Which Book, Which Book?

Okay, I haven't actually abandoned this blog, though you might be forgiven for wondering. Just had a really busy week, is all.

So, my last entry netted a number of questions, which I'm now going to take a shot at answering. Note: I going to be making a lot of this up as I go.

Tsmacro asks what's the best order to read the books of the Star Rigger universe in. Good question; I'm not sure I have a good answer. If you'd like to follow the chronology of the universe in order (sketchily filled in by the books), then you ought to start with Panglor, then follow with Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger, then move on to Star Rigger's Way followed by Eternity's End, and finally end up with Seas of Ernathe. (They're all described on that same page--see link above--just scroll up and down.) Panglor starts you before star rigging has been discovered, and leads you toward the discovery. Seas of Ernathe happens after the secrets of star rigging have been lost, and we're trying to rediscover them.

That's chronological within the universe. But if you're more interested in following my development as a writer, then you might do it differently. I wrote Seas of Ernathe first, when I barely knew anything about the universe; I'd only written the short novelette "Alien Persuasion," which later became the basis for Star Rigger's Way. Plus I was a very young writer. After that, I wrote Star Rigger's Way and Panglor, then left that universe for a little while, before coming back to write the two dragon books. (The main thing that places the dragon books earlier in the universe than Star Rigger's Way is that the heroine, Jael, is abused by her ship's owner in a way that would never be tolerated by the RiggerGuild described in Star Rigger's Way.) Finally, I wrote Eternity's End in answer to my editor's question: "Whatever became of that character in SRW—Legroeder? We last saw him a captive of pirates, and probably in trouble because he helped his old friend to escape..."

In general, I feel that the later books are a lot better written and more satisfying than the earlier ones. But is that a good reason to read them in the order written? I don't know. What do you people think?

Tomorrow I'll answer (or try to answer) Tim's question about the movie potential of my books.