Reading Order
Beware of Chicken Reading Order: All 5 Books and Book 6
The Beware of Chicken reading order is simple: five numbered books by Casualfarmer, from Beware of Chicken (May 24, 2022) to Beware of Chicken 5 (December 2, 2025), all narrated by Travis Baldree, with a sixth book listed by Podium but not out yet. Below are the Kindle dates and page counts, the Audible lengths and ratings for each book, and what the two different book 6 dates mean for you, as of October 10, 2026. No spoilers past the book 1 blurb.
TL;DR: Read books 1 to 5 in order. All five are out as ebooks and audiobooks, about 79 hours of Travis Baldree in total. Book 6 is dated December 8, 2026 by Podium and by a Goodreads Kindle listing, with the paperback on June 22, 2027. The Royal Road serial is still there if you want to read ahead.
Key Takeaways
- 5 books out: Amazon calls it a "5 book series" and Audible lists 5 books, checked October 10, 2026.
- One narrator: Travis Baldree on all five Audible editions, 78 hours 44 minutes by our sum.
- Book 6 is announced: Podium and a Goodreads Kindle listing say December 8, 2026; Goodreads and Bookshop.org list the paperback for June 22, 2027.
- High and steady ratings: every Audible edition sits between 4.79 and 4.91 stars.
- Short last book: book 5 is the shortest so far, 290 Kindle pages and 10 hours 50 minutes of audio.
Overview
Beware of Chicken is a cultivation series by Casualfarmer, published by Podium (Podium Publishing for the Kindle editions, Podium Audio for the audiobooks). It started as a Royal Road serial: chapter 1, "He Bravely Turned His Tail and Fled", went up on June 22, 2021. The Royal Road blurb opens with "Jin Rou wanted to be a cultivator who defied the heavens", and Podium sells book 1 as "A laugh-out-loud, slice-of-life martial-arts fantasy".
Readers often name it as the lighter option. In the Reddit threads behind our books like Cradle list it was the third most named series (15 comments), and readers in our books like Dungeon Crawler Carl tally named it 29 times.
Cover: Podium Entertainment
Every Beware of Chicken Book in Order
"Kindle" is the publication date and page count on each book's Amazon Kindle page. "Audiobook" is the Audible release date and length. Ratings are as shown on Audible and on Goodreads' search listing, October 10, 2026.
| # | Title | Kindle | Pages | Audiobook | Length | Audible rating | Goodreads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beware of Chicken | May 24, 2022 | 367 | May 24, 2022 | 12 h 35 m | 4.82 (9,055) | 4.45 (15,857) |
| 2 | Beware of Chicken 2 | Mar 28, 2023 | 525 | Mar 28, 2023 | 18 h 7 m | 4.82 (4,044) | 4.52 (9,286) |
| 3 | Beware of Chicken 3 | Nov 21, 2023 | 597 | Nov 21, 2023 | 19 h 46 m | 4.91 (4,320) | 4.64 (7,487) |
| 4 | Beware of Chicken 4 | Nov 19, 2024 | 748 | Dec 17, 2024 | 17 h 26 m | 4.81 (3,207) | 4.48 (5,417) |
| 5 | Beware of Chicken 5 | Dec 2, 2025 | 290 | Dec 2, 2025 | 10 h 50 m | 4.79 (2,473) | 4.52 (3,526) |
| 6 | Beware of Chicken 6 | Dec 8, 2026 (Goodreads) | 590 (paperback, Goodreads) | Dec 8, 2026 (Podium) | not listed | none yet | none yet |
Books 1 to 3 and book 5 came out as ebook and audiobook on the same day. Book 4 is the exception: its Kindle page says November 19, 2024, 28 days before the December 17, 2024 date on Podium and Audible. Book 4 is also the longest at 748 Kindle pages, while book 5 drops to 290.
Cover: Podium Entertainment
Step-by-Step: How to Read Beware of Chicken
1. Start with book 1: Beware of Chicken, 367 Kindle pages or 12 hours 35 minutes on Audible.
2. Read books 2 to 5 in number order: Amazon's series page and Audible's series page list no novellas or side stories between them.
3. Wait for book 6, or switch to Royal Road: the serial on Royal Road has 341 chapters in its table of contents, so you can keep going there if you do not want to wait for the next book.
4. Check the book 6 date again before you pre-order: Amazon and Audible had not listed it yet when we checked.
The Audiobooks
Travis Baldree narrates all five audiobooks on Audible, published by Podium Audio. By our sum of Audible's lengths they run 78 hours 44 minutes, about 15 hours 45 minutes per book. Book 3 is the longest (19 hours 46 minutes) and book 5 the shortest (10 hours 50 minutes). Podium's own pages differ by a minute on three books (19 hours 47 minutes for book 3, 17 hours 27 minutes for book 4, 10 hours 51 minutes for book 5); the table uses Audible's.
Ratings hold up across the run: 4.79 to 4.91 on Audible, with book 3 the highest. Rating counts fall from 9,055 for book 1 to 2,473 for book 5, but the averages do not drop.
Baldree is also the voice of Cradle, The Primal Hunter and Mark of the Fool (see our Cradle series reading order and Mark of the Fool reading order), so if you came here for his voice, there is more of it after book 5.
