Softbananas asked Michael J. Sullivan:

Hi Mike Your collection of the Riyria series is confusing with some books in, some out and some in more than one series. I don't want to miss any books just because they are not in the series I chose. So my question. Would you recommend a single reading list of all the Riyria books to accomplish this ? Are some books stand alone ? Thanks Softbananas

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Softbananas it is confusing - and I'm sorry for that it's that way because some of the books (The Riyria Revelations) were published more than once by more than one publisher.

Let's start with the books that you can ignore completely as they are "out of print" and have been replace with other books. The ones that are no longer available are: The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha | Nyphron Rising | The Emerald Storm | Wintertide | Percepliquis.

So how do you read those books? Well you read the re-published "omnibus editions - which have two full-length novels in each volume. It goes like this:

* Theft of Swords (contains The Crown Conspiracy & Avempartha)
* Rise of Empire (contains Nyphron Rising & The Emerald Storm
* Heir of Novron (contains Wintertide & Percepliquis.

There is another series called: The Riyria Chronicles and it consists of three books:
* The Crown Tower
* The Rose and the Thorn
* The Death of Dulgath

There is also an omnibus with these two titles in it - it's called "Blood of Thieves" but it's only available through the science fiction and fantasy book club.

Then there are some short stories (all of which are available for free from my site, but some are also available from places like Amazon & Barnes and Noble - I can't get the retailer to make them "free" everywhere, but as I said I make them free if you go to my site.

For these short stories there is:

* The Jester - which was originally published in Unfettered, an anthology edited by Shawn Speakman for Grim Oak Press
* The Viscount and the Witch - which later became chapter two of The Rose and the Crown
* The Thieves - which later became the first part of Theft of Swords.
* Profesional Integrity - which was originally published in the Blackguards Anthology
So from the novels perspective you should start either at Theft of Swords (Riyria Revelations #1 & #2) or The Crown Tower (Riyria Chronicles #1). I suggest Theft of Swords as it has 2 books in one, and it introduces you to my characters and world the way I had intended. That being said, some people prefer reading in "Chronological Order" which would mean starting with The Crown Tower.

Hope that helps to clear the matter up.

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