Amory Wars Reading Order and Buying Guide

While this most be apparent to some people, I certainly had trouble trying to figure out what I should be buying.  A little trial and error, and a little research and I figured it out.  Really the only page I could find with the reading order was Wikipedia, so if you want a condensed version, go there.

Amory Wars is a comic series written by Claudio Sanchez.  Claudio is the frontman and creator of the rock/metal/alternative band Coheed and Cambria.

If you were unaware, Coheed and Cambria's music tell a story.  To go along with the continuing story, Claudio has written a series of comic book and a novel under the title "Amory Wars".

1. The Second Stage Turbine Blade
2. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
3. Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV
4. Year of the Black Rainbow

Their first album is the Second Stage Turbine Blade.  Claudio released two issues of "The Second Stage Turbine Blade". For whatever reasons, no further issues were made.  Years later, the series was started again and they remade the first two issues.  The series ran ten issues and covers the storyline from the first Coheed and Cambria album.

The Second Stage Turbine Blade wasn't released in individual volumes*.  You can either get it in individual issues, which will probably get expensive, or you can buy them all together in an "ultimate" edition.  It is honestly more expensive in paperback than it is in hardcover.  The hard cover ultimate edition retails for $29.99 and includes all ten issues of Second Stage Turbine Blade, both original issues, and a bonus issue.

*I'm told it is available in two separate volumes, I'll look into those!

Coheed and Cambria's second album "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3" also has a graphic novel series of the same name.  Also released under the main title, "Amory Wars", this series had twelve issues and is pretty much a direct sequel to The Second Stage Turbine Blade.

This time around, the book was released in twelve separate issues, then as three trade paperbacks.  They aren't extremely hard to find, but are going to run about $12 a piece.  That really isn't horrible for a book containing four $3.99 issues.  Other than buying them all separately, there is an "ultimate" edition for In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth as well.  It retails for $29.99 as well, and look great right next to The Second Stage Turbine Blade.

For Coheed's next album, "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV", one graphic novel was released.  It is a very strange book, dealing with someone known as the Writer as he writes the story of the main protagonist of Amory Wars.  It is out of print, and extremely expensive.  As Claudio rights more Amory Wars, he says he is going to re-do this story in chronological order to have it make more sense.  Honestly, the only affordable way of reading this is Pirate Bay at this point...

The next album, "No World for Tomorrow" has yet to have any kind of adaptions made for it.  Again, as he writes more and more, it will become involved.

"The Year of the Black Rainbow" is Coheed's next album and serves as a prequel to Amory Wars.  It involves the main protagonists parents and his uncle.  The story was released in a 352 page novel that leads up to the events of The Second Stage Turbine Blade.  The book came with the limited edition of the album of the same name, and apparently that was about the only way to get it.  I honestly can't find it for less than $100 in print.  Luckily, Amazon has it available for $9.99 on their Kindle service.  You don't necessarily need a Kindle to read it either, about any tablet has a Kindle app, and you can always read them on a computer if it comes to that.

Currently, these are all the Coheed and Cambria stories that are available.  Claudio Sanchez and his comic publishing company, Evil Ink, are going to continue releasing Amory Wars comics.  In a recent AMA on Reddit, Claudio said he is working on a few ideas and we should see a Good Apollo adaption soon.