Dane asked Michael J. Sullivan:

I Just stumbled upon your name from my kindle app after finishing the first Novel ( "The Name of The Wind" ) I had read when I decided to pick up reading again. This was to help aprk my childs instreset in reading. Your world looks interesting. I was wondering if I should read the books in chronological or publish date order. My gut says publish date. Which would be the best order to read the series?

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Dane, Thanks for writing, and I'm so glad your sparking interest in your child's reading. Personally, I would go with publication order as you suspected. There are several reasons for this.

1. It's the "intended" way I wanted the reader introduced to these characters and this world. I do something a bit unusual in that I dole out specifics a bit at a time across the entire series (as oppose to front loading everything in the first book). This technique is not without it's problems. For instance, some have felt the characters seemed "lacking in detail" without knowing there is more coming. But for those that do read all the books, they find it very satisfying as mysteries build and pieces fall into place.

2. The Riyria Chronicles were written to be separate from The Riyria Revelations such that they could be read by people who haven't read Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire and Heir of Novron. However, I knew there would be a lot of prior readers so I planted a few little Easter eggs for them. These aren't big plot points just little "winks" to those "in the know." to give them an extra little benefit.

All that being said, I'm constantly getting emails from "either way" with both claiming "their" way is the best, citing one reason or the other. That is very reassuring as it lets me know I accomplished what I set out for. So, truly go with whichever way best fits your reading preferences. But since you did ask "my" opinion, I would go with order of publication.

Thanks for asking!

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