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Green Ember Series Reading Order

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“What is the Green Ember reading order?”

Thanks for caring to find out! People search for this often on the web and we get LOTS of messages about it. We try to address as many popular questions as we can at our FAQ. But we’ve got the answer for you right here about The Green Ember Series reading order.

I’m really tempted to make this like one of those recipe blogs where they say, “I’m eager to share my homemade butternut nutbutter recipe with you, but it reminds me of my old college roommate Nutty B. Buttersworth. What a nut! Nutty and I went walking in the peanut fields outside of town on a crisp, clear, crispy-clear, very cold and crispy and clear day when he had a—you guessed it—a nutty idea….”

But I won’t. Here’s The Green Ember Series reading order. (Well, one of them.) There are two great ways to experience The Green Ember Series books. You can go by publication order, or you can go by series.

By Series

  1. The Green Ember
  2. Ember Falls: The Green Ember Book II
  3. Ember Rising: The Green Ember Book III
  4. Ember’s End: The Green Ember Book IV
  5. The Lost Key (Green Ember Lost Tales 1) * new
  6. The Last Archer: Green Ember Archer I
  7. The First Fowler: Green Ember Archer II
  8. The Archer’s Cup: Green Ember Archer III
  9. The Black Star of Kingston (Tales of Old Natalia 1)
  10. The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner (Tales of Old Natalia II)
  11. Prince Lander and the Dragon War (Tales of Old Natalia III)

Series author S. D. Smith recommends publication order. Here it is, straight from the horse’s well-respected author’s mouth…

“Both ways are great, but I think the most enjoyable way to experience the series is by reading the books in publication order. There are lots of examples of why this is the way (this is the way), but I’ll share one. I saw a recent reviewer complain about ‘the sudden introduction of dragons’ in Ember’s End, but they would have enjoyed that if they had read The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner, which set it up. Of course you can go back and read the other books after you’ve just read the main four and that will be fine.” —S. D. Smith

Publication Order

  1. The Green Ember
  2. The Black Star of Kingston (Tales of Old Natalia 1)
  3. Ember Falls: The Green Ember Book II
  4. The Last Archer: Green Ember Archer I
  5. Ember Rising: The Green Ember Book III
  6. The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner (Tales of Old Natalia II)
  7. The First Fowler: Green Ember Archer II
  8. Ember’s End: The Green Ember Book IV
  9. The Archer’s Cup: Green Ember Archer III
  10. Prince Lander and the Dragon War (Tales of Old Natalia III)
  11. The Lost Key (Green Ember Lost Tales 1)

Vote

We want to hear from you! Vote in this poll and let us know down in the comments: which Green Ember reading order do you prefer?

Simply start with The Green Ember and you should be fine. (Download the audiobook for free here, as my gift to you.) You definitely do miss some things by skipping the Green Ember: Old Natalia and Green Ember: Archer books and only reading the main four Green Ember Series books. I don’t recommend it.

If you have skipped them, I recommend going back and enjoying those as well! It will enhance the overall experience immensely and better prepare you for future Green Ember world adventures.

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Find out more answers at our FAQ, here.

And then there were 10…

S. D. Smith is the author of The Green Ember Series, a bestselling middle-grade adventure saga. When he’s not writing adventurous tales of #RabbitsWithSwords in his writing shed, dubbed The Forge, Smith loves to speak to audiences about storytelling, imagination, and seeing yourself as a character in the Story. S. D. Smith lives in West Virginia with his wife and four kids.

27 Comments

  1. “Yes. There’s more coming…” – That is my favorite part of this update! We’ve just finished The Archer’s Cup with my children and all of us loved it. Thank you for these stories. Can’t wait for what’s coming next.

    Reply

    2. Yah, it takes a little bit to remember and get used to it, but I just looked at the map in the beginning of the book for a little bit and it all cleared up.

      Reply

  2. Hello!
    Say…have you or any of your readers ever created a Green Ember family tree? I confess that after the first Green Ember book, I have had trouble keeping track of all of the different warrens and all of the different characters. Just an idea.

