books are edited there is a process of fine tweaking and adjusting where you’re trying to find ways to convey the story with clarity. In that process, even what is discarded and invisible to the reader, is a stepping stone, a foundation that allows us to reach the final version which is, hopefully, accessible and understandable.

We might think of those invisible foundational stones as a waste of time, as mistakes, but without them, we could never reach the next step, connect the dots into a line.

Before the title QuBoS Road came to be there were many iterations of which vestiges can be seen on the web of the world. In many of those trials, Road came as a firm pin that seemed to have sense to it.

Upon closer inspection, the roads and options they offer are a part of most of my stories, if not all. That’s easy since a road is any path that connects two dots with persistance that makes a mark making people pave it over with time to make the travels easier.

The road through space between stars was a thing that started the journey of drawing maps, ships, asterism and eventually illustrations adding to the growing lore.

But most importantly, a road is needed for us to connect, escape, relocate, change, return and find and those are stories I want to tell. How we, creatures who can think, can find their spot for a while under any kind of a sky.

Survival might be an imperative but freedom is what makes life liveable.

Discontinued Titles

To avoid confusion, I’ll place here a list of how my titles evolved changing into their current form. Since I’m constantly working on my fictional universe, evolution happened when all of the books connected into a coherent whole. That unification was the main reason behind the decision to rename and re-publish my whole opus. All discontinued titles are still available but under different titles.

To keep things easy to understand books will be presented in their current order which you’re by no means obligated to follow. As always, read what interests and connects with you, disregard what is of no use to you.

Riva Zmajoki

Current TitleDiscontinued TitleFormer Pawns, To Escape:
QuBoS Road OneDarkest Pattern:
The DoorFormer Pawns, No Returns:
QuBoS Road TwoDarkest Pattern:
HallwaysFormer Pawns, Evading:
QuBoS Road ThreeDarkest Pattern:
A Guest RoomVestigial Queens,
They Will Be Uplifted:
QuBoS Road IUpliftVestigial Queens,
While Waiting for Salvation:
QuBoS Road IIShattered MirrorsVestigial Queens,
Gods Will Hear Prayers:
QuBoS Road IIICastling for Chaos
and the first edition
Prolaz za divljač
Croatian edition 2015Rogue Rooks,
Ancestral Ashes:
QuBoS Road 1.0Ancestor’s Ashes:
Alyyes and Lordan
Travels 1.0Rogue Rooks,
Bones will Remember:
QuBoS Road 2.0Labyrinth of Death:
Alyyes and Lordan
Travels 2.0Barred Knights,
Through the Elder Spirit:
QuBoS Road 1.1Tsar’s Road Trip:
Adventures of Roberto
the Mighty ExecutorBarred Knights,
The Angel of Death:
QuBoS Road 2.1Protector’s Victory:
Adventures of Roberto
the Mighty ExecutorStray Bishops,
By Disobeying Rules:
QuBoS Road 1.2Dragons Handler:
A Disobedient DaughterStray Bishops,
That Emerges from Below:
QuBoS Road 2.2Dragons Handler:
The Woman BelowJust Kings – upcomingno previous editions

What is QuBoS Road?

QuBoS Road isn’t a built road technically speaking. It’s a road that is like a wave you ride using natural currents and inert beings that might be alive but might not be as well. It’s hard to tell.

Before any road is built, there is barren space that needs to be cleared out. Former Pawns help clear the way for future installments not even aware how important any choices they make will become.

Foreigners came to Earth to conquer it using their version of the road through space. Humans took remains of their portals and harnessed its power to reach stars. Vestigial Queens will be the ones that will allow Humans to direct the road to lead them where they wish to go building the first unpaved version of the ARK Road meant for salvation.

As we travel it, we will get more insights into the nature of the road itself as well as more detailed maps of it. It’s yet uncertain how detailed and understandable those insights will be.

When we left Earth behind, the road spread out in two distinctive directions, left and right.

On your right, contained within sagas Rogue Rooks and Barred Knights, pure humans reside trying to hold onto their purity.

On your left, outlined by saga Stray Bishops and upcoming saga Just Kings, contaminated humans and creatures like them reside beside beings they call Zmajski, dragon-like creations made by Humans to be drilling machines but are not what you would expect them to be.

