Reading Order
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One of the questions I get regularly from readers is: “what order should I read your books?”
Every reader is different and you may start on any series you’d like based on whatever strikes you. But since so many have asked for my opinion, here is the order I would read them.
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#1: The Kingfountain series
(Book 1: The Queen’s Poisoner, Book 2: The Thief’s Daughter, Book 3: The King’s Traitor, Prequel: The Maid’s War)
I would start here because it’s by far my most popular and best selling series. Although the events of The Maid’s War happens before The Queen’s Poisoner, I still recommend reading it after King’s Traitor. It can be read first, however. It won’t give away spoilers for the first 3 books.
There are several more books coming in the Kingfountain series (Book 4: The Hollow Crown, Book 5: The Silent Shield, and Book 6: The Forsaken Throne, and another prequel, The Poisoner’s Enemy). I recommend saving these next books until after you have read The Legends of Muirwood (for reasons I won’t explain due to spoilers!). Just trust me. Then you can pick up the next batch. I also recommend reading the other prequel, The Poisoner’s Enemy (which tells Ankarette’s backstory) after book 6. In other words, read them in the order they were published, not chronologically according to plotline. The last Kingfountain story is called the Poisoner’s Revenge (the audio version of it is included in my Tales from Kingfountain, Muirwood, and Beyond collection).
#2: The First Argentines series
(Book 1: Knight’s Ransom, Book 2: Warrior’s Ransom, Book 3: Lady’s Ransom, Book 4: Fate’s Ransom)
This series take place in the Kingfountain world but several centuries before the events of The Queen’s Poisoner. Severn Argentine is the king in the original Kingfountain trilogy and this is the story of a Fountain-blessed knight who served his ancestors and helped establish the Argentine dynasty. There are easter eggs aplenty which nod to the origin story, but you don’t have to have read it in order to understand what’s going on. If a reader starts here first, that’s ok, I’d recommend going back to the top of the list before going on further.
#3: The Legends of Muirwood trilogy
(Book 1: Wretched, Book 2: Blight, Book 3: Scourge)
I would go here next because it’s the series that put me on the map and landed me a publishing deal with 47North. It is also the first to introduce my readers to my style of inter-chapter quotes from real history modified for fantasy purposes, the Virtus themes I like to write about (see Manifesto on Virtue for more on that), and it’s a pretty awesome story that still makes me cry.
#4: The Covenant of Muirwood trilogy
(Book 1: Banished, Book 2: Ciphers, Book 3: Void)
If you liked the original Muirwood trilogy, then I definitely recommend reading the Covenant series next while the information about abbeys, mastons, and the hetaera are fresh in your mind. This series takes place centuries after the original trilogy and so you must piece together the clues to figure out what happened in between.
What’s unique about this series is that Maia’s story actually begins with the graphic novel “Muirwood: The Lost Abbey” (or if you want the prose version, that’s available too as “The Lost Abbey”) and then proceeds to Banished. You don’t need to read The Lost Abbey to get what’s going on, but it will help provide some clues that will be helpful throughout the series.
#5: The Dawning of Muirwood Series
(Book 1: The Druid, Book 2: The Hunted, Book 3: TBD)
While this series takes place before Legends and Covenant of Muirwood, I recommend reading it after both as there would be a few spoilers to those series contained in this one. But really, it’s ok to start here too with the founding of Muirwood Abbey. There are details in the original series that get fleshed out more in this one.
#6: The Harbinger Series
(Book 1: Storm Glass, Book 2: Mirror Gate, Book 3: Iron Garland, Books 4-5: TBD)
This series can be read as a stand-alone and would be perfect for someone who had never read any of my writing before. It has a more Dickensian feel to it than my other books which have a more medieval or fantasy feeling to them. That being said, it’s still my opinion that the others series could be read first which is why I’m putting it in the reading order here.
#7: The Grave Kingdom Series
(Book 1: The Killing Fog, Book 2: The Buried World, Book 3: The Immortal Words)
This series is a stand-alone series. You don’t need to have read any of my other books in order to get into this story. So it is perfectly okay to start here, you just won’t see the inter-connections that exist in my other books. But this is a fun martial arts adventure story set in a world with a geography like Alaska and the culture like ancient China. Trips to both places inspired it.
#8: The Whispers from Mirrowen trilogy
(Book 1: Fireblood, Book 2: Dryad-Born, Book 3: Poisonwell)
Many readers want to know if Muirwood and Mirrowen are connected. They take place in different worlds and can be read independently of each other. But there are clues in Poisonwell and Void of Muirwood that suggest the stories may be connected. I wrote this as an independent series, inspired by the epic fantasy books I read during my teenage years. There may also be possible ties to Grave Kingdom too.
#9: The Landmoor Series
(Book 1: Landmoor, Book 2: Silverkin)
I started this series a long time ago and it really shows how I’ve evolved as a writer. It was originally intended at an epic fantasy series that would go for 10+ books, but I stopped writing in this world a long time ago and have no immediate plans to pick it up again (cue groans and fist-waving some many die-hard fans who still really, *really* like this series). Still…if you’re hungry for more books from me, why not check these out?
Other books:
These are other books or stories I’ve written which are not easily available. The Wishing Lantern is my first story that was ever accepted for publication and I hired an artist to turn it into a children’s book which I published in 1999. Hardcover copies are difficult to find, but the Kindle version is cheap. The world of the Wishing Lantern is related to the Landmoor series if you pay close attention.
Also, I wrote a memoir in 2019 which tells the story of how my writing career got started. It’s a story you won’t want to miss, called Your First Million Words. I have a keynote speech based on this book as well.
For many years, I wrote stories for my e-zine, Deep Magic, which closed in 2021. I’ve compiled all the stories I wrote for it (both its original incarnation as well as its more recent run) and published them in a collection called Tales from Kingfountain, Muirwood, and Beyond: The Worlds of Jeff Wheeler. There is an Audible version of this as well.
This collection includes ‘The Poisoner’s Enemy’, ‘The Lost Abbey’, ‘The Wishing Lantern’, ‘The Beesinger’s Daughter’ (featured in the June 2016 issue) and many, many more. It is narrated by Kate Rudd and I’ve narrated the notes following each story.
