What is the longest series of fiction books you've read?

[jsgoddess]

What series of books is the longest you've read? I count as a series books that have either a continuing story line or continuing characters and all told by the same author or author(s). So, no Hardy Boys or Dune.

I think mine would be the Hercule Poirot books by Agatha Christie. Wiki says there were 33 of them. Ngaio Marsh wrote 32 Inspector Roderick Alleyn mysteries, so that's a close second (though it's possible I haven't read all of them. I've definitely read all the Poirots).

Other long series:

Amelia Peabody by Elizabeth Peters has 18 books.

How about you?

[sqweels]

Casca the Eternal Mercenary

[runcible spoon]

Well, I haven't finished yet, but Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series is 20-21 books (there's an unfinished manuscript of the last). I'm almost done with the eighth.

[Oakminster]

Well, I read a bunch of Doc Savage, The Destroyer, and The Executioner...long series, but I think there may have been multiple authors involved with each one.

Maybe a series of westerns...forget the name of the series, but the lead character was a good guy gunfighter called Dusty Fog....

[Paige Turner]

If you consider them a series - the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett (36 and counting!)

Otherwise it's possible I've read 15 Anita Blake novels by Laurell K Hamilton

Can I stick with Discworld? kthxbai.

[infinitii]

Well, I haven't read near all of them, but Balzac's Human Comedy series was originally supposed to have like 100 entries, he didn't finish them all but there were quite a few finished (not all of them are novels, some are short stories, but still, its quite a big undertaking).

[gladtobeblazed]

The seven books in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

[Voyager]

I've got most of the first 100 Perry Rhodans. Haven't read them all yet. I have about 70 Doc Savages, including one of the magazines. I have read all 22 or so Tarzan books. I've read a bunch of the Alan Burt Akers Dray Prescott books - probably 20 or so, and I have a few more. I've got 23 Avenger books - another '30s series.

I think Lester Dent wrote pretty much all the Doc Savages, but I'd have to check. I don't know if he wrote the Avengers also, but Ron Goulart wrote the more recent revival.

Oh, and I've read my daughter 35 Nancy Drews and 10 Nancy Drew/Hardy boys. I think I read about 40 Hardy Boys books when I was a kid.

[mhendo]

I haven't done a whole lot of novel-reading as an adult, and certainly not a lot in the way of series.

As a kid and a teenager, i read a few, although none as long as some of those mentioned here. The two i remember best are:

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian series (11 books)
Willard Price's Adventure series (14 books)

Another series i started as a teenager, and am still pursuing, is Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, which has produced 8 books so far, with 2 still to come.

[gaffa]

Definitely have to go with Pratchett's Discworld books. Can's recall anything else I've read that comes anywhere near it in quantity.

[Just Some Guy]

I've read every Discworld novel so that would be the winner for me. Next runner up is the fourteen books in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series.

And then there are far too many incredibly bad series that I read when I was younger that I'd rather not admit to. I will say that repetitive, poorly written Tolkien knock offs and line fiction are well represented among them. Usually seven or eight books each.

[Mtgman]

Hmm, if you believe Isaac Asimov's tie-ins from his Foundation, Galactic Empire, and Robot series there's at least 20 books tied in there together and dozens more short stories. Aside from that there's the "Shannara" series, which is about twenty. There are dozens of "star trek" novels, do they count as a series? What about Dragonlance? There has been a series of fifty-nine(so far) novels inspired by and telling the story behind the game Magic: the Gathering. They tie in together in several places. I think you'll need to be more specific as to what constitutes a series. A single author or team of authors working on all the books? A single subject? How narrow a subject? Some of us are bibliovores.

Enjoy,
Steven

[thirdwarning]

I think it would be Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael books. I'm trying to remember if there are 20 or 21.

[Grumman]

The Belgariad and The Malloreon, a total of ten books. Or perhaps the Shannara series, although I didn't read all the books.

[kbear]

I probably read all the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid but more recently, all 18 in Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series.

