so what order do all of these extra stories go in? I'm confused, I know there's others beside the unwanted guest
Yeah, it’s a lot to sort out! (What a lovely problem - to have lots of bonus content!) If you have already read GTN, HTN, and NTN I wouldn’t stress too much about the reading order; the short stories don’t interface with each other as much as they interface with the novels. But if you were to line up the novels and the short stories chronologically, it would look something like this:
- The Mysterious Study of Dr. Sex - takes place pre-GTN
- Gideon the Ninth
- As Yet Unsent - takes place between the end of GTN and the middle of HTN
- Harrow the Ninth
- Nona the Ninth
- The Unwanted Guest - takes place during the latter part of NTN
And then of course there is some additional content at the end of the first two books which are not quite official short stories (I don’t think) but have some valuable tidbits in them! Even the glossaries and pronunciation guides have me doing double-takes sometimes as I reread. GTN has “A Sermon on Cavaliers and Necromancers” and “Cohort Intelligence Files.” HTN has a “Blood of Eden Memorandum for Record.” I have the paperbacks of GTN and HTN so I am not sure if these are included in the hardcovers. (Edit: it seems the extra content is not included in the hardcovers or the audiobooks.) But in any case I would say these are best read exactly where they are at the end of each book.
I don’t think I’m forgetting anything, but I hope folks will add on if I am!