It's been a few years since I last tackled this idea.
Of course, mega-long novels are not published in the industry that often, so the individual novel list hasn't changed very much. The main change has been adjusting the positions of Brandon Sanderson's novels based on updated word counts and adding his latest volume, Wind & Truth, which was published since the previous list was published.
Previously I also counted "longest series," but that's going to have to become its whole own article.
These lists are not exhaustive and consistency of reporting these figures can be quite variable. I have opted for word counts as the most accurate way of estimating length, as page counts can vary immensely based on page margins and font sizes.
Longest Novels
1. Varney the Vampire by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest
667,000 words • 1845-47
This long novel was serialised in "penny dreadfuls" of the mid-19th Century and chronicles the adventures of Sir Francis Varney, a vampire. This book's genre credentials have been disputed (with the suggestion that Varney is actually a madman rather than a real vampire), but there seems to be a general acceptance that the book is a genuine work of the fantastic, and the longest SFF work ever published in one volume (which it was in 1847). The book was also influential on Bram Stoker's later Dracula (1897) and introduced many of the tropes of vampire fiction, including the "sympathetic vampire" protagonist.
2. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
645,000 words • 1957
Highly debatable as a genre work rather than a political novel, although the story is partially set against a dystopian background and genre historian John Clute identifies the novel as SF (plus it inspired the very SF Bioshock video game series and fantasy Sword of Truth series), so okay, we'll count it. Your mileage may vary.
3. Jerusalem by Alan Moore
615,000 words • 2016
Alan Moore's prose magnum opus is a massive, dizzying and baffling journey into the surreal. It's so huge that it is also available in a two-volume edition in a nice slipcase.
4. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
545,000 words • 1996
Infinite Jest has primarily literary allusions, although the book's setting - a North American superstate consisting of a unified Canada, USA and Mexico - is a futuristic dystopia. The book could have even been bigger, with 250 manuscript pages trimmed for length by the publishers.
5. To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams
520,000 words • 1993
The concluding volume of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is bigger than the first two novels in the series (The Dragonbone Chair and Stone of Farewell) combined. A titanic, shelf-destroying novel, it is only available in mass-market paperback in two volumes, subtitled Siege and Storm.
6. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
502,000 words • 2001
The fifth volume of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander historical romance series, spiced up by a time-spanning culture clash, is absolutely gigantic.
7. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
501,000 words • 2005
The sixth volume of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander historical romance series doesn't quite match its predecessor in size but it can still be used to stun a yak.
8. Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
500,000 words • 2000
Mary Gentle's novel is a dazzling mix of SF, historical drama, fantasy, alternate history and general bizarrity. The novel was published in one volume in the UK, but the American publishers released it as four in the USA.
9. Wind & Truth by Brandon Sanderson
491,000 words • 2024
491,000 words • 2024
Brandon Sanderson's fifth Stormlight Archive novel is his longest to date, featuring a desperate battle to save the world of Roshar whilst also expanding the setting to incorporate more of the Cosmere. Sanderson is projecting five or six years to the next book whilst he works on other Cosmere projects, so it'll be interesting to see if the word count keeps rising.
10. The Stand by Stephen King
472,376 words • 1978
Stephen King's biggest novel in a single volume, notable for also foreshadowing The Dark Tower series. The above word count is for the expanded and revised edition.
11. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
470,000 words • 1954-55
This book needs no introduction. The most influential fantasy novel ever written, often incorrectly cited as the biggest genre novel of all time. Due to paper shortages after the Second World War, the book was released in three volumes (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King), inadvertently creating the classic fantasy trilogy at the same time. The novel has been available in its intended one-volume version since the 1960s.
12. The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton
469,000 words • 1999
The biggest space opera novel ever published, even more remarkable because it was the concluding volume of an even bigger trilogy, The Night's Dawn.
13. Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
472,376 words • 1978
Stephen King's biggest novel in a single volume, notable for also foreshadowing The Dark Tower series. The above word count is for the expanded and revised edition.
11. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
470,000 words • 1954-55
This book needs no introduction. The most influential fantasy novel ever written, often incorrectly cited as the biggest genre novel of all time. Due to paper shortages after the Second World War, the book was released in three volumes (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King), inadvertently creating the classic fantasy trilogy at the same time. The novel has been available in its intended one-volume version since the 1960s.
