Proper Suggested Reading Order For All Honorverse Novels?

The first book I read was Shadow of Saganami.

And boy was i confused.

Its best to read them in order so you don;t spoil any plots or get too confused when they start refencing weapons you have never heard of before in your life, but introduced in another book.

Unlike Tom Clancy books, HHverse books were written in order.

For myself, I recommend reading the main series up through At All Costs before going back and reading through by publication order. While the side stories are good books in their own right, their impact isn't really felt until Mission of Honor.

AdmiralStarNight wrote:The first book I read was Shadow of Saganami.

And boy was i confused.

Its best to read them in order so you don;t spoil any plots or get too confused when they start refencing weapons you have never heard of before in your life, but introduced in another book.

Unlike Tom Clancy books, HHverse books were written in order.

Well mostly. The mainline, Torch, and Talbott books are in order.

The two prequel series, the novelette from House of Steel, and the stories in the anthologies are scattered around in time and don't chronologically happen in publication order.

For example More than Honor, the first anthology, was published in Jan 1998. So in publication order it comes between book 7 In Enemy Hands and 8 Echoes of Honor. But chronologically none of it's three stories appear to fall quite into that spot in the timeline.
"A Beautiful Friendship" was set roughly 390i years prior.
"A Whiff of Grapeshot" was set prior to book 7
"Deck Load Strike" doesn't clearly show, but internal evident strongly hints it must have been much later than the first year or so of the war; since a ship had been attacked without having known a state of war existed between Manticore and Haven.

(Although the few critical anthology short stories were each published before the book they were critical to; so reading in strict publication order isn't going to leave you wondering who the heck this clearly already developed character is - for example "From the Highlands" and "The Fanatic" were both published prior to Crown of Slaves)

Amaroq wrote:

Vince wrote:

Also check out the free fiction Baen makes available on baeneooks.com, as there are (at least) three short pieces that are set in the Honorverse.

Are these written by Weber? And I assume the site you mean is baenebooks.com?

Correction - only two short stories. What I thought was another free short story is actually in the Beginnings anthology (Obligated Service by Joelle Presby).

Yes, baenebooks.com, I misspelled the site name.

Free Short Stories 2011
Honorverse Tech Bu9
by David Weber and Ken Burnside

Free Short Stories 2012
Grayson Navy Letters Home
by Joelle Presby

Here's my opinion on reading order (mostly publication order, with a couple exceptions for the anthologies; see reasons for exceptions below).

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
More Than Honor
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
War of Honor
The Service of the Sword
Crown of Slaves
The Shadow of Saganami
At All Costs
Storm from the Shadows
Torch of Freedom
Mission of Honor
In Fire Forged
A Beautiful Friendship
A Rising Thunder
Fire Season
Shadow of Freedom
Beginnings
Treecat Wars
Cauldron of Ghosts

Reasons for going out of publication order:
More than Honor before In Enemy Hands: "Whiff of Grapeshot" gives context to the beginning of Hands
World of Honor after Ashes of Victory: "Queen's Gambit" gives away a key point near the end of Ashes, which would take away the impact of that scene.

Thank you everyone. Since I am left handed and an old coot, about the only way I can make sense out of all of these fine novels is to TRY to read them according to the dateline. That means in sequence linked to the date of the story in view of the entire Honorverse series. Works best for me.

It gets even worserer. I have passed it forward at our local library group meetings and now many others are getting rather interested, (hooked?) on the Honorverse Series. Hee hee hee, I love a good plan. Patrons are now purchasing new editions, then donating them to our library. HB of CJ (old coot)

Joker41NAM wrote:Here's my opinion on reading order (mostly publication order, with a couple exceptions for the anthologies; see reasons for exceptions below).

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
More Than Honor
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
War of Honor
The Service of the Sword
Crown of Slaves
The Shadow of Saganami
At All Costs
Storm from the Shadows
Torch of Freedom
Mission of Honor
In Fire Forged
A Beautiful Friendship
A Rising Thunder
Fire Season
Shadow of Freedom
Beginnings
Treecat Wars
Cauldron of Ghosts

Reasons for going out of publication order:
More than Honor before In Enemy Hands: "Whiff of Grapeshot" gives context to the beginning of Hands
World of Honor after Ashes of Victory: "Queen's Gambit" gives away a key point near the end of Ashes, which would take away the impact of that scene.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this topic.

I've been a long time reader of Weber's Safehold" series, but had held off reading any Honorverse stories.
Now, I'm over 80 and decided to have a go at them.
I started with the mainline "Honor Harrington" books, then started with other Honorverse books mentioned in David's BIBLIOLOGPHY. I'm nearly through with them, and have all of them on my Kindle Fire.

What I plan to do, is reread all of the Honorverse books in the above order, as soon as I finish the first reads.

Wish me luck!
Bruce Harrington - with early dementia

Joker41NAM wrote:Here's my opinion on reading order (mostly publication order, with a couple exceptions for the anthologies; see reasons for exceptions below).

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
More Than Honor
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
War of Honor
The Service of the Sword
Crown of Slaves
The Shadow of Saganami
At All Costs
Storm from the Shadows
Torch of Freedom
Mission of Honor
In Fire Forged
A Beautiful Friendship
A Rising Thunder
Fire Season
Shadow of Freedom
Beginnings
Treecat Wars
Cauldron of Ghosts

Reasons for going out of publication order:
More than Honor before In Enemy Hands: "Whiff of Grapeshot" gives context to the beginning of Hands
World of Honor after Ashes of Victory: "Queen's Gambit" gives away a key point near the end of Ashes, which would take away the impact of that scene.

After "Cauldron of Ghosts", add "Shadows of Victory" 2016

BD Harrington

Just a couple of notes here: tha YA books about Stephanie Harrington and her friends are slotted about 300 years prior to the current honorverse timeframe. A Beautiful Friendship, Fire Season and Treecat Wars are delightful books and can be read sequentially as a single story. I would group them together in any list of reading the honorverse. It wouldn't matter where in the order they are put as long as they are kept together.

I would say the same about the adventures of Travis Long in the Manticore Ascendant series. A Call to Duty, A Call to Arms, and A Call to Vengeance are best read together as a single story. They are in the same time frame as Stephanie Harringon, though the two stories are not tied into each other. I had a bit more trouble getting into these books, but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Don

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n7axw wrote:Just a couple of notes here: tha YA books about Stephanie Harrington and her friends are slotted about 300 years prior to the current honorverse timeframe. A Beautiful Friendship, Fire Season and Treecat Wars are delightful books and can be read sequentially as a single story. I would group them together in any list of reading the honorverse. It wouldn't matter where in the order they are put as long as they are kept together.

I would say the same about the adventures of Travis Long in the Manticore Ascendant series. A Call to Duty, A Call to Arms, and A Call to Vengeance are best read together as a single story. They are in the same time frame as Stephanie Harringon, though the two stories are not tied into each other. I had a bit more trouble getting into these books, but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Don

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Regarding the Star Kingdom (Stephanie Harrington) novels, I would include
"Letter from Stephanie" (from Baen Free Stories 2011)
then
"The Stray" (from the Worlds of Honor anthologies),
between where
Part 1 of "A Beautiful Friendship" ended (from the More than Honor anthologies), and part 2 of A Beautiful Friendship novel begins.

The first part of the novel has additions that were not included in the original from the anthologies so it would be better to read that than the story of the same name from the anthologies.