The Way of Kings was around 1000 pages. Words of Radiance is almost 1100. I’ve done the calculations and using extrapolation book 10 will be 280,000 pages long (assuming geometric growth). Of course, that is only really a problem for the printers (who have to find a way to bind them), but do you think there are any limits as to how long a book should be?
Well, in some ways The Wheel of Time is a single novel, and can be read that way, and is actually eligible for some awards this year as a single completed novel. If there is an upper limit, it’s longer than The Wheel of Time was. I don’t think I’m likely to hit it with The Stormlight Archive. On a more serious note, when creating a book of this length, what I have to ask myself is, what is the purpose of the length? Why am I doing what I’m doing? I like to be conscious as a writer. In this case, as I mentioned earlier, I do view each book in The Stormlight Archive as multiple books unto itself. You can pick up The Way of Kings and read it with break points at certain places to make it into a trilogy of books. In Words of Radiance , they’re even more distinct. It’s like you’re picking up a collection, an omnibus that is called Words of Radiance , that is really three books, plus a short story collection, plus an art book. For me, length is a way that I can tell you these smaller stories are all connected in a larger story, which is in turn connected in a larger story. It allows me to create a type of art that I can’t create in the shorter form. Yes, I’m sure there is a boundary. I would personally think it’s far beyond what I’m capable of achieving in my lifetime.
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