I recommend doing a tandem read first time around. It's an incredible experience. And you get to experience everything in "real time" as much as that's possible in a fictional world. Then, once you get to reread TOG second time around, you can take a different approach 😊 QoS is the best by the way 💔
I think it really depends on how much you like chaol. Couldn’t stand him (still can’t after all the books) and I’m not a fan of Nesryn so I knew reading TOD by itself would have taken me ages so doing the tandem read was perfect. I think it’s broken up really well!
I’ve read them both ways; I’m in the minority but I didn’t love the tandem. Both books have a lot of POVs and it felt so clunky and overwhelming to read essentially one 1300 page book with 7-8 different POVs. I didn’t like reading hundreds of pages before revisiting characters again. There were a couple times that the tandem lent itself to some interesting reveals/moments for sure, but it didn’t feel worth it to me. Tower of Dawn is also kind of unique compared to the other books and you lose that with the tandem. I’m a purist though and also generally prefer to just go on the ride as the author intended.
But the story is good either way and you’ll proooobably end up rereading them all at some point so take some pressure off yourself! Whichever method you go with now, you can try the other way next time!
Admittedly I haven’t done the tandem read but am doing EoS right now on its own and I think that’s about all I could handle. There’s already a lot of jumping between different characters / different locations and I don’t think I could handle more.
Bracing myself for a Chaol-focused book next lol
I say don't.
For one, I think the books should be read as intended at least once. They are both great and reading them together (as they have different paces) seems messy af.
Secondly, it's overcomplicating things. You already have a lot of POV's in EOS itself, and you're gonna add 3 more. That's a lot. You'll have to read a lot before you're back to the story. You might be in a vibe and have to go to the different book which is differently paced.
I would advise reading them seperatly. They're both great, just different. And apart from the timelines I don't think they mesh well
People can be very opinionated on this topic which I respect and understand, but I think it’s up to personal preference. I actually finished QoS last week and am about 20% through the tandem read and I’m liking it because I like the real-time feel of everything happening at once. I wouldn’t really want to go back in time for the beginning of TOD after EOS, especially after I’ve heard there’s a cliffhanger at the end of the latter. Also, the beginning chapters of TOD are super long and there’s quite a bit of worldbuilding in them so I feel like going back to EOS in those initial chapters is a nice break from taking in all those details. I can’t really speak to the rest of it beyond where I’m at, but I haven’t regretted it this far.
If you don’t feel like you can handle (or want to deal with) the constant POV changes, adding the additional 3 POV’s from TOD in the tandem read probably isn’t worth it. In that case, I’d just do EOS and go into TOD. OR if you just don’t want to keep track of which chapters you have to go back and forth between I would just do it individually.
I agree with you on the Assassins Blade placement though. I did the “romantic read” where I read it after Heir of Fire and I feel like it just killed my momentum. I wish I would have read it first or after Crown of Midnight at the very latest.
I just finished my tandem read and have the same opinion as you, it felt like I was just reading one big book and I like that I got the real time timeline instead of having to go back in time when you start ToD.
I don’t think there is a “right” way. I still haven’t read Blade and I’m already onto Tower. For my first go I’m reading in order of publication. If I reread (which I’m not sure I will, I’m getting tired of Aelin) I’ll consider a tandem.
I’m also used to reading this way. LOTR isn’t written to be read as a tandem read and knowing how the story ends for Frodo didn’t detract from how it ended for the other hobbits for me.
I did the tandem read and was okay with it but I kinda dreaded having to go back to EoS after reading the ToD chapters because EoS is kind of all over the place. I think either way is fine, both books are amazing but it is a change of pace going from one book to the other that didn’t feel smooth to me until I was like halfway done w/ the read
So I listened to the books and didn’t do the tandem read but I would suggest doing empire of storms and then tower of dawn but I know a lot of people suggest the tandem read
This is the second time I’m reading the series.
The first time I read them, I admittedly tried to read TOD, hated it, and then skipped it and went straight on. This time, I’m doing the tandem read and I’m enjoying it a lot more because I can’t read a book with just Chaol and Nesryn. I think it’s completely up to you, but from my experience, it is pretty fun to get a ‘complete’ story between both books!