    God bless you!
    Kelly

    Reply

  3. I, too, would like to see a family tree. Perhaps Andrew Peterson, with his love of drawing trees, would be willing to draw it. 🙂

    Reply

  4. Hello, Kelly and Kim. I help on the Green Ember Wiki, (I’m not an admin or anything.), and we have family trees for most of the characters on it. You can find it here: https://thegreenember.fandom.com/.
    If you’re looking for a specific family tree, you can find them based on character, for example, the Longtreader Family Tree is on Picket, Heather, Smalls, Jacks, Whittle, Sween, Wilfred, and Garten’s pages. Some families don’t have trees, but a lot do.
    I hope that that will help with your problem.

    ~ Mister Blackstar

    Reply

  5. my daughter loves this series. I truly would love to get the hardbacks, but they’re $$ just is a stark difference to the wingfeather saga, would love for a hardback option that is more affordable.

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  7. We have read them both ways (started around when Green Ember 2 was released and then bought every book and read them as they came out, and now re-reading them in series order) and we found publication order to be really confusing because I couldn’t follow the timeline. It felt like jumping back and forth in time and was like watching a prequel or an origin story in the middle of the main story before you really know what’s going on. There were too many characters to keep track of. As someone else said, a family tree in each book would be helpful, along with a historical timeline of sorts so you can tell when each story is happening and what has come before/after – then you could add a third reading order: chronological! 🙂
    That being said, this is still one of our favorite series so I thoroughly enjoy reading it over again!

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  9. I first read them publication order, but ever since then I do it in series order. That’s also how they sit on my shelf! 🙂

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  11. We sort of read them in publication order, but we rearranged some so that we ended with Ember’s End. When I read it to my next child in a few years, I think I’ll read the Old Natalia series first, and then the Ember’s End and Archer books interspersed, ending with Ember’s End.

    Reply

  13. Our first time through, we read in publication order because we read each new book as it was published (there was always a lot of excitement to read the newest book!).

    Our second time through the series, we’ve read Green Ember first, then the Old Natalia books for back story, and now we’re planning to proceed by reading the rest of the big Green Ember books and trying to insert the Archer books in as close as possible to where they belong chronologically.

    Reply

  14. Before Prince Lander came out, it was mentioned that it’s ok to read The Archer’s Cup before Ember’s End in order to read that one last. Is it still ok to do that with Prince Lander, or does that one need to be read after Ember’s End? I’m a big believer in reading books in publication order, even if there are prequels (I’m looking at you, publishers who unnecessarily re-ordered the Narnia books!), but it does seem like it would be nice to finish with Ember’s End. It would be great to have the author’s thoughts on this!

    Reply

  15. Will the books be put through another publication? I am a primary teacher and my students loved The Green Ember and The Black Star of Kingston. I want to get the whole series (especially considering the typeset of The Black Star of Kingston and the content make it an excellent higher series for those with dyslexia!!). However, I’m having a terrible time purchasing the series. Many of the books are now well beyond my ability to purchase (one book is now £88!). I’m looking at almost 200 quid for the rest of series. Would love to see these published again so my students can read them. Thank you very much!

    Reply

  16. I’m a timeline order reader. The back story of Old Natalia sets up Green Ember beautifully and I’m familiar with mentioned characters so I can more fully fall in love with new characters.

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  17. I personally like reading them in series order , then go back a reread the whole series then figure out where everything fits. For it just makes more sense with the side stories.
    BUT it is a LOT of reading Green Ember… BUt WhO DoESn’T LIkE ThAT!!??!!??!!
    (i dare you to comment 🤣)

    Reply

  18. I like reading them in Chronological order!!! It is so exciting and it all Makes sense. No jumping from one time line to hold onthe next. It’s easy to understand the lineage of the different characters and that understanding adds a lot to the story ☺️

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  19. I read and suggest to read it Chronologically:

    The Black Star of Kingston
    The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner
    Prince Lander and the Dragon War
    The Green Ember
    The Last Archer
    Ember Falls
    The First Fowler
    Ember Rising
    The Archer’s Cup
    Ember’s End

    and then re-read them again and again and again…

    We’re waiting for more small books. Books about Helmer for example or King Goodson.

    Reply

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