On 2/16/2024 8:20 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> In article <uqoqu1$2jot$1@dont-email.me>,
> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 2/16/2024 11:55 AM, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
>>> On 1/31/2024 18:36, Titus G wrote:
>>>
>>>> My references to book numbers were to order of publication.
>>>> Perhaps you meant 'Books 2 and 3 are an interesting decision about where
>>>> to start" as recommended elsewhere?
>>>
>>> Wait, were they published out of order? I didn't know, if that's so. I
>>> think of them in the order that they're numbered on Google Play Gooks,
>>> which is Going North, A Succession of Bad Days, Safely you Deliver,
>>> Under One Banner, and A Mist of Grit and Splinters.
>>>
>>> One couldn't possibly start with Safely You Deliver!
>>>
>> Is this one of those "read in published order" vs "read in internal
>> chronological order" situations?
>>
>
> IMHO, publication order is *always* the order in which to read a series.
> (Except that sometimes skipping the first published book helps).

It's hard to come up with a universally applicable rule. For starters,
prequels, side-quels, rewrites, spin-offs, etc may or may not be worth
reading. Even if they are, the order may not be intuitive.

For example, consider _Triplanetary_. It was originally unrelated to the
Lensman series, but then Smith reworked and expanded it to be Book 1 of
the rewritten 6-book series.

Or take Christopher Stasheff's _Warlock_ books. The first book (1969)
was fun. The second one (1971) was embarrassingly weak, which Stasheff
freely admitted; he rewrote it in 1984. The third book (1982) was a
partial return to form. The fourth book (1983) was a prequel, which I
would argue is eminently skippable.

Also, "publication order" may not be the order that the books were
written in, although it's fairly rare.

On 17/02/24 08:55, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
> On 1/31/2024 18:36, Titus G wrote:
>
>> My references to book numbers were to order of publication.
>> Perhaps you meant 'Books 2 and 3 are an interesting decision about where
>> to start" as recommended elsewhere?
>
> Wait, were they published out of order? I didn't know, if that's so. I
> think of them in the order that they're numbered on Google Play Gooks,
> which is Going North, A Succession of Bad Days, Safely you Deliver,
> Under One Banner, and A Mist of Grit and Splinters.
>
> One couldn't possibly start with Safely You Deliver!
>

I read them in publication order beginning with The March North.
It appears that others have answered your questions.

On 16 Feb 2024 23:51:49 GMT, Jaimie Vandenbergh
<jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:

>No, it's that 2&3 are really one story over two volumes, so starting
>with 3 (Safely You Deliver) would be hard work.

I dunno - I seem to have survived reading Foundation + Empire before
Foundation.... though being 13 at the time I badly wanted to meet a
girl like Arkady Darrell by the time I finished Second Foundation.