Reading Order

[TheToday He/him]

Hi hiiii!

Okay, so I haven't read anything yet since I'm kind of half-way through the Cosmere, and I intend to read the Cytoverse right after that, which probably means I won't start reading the Cytoverse until some point in 2027. But still! I'm an anxious person lol. I love to plan things way ahead of time so my mind is not going crazy about it.

So, I do have a question here! I know the main books and I know there are some short novellas of sorts included in Skyward Flight. And a couple of short works beyond that.

While it seems like a pretty straightforward read through the series, I'd like to know what you people who've read it all in the Cytoverse so far think of this reading order I've been given, specifically regarding when to read each novella and short story.

So this is the order I've been recommended to follow whenever it's time for me to read the Skyward series:

1. Defending Elysium novella
2. Book 1: Skyward
3. Book 2: Starsight
4. Skyward  Flight: Sunreach
5. Skyward Flight: ReDawn
6. Book 3: Cytonic
7. Skyward Flight: Evershore
8. Hyperthief super-short story
9. Book 4: Defiant

Does that make sense to you? Would you change anything? If so, why?

Thanks in advance! I'm all ears.

Well, you know. Eyes.

 

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, TheToday said:

Does that make sense to you? Would you change anything? If so, why?

I guess the question would be how do you feel about reading the novellas while still reading a main novel?

If you do not like the idea of setting Cytonic aside to read Sunreach and Evershore before going back to Cytonic, then the only change I would recommend is moving Defending Elysium to after Book 1. Sure, it's a prequel, but it's a prequel with spoilers for Skyward . . .  (slightly more, non-spoiler)

Spoiler

that was handled by Brandon on first release for those of us that had read DE long before Skyward was published by the simple fact that he did not make their connection known when Skyward came out. Fans realized the connection after-the-fact and, eventually, he confirmed it.

 

This is the reading order I suggest to my family and friends:

Quote

• Book 1 - Skyward
  • Defending Elysium
• Book 2 - Starsight
  • Sunreach
• Book 3 - Cytonic up to Interlude 2
  • Redawn
• Book 3 - Cytonic up to Interlude 4
  • Evershore
• Book 3 - Cytonic finish
  • Hyperthief
• Book 4 - Defiant

And the reason is that the novellas and novels are concurrent and spoil each other. From a Chronology perspective:

• Defending Elysium (Prequel Novella - read before book 3)
• Skyward (Book 1)
• Starsight (Book 2)
  • Sunreach (Novella 1) - Starts around Starsight Ch 39
  • Redawn (Novella 2)
  • Evershore (Novella 3) - Ends around Cytonic Ch 25
• Cytonic (Book 3)

From a timing perspective (based on Book 3 - Cytonic):

• Interlude 1 is around the same time as Sunreach Novella Ch 11
• Interlude 2 is Before Evershore Ch 2
  • Which means all of Redawn takes place between Interludes 1 and 2
• Interlude 3 is after Evershore - but:
  • There are things in Cytonic between interludes 3 and 4 that are spoiled if you read Evershore before Interlude 4

Hope that helps

[Schizoposting]

I read Cytonic before Skyward Flight; overall, I think that this reading order worked, because the former ended on a cliffhanger that made the latter more interesting—conversely, intermixing the two, or reading the latter before the former, would have likely resulted in a worse reading experience IMO. 

[TheToday He/him]

Both replies are pretty helpful actually. Thanks a lot @Treamayne and @Schizoposting!