Order of Chris Wraights Custodian Books

[Brother Captain Arkley]

I want to read/listen to these books can someone give me an order of which to read?

[cheywood]

The basic order goes:

 

1. The Emperor’s Legion

2. The Regent’s Shadow

 

You can also read them in tandem with the Vaults of Terra series. I recommend doing it this way, but you definitely don’t have to:

 

1. The Carrion Throne

2. The Emperor’s Legion

3. The Hollow Mountain

4. The Regent’s Shadow

 

Finally there’s Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, which is an excellent read but largely unrelated to Wraight’s other Custodians work. There’s also some short stories like Magisterium and Two Metaphysical Blades, but I’m unsure how they connect exactly.

[Brother Captain Arkley]

The basic order goes:

 

1. The Emperor’s Legion

2. The Regent’s Shadow

 

You can also read them in tandem with the Vaults of Terra series. I recommend doing it this way, but you definitely don’t have to:

 

1. The Carrion Throne

2. The Emperor’s Legion

3. The Hollow Mountain

4. The Regent’s Shadow

 

Finally there’s Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, which is an excellent read but largely unrelated to Wraight’s other Custodians work. There’s also some short stories like Magisterium and Two Metaphysical Blades, but I’m unsure how they connect exactly.

Thank you Cheywood... Time to go buy :)

[DukeLeto69]

The basic order goes:

 

1. The Emperor’s Legion

2. The Regent’s Shadow

 

You can also read them in tandem with the Vaults of Terra series. I recommend doing it this way, but you definitely don’t have to:

 

1. The Carrion Throne

2. The Emperor’s Legion

3. The Hollow Mountain

4. The Regent’s Shadow

 

Finally there’s Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, which is an excellent read but largely unrelated to Wraight’s other Custodians work. There’s also some short stories like Magisterium and Two Metaphysical Blades, but I’m unsure how they connect exactly.

I would agree with that recommendation. Best way to read them. You could also throw in Guy Haley’s The Avenging Son, book 1 of the Dawn of Fire series. Not Wraight (obviously) and not Custodes BUT in exactly the same timeline around Terra with some cross referencing.

 

Ha ha weird. I posted this and then went to read the Guy Haley interview about Godblight (thanks @Cheywood) and lo and behold Haley makes same recommendation but other way around (ie recommends reading the Wraight books).

Edited May 12, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[Bobss]

The basic order goes:

 

1. The Emperor’s Legion

2. The Regent’s Shadow

 

You can also read them in tandem with the Vaults of Terra series. I recommend doing it this way, but you definitely don’t have to:

 

1. The Carrion Throne

2. The Emperor’s Legion

3. The Hollow Mountain

4. The Regent’s Shadow

 

Finally there’s Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, which is an excellent read but largely unrelated to Wraight’s other Custodians work. There’s also some short stories like Magisterium and Two Metaphysical Blades, but I’m unsure how they connect exactly.

 

I thought about this a while ago. In terms of things happening in-verse, I believe the order is something like this:

1. The Carrion Throne

2. The Emperor's Legion/The Hollow Mountain

3. The Hollow Mountain/The Emperor's Legion

4. Vaults 3/The Emperor's Legion

5. The Regent's Shadow

6. Watchers 3

 

The Emperor's Legion covers a period of time that is definitely after The Carrion Throne due to Navradaran insinuating the haemonculi event to Valerian, but The Hollow Mountain also ends at some point during TEL. Sure, events from THM are referenced during The Regent's Shadow, but I expect Crowl's and Spinoza's story (or at least the first arc/trilogy of their story) to conclude before or at least concurrently to Khorne's Rampage/Guilliman's Return which is obviously before TRS. TRS and Watchers 3 meanwhile both go well beyond this time frame

Edited May 12, 2021 by Bobss

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Well, if you want to open THAT can of worms, I actually have all of The Carrion Throne taking place between chapters 4 and 5 of The Emperor's Legion, for various reasons.

 

(For the sake of completeness, both The Interrogation of Salvor Lermentov and Blood Guilt take place in that gap as well).

