What are some of the fattest fantasy novels you've ever come across?

Zsinj

Zsinj

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Over the past decade or so, it seems that fat fantasy novels have becomee quite numerous. So I'm wondering, what are some of the fattest fantasy novels you have ever come across? And I'm not talking collected omnibus editions, I'm talking actual single novels.
 
I think the biggest one Ive ever seen/read was Stone of Tears by TG. Either that or one of the more massive Malazan books.
 
To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams. Even split into two books for the paperback release, each one was a monster.
 
I vowed never to touch an Erikson book in MMPB after I got Midnight Tides in that format. It is second only to my MMPB copy of The Count of Monte Cristo and both are a pain in the ass to read thanks to their size. Talk about unwieldy.
 
Erikson enables me to do a circuit of weights whilst reading. I fear the bookshelf that holds all my trade paperbacks and hardcovers will one day reach critical mass.

Insert fond memory of my one volume LotR omnibus' spine disintergrating whilst reading under the table in primary school here.
 
The fattest MMPB I've got is Erikson's Deadhouse Gates. That book is a monster. Even now when I look at it I'm slightly surprised I actually managed to read the thing.
 
JamesL said:
The fattest MMPB I've got is Erikson's Deadhouse Gates. That book is a monster. Even now when I look at it I'm slightly surprised I actually managed to read the thing.
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I have that one sitting right beside Midnight Tides, it is small in comparison. Considering that The Bonehunters is the fattest trade paperback I have, I have no doubt that overtakes the Midnight Tides mmpb in that format. I am just glad that I don't have it.
 
Storm of Swords is about 1100 pages long, which was my fattest MMPB until Bonehunters.

Other than that, I guess I'm just being redundant.
 
Maia by Richard Adams.

The mass market paperback version is exactly 1222 pages.

It was well worth the read, though, and I still have it, as I plan to read it again someday.
 
Skylark said:
Maia by Richard Adams.

The mass market paperback version is exactly 1222 pages.

It was well worth the read, though, and I still have it, as I plan to read it again someday.
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Is it comparable at all to Watership Down? That's the only one I've read by him, but I loved it.
 
Seak said:
Is it comparable at all to Watership Down? That's the only one I've read by him, but I loved it.
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Hmmm, good question.
I don't think the two can be compared. They are quite different novels, although both cover the common themes of politics, freedom, and the struggle of survival in a brutal world.

But I consider Maia to be for a more mature audience. The characters are human, not rabbits with human qualities. The setting for Maia is quite different as well. It is the same world as in the novel Shardik by Richard Adams. I haven't read that one yet, but I plan to soon.

I enjoyed both Maia and Watership Down, but for different reasons. Watership Down addressed serious issues, but in a more light-hearted manner, almost like a fable. Maia is grittier, more real, and it centers around one main character. If you like the idea of a strong female protagonist who triumphs against the odds, you would enjoy this book; as long as vivid, sometimes ugly sexual encounters are not offensive to you.
 
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Peter F. Hamilton's The Naked God is almost certainly the biggest single SF novel ever published at 1,150 pages in hardcover (and 1,290-odd pages in paperback only possible by reducing the font size and squeezing out the margins). Plus it's only the third book in a trilogy.

For fantasy, it's a bit more oblique. The Lord of the Rings is up there at c. 1,100 pages even in hardcover and tradeback editions. A Storm of Swords is 1,200 pages in the US mmpb edition, which is pretty huge. But I think the winner is Tad Williams' To Green Angel Tower, which was just short of 1,200 pages in hardcover and had to be split into two 800-page mmpbs for the paperback release. His Otherland: Sea of Silver Light isn't that much shorter, although the mmpbs were squeezed into single 1,200-page volumes.
 
Define "fattest."

Page count or ratio of useless to useful prose?

I found Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy to have a very high useless:useful prose ratio. I'd read hundreds and hundreds of pages waiting for something to happen.

That's the problem with many modern SF/fantasy authors these days. Page count trumps story every time.
 
Thradar said:
Define "fattest."

Page count or ratio of useless to useful prose?

I found Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy to have a very high useless:useful prose ratio. I'd read hundreds and hundreds of pages waiting for something to happen.

That's the problem with many modern SF/fantasy authors these days. Page count trumps story every time.
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I agree. I am 10x more likely to start a shorter novel just because these behemoths require so much time to get through, especially when they are unfinished series. I really love reading novella's and short novels where you can get a very interesting story with little to no fluff.
 
I personally consider James Clavell's Shogun to be a fantasy, although it's technically an historical fiction, but that one is over 1100 pages if I'm remembering correctly, plus the font was real small.

Other than that, I'd just be redundant with my answers.
 
I've checked my shelves and it appears Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is bulkier than Midnight Tides [and it's written in a really small print]. Only "The Far Pavillions" comes close, but that's historical romance.
I'm trying to get my hands on Ash- A Secret History" but i don't know if it will be MMPB or the big format that Toll the Hounds or Severian of the Guild are [the largest items in my TBR pile]
 
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