How do you read the Honorverse?

Knowing that there are number of ways to read RFC's Honorverse books, how do you guys read them?

Here's my method, which I've recently updated in prep for the new Main Series Novel:
Main Series (Numerical) Anthologies/Honorverse (Alphabetical by deisgnated letter)
1. On Basilisk Station A. A Call to Duty
2. Honor of the Queen B. A Call to Arms
3. Short Victorious War C. More Than Honor
4. Field of Dishonor D. A Call to Vengeance
5. Flag in Exil E. Worlds of Honor
6. Honor Among Enemies F. Changer of Worlds
7. In Enemy Hands
8. Echoes of Honor G. The Service/Sword
9. Ashes of Victory H. In Fire Forged
I. Beginnings
10. War of Honor J. The Shadow of Saganami
K. Crowd of Slaves
11. At All Cost L. Storm from the Shadows
M. Torch of Freedom
12. Mission of Honor N. House of Steel
O. Shadow of Freedom
13. A Rising Thunder P. Shadow of Victory
Q. Cauldron of Ghosts
14. Uncompromising Honor

I'm currently reading War of Honor

OsageOrange wrote:Knowing that there are number of ways to read RFC's Honorverse books, how do you guys read them?

Here's my method, which I've recently updated in prep for the new Main Series Novel:
Main Series (Numerical) Anthologies/Honorverse (Alphabetical by deisgnated letter)
1. On Basilisk Station A. A Call to Duty
2. Honor of the Queen B. A Call to Arms
3. Short Victorious War C. More Than Honor
4. Field of Dishonor D. A Call to Vengeance
5. Flag in Exil E. Worlds of Honor
6. Honor Among Enemies F. Changer of Worlds
7. In Enemy Hands
8. Echoes of Honor G. The Service/Sword
9. Ashes of Victory H. In Fire Forged
I. Beginnings
10. War of Honor J. The Shadow of Saganami
K. Crowd of Slaves
11. At All Cost L. Storm from the Shadows
M. Torch of Freedom
12. Mission of Honor N. House of Steel
O. Shadow of Freedom
13. A Rising Thunder P. Shadow of Victory
Q. Cauldron of Ghosts
14. Uncompromising Honor

I'm currently reading War of Honor

This question comes up periodically.

The usual advice is that the first reading should be in publication order (including the anthologies), and rereading of the entire series should be in timeline order.

The latter isn't always easy. For example, Dark Fall (currently on the Baen site and will be on the 2018 Free Stories collection) has four sections (or three, depending on how you want to look at the middle two) at radically different times. If you're going to read it in one lump, I'd recommend reading it at the time of the last section; the first two (or three) sections add little to the understanding of the events at those times. Alternatively, chop it up into three sections and read them at the appropriate places in the timeline.

You've also missed Letters Home and Our Sacred Honor (which is not about our favorite military genius).

To add a bit more.

You've missed the entire Stepanie Harrington series. The "Call" series occurs before any of the Honor Harrington books.

If you're going to do it in timeline order, you need to break up the anthologies so their individual stories occur at the appropriate places on the timeline. There are, for example, four Honor Harrington stories before On Basilisk Station. There are several Anton Zilwiki and Victor Cachet stories before Crown of Slaves.

I think I'd do the latter part by publication date within month. This works since the books contain month marks. For example, July 1922 has sections in A Rising Thunder, Shadow of Freedom, Shadow of Victory, Cauldron of Ghosts and Uncompromising Honor.

There are a limited number of short or novellas that are "important" in my opinion.

mostly in the right order
A Beautiful Friendship
What Price Dreams
Queen's Gambit
Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington
The Hard Way Home
Let’s Dance!
A Whiff of Grapeshot
Nightfall
Changer of Worlds
From the Highlands
Fanatic (after From the Highlands)

Fun but not really 'important':
Promised Land - yeah, timeline issues - deal with it.
Ruthless - not as good, but fun

kzt wrote:There are a limited number of short or novellas that are "important" in my opinion.

mostly in the right order
A Beautiful Friendship
What Price Dreams
Queen's Gambit
Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington
The Hard Way Home
Let’s Dance!
A Whiff of Grapeshot
Nightfall
Changer of Worlds
From the Highlands
Fanatic (after From the Highlands)

Fun but not really 'important':
Promised Land - yeah, timeline issues - deal with it.
Ruthless - not as good, but fun

I would include "The Stray" at the half-way point of "A Beautiful Friendship"

I read this series by putting "Eloise" into my e-book search function and going where it tells me to go.

....I'm kidding. Kind of. I only do that sometimes.

....most of the time?

......YOU ASKED!!!

roseandheather wrote:I read this series by putting "Eloise" into my e-book search function and going where it tells me to go.

....I'm kidding. Kind of. I only do that sometimes.

....most of the time?

......YOU ASKED!!!

I don't really know whether or not anyone should go out of their way to read the whole shebang is proper order.

I began with Honor Among Enemies. I saw it in the library in hard cover and it looked interesting. I didn't even, at first, realize Honor referred to a person.

Once I read it, I tried getting my hands on the earlier books and they were not read in order. Which was good since the next book was Honor of the Queen, which was probably the best of the early ones.

After that point, I've been reading them in order because I started buying them on Amazon.

It's not absolutely necessary to do them chronologically. Yes, it is nice to do that, but hardly necessary. Some books are fantastic, others merely good.

The Talbott Quadrant books have little direct relation to Honor. The Zilwicki/Cachat books often as well.

The important thing is to read them. Oh, and really enjoy them.

The Service of the Sword should be read after Ashes of Victory. Not after Echoes of Honor. It happens in the interwar period.

ldwechsler wrote:

roseandheather wrote:I read this series by putting "Eloise" into my e-book search function and going where it tells me to go.

....I'm kidding. Kind of. I only do that sometimes.

....most of the time?

......YOU ASKED!!!

I don't really know whether or not anyone should go out of their way to read the whole shebang is proper order.

I began with Honor Among Enemies. I saw it in the library in hard cover and it looked interesting. I didn't even, at first, realize Honor referred to a person.

Once I read it, I tried getting my hands on the earlier books and they were not read in order. Which was good since the next book was Honor of the Queen, which was probably the best of the early ones.

After that point, I've been reading them in order because I started buying them on Amazon.

It's not absolutely necessary to do them chronologically. Yes, it is nice to do that, but hardly necessary. Some books are fantastic, others merely good.

The Talbott Quadrant books have little direct relation to Honor. The Zilwicki/Cachat books often as well.

The important thing is to read them. Oh, and really enjoy them.

You have a good point. It depends on what you want out of the series, and to an extent how your mind works putting things together. The advice to read in order the first time is directed to people with a "no spoilers" mentality. If you read in order, the reveals come in the order the author intended.

New readers are also unlikely to know that there's a CD image available that has all the early books through Mission of Honor, Torch of Freedom, Storm from the Shadows and The Service of the Sword. This is official: it was bound into copies of the first hardcover edition of Mission of Honor.

Whether you're only interested in stories with Honor as the main character, or the entire wide sweep of the series, also depends on what you want out of it and how your mind works. While I personally prefer the "wide sweep," I'm not reading the Manticore Ascendent sub-series or the Stephanie Harrington series.

roseandheather wrote:I read this series by putting "Eloise" into my e-book search function and going where it tells me to go.

....I'm kidding. Kind of. I only do that sometimes.

....most of the time?

......YOU ASKED!!!

If I may be so bold,

I think even those of us who have not been here for long are well-aware of your proclivities and prejudices,.