 

Chapters 1 through 16 of The Hollow Mountain take place between chapters 9 and 10 of The Emperor's Legion.

 

Chapters 17 through 24 take place between chapters 10 and 11.

 

Chapter 25 mainly takes place between chapters 12 and 13.

 

Yeah, Vaults book 3 will probably take place either before the end of The Emperor's Legion or between there and the main part of The Regent's Shadow. I suspect this is why a certain High Lord is almost unmentioned in the latter book.

 

Having said all that, my recommended reading order would be what cheywood mentioned above. It would be jarring, especially the first time through, to read them purely chronologically.

[Bobss]

Well, if you want to open THAT can of worms, I actually have all of The Carrion Throne taking place between chapters 4 and 5 of The Emperor's Legion, for various reasons.

 

(For the sake of completeness, both The Interrogation of Salvor Lermentov and Blood Guilt take place in that gap as well).

 

Chapters 1 through 16 of The Hollow Mountain take place between chapters 9 and 10 of The Emperor's Legion.

 

Chapters 17 through 24 take place between chapters 10 and 11.

 

Chapter 25 mainly takes place between chapters 12 and 13.

 

Yeah, Vaults book 3 will probably take place either before the end of The Emperor's Legion or between there and the main part of The Regent's Shadow. I suspect this is why a certain High Lord is almost unmentioned in the latter book.

 

Having said all that, my recommended reading order would be what cheywood mentioned above. It would be jarring, especially the first time through, to read them purely chronologically.

 

Great post. I've been thinking about this on and off for years, and lo and behold you've already beaten me to it and in much better detail. Good stuff. I'm considering making a ''into... the CHRIS WRAIGHT-I-VERSE'' thread detailing all of the links and Easter Eggs between his books - such as The Lords of Silence having links/references to both the Jarnhammer and Vaults series, Dark Glass featuring in The Hollow Mountain, Warhawk's main thread effectively being spoiled in The Carrion Throne and so on! It might not be Abnett levels of interconnectivity, but it's still solid stuff considering the time Wraight has been putting into it

[cheywood]

 

 

Well, if you want to open THAT can of worms, I actually have all of The Carrion Throne taking place between chapters 4 and 5 of The Emperor's Legion, for various reasons.

 

(For the sake of completeness, both The Interrogation of Salvor Lermentov and Blood Guilt take place in that gap as well).

 

Chapters 1 through 16 of The Hollow Mountain take place between chapters 9 and 10 of The Emperor's Legion.

 

Chapters 17 through 24 take place between chapters 10 and 11.

 

Chapter 25 mainly takes place between chapters 12 and 13.

 

Yeah, Vaults book 3 will probably take place either before the end of The Emperor's Legion or between there and the main part of The Regent's Shadow. I suspect this is why a certain High Lord is almost unmentioned in the latter book.

 

Having said all that, my recommended reading order would be what cheywood mentioned above. It would be jarring, especially the first time through, to read them purely chronologically.

Great post. I've been thinking about this on and off for years, and lo and behold you've already beaten me to it and in much better detail. Good stuff. I'm considering making a ''into... the CHRIS WRAIGHT-I-VERSE'' thread detailing all of the links and Easter Eggs between his books - such as The Lords of Silence having links/references to both the Jarnhammer and Vaults series, Dark Glass featuring in The Hollow Mountain, Warhawk's main thread effectively being spoiled in The Carrion Throne and so on! It might not be Abnett levels of interconnectivity, but it's still solid stuff considering the time Wraight has been putting into it

I’d love to see such a post. I’ve picked up on some of the references but I’m sure others have passed me by.

[RedFurioso]

Not Wraight's book, but what about Auric Gods?

[cheywood]

Not Wraight's book, but what about Auric Gods?

It’s been a minute since I read it, but I believe it’s set post Battle of Lion’s Gate, sometime after The Emperor’s Legion. However I can’t recall any specific connections between it and Wraight’s work.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Most of Auric Gods is set WAY later, over a century after the Lion's Gate battle.

 

That said, it does flash back to the Lion's Gate and Valoris appears both there and in the "present day" scenes set later on.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Lord Nord