Reddit reviews The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade: Ultimate Edition
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade: Ultimate Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Your best bet might be to start with the two Ultimate Editions:
https://www.amazon.com/Amory-Wars-Second-Turbine-Ultimate-ebook/dp/B071KW34DC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537406537&sr=8-1&keywords=amory+wars
https://www.amazon.com/Amory-Wars-Keeping-Secrets-Ultimate-ebook/dp/B072DX4LWD/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1537406537&sr=8-8&keywords=amory+wars
These two books tell the story of their first two albums, Second Stage Turbine Blade and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.
Outside of those two books, they've also released a deluxe edition of Year of the Black Rainbow and The Afterman, both of which contain books telling the stories of those albums. In total, there are four books each of which are available and contain an entire album's worth of story.
In Amory Wars story chronological order (Album release date in parentheses):
The Afterman (Ascension (2012) and Descension (2013)) - Full story available (Novel/picture book)
Year of the Black Rainbow (2010) - Full story available (Novel)
Second Stage (2002) - Full story available (Comics)
In Keeping Secrets (2003) - Full story available (Comics)
Good Apollo 1: Burning Star IV (2005) (Comics - in progress)
Good Apollo 2: No World for Tomorrow (2007) (No official literature yet)
The Unheavenly Creatures: Vaxis - Act 1 (2018)... (Will be included with deluxe edition)
TLDR: Start with the Ultimate editions. They're much easier to find right now, probably cheaper, and they're the traditional starting point. Also this post is a mess but I hope it makes sense. Coheed albums have jumped around on the core Amory Wars timeline. Two prequel albums (Afterman/YOTBR), 4 'core' albums, and now 1 sequel album (Unheavenly Creatures).
Note: The Color Before the Sun (2015) isn't a typical Coheed album and has no concept.
The Bag.On.Line Adventures - nearly impossible for physical copies, if I'm not mistaken. though, much of the content of those few issues (if not all) are recounted in the Amory Wars: SSTB issues.
Ultimate SSTB - [Amazon] (https://www.amazon.com/Amory-Wars-Keeping-Secrets-Ultimate-ebook/dp/B072DX4LWD). $70 + S&H (if applicable) for hardcover, ~$40 for paperback.
Ultimate IKSSE:3 - [Amazon] (https://www.amazon.com/Amory-Wars-Second-Turbine-Ultimate-ebook/dp/B071KW34DC). ~$65 for hardcover. doesn't appear paperback is available.
GA Vols. I, II, III - [Amazon] (https://www.amazon.com/Amory-Wars-Good-Apollo-Burning/dp/168415068X) (scroll down to "Frequently Bought Together") for a total of ~$32. Ultimate Edition is not out (yet?).
NWFT - not written yet. TBD.
YotBR - [Amazon] (https://www.amazon.com/Year-Black-Rainbow-Amory-Wars-ebook/dp/B006OUEBIC), $10 through Kindle. expect to pay upwards of $200 for a hardcover as it's not in print anymore.
Afterman: Asc. and Dsc. - physical editions on eBay/etc. maybe? I wouldn't hold your breath. this is more of a collector's edition kind of thing, sadly. though people do sell them from time to time.
Vaxis Vol. I - again, same as Afterman. that being said, some lovely person made a .pdf of the Vaxis book [here] (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFence/comments/9ouuoy/i_made_a_pdf_out_of_the_scans_of_the_vaxis_1_book/). so there is hope out there.
hope this clears things up for ya!
And if you're interested in the story here's a link to the comics but be warned, this first one is really rough compared to the next two series they did. If you can get past some weird pacing issues and not-so-pristine art, you'll still probably have a lot of fun with the story.
Second Stage Turbine Blade
In Keeping Secrets
Good Apollo 1
Good Apollo 2
Good Apollo 3
Year of the Black Rainbow
​
Those are the ultimate/collected editions, so whether you go paperback or Kindle, it should narrow the search down for you. (I saw the conversation about being confused by chapters.)
A confusing note about the Good Apollo series: the 3 books make up the story of the Fear Through the Eyes of Madness album. Claudio announced earlier this year that he was going to start working on the graphic novel/finale for No World for Tomorrow, but a book does not currently exist for that album.
As for Afterman, the coffee table book is cool, but the wiki synopsis on the Amory Wars page is more than sufficient unless you're absolutely committed to the collection and shelling out money for the sake of that collection. The Afterman book has some art, but it's not as important or immersive as either the comics or the book that came with Vaxis.