Recommended Reading Order

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Alright, this should probably be in the forum section, but meh.

I'm asking this here, because I've cruised the Crystal Hall forums and found lots of contradicting recommendations from fans and don't recall ever really seeing an official response. So, here goes:

What IS the recommended reading order for the Whateley Academy stories?

I could always go strictly by posting date, but that seems inefficient and ends up with having to backtrack a lot as character's stories are started at the beginning of the year chronologically but much later as far as when they were written.

So. Is there an official chronology I can use? Or do I just need to use best judgement?

Melanie E.

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recomended reading by wiki

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This is the story list on the wiki page for whateley http://crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Canon_Stories
Follow that link. At the top of the table will be a "read first"collum, clicking this should re-organise the list 1st to last, with Fey 1 at the top. It still jumps around a little, but considering the number of authors, I believe it to be reasonable. Enjoy, I especially enjoy Jade's and Phases stories.

Thanks!

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The "timeline" separation here is exACTly what I was looking for, especially since it splits the side-stories off into separate categories.

One reason I was looking for something like this is because I'm planning on getting a list organized to drop on my PDA of the stories in a good reading order that, to me, makes sense. Just reading them how they were written/posted DOES jump around a bit too much, so splitting it by subcategories works better. I'd been doing it myself, but it just wasn't clean enough, and I was constantly reorganizing it as I read new stories and tried to place them where they went.

Melanie E.

not finished

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as you get deeper, out of 140 + stories there are a couple not finished, but some great reading.

Take your pick...

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Here's my rough guide, which I contributed to the Wiki a couple of years ago (back in the days when I was an active contributor to it!)

There is no canon-defined reading order to the stories, as although many of the stories were published in chronological order of timeline, many others have been published inside the timeline (i.e. out of chronological order).

To further complicate matters, while there was once a single sequence of events, several characters' stories (e.g. Fling, Merry, Stacy) follow threads which, while set at the same time as the main events at the Academy, only partially intersect, and are largely separate.

The table is by default sorted by the story/episode end date; if you wish to read the entire canon, this provides a logical order, although you may find the stories flow more logically if you sort by timeline thread (which will preserve end date sorting for the stories within that thread). The Academy thread is the longest and follows the most characters; however the other threads can be read alongside it, usually without spoiling later stories.

You may instead want to follow the stories by a particular author (sort by the Author field), story title (sort by that field), or protagonist (sort by the Point of View field). In these cases, you may find the Read First column comes in useful. When there is a particular reason to consider reading another story first, such as providing background information or being in danger of being spoiled, that other story is listed in this column with its short title (the title in the first column), and is listed in bold if there is a particular important reason, such as major spoilers. Earlier stories in the same thread (same short title with a different number) are not listed, and indirectly listed stories are usually not repeated. Being listed in the Read First column just means there is some reason to read that story first, it doesn't necessarily mean that reading that story first is a good idea since there may be other considerations outweighing that reason, such as contradictory listings from the same column (i. e. for stories that spoil each other), the place in chronological or in release order, the amount of stories that would have to be caught up with or personal preference.

Finally, you can also sort by release date, to read the stories in the order they were released.

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

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