Reading Orders

As we know, Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga for the first time ever presents Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization to be read in chronological order of fictitious events, irrespective of the original publication order of the no less than forty-three installments. In fact, the chronologically earliest installment, "The Saturn Game," set about 2055, was one of the latest to be published, in 1981. For several years before that, the chronologically earliest installment had been "Wings of Victory," set in 2150, published in 1972.

Anyone who reads a series while it is being published does not at that stage have the option of reading the installments in fictional chronological order, assuming that there is a difference between the two orders which there might not be. Ian Fleming's James Bond novels were always set when they were written. Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories are narrated by Watson in the order in which they were published even though Watson sometimes backtracks to earlier events but informs us that and why he is doing this. CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia have two "first" volumes, the first published and the chronologically earliest, a prequel that begins by informing us that that is what it is. Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series rearranged itself chronologically while it was being written/published. The narrative order has to be the order in which Manse Everard experiences the events which is different from their historical order.