Reading Order

How to read the Rucksack Universe

The Rucksack Universe is an ongoing, nonsequential series, set in one big story world with many recurring characters. While there are big character and story arcs that develop story to story, readers can actually come to the Rucksack Universe from any title and enjoy the stories in whatever order they want.

It can help to know if there’s a particular method to the madness though. Here are 2 lists of reading orders you might consider:

1. Published order: The chronological order in which each story was published.
2. Story order: The order in which each title fits on the Rucksack Universe story timeline. Story Order has a bonus: you get to understand how calendar of the series, because I had to break time reset time because of The Blast.

A quick note on story numbers: Regardless of order, at this point I don’t number the stories in the series. Over time that may change.

Story order is subject to change.

Published order

Published order is the order in which each Rucksack Universe story was first published. If you want to follow the series by order of when I put out new work, then Published Order is the order to follow.

Published Order lists each story by year published, title, and cover, with a link to the story’s main page on my site.

I don’t list month or day, but stories published in the same year are listed in release order.

Story order

Story order is the order in which each Rucksack Universe story happens in the timeline of the series, and has little to nothing to do with published order. The series isn’t sequential or chronological in nature. That makes it easy for me to duck back into different parts of the timeline and put out new stories. If you want to follow the series in order of when each story happens in the context of the broader series, then Story Order is the order to follow.

Story Order lists each story by the year it happens in the story, title, and cover, with a link to the story’s main page on my site.

Where appropriate, I also list some major story timelines below, even if there isn’t (yet) an accompanying story.

A note on the calendar: The Rucksack Universe currently uses the AB year designation, or “After Blast.” The Blast happened on Oct. 16, 1834, and became the origin point for Year 0 AB.