Optimal point to read the short stories

Wars of Light and Shadow
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Hi!

I finished reading The Curse of the Mistwraith recently and am torn whether to continue ahead with The Ships of Merior or to read the short stories (in particular The Decoy, Child of Prophecy and Reins of Destiny). The main advice I found existing online was not to read The Sundering Star or Black Bargain until after Warhost of Vastmark and Stormed Fortress respectively, so will leave those two until then.

I usually tend to read things in publication order, but it sounds like it could be beneficial to read these three stories in particular earlier than that? Are there particular novels that each short story would accompany best as a prelude?

Thank you! :smiley:

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That order is the correct take. To find the publication order, by year, you’d have to look up the paper print anthologies and pair them with the pub date of the novels.

The order written was roughly:

Child of Prophecy (first appeared in Masters of Fantasy, Baen)

The Sundering Star (first in Undercover of Darkness, DAW)

Reins of Destiny (The Solaris Book of New Fantasy, Solaris)

Black Bargain (Evil is a Matter of Perspective) GrimDarkMagazine

The Decoy (Unfettered, Grim Oak Press)

The Gallant (novella, a temporary anthology bundle/ebook only/out of print)

The Gallant is now only available as e ebook from the Paravia studio shop (as all the rest of the Athera related fiction is also) and as Verrain’s backstory, it can be read at ANY TIME.

There will be a sequel to The Gallant coming, titled The Guardian - it is undergoing the fourth revision before final polish, but the finish date is not determined due to OTHER short fiction deadlines riding piggy back.

Other short fiction not related to Light and Shadows, but to the novel in progress, Sailing the Whirlwind (as prequel back history) are out now in print or coming shortly:

Wrong Man Standing - Unbroken, anthology to raise medical relief for Peter Orullian, printed by Grim Oak Press, out shortly.

Front Man Fallen - published in the April edition of GrimDark Magazine

Rogue Man Standing - nearing completion for turn-in to another charity anthology upcoming, look for the announcement.

These three ‘complete’ a trilogy of prequels that will be released in sequence and also, bundled and available after the rights revert back to me. (you have about a year’s wait, give or take). I will be working the artwork for them, and for Verrain’s sequel, The Guardian, during the upcoming year.

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Thank you for your reply! (As well as for writing them all of course, I really enjoy your style of writing!)

That writing order is quite handy - I will use it to guide my reading order, subject to the conditions imposed by the novels. I think this will also spread them nicely throughout the main story.