As time passes by, complexity multiplies so our road gets more stops along the way, more ways to lose your way. That’s why having a good road map is crucial.

Good luck on your travels and may you find your way back home safely.

Colouring Life

Colouring books for adults were a find for me. A way to keep on playing with colours and pencils. I always loved drawing. I just wasn’t very good at it. Still, it kept my mind steady while listening to long lectures and talking on the phone.

My skill didn’t improve much but a certain style started to emerge from my simple drawings a child could do better.

No matter the obstacles, if you keep at something things tend to form in some order, at least they did for me. That’s how I started painting and eventually even composing my own Colouring Books.

It seemed to me that my particular style of drawing might be reassuring and encouraging for us regular folks who aren’t gifted with great drawing skills.

Time went on and I discovered the root of my drawing limitations. It turned out I was left-handed the whole time but made to do things with my right hand. That caused many delays and restrictions in my expression.

Although I train my left hand to draw, write and paint, the end result is still far from perfect from the sheer lack of early training but we won’t let that kind of small obstacle discourage us.

My drawing is still better when I do it with the right hand since that one has more experience in handling pencils. Colouring is much better done with the left hand.

No matter the hardships and lacking skill set playing with colours brings me such joy that I feel others should be allowed to feel such joy too without the pressure of perfection. What better way to do that than to reach out for one of my imperfect creations and add your own beside it? Comparison won’t do harm to your confidence.

Hopefully, the lack of uniformity and precise lines won’t annoy you too much.

I. Coloured Creations

What is different in this book, besides the font of the title that should urge you to pay closer attention, is that this isn’t a colouring book, it’s a Coloured Book. That means that I offered you here an outlook on how I colour some drawings from previous books.

(And, naturally, to brag a bit about my rapidly improving ability to colour evenly and stay within lines. A task that was quite impossible before I switched hands.)

There is one page with words on every four coloured pages. The pages were painted with watercolours.

As a bonus, I left you half of the book empty with only neat frames to place in them your own version of art.

After all, art is for everyone and all of us are born artists. Don’t let the world convince you otherwise.

The judgement of the universal quality of art is a completely another topic we won’t meddle in.

1.0 Colouring Lines

In Colouring Lines there are some drawings I’m truly satisfied with. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the kind of person to be satisfied with any line put on the paper but some of these lines turned out just right.

Here, you’ll find that there are three pages with drawings on one page with words of wisdom that came out of my pen.

The type of paper used here is a bit thinner, I experimented a bit to reduce the price. Hopefully, that won’t take away from the experience of colouring. The downside is thickness. The upside is grain, the paper is rougher and less shiny. If you use crayons and dry pencils, it should be alright.

All text is unique to each of the books as are drawings.

1.1 Colouring Patterns

Colouring Patterns are a bit lacking in filling. It’s what I consider Unfinished Scrolls. The patterns are set in it’s up to you to fill them in further or to colour them like it is.

Any pattern is finished when we stop working on it. That’s the beauty of patterns, they can be repeated ad infinity, or they can be a string of three repeating rows.

Each of them is fun in its own merit.

Some drawings are more finished, some less. Sometimes if find those that are just a few lines to be satisfying enough to leave them as they are and those that are complex and lacking in details.

In this installation, there is one page with words on two pages of drawings.

Words, of course, are also my own original creation, any likeness to someone else’s words is coincidental.

1.2 Colouring Maze

The first one made in the row of Colouring Books and those like it. Since it is the first book I made, drawings are made with a bit less confidence than later installation but that too can have its charm so I decided to leave it as it is, a testament to the progress made on the journey of drawing.

Here you’ll find one page filled with words on one page with a drawing that waits to be coloured in. Both words and drawings are there to be coloured.

As a bonus, there are empty pages left for your own device. If you wish, they can remain empty but can also be filled with anything and everything. From notes to your own style Colouring Book.

I know I filled my copy to the brim and am quite satisfied with how it turned out.

Note that the type of paper is the thickest that Amazon KDP has to offer. On the bright side, after months of handling my copy, it didn’t fall apart (a problem that plagues many colouring books).

