Of the many novels that have won a Prometheus Award over the past 47 years and are still widely read today, a notable few have done so with the help of their longer length and epic scale.
From J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, size does matter in literature.
Or at least size can significantly enhance a novel, if the writers are experts and at the top of their game. If well-structured, well-paced and compelling enough to sustain the reader’s interest, longer novels can attract and retain the reader’s interest even through hundreds of pages.
On the other hand, not every long novel works or finds a wide readership. The sheer page length of some books does become a potential deterrent to many readers, something that authors and publishers have to take into account.
After all, there’s little worse for readers than drudging through a novel that turns out to be overwritten and underwhelming. And that’s a possibility that can’t be dismissed especially when an author or book is relatively unknown – or when neophyte or less-competent authors tackle writing longer novels but fall short in any of nearly numberless ways, and thus fail to justify a book’s length.
SARAH HOYT’S THREE-VOLUME NO MAN’S LAND
Such reflections are sparked by the nomination of Sarah Hoyt’s No Man’s Land for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.
Published and billed as a three-volume novel (rather than a more customary and more widely spaced-out trilogy of three novels), No Man’s Land is a rare example in the 21st century of a practice that was once more common in the 18th and 19th centuries – as described in a recent Prometheus Blog post.
No Man’s Land evolved into a three-volume, one-story “mega-novel” partly because in many ways it’s the story that Hoyt was born to write – as detailed in a Prometheus Blog feature-interview. Conceived in her youth, when she was too inexperienced to write it, the novel went through many developments and drafts over the decades before its publication in the early fall of 2025.
The size and length of No Man’s Land certainly drew attention when it was nominated for the Prometheus Award – now one of 13 2025 nominated novels being read by Libertarian Futurist Society members serving as judges on the Prometheus Best Novel Judging Committee, which reads and discusses the nominees before ranking and selecting a slate of Best Novel finalists by April of each year.
With Volume 1 running 307 pages, Volume 2 running 280 pages and Volume 3 running 313 pages, No Man’s Land overall reaches 900 pages overall.
In terms of its propulsive narrative power, imagination, suspense and rich characters, No Man’s Land actually turns out to be a highly enjoyable and relatively quick read, based on my own experience reading it. (And we’re planning a Prometheus Blog review of Hoyt’s novel among other nominees over the next several months, to join our already-published review of Harry Turtledove’s nominated Powerless, ultimately along with reviews of whatever works are selected as Best Novel finalists by April.)
WHAT ARE THE LONGEST PROMETHEUS WINNERS?
Yet, 900 pages certainly seems massive at first glance for any novel – and the sheer size of No Man’s Land made me wonder whether its page length comes close to a record among past Prometheus Award nominees, finalists and winners.
Surprisingly, though, it’s not – which I confirmed by checking on the LFS website’s Prometheus Awards pages listing all 110 awards (including 106 awards directly to works of fiction) that have been presented so far since 1979 in the annual categories for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (the Prometheus Hall of Fame) and in our occasional Special Awards.
Far from it.
No Man’s Land isn’t even in the top half-dozen of the biggest, longest novels!
Interestingly and I think significantly, the top three longest Prometheus-winning novels are all classics that have been inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame: The Lord of the Rings, Cryptonomicon and Atlas Shrugged.
Notably, all three bestsellers continue to be read widely today – and deserve to be, in my view, as richly imagined and vividly detailed stories whose enduring appeal is sustained by imaginative world-building, strong characters, propulsive plots and powerful themes that continue to resonate today.
TOLKIEN’S THE LORD OF THE RINGS
1. Ranked first in length, at 1206 pages, is The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Published in 1954 and inducted in 2009 into the Hall of Fame, Tolkien’s genre-defining high-fantasy trilogy about the inevitable corruptions of absolute power was initially published as separate novels in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
Written in stages between 1937 and 1949 as the sequel to Tolkien’s 1937 short juvenile fantasy The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings developed into a much larger three-part work over the next decade.
Although Tolkien finished the novel and offered it for publication in 1950, a dispute with his publisher Allen & Unwin delayed the work. And when Lord of the Rings finally did appear in print in 1954 and 1955, his publisher divided it into three volumes “to minimize any financial loss due to the high cost of type-setting and modest anticipated sales,” according to the encyclopedia listing about the novel’s history.
Because the three-volume binding was so widely distributed, the work is often viewed as the Lord of the Rings “trilogy.” Yet, it’s clear from Tolkien’s original intent that he always viewed it as one novel – not three.
Considered one of the most influential fantasy books ever written, the work has been translated into at least 38 languages and was named in a 2003 BBC poll as Britain’s best-loved novel of all time.
Read the Prometheus Blog’s Appreciation review-essay here.
NEAL STEPHENSON’S CRYPTONOMICON
2. Ranked second, at 1168 pages, is Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.
Published in 1999 and Inducted in 2013 into the Hall of Fame, Stephenson’s historical SF novel probes the origins of information technology in World War II in a complex narrative about codebreaking and modern-day, high tech treasure hunting.
Notably, Cryptonomicon was first recognized in our awards when it was originally nominated for Best Novel and became a 2000 finalist, narrowly losing in that highly competitive year to Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky.
Under our rules, no work of fiction that has won Best Novel may be nominated years later for the Prometheus Hall of Fame. However, works that have not won – even if they were nominated and/or became Best Novel finalists – are eligible for consideration 20 years or more after original publication, if they are viewed as having stood the test of time. Only a handful of such novels have gone on to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but Cryptonomicon was first.
Read the Prometheus Blog’s Appreciation of Cryptonomicon here.
AYN RAND’S ATLAS SHRUGGED
3. Ranked third, at 1115 pages, is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
Published in 1957 and inducted in 1983 into the Hall of Fame, the dystopian/utopian saga dramatizes the role of the mind in human civilization and progress.
The epic novel is divided into three sections – Part 1: Non-Contradiction, Part II: Either-Or and Part III: A is A – but Rand always conceived it and wrote it as one novel – which became her magnum opus.
Read the Prometheus Blog’s two complementary but different Appreciation review-essays here and here.
So where does Hoyt’s No Man’s Land rank on the list of longest Prometheus-recognized novels?
Surprisingly, after further research, it barely makes it into the top ten!
For the full and annotated list of the dozen longest novels, stay tuned to the Prometheus Blog, because that’s coming up next.
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