12. The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton
469,000 words • 1999
The biggest space opera novel ever published, even more remarkable because it was the concluding volume of an even bigger trilogy, The Night's Dawn.
13. Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
455,891 words • 2020
The fourth Stormlight Archive novel continues Brandon Sanderson's relentless assault on bookshelf integrity everywhere.
14. Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
451,912 words • 2017
The third Stormlight Archive novel couldn't quite match the fourth for size. Remember when Sanderson told us the first novel (a now novella-feeling 380,000 words) would be the longest? Good times.
15. It by Stephen King
445,134 words • 1986
Arguably, Stephen King's most famous single novel thanks to multiple TV and film adaptations.
16. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
422,000 words • 2000
George R.R. Martin started his Song of Ice and Fire series being somewhat concerned about the word count and went to great lengths to keep the first two books down to a friendly 300,000 words or so apiece, dropping chapters back into the next volume if necessary. However, with Martin planning a five year time-jump after this book (which never actually materialised), he had no choice but to write the story to its natural conclusion. The result was a book that pushed the UK publishers to the limits of what they could publish in one volume. The paperback version, in fact, was released in two volumes.
17. A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
420,000 words • 2011
The difficult-to-write fifth volume in A Song of Ice and Fire ended up being somewhat longer than A Storm of Swords, but Martin cut it down to slightly shorter in the final sweat and edit. Like Swords, this novel was released in paperback in the UK in two volumes. Where will The Winds of Winter fit in in the size stakes? Hopefully we'll find out.
The concluding volume of Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series.
422,000 words • 2000
George R.R. Martin started his Song of Ice and Fire series being somewhat concerned about the word count and went to great lengths to keep the first two books down to a friendly 300,000 words or so apiece, dropping chapters back into the next volume if necessary. However, with Martin planning a five year time-jump after this book (which never actually materialised), he had no choice but to write the story to its natural conclusion. The result was a book that pushed the UK publishers to the limits of what they could publish in one volume. The paperback version, in fact, was released in two volumes.
17. A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
420,000 words • 2011
The difficult-to-write fifth volume in A Song of Ice and Fire ended up being somewhat longer than A Storm of Swords, but Martin cut it down to slightly shorter in the final sweat and edit. Like Swords, this novel was released in paperback in the UK in two volumes. Where will The Winds of Winter fit in in the size stakes? Hopefully we'll find out.
18. The Burning White by Brent Weeks
420,000 words • 2019
19. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
415,000 words • 1999
Neal Stephenson's first gigantic book, but not his last (although this remains his longest book) is an interesting romp through WWII history, cryptography and weirdness. A stand-alone, but it also acts as a thematic prequel (and actual sequel) to his later Baroque Cycle.
20. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
402,000 words • 2009
The seventh Outlander novel is huge, but feels quite modest compared to the longest books in the series mentioned above.
21. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
401,000 words • 1996
The fourth Outlander novel. Given the several books in the series that are just under 400,000 words, I can only assume that the author gets through a lot of keyboards.
= 22. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
400,000 words • 2011
Patrick Rothfuss's sequel to The Name of the Wind is considerably larger. It remains to be seen (still!) if the final volume of The Kingkiller Chronicle, The Doors of Stone, will be bigger still.
= 22. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
400,000 words • 2014
The second volume of The Stormlight Archive is lost its record-setting status as Sanderson's biggest novel and the biggest novel in the series to all three of its following volumes. But it's still pretty big.
Below 400,000 words, the number of fantasy and SF novels in that size bracket shoots up massively. So rather than try to come up with an exhaustive list, here's some notable SFF novels with their word counts:
Why Page Counts Vary
It's remarkable what difference shifting a margin over by a few millimetres can make. One-volume editions of The Lord of the Rings, for example, can vary from 750 pages (for tiny-font editions on onion paper) to the better part of 2,000 (for large-print versions for readers with bad eyesight). Back in 2001 Pan Macmillan were able to squeeze the paperback of The Naked God (469,000 words) into almost the exact same page count as its predecessor novel, The Reality Dysfunction (385,000 words) despite being significantly longer, just by manipulating font sizes and margins.