1.3 Colouring Words

Finally, at the end of the chapter one of this series. Will there be more? Knowing me, probably but nothing is a given.

In Colouring Words, for those of you who, much like myself, enjoy the linear nature of colouring letters, here you’ll have your fill.

The book is filled to the brim with letters. Naturally, for me, those letters composed themselves into a sensible pattern of meaning. I do apologize for the heaviness of the subject; I found it fun to combine with various fonts of letters.

The series is called Colours of Life so to start with abstraction and creation of dots, go over lines to patterns which are then to mazes, it’s only natural to end up in the most complicated cultural pattern there is, capitalism.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed the journey enough to try something more.

0 Empty Scrolls

The dread of the empty paper is left for the end, although it might be placed at the beginning as well.

My logic is that some of us need to be encouraged to face off against the blank page.

After being encouraged by my efforts to entertain and, hopefully, trained to a certain way of perceiving patterns, you can make a colouring book of your own design.

Of course, you can make anything else with it.

That is the point of the blank page, the freedom of it enticed imagination but also it freezes the mind from time to time.

Frames placed upon pages might offer some guidance of where to put your pen but if you object to them, there are those pages that are left completely empty.

I wish you luck on your arduous journey through the wilderness of emptiness.

Where to Find your Dose of Editions by Riva Zmajoki?

Amazon.comQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.co.ukQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.deQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.frQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.esQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.itQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.nlQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LinesIndex
of
GreedRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.plQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
WordsQueer
ABRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.seOnePoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
PatternsLeft-
handed
Intersex
Queer
KidRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.co.jpQuBoS
RoadPoemsHoorayColouring
LifeCart-
wheel
of LoveRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.caQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
ZmajokiAmazon.com.auQuBoS
RoadPoemsSkewed
ReviewColouring
LifeSmall
PrintsRiva
Zmajoki

There are different amazon sites, choose the one that is closest to your location to avoid huge shipping and delays. On some sites, there aren’t options to look up titles by their series name. There I put specific books that can be your starting point to find what you’re looking for.

Most of editions have different options so make sure you’re looking at the edition you wish possess. Hardbacks will be pricier than Papercovers. I strive to keep e-books at a reasonable price.

For now, all books are in English, our common international standard.

Hopefully, this list helps you find what is of most interest to you and, as always, your support is appreaciated. I’ll go and create something new.

Tribulations of Choosing to Write

Riva Zmajoki is an author of QuBoS, Editor of Scrolls by Q, and creator of Q-BookStand.

Born in a picturesque country with a turbulent past she was always drawn to contrasts. Considered a lazy person her whole life because of her easy-going personality that knew no sorrow that can’t be transmuted into a positive lesson Riva Zmajoki secretly crafted her ARHO Surveys word by word.

It couldn’t be hidden that she’s persistently writing and her inclination towards written expression was constantly gossiped about and frowned upon but she could hide the extent of her ambition. To be ambitious is to be silly and waste away your life.

There was a story Riva Zmajoki wanted to write. She thought it was a short story so she pushed on to finish it as soon as possible not caring for finesse, just wanting to get to the next big thing, to the next chapter of her life where she’s finally useful and productive.

The short story turned out to be a gigantic thing that has no end, something it seems like can be written forever. Still, after so much effort, it seemed foolish to stop mid-track, besides Riva was known as a stubborn child. Giving up meant that she loses, that everyone was right and that she was being unreasonable for writing at all when everyone knew that there was no bread in writing.

Getting her bread from her father, then husband, then ex-husband Riva Zmajoki felt like a subjected person, someone less than, someone dependent but she encouraged herself that it was just circumstances and one day she’ll beat them.

Then there was a whole section of her life dealing with children, depression, divorce, unemployment, uncertainty, the global pandemic and the general opinion that she failed in life. Through all that, she quietly wrote getting into a greater gear rather than slowing down even abandoning her name, her language and her heritage in the process. Even her gender came to question but the decision was made not to think about it too much, it was being resolved inside of fiction anyway.

Words formed before her easily. Everything else in life was hard. Friendships failed, the marriage crumbled, parenthood made her feel like an imposter, and poverty was her constant companion.

Still, words flew out of her like a constant stream steady and comfortingly making people love, suffer and then find meaning just before death closes upon them only to start their search for love all over again.

