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hello guys, im reading book number 11 right now (turn coat) and i see a lot of short stories here and there on lists of reading orders, ive read until now only the novels in published order, am i doing this wrong?
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If you read Side Jobs after Changes and Brief Cases after Skin Game then you will not get spoiled on anything you havent read, and also will get cool extra info about books you already read. So its the best place for them. Some people like to break it down by individual short story but thats too much work for me.
No you could easily read all the books completely without any of the short stories at all and then go back. But certain ones are nice to read in order. I think one of the only ones that’s actually needed in order is to read aftermath before you read ghost story personally
I think the Bigfoot trilogy (in Brief Cases) is good to read before Skin Game for useful context, though perhaps slightly less crucial. I still recommend it!
That’s fair. And I would say reading it before peace talks if not before skin game since that’s when you actually see the character again
Idk I read all the short stories after the main novels and I'm not sure how much I missed by not having read Bigfoot trilogy beforehand.
It’s a very small deal, but the moment whenDresden meets the Genoskwa and references having worked with River Shoulders and the anger over the comparison definitely goes over your head if you don’t have the context. Not a huge deal, but a more prominent head-scratcher to me than the minimal times the other short stories are referenced in the main novels. YMMV, though!
On the other hand, it is nice to see characters talk about things that we didn’t see. Helps with the world building.
I'd say that depends on what you're reading for. If you're reading for the lore and world building, absolutely read Aftermath. If you're reading to experience Jim's world through Harry's eyes, maybe skip it the first time.
There's a short story called Cold Case that should be read before reading Peace Talks and Battle Ground.
The short stories are nice since they frequently explain stuff that gets mentioned in passing in the main books, such as Harry mentioning a few times that he knows Bigfoot, is on good terms with the Tylwyth Tyg (I know I misspelled that but fuck man it's welsh gimme a break), etc. Some are a bit boring, some are pretty fun, but none of them are particularly necessary.
I'd argue that Aftermath(Introduction of the Fomor) , Cold Case (What happens to Carlos to cause his limp and make him more suspicious of Molly & Harry) , Goodbye (Explains why Kinkaid isn't around in PT & BG) , and Warrior (Detailed explanation of why Uriel doesn't get involved more) are necessary.
Technically the Fomor are introduced in the Marcone short story. And while they all give important context, I wouldn't particularly say they're necessary.
Calling them necessary is overkill. It's good context, but definitely not necessary to understand the mainline series.
To be honest, I haven't read most of the shorts. I'm just too lazy to track them down, I suppose. With that said, I have gotten all the relevant info found in the shorts just by following this sub.
Sure, it would be entertaining and my life would be richer and more full if I took the time to read them myself. I still might. But as others have said, they aren't necessary for the series, and you will likely get the relevant info if you look in on this sub even casually. Thanks for that, guys!
I'd say the short stories become important after Changes. There's some stuff that gets a sufficient explanation, but there's at least one thing that you're going to completely miss the context of if you haven't read a short story from Molly's POV.
Read them after Changes
I generally concur with u/vanhawk28 . But I'd add that reading the short story The Warrior (in Side Jobs) as soon as you can from now is nice because it deals with the aftermath of the end of the previous book. Similarly, reading the short story Cold Case (in Brief Cases) sometime between the end of Cold Days and the beginning of Peace Talks casts a lot of explanatory light on some other events.
I'm one of the few who disagrees and thinks you need to read the shorts, novellas, etc. in order with the stories.
Where you're at now, most of the shorts were written/published after the novels, sometimes long after. But from here on out, most of the shorts were published between the novels, and they kind of expect that you will know what has happened.
It's not very fun (IMHO) to nurse a fan theory for a few books and then find out that you missed a short and everything was explained six books earlier.
You’re doing fine.
You can read the short stories in between the main books, but for the most part you don’t need to.
There is NO wrong way to read. Simply read and enjoy. Ignore anyone who says different.
I meant like if im missing something.. sometimes Short stories are just fillers
mostly they aren't fillers and are all fun, even the comics provide some info.