#catchkeep

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ARCHIVIST WASP CHARACTER DESIGNS 

I’ve been working on this for a while - character designs for every described character in AW (/Firebreak)! Most are barely described so it was a fun challenge. I’ll post them individually over the next couple weeks!

[aroaessidhe]

Hi!

I just read archivist wasp and loved it! but apparently there are a bunch of other books in the same universe and I was wondering what reading order you'd recommend :)

Also I love your blog and art!

-E

very comedic timing, I literally just started a reread yesterday lmao. Also, thank you!

OK so the main things are three books + a novella + a vaguely connected middle grade, and some extra stuff online (which I'll get to after these). Here’s publishing order for the books, which is a good reading order:

Archivist Wasp

Latchkey - book 2 in the (unfinished) wasp trilogy, following her & the Upstarts & our ghosts (and more about their backstory)

Firebreak is a standalone narratively, but has some significant connections. It’s set in a dystopian city before the apocalypse that happened long before Wasp’s time.

Jillian Vs Parasite Planet is a middle grade space adventure set before Firebreak (the closest to recognisably our present), and is the least connected to everything else (tonally and literally)- but it has a character/piece of technology that is significant in:

Flight & Anchor, a novella prequel to Firebreak (you would understand this if you read it before JvPP & maybe F, but would miss small details/references)

I would consider Archivist Wasp > Latchkey > Firebreak, or Archivist Wasp > Firebreak > Latchkey, then everything else more or less in whichever order you want?

I haven't tried reading Firebreak inbetween (until right now - I was just gonna read AW&L but decided to slip it in there too after I saw this ask lol, just started Firebreak) so I can't vouch for whether it'd be more rewarding to read F or L first, but I like the idea of that. If Firebreak is more accessible to you (likely, as it's better distributed) then I think go for it.

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The short fiction which is all online, mostly came out just before or after Firebreak, and will make sense if you’ve read at least Archivist Wasp & Firebreak!

Pathfinding - short story about our supersoldiers (free)

Last Chance - set in a different town a little before Archivist Wasp, following a side character in AW/L (free)

Archivist Wasp Myths: Ember Girl at the Crossroads , The Story of the Harvesting-Knife and How It Came to Us Out of the Before-Time Into Now, Catchkeep's Favourite Children, Carrion Boy and the Crow, The Story of Why Catchkeep and the Chooser Hate Each Other In the First Place, Ember Girl & Carrion Boy Fight the Metal Men - essentially the full versions of some of the mythological stories in Archivist Wasp. You’d get the most out of these reading them after the main 3 books. (all on patreon)

FAQ - this is like. a separate short story that you could argue is set in the Firebreak era lol (patreon)

Catchkeep - this is the draft version of the third book in the Archivist Wasp trilogy, currently being posted on patreon, though it’s only a few chapters in and it’s been radio silence for a while. (When (🤞) this is finished I guess I’d say you could choose to read the trilogy first then everything else)

and also:

Archivist Wasp deleted scenes and commentary (patreon)

Latchkey deleted scenes and commentary (patreon)

unpublished short story that inspired AW (patreon)

This post outlining connections between the first 4 books and some of the short stories (free)

the patreon is just $1 for access to everything! There's a couple other unrelated stories there too. Hope this makes sense!!!

[geeklyinc]

Latchkey Review: New Wasp, Same Great Sting

Latchkey Review: New Wasp, Same Great Sting

Archivist Wasp was one of my favorite books of 2015 and up there for one of my favorite new fantasy titles, period. It was such a rough, raw book, the literary equivalent of a rebel yell, and not just because it was a debut. Furious and dreamlike and achingly emotional, it was everything I never...

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I am the Archivist. Catchkeep’s emissary, ambassador, and avatar on earth. Her bones and stars my flesh; my flesh and bones Her stars. I am She who bears you, She who sustains you, She to whom your dust returns. You have lived well. You have died well. I release you. Do not ghost my way.

Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace

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some wasp/isabel sketches

[aroaessidhe]

Hey have you read Archivist Wasp or Firebreak yet? if not I made a handy video to tell u about them

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Mal & 22 from Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace.

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A bonus Mal from Firebreak