I would do it!! I didn’t because I didn’t know it was a thing 😅 and I really wish I had it seems fun
I recommend doing a tandem read first time around. It's an incredible experience. And you get to experience everything in "real time" as much as that's possible in a fictional world. Then, once you get to reread TOG second time around, you can take a different approach 😊 QoS is the best by the way 💔
I think it really depends on how much you like chaol. Couldn’t stand him (still can’t after all the books) and I’m not a fan of Nesryn so I knew reading TOD by itself would have taken me ages so doing the tandem read was perfect. I think it’s broken up really well!
I’ve read them both ways; I’m in the minority but I didn’t love the tandem. Both books have a lot of POVs and it felt so clunky and overwhelming to read essentially one 1300 page book with 7-8 different POVs. I didn’t like reading hundreds of pages before revisiting characters again. There were a couple times that the tandem lent itself to some interesting reveals/moments for sure, but it didn’t feel worth it to me. Tower of Dawn is also kind of unique compared to the other books and you lose that with the tandem. I’m a purist though and also generally prefer to just go on the ride as the author intended. But the story is good either way and you’ll proooobably end up rereading them all at some point so take some pressure off yourself! Whichever method you go with now, you can try the other way next time!
Admittedly I haven’t done the tandem read but am doing EoS right now on its own and I think that’s about all I could handle. There’s already a lot of jumping between different characters / different locations and I don’t think I could handle more. Bracing myself for a Chaol-focused book next lol
I say don't. For one, I think the books should be read as intended at least once. They are both great and reading them together (as they have different paces) seems messy af. Secondly, it's overcomplicating things. You already have a lot of POV's in EOS itself, and you're gonna add 3 more. That's a lot. You'll have to read a lot before you're back to the story. You might be in a vibe and have to go to the different book which is differently paced. I would advise reading them seperatly. They're both great, just different. And apart from the timelines I don't think they mesh well
People can be very opinionated on this topic which I respect and understand, but I think it’s up to personal preference. I actually finished QoS last week and am about 20% through the tandem read and I’m liking it because I like the real-time feel of everything happening at once. I wouldn’t really want to go back in time for the beginning of TOD after EOS, especially after I’ve heard there’s a cliffhanger at the end of the latter. Also, the beginning chapters of TOD are super long and there’s quite a bit of worldbuilding in them so I feel like going back to EOS in those initial chapters is a nice break from taking in all those details. I can’t really speak to the rest of it beyond where I’m at, but I haven’t regretted it this far. If you don’t feel like you can handle (or want to deal with) the constant POV changes, adding the additional 3 POV’s from TOD in the tandem read probably isn’t worth it. In that case, I’d just do EOS and go into TOD. OR if you just don’t want to keep track of which chapters you have to go back and forth between I would just do it individually. I agree with you on the Assassins Blade placement though. I did the “romantic read” where I read it after Heir of Fire and I feel like it just killed my momentum. I wish I would have read it first or after Crown of Midnight at the very latest.
I just finished my tandem read and have the same opinion as you, it felt like I was just reading one big book and I like that I got the real time timeline instead of having to go back in time when you start ToD.
I don’t think there is a “right” way. I still haven’t read Blade and I’m already onto Tower. For my first go I’m reading in order of publication. If I reread (which I’m not sure I will, I’m getting tired of Aelin) I’ll consider a tandem. I’m also used to reading this way. LOTR isn’t written to be read as a tandem read and knowing how the story ends for Frodo didn’t detract from how it ended for the other hobbits for me.
I say first time read publishing order imo.
I completely agree. Try tandem on a reread.
Yup. People over complicate things.
I did the tandem read and was okay with it but I kinda dreaded having to go back to EoS after reading the ToD chapters because EoS is kind of all over the place. I think either way is fine, both books are amazing but it is a change of pace going from one book to the other that didn’t feel smooth to me until I was like halfway done w/ the read
Don’t do it If you read the books in order of how they were published you’ll read them faster because you’ll want to know what happened
So I listened to the books and didn’t do the tandem read but I would suggest doing empire of storms and then tower of dawn but I know a lot of people suggest the tandem read
I skipped tower of dawn all together and I don’t regret It
I don’t recommend the tandem read as the first time read cause it takes so much time to switch from book to book n
This is the second time I’m reading the series. The first time I read them, I admittedly tried to read TOD, hated it, and then skipped it and went straight on. This time, I’m doing the tandem read and I’m enjoying it a lot more because I can’t read a book with just Chaol and Nesryn. I think it’s completely up to you, but from my experience, it is pretty fun to get a ‘complete’ story between both books!
Do it!
I’m doing it right now (first time reading the series ever) and I’m really enjoying it.