Book Read Order versus Read What You’d Like When You’d Like To

Each book contains a foreword explaining the setting for the book. The intent of this is to catch a new reader up so they can enjoy the book out of order. It’s always been a pet peeve of mine to encounter a “trilogy” and find the 3rd book, or even the 2nd book is not yet published with no date in sight. GOT fans know what I’m talking about, am I right?! So, in my own writing, I’ve adopted what I call a “standalone principle.” That is, you should be able to pick up and enjoy any of my books at any time. Sure, you’ll miss some of the fun background setting and character development from the former, but it should never be so much that you kick yourself *. The asterisk is that I can’t help it if you love a character so much you grab the other book and read it too! Obviously, there might be some high level spoilers when this happens, but I will never ever “give it all away” in the subsequent book.

Another aspect to the Forsaken Isles is that the stories occur in a very long timeline set against immortal dragon rulers and a divine prophesy of the Spear and Shield. These are the only constants. A character in one book is probably going to be a legend in some other book. For example, in Dar Tania 1 and Dar Tania 2, the Sage Alaura is shown as a winged statue on the cover of Khalla’s Play, set 1800 years later. I realize this might annoy those with a meticulous nature and I make no apologies. But, I offer you this. In the worlds of immortals, 1800 years is a normal lifetime. It might be only 2 generations of elves, 7 generations of dwarfs, and 1 generation of dragons.

With that being said, there is a logical read order shown in the following graphic:

 

Another thing that happens in this timeline is that Morbatten, as an empire, begins with very low magic. It grows over time as does its military might. In the world of Dar Tania, there are no “magic items.” By Malcor’s Story, Morbatten is drowning in enchanted gear. So, take your pick… want to read high fantasy in a low magic world with a focus on fantastical creatures and gods? Read Dar Tania! Want a heroic paladin geared to kill a god? Read much later on the timeline; I recommend Khalla’s Play.

Now, when it is my intent to publish a series where the plot line continues, I will use a # label. So, Dar Tania is followed by Dar Tania 2: Set’s Dream. Khalla’s Play, just published on January 1, 2018 is subtitled as Merakor I. It will be followed by Merakor 2.