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10 Best Epic Books of All Time
Collider writer Jeremy Urquhart has published a ranked list of what he considers the ten best "epic" books of all time, judging entries on both their length and their literary quality. The piece argues that sheer page count alone does not make a book an epic; the scope, ambition and craft of the storytelling matter just as much, and the featured titles are said to combine both quantity and quality. Most of the chosen works are standalone novels, though some multipart stories are also included.
The visible portion of the article details only the lower end of the countdown. At number 10 is Don DeLillo's Underworld (1997), an unusually long work for the author that spans the second half of 20th-century America, opening with the 1951 "Shot Heard 'Round the World" before moving between the 1990s and the 1950s across many characters and tangents. At number nine is Stephen King's The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004), described as one of the author's longest and finest books, with King noted as a writer well suited to epic-length storytelling.
In short
- Collider ranks the ten best epic books ever written.
- Length and literary quality both count towards selection.
- Underworld is tenth; The Dark Tower VII is ninth.
Explained simply
A ranked list of the ten best epic books of all time has been published by Collider writer Jeremy Urquhart. The list evaluates books not merely on their length, but on the scope, ambition and literary quality of their storytelling.
Long, complex novels can demand substantial time and effort from readers, making curated lists valuable for those seeking guidance on which ambitious works are truly worth tackling. Critics and cultural commentators have long debated which lengthy books stand out as genuine achievements in literature.
According to Urquhart's approach, a truly epic book must balance impressive scale with strong writing quality. Most of the selected titles are standalone novels, though some multipart works are also included in the countdown.