Because that’s what after all tribulations Riva Zmajoki thinks life is. A series of unfortunate events through which we struggle to keep our good faith and optimism trying to find love among strangers who frown upon us and, against all odds, winning just before it’s time to rest in death.

Riva Zmajoki Bibliography

Riva Zmajoki a poet, a writer, a singer, a dancer, a clown, a curious, confused and chaotic mess. A designer creating world to her own liking. A philosopher and a sociology professor.

There was a story Riva Zmajoki wanted to write. She thought it was a short story so she pushed on to finish it as soon as possible not caring for finesse, just wanting to get to the next big thing, to the next chapter of her life where she’s finally useful and productive.

The short story turned out to be a gigantic thing that has no end, something it seems like can be written forever. Still, after so much effort, it seemed foolish to stop mid-track, besides Riva was known as a stubborn child. Giving up meant that she loses, that everyone was right and that she was being unreasonable for writing at all when everyone knew that there was no bread in writing.

Getting her bread from her father, then husband, then ex-husband Riva Zmajoki felt like a subjected person, someone less than, someone dependent but she encouraged herself that it was just circumstances and one day she’ll beat them.

Then there was a whole section of her life dealing with children, depression, divorce, unemployment, uncertainty, the global pandemic and the general opinion that she failed in life. Through all that, she quietly wrote getting into a greater gear rather than slowing down even abandoning her name, her language and her heritage in the process. Even her gender came to question but the decision was made not to think about it too much, it was being resolved inside of fiction anyway.

Words formed before her easily. Everything else in life was hard. Friendships failed, the marriage crumbled, parenthood made her feel like an imposter, and poverty was her constant companion.

Still, words flew out of her like a constant stream steady and comfortingly making people love, suffer and then find meaning just before death closes upon them only to start their search for love all over again.

Because that’s what after all tribulations Riva Zmajoki thinks life is. A series of unfortunate events through which we struggle to keep our good faith and optimism trying to find love among strangers who frown upon us and, against all odds, winning just before it’s time to rest in death.

Riva Zmajoki

1982. birth year, came in one rainy day to a father, a worker in a notebook factory, and mother, a cook, in Zagreb Croatia1988. entered grade school, changed quite a few teachers, danced, made friends and fought1991. war started ravaging the native village of our family making most of them refugees1994. first poem written while I sat on the dock wet from the sea looking through my salty eyelashes into a small rainbow1995. war ended, family returned to their homes, celebration and relief1996. entered high school for Secretaries, learned how to type really fast1998. first novel started on the class of typing where I should have retype a given text instead, the novel will end up being Star Vestige: Uplift2002. first full draft finished, it took me a few months from start to finish, I thought it was a done deal at the time, but isn’t finished to this date2005. married in a lovely ceremony in the chapel on the mountain on a sunny August day2005. first story published in an esteemed Croatian publication, a story of a gay man talking to God2007. graduated university as professor of philosophy and sociology earning my Master’s Degree2009. first child birthed with difficulty2011. first story in English started, a fan-fiction that will lead me to transcribe my writing into English2013. second child birthed completing my family2015. first novel in Croatian published, it was later transformed into Star Vestige: Castling for Chaos2017. publishing venture on Amazon started making me start to plan my own publishing house2018. divorced quickly and amicably2019. first novel in English published pushing me to do more2022. started singing daily, designed my logos and brand…

Bibliography:

