callili replied to your post: Hey folks, I’m thinking about changing the order...
I started reading with deeper into the woods which I dearly loved. Then the beginning if game theory… It wasn’t that reader friendly? Tbh I don’t managed to read more than the first or first two chapters of that? It’s on my reading list, but it’s been there for a while so I don’t honestly think it is (in its current form) a good starting point in the fantastic universe you built there
This is actually pretty helpful, thank you! I think one of the biggest issues there is that Game Theory followed on from a huge, complete series (the Shadows and Light series) and makes so much more sense in context of that, but I haven’t actually edited the huge piece since to make it work as a standalone novel (for a lot of reasons, not least that it’s just such a huge undertaking and I didn’t ever think Fae Tales would be something anyone else was interested in until they...kind of were. There’s since been a lot of people who’ve been able to read / love Game Theory and The Court of Five Thrones without that initial grounding in the SALverse stories, but it’s often readers who are able to be patient with the clunky beginning of GT, or who skip ahead - I’ve even recommended that people skip to the chapter ‘Hunt’ or similar, which is obviously not a great way to start anything).
It does make me think at the moment that until Game Theory is actually edited, maybe I shouldn’t be that fussed about changing around the order. I don’t really mind that Game Theory is super dense - but it doesn’t lay a lot of groundwork for new readers. Ironically The Court of Five Thrones got a lot more of that, even though it needs it less after GT. Ah what a mess that series is, it’s amazing that it gets new readers and new fans, because it really does need a lot of work.
(That being said, if it’s still on your reading list, I really do recommend skipping ahead to one of the future chapters like ‘Hunt’ or even ‘Liver.’ I know a lot of new readers to the series found this helpful; but again, it may not be enough, and that’s totally fine. On an editorial level, the early Fae Tales material has a fuckton of issues, lol).