Worlds of DS9 Read Order Question

[BritishSeaPower]

So I finished everything up through Unity and I'm a bit confused about how to tackle the Worlds of DS9 series. Do I read them in chronological order or do I read them in publication order? My instinct is chronological order, as that seems to make the most sense. Publication order seems like they're only out of order to account for delays. Is there a suggested version most people tackle?

As well, I want to tackle the 3 SCE stories that crossover with this time period as well. Both Malefictorum and Wounds 1 & 2 say they take place after Ferenginar, but then I've seen suggestions that Wounds makes the most sense right after Trill. Lost Time is a bit nebulous. It says it's a year after Cold Fusion, which would be 2377, so do I read it after the Mirror Universe stuff?

(I assume SCE: Aftermath takes place sometime during Mission Gamma, but there was no indication in the version I have as to when it should be read. I put it between This Gray Spirit and Cathedral as it was the most logical.)

Other than that, everything else is fairly straight forward I just want to have a good idea of how to tackle everything so that I get a nice, somewhat linear, narrative. Thanks everyone!

 

[Christopher]

So I finished everything up through Unity and I'm a bit confused about how to tackle the Worlds of DS9 series. Do I read them in chronological order or do I read them in publication order? My instinct is chronological order, as that seems to make the most sense. Publication order seems like they're only out of order to account for delays. Is there a suggested version most people tackle?

They were published out of chronological order for a reason, because editor Marco Palmieri decided that was the best order in which to present them. Not to mention that the Trill story takes place mostly between chapters 2-3 of the Bajor story, and the preamble to the Dominion story takes place during the Andor story, so a strict chronological reading would be a pretty messy affair.

As well, I want to tackle the 3 SCE stories that crossover with this time period as well. Both Malefictorum and Wounds 1 & 2 say they take place after Ferenginar, but then I've seen suggestions that Wounds makes the most sense right after Trill. Lost Time is a bit nebulous. It says it's a year after Cold Fusion, which would be 2377, so do I read it after the Mirror Universe stuff?

The date references in SCE are somewhat inconsistent, because when editor Keith DeCandido decided to do some stories that crossed over with DS9, he wanted them to take place before Olympus Descending and Warpath to avoid spoilers, but in order to do that he had to retcon the chronology of previous stories and cram them together much more tightly than they'd originally been intended. So it's probably best not to take their references to time intervals too literally, and focus more on how they relate to each other storywise.

(I assume SCE: Aftermath takes place sometime during Mission Gamma, but there was no indication in the version I have as to when it should be read. I put it between This Gray Spirit and Cathedral as it was the most logical.)

I don't think it's necessary to read stories from separate series in strict chronological order relative to each other. The order usually only matters within a given series. But you're just about exactly right about Aftermath's placement. This Gray Spirit and Cathedral overlap a bit -- the epilogue of TGS is about a week after the first chapter of Cathedral -- but Aftermath takes place during that week.

 

[DS9Continuing]

I'm not really clear on why you wouldn't just read them in publication order. That's the order they came out, that's obviously the order they should be read in. Why would anybody release a book with the proviso, "You can't actually read this yet."

The editors and publishers had their reasons for releasing the stories in that order, regardless of the chronological order. I suppose if you want to have ordinary linear storytelling then yes, but to coin a phrase, "It is not linear."

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[BritishSeaPower]

Thanks so much Chris. I'm not entirely worried about a strict continuity of stories, just the idea of reading clustered stories together. I've been doing a slightly-in-chronological order of the Post-Series books of TNG, DS9 and Voyager to build up to Destiny/Typhon Pact and it's been an enjoyable experience. So I just wanted to see if there was a preferred way of going about this. Thanks.

I'm not really clear on why you wouldn't just read them in publication order. That's the order they came out, that's obviously the order they should be read in. Why would anybody release a book with the proviso, "You can't actually read this yet."

The editors and publishers had their reasons for releasing the stories in that order, regardless of the chronological order. I suppose if you want to have ordinary linear storytelling then yes, but to coin a phrase, "It is not linear."

The reason I thought to go about reading them chronologically comes from Memory Beta, a number of readings orders I've come across, as well as the suggestions of a few friends who have already read through the series.

 

[JD]

I read them in publication order and I don't see where reading them chronologically would make any difference at all. As far as I can remember, the events in one story don't really impact the other stories in any significant way.

 

[Christopher]

^Right. They're all pretty much independent, parallel narratives. As long as you finish with Olympus Descending, the rest can pretty much come in any order.