"World of DS9" reading order
- Thread starter theblitz
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Nope just make sure you know that the Dominion story takes place chronologically last. It ends the series on a cliffhanger.
The six segments are parallel stories with little overlap among them, but they were published in the order they were intended to be read, even though that's different from chronological order.
Book 2 is actually first in chronological order, and in fact events in book 1 briefly refer back to events in book 2. So you can go ahead and read book 2 if you're still waiting for book 1. As said, however, it's important that you don't read book 3 until last.
As to why the stories were published out of chronological order, IIRC it was basically just to mix things up a bit. Marco Palmieri (the DS9 editor at the time) always liked to try new things, so he decided to play with non-linear storytelling. Since the stories were largely separate, all taking place in different locales, it didn't really matter what order you read them in (except for the last one). So he went with the non-obvious option of deliberately publishing them out of order, and by pairing up cultures that don't normally get paired up - Cardassia with Andor, or Ferenginar with the Dominion. The intensity of the stories, and their connection to the more central arcs of the series, do tend to build as they go on if you read them in published order, but I'm not certain if that was deliberate or just a happy coincidence.
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As to why the stories were published out of chronological order, IIRC it was basically just to mix things up a bit. Marco Palmieri (the DS9 editor at the time) always liked to try new things, so he decided to play with non-linear storytelling. Since the stories were largely separate, all taking place in different locales, it didn't really matter what order you read them in (except for the last one). So he went with the non-obvious option of deliberately publishing them out of order, and by pairing up cultures that don't normally get paired up - Cardassia with Andor, or Ferenginar with the Dominion. The intensity of the stories, and their connection to the more central arcs of the series, do tend to build as they go on if you read them in published order, but I'm not certain if that was deliberate or just a happy coincidence.
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^As stated, the stories parallel each other and have few direct references to one another. Basically WoDS9 is about the series cast splitting up in six different ways and having separate, unrelated adventures. The reading order is more about contrast and dramatic buildup than plot continuity.
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