The Cutters' Roll Reading Order: All Seven Books by Ryujin
The Cutters' Roll is a series of seven novels by Ryujin, presented on the Endless Reverie Entertainment site. Read it in order. Start with Book One, The Second Hand, and end with Book Seven, The Ferrow Reading. Each book page on the site shows the same reading order.
This guide lists the books in order. It gives each book's premise in the words of its own logline, with nothing added. It also covers how long the books are and what each book page shows.
The short answer
Read The Cutters' Roll in this order:
- The Second Hand (Book One)
- Names in Metal (Book Two)
- Half a Life (Book Three)
- The Collar-Dogs (Book Four)
- The Blind Bond (Book Five)
- The Counting Floor (Book Six)
- The Ferrow Reading (Book Seven)
The Novels page says it plainly: "New to The Cutters' Roll? Start with Book One."
The Cutters' Roll, book by book
Each entry below uses only the opening of that book's logline. There are no spoilers past what the site already shows on the book's own page.
Book One: The Second Hand
Linn is thirty-four. She works at the cliff shop in Hana's apron. A fisher brings a hire-coat collar to be priced. Its clause is light and honest, and its maker line names only a Tally cutter. The logline ends with Linn telling Omber that the coast has learned to take the name off the page.
The book has 22 chapters and 70,117 words. Its page also carries the opening pages, the back-cover copy, the cover art, and ten character portraits. The Second Hand book page.
Book Two: Names in Metal
At the start of the hot, the harbor opens a hire-coat court in the old net-shed. Senna is twelve and unranked. She comes as Linn's unpaid reader. Ilse Corvane files every case by number and posts prices. Orlo Pask clerks.
The book has 22 chapters and 69,728 words. Names in Metal book page.
Book Three: Half a Life
Senna is nineteen. She takes a reading job north to the Cold Sound with Saffi. She reads Aske's seven well-stones on Grennet Holm. She stays a year learning water. The logline puts the lesson in four words: "pushing fails; waiting works."
The book has 22 chapters and 70,190 words. Half a Life book page.
Book Four: The Collar-Dogs
Senna is twenty-eight. She marries Hollis on the cliff. Dace sends a horn-handled punch for her Ferrow bench.
The book has 22 chapters and 70,602 words. The Collar-Dogs book page.
Book Five: The Blind Bond
Senna is forty. In the net-shed she holds Juno Ellery's newborn. On The Hum, Tobin's old boat, she finds Teale's bond plate. Its front face is a lawful share. Its back face is blind and numbered.
The book has 22 chapters and 70,002 words. The Blind Bond book page.
Book Six: The Counting Floor
Senna is fifty-eight. She keeps the Reading Room on Weigh Street with Hollis and Bren. A picker brings in a humming Tally coat. It is fair, and it has no maker's name.
This is the longest book in the series, at 22 chapters and 72,052 words. The Counting Floor book page.
Book Seven: The Ferrow Reading
Dace is seventy. He crosses Weigh Street for the first time in four years and asks the collar read: "a lifting brand, number with no name."
The book has 22 chapters and 70,364 words. It is the last book in the series. Its page has no "Next in the series" link. The Ferrow Reading book page.
Why the order matters
The site presents The Cutters' Roll as a numbered series with a fixed order. Three things on the pages show why that order matters.
First, every book page carries a "Reading order" list with all seven titles. The list is the same on every page. Each page also links to the next or previous book.
Second, five of the seven loglines follow Senna across her life. She is twelve in Book Two, nineteen in Book Three, twenty-eight in Book Four, forty in Book Five, and fifty-eight in Book Six. Read out of order, her ages jump back and forth.
Third, people carry over from book to book. Linn leads Book One, and Senna is her reader in Book Two. Hollis is named in Book Four and again in Book Six. Dace sends a gift in Book Four and crosses Weigh Street in Book Seven.
A thread about names runs through the loglines. In Book One a maker line names only a Tally cutter. In Book Six a Tally coat has no maker's name. In Book Seven the brand is "number with no name." Read in order, those lines arrive one after another.
How long is The Cutters' Roll?
The seven books total 493,055 words. Every book has 22 chapters. The shortest is Names in Metal at 69,728 words. The longest is The Counting Floor at 72,052 words. The figures come from each book's own page.
How long will that take? A 2019 review of 190 reading studies by Marc Brysbaert estimated that adults read English fiction silently at an average of 260 words per minute, with most readers between 200 and 320 words per minute (Brysbaert, "How many words do we read per minute?", osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/xynwg). At 260 words per minute, a Cutters' Roll book comes to about four and a half hours of reading time. The seven books together come to about 32 hours.
| Book | Title | Chapters | Words | Who the logline opens on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One | The Second Hand | 22 | 70,117 | Linn, thirty-four |
| Two | Names in Metal | 22 | 69,728 | Senna, twelve |
| Three | Half a Life | 22 | 70,190 | Senna, nineteen |
| Four | The Collar-Dogs | 22 | 70,602 | Senna, twenty-eight |
| Five | The Blind Bond | 22 | 70,002 | Senna, forty |
| Six | The Counting Floor | 22 | 72,052 | Senna, fifty-eight |
| Seven | The Ferrow Reading | 22 | 70,364 | Dace, seventy |
Where the series sits on the site
The Novels page lists fourteen novels by Ryujin in two series, Facing Out and The Cutters' Roll. The Cutters' Roll has its own section there, with its own "Start with Book One" link. Every book is marked "Manuscript complete." The Cutters' Roll pages carry no genre tag.
The names Linn, Sira, and Bren also appear on pages of Ryujin's Facing Out series.
Words you will meet in the loglines
The loglines use the world's own words. They do not stop to explain them. Here is where each one appears, so you can find it on the page.
- Hire-coat. A fisher's hire-coat collar is priced in Book One. Book Two opens a hire-coat court.
- Tally. The maker line in Book One reads only "a Tally cutter." Book Six brings in a Tally coat.
- Strips facing out. Linn reads strips facing out in Book Two.
- The hot. Book Two begins "at the start of the hot."
- The net-shed. Book Two's court meets in the old net-shed. Book Five returns there.
- Weigh Street and the Reading Room. Senna keeps the Reading Room on Weigh Street in Book Six. Dace crosses Weigh Street in Book Seven.
- Ferrow. Book Four names Senna's Ferrow bench. Book Seven is The Ferrow Reading.
What each book page shows
The full manuscripts are not on the site. The Novels page says so: "The manuscripts are not on this site." Each book page lists "Full manuscript Not on this site" in its package details.
Each book page shows:
- the logline, under "The book"
- the opening pages, under "Read the opening"
- the back-cover copy
- the cover art
- character portraits
- the chapter count and word count
The seven book pages
The Cutters' Roll section of the Novels page lists all seven books. Here are their pages, in order:
Start reading
Begin with Book One, The Second Hand.
Read the opening pages, logline, back-cover copy, and ten character portraits on the Book One page, or browse all fourteen novels by Ryujin across The Cutters’ Roll and Facing Out.