I love space opera, and the best of them sprawl dozens of books across a single universe. Some cover a few days; others span centuries. And many unfold at the same time as each other, in different corners of the galaxy. A flat list gives you the order but none of the shape: no branches, no sense of what's a main thread versus a detour. A normal timeline shows you when events happen, but not what to read next. Neither one shows you how the books actually connect.

Reading Order maps them instead, so you can see at a glance where stories branch, where they run in parallel, and where it's safe to jump in:

• Each node is one book. The letters are its initials. Tap any node to open its details: story dates, the series it belongs to, what comes next, and its offshoots.
• Follow the arrows. Thick arrows point to the next book in the main sequence. Thin dashed arrows branch off to offshoots, the side quests you can take or skip.
• Circles and pill shapes show parallel timing, not length.A book is usually a circle, but stretches into a pill when other books unfold during the same stretch of in-universe time. The pill runs beside those parallel books to show they happen at the same time. It's still one book, not a container for the others.
• Each series has its own color. This helps you follow one thread through the tangle of stories.
• Faded, hollow nodes are books that aren't out yet.They fill in with color once they're published.
• Watch for the stars ⭐. They mark good places to start.

Prefer a different view? The Layout menu lets you recolor by collections/omnibus, switch between vertical and horizontal, and enlarge the nodes to show full titles instead of initials.