gnume wrote:Academy ?
link please
http://www.crystalhall.org/stories.html
(Crystal Hall is the site where new stories are posted. Sapphire's *was,* but that site pretty much stopped posting updates, so the authors started their own.)
It's moments like these that make me regret my limited net time. This is the first chance I've had to answer the post, but a bunch of people have probably already charged off and started reading. *Shrugs* To answer the question, my reading order varies from the 'stories' page. I've posted the suggested order of the first few stories at the bottom of the post, followed by a copy/pasted answer by one of the 'canon' authors (Whateley has several fanfiction writers who post on their message forum) that covers everything after.
There are some things a new reader is going to encounter that may bore them. Early on the authors were learning how to work with each others' characters, so they wrote out scenes in a place all the authors could see. That means that in the first three or four days of the school term (covered in the first seven stories of the universe not including Jade and Tennyo 1) there is a lot of repetition. The latter half of Fey 1 is basically the latter half of Chaka 1 with Fey's responses written between the lines, and "Welcome to Poe" is a short story in third person that covers events most (Babs Yerunkle excluded) wrote about, trying to cover everything comprehensively and provide a bit of extra information. (One of its goals was to get NPC Ayla's origion information out there, but that's now outdated since latecomer Diane Castle took on Ayla and wrote his/her origion in detail.) There's nuggets of new information if you read all the similar/identical scenes, but mostly you'll just want to scan down until you get to something new.
The other thing that might put off readers of this forum is that just about all of the characters written about are boys that in some way transform into girls. I realize that's not everyone's cup of tea, but please bear with it. The male to female transformation is pretty much just an origion for each of the characters, so it stops becoming an issue after the characters are introduced. The exception is Jade, who (while actually 14) is frozen/stuck with the body of an 11 year old boy and spends a great deal of time striving to become a girl. That said, Babs is a brilliant and often very funny writer and you'd be missing out if you skipped Jade just because of the whole want-to-be-a-girl thing.
Lastly, since Whateley is a universe written by multiple authors, you'll probably see things referencing events depicted in other stories. In the later stuff, this can mean a story not written yet. It can be irritating, but you'll get to whatever story is being referenced eventually.
Starting reading order:
Enter the Chaka (Bek D Corbin) (Chaka 1)
Fey (Maggie Finson) (Fey 1)
Coming Out (Babs Yerunkle) (Jade 1)
Unexpected Consequences (Starwolf) (Tennyo 1)
Welcome to Poe (Multiple Authors)
Away From Home (Babs Yerunkle) (Jade 2)
Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind (Diane Castle) (Ayla 1)
Quoth the Ninja, Nevermore! (Multiple Authors)
First Assembly (Mutliple Authors)
Another Day (Starwolf) (Tennyo 2)
PMS and Other Problems (Maggie Finson) (Fey 2)
Ayla and the Blackmailer (Diane Castle) (Ayla 2)
The following is a cut/pasted post by Diane Castle.
You're already at "Fey: PMS and Other Problems", and past it, right? I'm going to suggest the following reading order. In particular, "Ayla and the Tests" spans about 8 weeks and is long, so read it chapter by chapter. Same for the longer Merry stories. Eric and I have been looking at the reading order, and this is Eric's hard work here, with a few notes added. There are a couple flaws, but you can blame those on me.
. . . .
09/11/06---09/13/06 Fey: Adjustments
09/07/06---09/21/06 First Day (Tennyo)
09/21/06---09/25/06 Chaka - Duel Damsel
09/07/06---09/24/06 Jade 3 - Being a Girl
09/07/06---09/25/06 Ayla and the New School
09/17/06---09/27/06 A Simple Game (Sara)
09/29/06---09/29/06 Toni and the Tiger (Chaka)
09/25/06---10/03/06 Jade 4 - Bottle a Jinn
09/25/06---09/30/06 Ayla and the Tests 1
09/21/06---10/02/06 Tennyo: It's Nice to Have Friends
09/30/06---10/03/06 Transfer Students (Lily)
09/30/06---10/04/06 Ayla and the Tests 2
06/13/06---10/07/06 Destiny's Wave (Chou)
10/05/06---10/07/06 Revenge of the Alphas (All)
10/02/06---10/20/06 A Single Fold (10/20/06 is a brief epilogue)
10/04/06---10/09/06 Redefining Jinn
09/29/06---10/12/06 Eat, Drink, and be Merry
12/21/04---10/12/06 Time for an Unexpected Gift
10/09/06---10/12/06 Blade Dancing (Chou)
10/12/06---10/12/06 Time for an Unexpected Gift: Epilogue
10/05/06---10/13/06 Ayla and the Tests 3
10/07/06---10/14/06 Tea and Synergy (Other)
10/14/06---10/15/06 Boston Brawl (Sara/All) (Takes priority over other stories showing the Brawl)
10/03/06---10/15/06 Dangerous Days (Tennyo)
10/15/06---10/15/06 Ayla and the Tests 4
10/15/06---10/18/06 Insanity Prerequisite 1 (Sara)
10/10/04---10/10/04 Baker's Dozen
10/13/06---10/20/06 Fling: Revelations
10/13/06---10/20/06 Merry Meet, Merry Part, and Merry Meet Again
Three Little Witches
10/17/06---10/21/06 Insanity Prerequisite 2 (Sara)
10/16/06---10/22/06 Ayla and the Tests 5
10/21/06---10/23/06 Against Ill Chances (Merry)
10/23/06---10/23/06 It's Good to be the Don
10/23/06---10/25/06 Merry Descent Into Madness
10/16/06---10/28/06 A Gift of Friendship
10/23/06---10/28/06 Ayla and the Tests 6
10/26/06---10/28/06 The More, The Merrier Pt. A
Blood Oath goes somewhere around here, don't worry about the timing too much.
