(Updated 14 Aug 2025)
hangs head I wrote some things out of order.
[much extraneous angsty bullshit redacted. – ed.]
So yes, there IS a suggested chronological reading order for this mess, and here it is, for clarity. Note that it is not necessary to read the Apocalyptic Japan books as part of the Main Arc. That arc can be treated as stand-alone and read later.
Main Arc
The Reason
The Lion of God
The Lion and The Lizard
A Huntress on the Rocks
A Fox in the Henhouse
On Account of a Dame
The Clerics in the Kitchen
A Dragon in the Foie Gras
The Dragon’s Sister
The Lion in Paradise
–((Apocalyptic Japan Arc fits here…at least the first four books))–
The Lion and the Darkness
All Precious Stones and Peoples
The Lion and the Logic*
The Lion in Victory*
Apocalyptic Japan Arc
The Cross-Time Kamaitachi
The Tale of the Crane Princess
An American in Iya
Shade of the Sakura*
On the Other Side of Time*
The Kōtaigō Regent*
(Books not in bold and marked with * are either in progress or haven’t been started yet.)
And I promise, my name is NOT George RR Martin, and I am GOING to finish all of this before I die.
Of course, all bets are off if my Seasons characters start rampaging through my dreams again. Thankfully, those don’t take all that long to write…
(Update, 20 Dec 2021: I added the new Delaney novella, A Huntress on the Rocks, in its correct chronological order. This one sprang up like a late-season hurricane and powered across the Atlantic, into the Gulf, and all the way up into Indiana in only 15 days…and was not planned to be written in any way. It just…happened. But it’s a needed puzzle piece for the as-yet unwritten All Precious Stones and Peoples.)
(Update, 16 Jan 2023: I have added the two Timelines Universe Novels, The Cross-Time Kamaitachi and The Tale of the Crane Princess, where they fit. However, they’re in a completely different timeline, so they can be read separately. But in linear time, that’s where they go. The Cross-Time Kamaitachi actually fits roughly in between the two halves of The Lion in Paradise, which is hard to indicate in that list.)
(Update, 3 Jul 2023: Added The Lion and the Logic, which I think will be the last novel in the main Timelines series. Also The Dragon’s Sister, which fits in right before The Lion in Paradise.)
(Update, 28 Nov 2023: Added An American in Iya, not yet written of course though it is three chapters in, which is a sort-of sequel to The Tale of the Crane Princess, much as Tale was a sort-of sequel to The Cross-Time Kamaitachi. I find myself oddly drawn to the strange Timeline 1287 Left Sub 6, for some reason…anyway, An American in Iya will likely be a full novel-length story.)
(Update, 3 Jun 2024: Both The Dragon’s Sister and The Lion and the Darkness are complete and have been published.)
(Update, 18 Oct 2024: An American in Iya and On Account of a Dame have been published. On Account of a Dame was completely unplanned and was written in a month from three-sentence description of a dream I’d had, after a CERTAIN PERSON (not my wife) said if I didn’t write it she was going to be quite put out with me.)
(Update, 30 May 2025: In the Cherry Blossoms’ Shade has been renamed to Shade of the Sakura, but still isn’t published. The Clerics in the Kitchen was published on 29 May 2025.)
(Update, 14 Aug 2025: A rederangement [sic] of the list, as I realized it isn’t really necessary to read the Japan books in order with the main arc books. Also added a couple of books that are being considered but haven’t been written yet.)
(Update, 18 Oct 2025: All Precious Stones and Peoples was published in early October 2025.)