Vestigial Queens: Gods Will Hear Prayers: QuBoS III, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Stray Bishops: That Emerges from Below: QuBoS Road 2.2, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Barred Knights: The Angel of Death: QuBoS Road 2.1, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Rogue Rooks: Bones Will Remember: QuBoS Road 2.0, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Vestigial Queens: While Waiting for Salvation: QuBoS Road II, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Former Pawns: No Returns: QuBoS Road Two, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Stray Bishops: By Disobeying Rules: QuBoS Road 1.2, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Barred Knights: Through the Elder Spirit: QuBoS Road 1.1, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Rogue Rooks: Ancestral Ashes: QuBoS Road 1.0, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, April 2024Vestigial Queens: They Will Be Uplifted: QuBoS Road I, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, April 2024Former Pawns: To Escape: QuBoS Road One, BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDP worldwide, papercover, hardback, ebook, April 2024Protector’s Victory: Adventures of Roberto the Mighty Executor (Onlookers), BoQuS Fiction via Amazon KDp, May 2023Labyrinth of Death: Alyyes and Lordan Travels 2.0 (Outers), BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, Jan 2023Cartwheel of Love: A Guide through Degrees of Love, Skewed Review via Amazon KDP, Jan 2023Dragons Handler: The Woman Below (Schism), BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, Oct 2021Queer ABC: A Small Dictionary of Queer Culture, Skewed Review via Amazon KDP, Oct 2021Tsar’s Road Trip: Adventures of Roberto the Mighty Executor (Onlookers Book 1), BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, Sep 2021Ancestor’s Ashes: Alyyes and Lordan Travels 1.0 (Outers Book 1), BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, Sep 2021Where Armours Don’t Shine (Distorted Songs), BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, Jun 2021Distorted Songs: Dreams on the Bottom, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, Jun 2021Star Vestige: Uplift, Book One, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, May 2021Darkest Pattern: A Guest Room, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, October 2020Star Vestige: Castling for Chaos, Book Three, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, June 2020Star Vestige: Shattered Mirrors, Book Two, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, May 2020Darkest Pattern: The Door, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, May 2019Dragons Handler: A Disobedient Daughter, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, March 2019The Sleeping Prince, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP, Febuary 2019Distorted Songs: Unleashed Spars, Book of Poetry, BoQus Fiction via Amazon KDP January 2019(The Underwater Dome) Podvodna kupola, Republika 11-12, 2018 (The White Rook Defends the Black Queen) Bijela kula brani crnu kraljicu, Ubiq 22, 2018Jars of Hearts, Collected Opinions, BoQus Fiction via Kindle Amazon KDP, July 2017(Shadows in the deep) Sjene u dubini, Ubiq 21, 2017(Centre for Energetic Transference) Centar za energetski protok, Ubiq 20, 2017(The Weapon Sent from God) Oružje poslano od boga, Sirius B27,2016(A Cage in a Cage) Kavez u kavezu, Ubiq 18, 2016(The Comfortable Shoes) Udobne cipele, Riječi 11-12, 2016(The Sleeping Prince) Uspavani princ, Riva Zmajoki, Ubiq 17, 2015(Dandelion Parachutes) Maslačkovi padobranci, Republika 7-8, 2015 (The Blunt Knife) Tup nož, Zarez, 2015(The Bones Will Remember) Sjećanje u kostima, Ubiq 16, 2015 (The Passage for the Wild, a novel) Prolaz za divljač, a novel, 2015No Shelter In Death, Parsek No. 127, 2015The Bonds Of Magic, Parsek No. 125, 2014(The Lost Writer) Izgubljeni pisac, Ubiq 14, 2014(The Right Alignment) Pravilan raspored, Ubiq 13, 2013(From Beneath Dragon’s Shadow) Izlazak iz zmajeve sjene,  Priče o zmajevima, 2013(The Sweater) Vesta, Tamna, tmasta tvar, 2013(Triana on the Stage) Triana na daskama, Riječi 4, 2009 (The Key) Ključ, Ubiq 5, 2009(To Lie Down Late) Lijegati kasno, Strune nemira, 2009(The Voice of Her Own) Vlastiti glas, Književna republika 11-12, 2008(The Bonds of Magic) Magični okovi, Zmajev zlatni svitak, 2008(The Long Voyage) Duga plovidba, Ubiq 1, 2007(A Smile a Day) Smiješak dnevno, Zarez 216, 2007(The Deer) Košuta, Poezija 1-2, 2007(Lasagne for a Name) Lazanje za ime, Književna republika 1-2, 2007(Chosen Poems) Izabrane pjesme, Sesvetski oblok, 2006(The Blood on the Sand) Krv i pijesak, Zagrob, 2006(The Closet) Ormar, Književna republika 9-12, 2005

Order of Reading

Some might be confused about which order Zmajski Asterism accessed.

You can read titles both vertically (which is, more or less, chronological) and horizontally (which I address as a BoQuS Way). Each path will give you different mysteries to wait for but, as in life, it isn’t necessary to know each and every thing to understand the story you find yourself in.