10/21/06---10/30/06 Insanity Prerequisite 3 (Sara)
10/29/06---10/30/06 The More, the Merrier Pt. B
10/31/06---10/31/06 Devil's Dance 1
10/31/06---10/31/06 Devil's Dance 2
10/31/06---11/01/06 Insanity Prerequisite 4
09/19/06---11/01/06 The Problem With Power
10/30/06---11/01/06 The More, the Merrier Pt. C
11/02/06---11/03/06 The More, the Merrier Pt. D
11/03/06---11/03/06 So I'm a Freak, Sue Me
11/04/06---11/04/06 The More, the Merrier Pt. E
09/28/06---11/05/06 Lightning Crashes (Heyoka)
11/01/06---11/08/06 Panty Raid (Chou)
11/06/06---11/09/06 Eating Dog (Heyoka)
11/09/06---11/09/06 The Bad Seeds
11/05/06---11/09/06 Being Merry in Spite of it All Pt. A
11/08/06---11/10/06 Dangerous Games
11/11/06---11/11/06 Parents' Day
and the Parents' Day vignette
11/11/06---11/12/06 Being Merry in Spite of it All Pt. B
11/06/06---11/15/06 Child Of Confusion
10/29/06---11/17/06 Ayla and the Tests 7
11/13/06---11/18/06 Being Merry in Spite of it All Pt. C
11/14/06---11/19/06 Upheaval- Instructor
11/18/06---11/19/06 Boston Brawl 2
11/10/06---11/20/06 What's Buzzing You? (Hive)
11/20/06---11/21/06 To the Mountain 1 (Bladedancer)
11/21/06---11/21/06 Summoning Courage
11/17/06---11/23/06 The Play's the Thing (Lily)
11/17/06---11/23/06 Alya and the Tests 8
11/22/06---11/24/06 To the Mountain 2 (Bladedancer)
11/18/06---11/25/06 To Be Merry and Escape From it All
Ask Not For Whom the Belle Tolls
11/21/06---11/26/06 Hive 2 / Hive 3
11/15/06---11/27/06 Jade 6: Dreams and Awakenings
Hive 4
11/25/06---11/27/06 To the Mountain 3 (Bladedancer)
11/27/06---11/27/06 Afternoon Tea With the Devil's Daughter
11/24/06---11/28/06 Upheaval- Walking Alone
11/27/06---11/29/06 Yet Another Day as an Outcast
11/28/06---12/01/06 To the Mountain 4 (Bladedancer)
11/29/06---12/01/06 Upheaval- New Friends, New Problems
12/01/06---12/02/06 Ill Winds 1
12/02/06---12/03/06 Ill Winds 2
12/03/06---12/04/06 Ill Winds 3
11/28/06---12/05/06 Jade 7: Over the Top
11/29/06---12/05/06 Ayla and the Networks
12/04/06---12/05/06 Ill Winds 4
12/05/06---12/06/06 Ill Winds 5
12/06/06---12/06/06 Ill Winds 6
12/10/06---12/11/06 Call the Thunder 1
12/11/06---12/11/06 Call the Thunder 2
12/12/06---12/12/06 Call the Thunder 3
12/12/06---12/12/06 Call the Thunder 4
12/12/06---12/12/06 Call the Thunder 5
Combat Final Vignettes:
The Pushover
Chasing the Dragon
Never Look a Gift Squirrel in the Mouth (12/13)
Stress Fracture
Gearhead
03/06/06---12/16/06 The Braeburn Report
12/15/06---12/16/06 Aftermath
12/15/06---12/17/06 The Turks or the Geek
11/08/06---12/20/06 There's an Angel in Father John's Basement 1
11/25/06---12/21/06 The Big Idea
12/22/06---12/24/06 The Christmas Crisis
12/18/06---12/28/06 Christmas Elves
12/21/06---01/07/07 There's an Angel in Father John's Basement 2 (Only last two scenes post 12/28/06)
??/??/??---01/04/07 Garefena
12/22/06---01/06/07 Ayla and the Grinch
then on to the new term
There are a couple stories that are not in this timeline yet, but that will get fixed over time. "Reflections in an evil eye", "Clue of the Unseen Switch", "Hobbies & Heckling" (Late Oct-early Nov), "The Op", "Petra" (11 parts), and "Tales of the MCO". You can read "Tales of the MCO" anytime you want, since it's independent of the storylines. By the time you get through all of these, we'll probably have the official reading order fixed and posted on the website. BTW, "The Turks or the Geek" is a *fanfic* I wrote for Whateley: it got me drafted into the Cabal. That's why all the Ayla stories were written late, and done as if Ayla felt he was an outsider.
Diane
