New here. I recently read the Repairman Jack book The Tomb and I loved it. I enjoyed F Paul Wilson's writing style and genre and would love to read all of the Secret History of the World. Should the books be read in chronological order beginning with "The Past"? If not, does anyone have any advice on which order to read the books?

Welcome! Your best bet is to read The Keep and The Touch, then read the rest of the RJ books, then read Reborn, Reprisal, and Nightworld. There are some short stories and other novels that tie in as well, but those are the important core books.

There is a chronology here:

http://www.repairmanjack.com/forum/content.php?157

You have the advantage of reading the series as a whole. Enjoy the ride.

:welcome:

Oh, to have the whole of RJ still ahead again...lucky you! Don't hesitate to stop by with questions or things for discussion, there are many readers here with an amazing capacity for details.

Agree with Lisa re: the reading list, except I like The Keep, Reborn and Reprisal as a set. Like rjack_fan, I'm envious. It's so awesome to find an author that you love! Good to see you here!

CC13 -- welcome. I set up the Secret History list (see Lisa's link) (I need to update it, Lisa) as a road map for new readers. You can come back to "Demonsong" and "Aryans..." later. Everything makes the most sense if you go chronologically: start with The Keep and read in order from there.

Wow, it looks like I've stumbled on something great here! Thanks all for the advice. I'll be back to discuss soon!

Wow, it looks like I've stumbled on something great here! Thanks all for the advice. I'll be back to discuss soon!

Indeed you have and welcome. Anyway I'm in the minority in thinking that reading them in the order in which they were published has merit but I would probably recommend putting Reprisal and Nightworld off until the end if you were to do it that way. That's the way I read them and it certainly worked for me. Or if you wanted to read them straight through in published order maybe you could find the original editions and then go back and read the revised ones.

Again, thanks to all for the advice. I think I have a good sense of where I am going. I know this is far out for a new reader like me, but as a general question, since Cold City was just recently published, should it be read chronologically as mentioned by fpw or should it be saved for later i.e. in the order that it was published? I tend to be very systematic when it comes to reading a series and I want to do it right and get the most out of it.

You can't go wrong reading in order of publishing date, IMO. Note the original publishing dates of The Keep, The Tomb, and The Touch are in the 80s and Reborn, Reprisal, and Nightworld were first published in the early 90s. One exception: if you are reading the revised Nightworld (which you probably are as a newcomer), I would save it for last after the main Repairman Jack series.

The Jack juveniles and prequels are nice for filling in some backstory, but not necessary for the big picture. You can safely save them for last.