The stories can be read in any order possible. Even within themselves, the books offer you navigation by which you might skip over parts you dislike or reorder the priority of the plot that interests you the most.

If that’s not the answer that satisfies you, there are different ordering lists by which you might want to abide by.

BoQuS Way is a path you follow me through like you’re reading a huge book as I compose it.

There is always an option to read books in a chronological way but here you must keep in mind that there will be a need to trace back when additional titles appear in earlier Eras.

The start of any series might be the door you entered through.

Saga Former Pawns follows ripples made by one man but each book is a contained story happening in a different place following characters that have no knowledge of events of other books.

If you start with Former Pawns: To Escape, you won’t have prequels, for now. Your climb will be from the time of carriages and first cars towards the stars.

If you start your read with Vestigial Queens: They Will Be Uplifted, things before it will be prequels for you and books after sequels.

They Will Be Uplifted is a good starting point since it is one of the first books that were started. (On the question in which order they were written, that question is impossible to answer because of the discontinuous way of writing where things are started, continued, rewritten and reinterpreted over decades.)

Series that are under the same umbrella title are best read in order.

Sagas Rogue Rooks and Barred Knights are written continuously with the same characters following their timelines closely. They are even intrinsically entwined with each other where Rogue Rooks take place just about two centuries before Barred Knights. They can be read separately or in an interchanging order starting with the first book of Rogue Rooks and then reading the first book of Barred Knights and then continuing in the same order. They will, most likely, be published in such order.

If you start with Rogue Rooks: From Ancestral Ashes, you’ll start on the story on the other side of the stars where interplanetary travel is already possible. Everything before will become prequels for you.

Jumping straight to saga Barred Knights might be a way for you to get interested. It’s a dynamic point of entry where you drop in the middle of conspiracy ready for a fight.

In Barred Knights: Through the Elder Spirit, you will search for a way to eat the cake and have it too. Love is hard in times of troubles but sometimes it’s the only distraction that give us enough patience to withstand limitations.

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Saga Stray Bishops will most likely follow different characters as we venture into the future. First two books follow the same characters in the same place.

If you start with Stray Bishops: By Disobeying Rules, your outlook will be from the outside in. Previous places tried to contain the human genome in its purest form.

Saga Just Kings will take us a few steps into the future and remove us even further from humanity. In it, different variations of creatures managed to survive the disease becoming something new. As in any other venture, if you travel far enough you might end up returning to where you started your journey from.

If you choose to start your read with Just Kings: Rescue Them, you’ll find yourself in a completely new place full of strange rules and traps. Luckily, our guides are as charming as handsome. Fingers crossed that the journey won’t be too bumpy as it usually is on unpaved roads.

Of course, you may choose a Saga to stick with and ignore all the rest. Broader knowledge isn’t necessary to understand the human story that is told, the one we can relate to.

Vestigial Queens connect the past and the future making sort of a present-day-vibe on Earth-kind-of-a-place making it familiar enough to connect back to our times. It spawns future installations introducing us to the family that will be our red thread to follow through the ages. Each installation is decades, maybe even centuries, apart. Still, the thread we follow can best be seen in this saga.

If you start with Vestigial Queens, you’ll start the journey to the stars with dwellers of Earth crossing the threshold reluctantly, with regret and distrust of the new lands you’re venturing into.

Wherever you enter, the sense of disorientation and surety that you missed something isn’t a bad thing. We live our lives entering and exiting rooms interrupting moments and finding out only half-truths about events we missed out on.

It’s not necessary to know it all, follow your interests and stop when fatigue catches up with you. Of course, you’re free to return and start somewhere else even if you dislike the first room you stepped into, not all doors lead to the same place.

There are characters in here I loathe dearly but someone else might find them agreeable. There were plot lines that were hard to get through. Also, there were those plots I rushed to find out more about. There are stories within stories to which I return to re-read over and over again.

Our tastes won’t coincide but I try to make all my characters justice staying as neutral as I can. It’s a realm different from our own, strange rules apply but the ability to see the world through a set of eyes that differ from ours is the very thing which makes us sentient beings capable of compassion.