GODEEPER: Want more narrators and series ranked by how often listeners name them? Best LitRPG Audiobooks: 12 Series Listeners Name Most →
Cover: Podium Entertainment
Beware of Chicken 6: December 2026, Paperback in 2027
Book 6 exists on paper but not on shelves yet. Here is what each source said on October 10, 2026:
- Podium Entertainment: "Release Date December 8, 2026", with the duration shown as "Coming Soon". Podium is the series' publisher, and its page lists Travis Baldree again.
- Goodreads: two book 6 entries. One is a Kindle Edition from Podium Publishing, "Expected publication December 8, 2026". The other is a 590-page paperback, "Not yet published", expected June 22, 2027.
- Bookshop.org: a search listing for a paperback pre-order from Podium Publishing, publish date June 22, 2027, 590 pages. The page itself did not open for us.
Read together, the listings point to December 8, 2026 for the ebook and Podium's release, and June 22, 2027 for the paperback. Amazon's series page still counts five books and Audible's series page lists five; neither showed a book 6 product in our check, so treat December 8 as the listed date, not a confirmed one. We will update this guide when Amazon or Audible lists book 6.
Cover: Podium Entertainment
Reading It on Royal Road
The story is still listed on Royal Road (fiction 39408), tagged STUB. Its table of contents has 341 chapters; the newest, "v7 Epilogue: And The Paths Leading Back Home", was posted on August 3, 2026, 68 days before we checked. The page says "Beware of Chicken will be updated Monday, Wednesday, and Friday", though nothing newer than that epilogue was listed.
The numbers on the page as of October 10, 2026: 36,724 followers, 21,941 favorites, 14,677 ratings and 28,696,548 total views. Podium's book 1 page still says "more than 20 million views on Royal Road", well below the page's own count.
What Readers Say
Listeners asking for their next audiobook get this series as a change of pace. In a February 2026 r/litrpg thread, u/kingmunki wrote: "I'm a huge fan of "beware of chicken" its more laid back, slice of life, but not slow by any means. It's full of amazing humor, and a really well thought out world." (comment, February 28, 2026). In the same thread u/PublicAbility9217 added: "beware of chicken - I know its not litrpg but its still 100% recomended."
In r/ProgressionFantasy in July 2026, u/risforpirate answered someone who listens at work: "I'd recommend beware of chicken! It's one of my favorites atm, and the narrator is great too" (comment, July 1, 2026).
Tips Before You Start
- Know what kind of story it is. Podium and Audible sell it as slice-of-life martial-arts fantasy and xianxia cultivation, not a LitRPG with stat screens.
- Book 4 has two dates. If you buy the Kindle edition, November 19, 2024 is correct; the audiobook came out December 17, 2024.
- Book 5 is short. At 290 Kindle pages and under 11 hours it is less than half the length of book 4 in pages.
- Watch Amazon and Audible for book 6. Neither had a listing on October 10, 2026, less than two months before the December 8 date.
Our take
Based on the facts above, Beware of Chicken is the smallest time commitment of any series we cover in a reading-order or audiobook guide so far: about 79 hours of audio for all five books, against 97 hours 30 minutes for the four Mother of Learning arcs and 134 hours 25 minutes for Cradle, with one narrator from start to finish. The Audible averages stay between 4.79 and 4.91 across all five, and no book in the middle dips. The catch is the wait. Books have come 238 to 392 days apart, and book 6 is listed for December 8, 2026 by Podium and Goodreads but not yet by Amazon or Audible, so treat that date as likely, not certain. If you want stat screens and dungeon fights, the publisher's own "slice-of-life" pitch is a fair warning; if you want a slower, funnier cultivation story, start with book 1.
How we checked this
On October 10, 2026 we opened Podium Entertainment's title pages for books 1 to 6, the Amazon series page and the Kindle page for each of books 1 to 5, the Audible product page for each of the five audiobooks (and re-checked books 1 and 5 the same day), the Goodreads search listing and both Goodreads book 6 pages, and the Royal Road fiction page with its table of contents. The Bookshop.org book 6 listing was read only as a search result because the page did not open. The Reddit comments were copied from thread data we saved that day. Totals, averages and day counts are our own arithmetic. A site-agent then compared every number in this article with our source table, and the lines it flagged were fixed before publication.
Related Reading
- Sky Pride audiobook: another Western cultivation series, with its first audiobook due October 20, 2026.
- Mother of Learning audiobook: a finished four-arc series from the same Cradle reader threads.
- Books like He Who Fights with Monsters: where Beware of Chicken shows up as the comedy pick.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Beware of Chicken reading order? Books 1 to 5 in number order; book 6 is announced.
When does Beware of Chicken 6 come out? December 8, 2026 per Podium and a Goodreads Kindle listing; the paperback is listed for June 22, 2027.
Who narrates the Beware of Chicken audiobooks? Travis Baldree, on all five.
Is Beware of Chicken finished? No, a sixth book is listed.
Is Beware of Chicken a LitRPG? Not really; it is sold as slice-of-life cultivation fantasy.
References
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About the author
Editorial desk
The LevelUpShelf desk. Every article is built from a source file: publisher and Amazon pages, Audible, Royal Road and dated Goodreads counts, each linked in the article.
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