Secret Projects reading order

A plan for the whole series

5 volumes, 2,197 pages, about 40 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 8 weeks.

• Readers scored volume 2, “The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England”, below its predecessor (7.5 after 8.7). If you slow down there, that is on the book, not on you. From volume 3 the form returns.
• The series is still running; the last volume came out in 2025. You will wait for the next one anyway, so no need to rush.

Stages

3 stages, with 2 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around December 30, 2026, 8 days later than in one go.

1. 1
   Stage 116 habout 3 weeksby November 19, 2026

   • 1. Tress of the Emerald Sea2023 · 486 pages · 9 h
   • 2. The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England2023 · 384 pages · 7 h
2. Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.82 h, by November 23, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
3. 2
   Stage 215 h20 daysby December 14, 2026

   • 3. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter2023 · 392 pages · 7 h
   • 4. The Sunlit Man2023 · 439 pages · 8 h
4. Short breakOn Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century · Timothy Snyder · 128 pp. · score 8.42 h, by December 18, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
5. 3
   Stage 39 h12 daysby December 30, 2026

   • 5. Isles of the Emberdark2025 · 496 pages · 9 h
6. The end of the series

   December 30, 2026

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

Does the series hold up

Shape of the series: a dip in the middle, then the form returns. Readers scored the middle volumes (8.3) below the opening (8.7); the ending (8.7) comes back up. If you slow down in the middle, there is still a reason to go on.

Best volume: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (8.8, 1,266 ratings). Weakest: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England (7.5). The series is not finished; the last volume came out in 2025. The last volume (8.7) scores close to the series average or above it.