This is why page count is a poor guide to working out a novel's true length, and word count is more reliable indicator.
Word counts can also differ, depending on the programme used (most modern word counts come from the ebook editions) and how they count punctuation. Some counters will also include cast lists, footnotes and appendices, others will disregard them. The publishers may even give differing word counts because they did a count before the last edits were finalised, or they forgot that the new edition has more stuff in it.
415,000 words • 1999
Neal Stephenson's first gigantic book, but not his last (although this remains his longest book) is an interesting romp through WWII history, cryptography and weirdness. A stand-alone, but it also acts as a thematic prequel (and actual sequel) to his later Baroque Cycle.
20. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
402,000 words • 2009
The seventh Outlander novel is huge, but feels quite modest compared to the longest books in the series mentioned above.
21. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
401,000 words • 1996
The fourth Outlander novel. Given the several books in the series that are just under 400,000 words, I can only assume that the author gets through a lot of keyboards.
= 22. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
400,000 words • 2011
Patrick Rothfuss's sequel to The Name of the Wind is considerably larger. It remains to be seen (still!) if the final volume of The Kingkiller Chronicle, The Doors of Stone, will be bigger still.
= 22. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
400,000 words • 2014
The second volume of The Stormlight Archive is lost its record-setting status as Sanderson's biggest novel and the biggest novel in the series to all three of its following volumes. But it's still pretty big.
Below 400,000 words, the number of fantasy and SF novels in that size bracket shoots up massively. So rather than try to come up with an exhaustive list, here's some notable SFF novels with their word counts:
- Lord of Chaos is the sixth and longest Wheel of Time novel, clocking in at 395,000 words, shading the fourth volume, The Shadow Rising, at 386,000.
- Toll the Hounds is the eighth and longest Malazan Book of the Fallen novel, reaching 389,000 words.
- Maia, by the late Richard Adams, is 379,130 words.
- Magician, by Raymond E. Feist, is a relatively breezy 313,410 words (about 330,000 words in the 1992 extended edition). Which makes the decision to publish the novel in two volumes in the United States (as Apprentice and Master) all the weirder.
- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell is a dignified 309,000 words.
- Temple of the Winds, the longest Sword of Truth novel, is a modest 307,520 words in length.
- The Order of the Phoenix, the longest Harry Potter novel, is 257,045 words in length. That's over three times the length of the shortest novel in the series, The Philosopher's Stone.
- The Sword of Shannara, the novel that popularised and kickstarted the modern fantasy genre in 1977, is a relatively modest 228,160 words. It's also still Terry Brooks's biggest novel, by far; none of the other Shannara novels top 200,000 words and only three top 150,000 words.
- SF is generally a lot shorter than fantasy, but the fact that Frank Herbert's seminal Dune is only 188,000 words - shorter than three of the Harry Potter books! - might be surprising.
Web Series
Online web serials have become increasingly popular in recent years. These are updated so fast that this is trying to hit a moving target.
- The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba: 14,222,637 words
- A Practical Guide to Evil by Erratic Errata: 3,060,000 words
- Pale by John McCrae: 2,040,585 words
- Ward by John McCrae: 1,944,784 words
- Worm by John McCrae: 1,672,617 words
- Twig by John McCrae: 1,605,473 words
Why Page Counts Vary
It's remarkable what difference shifting a margin over by a few millimetres can make. One-volume editions of The Lord of the Rings, for example, can vary from 750 pages (for tiny-font editions on onion paper) to the better part of 2,000 (for large-print versions for readers with bad eyesight). Back in 2001 Pan Macmillan were able to squeeze the paperback of The Naked God (469,000 words) into almost the exact same page count as its predecessor novel, The Reality Dysfunction (385,000 words) despite being significantly longer, just by manipulating font sizes and margins.
This is why page count is a poor guide to working out a novel's true length, and word count is more reliable indicator.
Word counts can also differ, depending on the programme used (most modern word counts come from the ebook editions) and how they count punctuation. Some counters will also include cast lists, footnotes and appendices, others will disregard them. The publishers may even give differing word counts because they did a count before the last edits were finalised, or they forgot that the new edition has more stuff in it.
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