The Guardians series order

short stories in anthologies as .5 is something different. I always think of full length novels as being numbered and the shorts stories not. See, you could be the first to number the shorts as .5′s!

You know what REALLY helps? Having the book’s number ON THE ACTUAL BOOK. Why, I ask, WHY don’t publishers do this?! I mean, ok, they have the series list printed inside, but do you realize how often that thing gets flipped? I mean, the first book on the list would ASSUMABLY be book one. But NO – it’s the LAST (or next-to-last) book and congrats, you’ve just bought book FIVE in a SEVEN book series. Woot.

Orbit publishing (Lilith Saintcrow, Jaye Wells, Nicole Peeler) is AWESOME because, you guessed, numbers are ON THE BOOK. Witches of Eileanan series (Kate Forsyth) and some other fantasy series by ROC are numbered, but by and large, they aren’t. Really, is THAT much trouble?!

I was thinking the same thing a .5 is a nice indication that they’re not a full novel, but in the timeline of the series they come between books. I like when I have an idea when something takes place “in universe” so I’m not inadvertently spoiled for future events.

I’m kind of anal about reading things in order, so I certainly like to have somewhere I can go to look up the author’s preferred reading order. When I’m saving ebook files I like to put them in series order and in that case I use .5s to fit the novellas in between the books in the right order. So I guess I’m voting for using .5.

I’m of two minds about this:

1) I think having a .5 is nice for those who must read in order and don’t want to miss the shorts. It would be good, I think, if you had a disclaimer of some kind talking about the novella’s not needing to be read as part of the overall story arc. Because on a personal level, I don’t – as a general rule – care for novella’s. Not in conjunction with a series anyway.

2) It’s certainly less intimidating for a new reader to see that Demon Forged is book 5 in your series, as opposed to book 8. Once you start getting up near the 2-digit mark, the series becomes almost not worth it. Who wants to catch up on 10 books in a series (generally speaking, of course, because we all know *I* wouldn’t have a problem with it)?

I like to read things in chronological order, so having the list include novellas really helps. However, if the novellas aren’t progressing the arc of the series, then a note or something saying such is appreciated. I’ve spent lots and lots of time hunting down anthologies with certain novellas in it before I move onto the next book in a series because I didn’t want to miss something, and later finding out that the novella was part of the world but not important to the story arc. And now I’m a little off track…

I vote using .5 for novellas, too.

Can we start at Demon Angel, and skip Wild Thing? I was kind of confused by Falling for Anthony, but I’d love to give the series another go. Because it looks so damned good! If we don’t need to read the novellas to understand the series (or in any particular order), I wouldn’t assign numbers to them. Even half numbers.

I’m one of those folks who *must* read every installment in a series, short or long, so at the least, please put in the .5′s. I get very frustrated when I go to an author’s page and the novellas/short stories are in their own list and I have to figure out where they fit by looking at the publication dates. That is way more effort than I want to put into it, but I am compelled to because reading out of order is one of my pet peeves.

(Speaking of which, thank you so much for posting way back when that Blind Spot came after Demon Forged in the chronology. I purchased it early, but waited to read that story until after Demon Forged came out.)

I’m one who doesn’t have to read in order, however, I like knowing the order so when I go back or pick up the anthology I can see where the story fell chronologically and it helps when reading it.

I’d strongly prefer that the novels be numbered, and then the anthologies listed to the side or something so that I know they’re anthologies.

I like knowing what short stories are out there, but when I was trying to buy and read all your novels in order, the anthology thing drove me a little nuts. I spent a lot of time thinking that I’d be missing major plot developments if I read the short stories after the books, and that hasn’t been the case at all. Which is good, because I hate buying books online and still haven’t been able to track down copies of all the anthologies in person. Actually, I ended up reading Winters’ short story before Demon Forged by mistake due to the earlier release date, and it was fine.

I should probably just relax about reading books in order (especially since I’m a dirty, rotten end-reader anyway, it’s not like I mind spoilers), but for others like me who stress out pointlessly, I think renumbering would be awesome.

I’m with Rosie Not a surprise. Sometimes I use the copyright date, but that doesn’t work when there’s more than one book per year.

I’m someone who has to read a series in order (including short stories) and it kinda drives me nuts when I can’t figure out the chronological order. :p Maybe you can have two lists? One with just the novels and one with novels and novellas? I kinda like the way Jim Butcher has all his short stories in the Dresden world on one page and tells the reader when the story takes place in the series.

Good to know! I need to be hit over the head with stuff, so between-the-lines doesn’t always make sense to me. Same problem with Patricia Brigg’s wolf series. I want to read it! I know it’s good! But the first novella was a ??? for me.

I like the .5 idea. Yep, I’m one of those anal gotta-read-em-in-order girls. Before I dive into a series, I do a bit of research on reading order. It’s so nice when the author offers a list, and such a pain when they don’t.

I also appreciate some indication on the cover that the book is part of a series, like the “A Guardian Novel” on your last two covers. It’s so annoying to make a spontaneous purchase (due to a hot cover) and then discover that it’s book 12 in some series. *sigh*

@Kerry D.: I second this view and endorsement of .5

I am a huge series fan. I tend to finish a book every couple of days so for me the longer the series the better. It is my own personal version of immersion therapy. I purchase the majority of my books online. Doing so makes it easier to find books that are of interest to me by authors that I might not always find in a bookstore and I can purchase the entire series at once. It should be obvious at this point that I am a reader that insist on reading a series in order.

I just finished Demon Forged. I have to say that I believe the series would lose much of its magnetism if the novels were read out of order. I have never been a short story/novella type of girl but when I found the Guardian series and your site I decided to give them a try because you placed them in the order of the series. That said to me that they were important. I enjoyed them very much and am glad the I read them and not just the novels. I like the idea of numbering the novellas with a .5. I also like the idea of having a note that says that they aren’t necessary to read for the story line. The thing is, for me the novellas brought more depth to the characters throughout the series so they enhanced my enjoyment. I did have a had time ascertaining the order of the of the series one I had the books in my hot little hands. I did read one novella out of order which didn’t really matter but it was disappointing. The page that lists the books and anthologies in the front of the novels lists them separately so I had to go online to find the order. That I did not like.