[Lust4Life]

I've read O'Briens Aubery/Maturin series several times over and every single Discworld book including the kids ones.

[Student Driver]

Not counting comic books (I read Uncanny X-Men from issue 1 to somewhere in the low 300's, for instance) and collections of comic strips (big BIG Peanuts fan all my life, so a few hundred there), there are a few series I read avidly when I was a kid/teen:

Robotech/Sentinels novelizations-- 21 novels in all.

Lillian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who..." series, up through 2000 or so, perhaps 20-22 novels.

Encyclopedia Brown series up through 1985, for 16 books.

Choose Your Own Adventure/Choose Your Own Adventure for Younger Readers up through 1985, around 60 in the main series, 20 in the younger-kid series. Not sure if these should count though, as I never read the entire book, but worked through a couple of paths in each.

As a teen/adult, the closest I've come to reading a series was reading all of Vonnegut's works, which invariably have minor characters and locations in common. 14 novels, 1 play, 4 short story collections, and 5 essay collections.

[Eureka]

Carole Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louie series ranks up there--there will be 27 books when she's done, and book 20 was recently published (and read by me).

[MarcusF]

All the Ngaio Marsh Roderick Alleyn mysteries - I'll take your word that there were 32 of them! - is probably the most individual works. Like others, I've also gone through the complete Aubrey/Maturin and Brother Cadfeal series more than once.

In numbers of words I think the prize probably goes to the linked Lymond and House of Niccolo series (six books and eight books respectively) by Dorothy Dunnett. Only fourteen novels but each of them is probably the length of three Christie or Marsh whoduits!

[Hazle Weatherfield]

The "Little House" Books.
The Chronicles of Narnia.
The "Anne of Green Gables" series.
The "Raggedy Ann & Andy" books (by Johnny Gruelle, I think?)

[Harmonious Discord]

Since I can't use Shadowrun I'll have to go back even farther and say Zanth. I've listened to the Doc Savage books. I've been listening to Doc Savage for a couple weeks again. The last story finished up 15 minutes ago.

[Alessan]

The Discworld books, like many of you.

Also a significant portion of Ed McBain's 87th Precent novels - probably every one published before 1990 or so.

[Annie-Xmas]

Originally Posted by Alessan

Also a significant portion of Ed McBain's 87th Precent novels - probably every one published before 1990 or so.

All of them.

[RealityChuck]

Discworld.

The only other series I've read more than three books in were the Dragonriders of Pern (7 before giving up), Dune (four and half, which is three and a half too many), and Hitchhiker's Guide.

[CalMeacham]

I know there are longer series out there, but probably the longest I've read is Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes, which runs 24 volumes, or 25 if you're liberal about it and allow in Tarzan: The Lost Adventure (based on Burroughs' notes and outline)

Other series I've read:

Horatio Hornblower (12 volumes)

Conan the Barbarian (In the Lancer/Sphere/Ace series 12 volumes, although other Conan novels were written later. If you only count the Howard stuff, it's out in three volumes now.)

Lindsay Davis' Marcus Didius Falco novels

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories (with plenty of pastiches added by everyone on the planet, it seems)

James Blish's Star Trek Novelizations (13 volumes, counting "Mudd's Women" and not counting Blish's non-series "Spock Must Die")

[carnivorousplant]

There are 33 Nero Wolfe novels, but I'm not sure if I've read them all.

[Harmonious Discord]

I've read the Allan Quatermain series, Conan the Barbarian and the Sherlock Holmes stories.

[batsto]

I read all of the "Three Investigators" books as a kid---I'm not sure how many, but I'd guess there were over 20 of them.

[AuntiePam]

Lemony Snicket -- there are 13, and a few companion books. And I still don't know what it was all about. They were fun though.

The Malazan books by Steven Erikson and Loren Esslemont will number 22 when finished.

[Sigmagirl]

All the original Hardy Boys.

[Lanzy]

The Destroyer series, over 130 so far, read 'em all.
and if we were counting comics, Fantastic Four from #1 to yesterday's.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

I like series books. I guess my longest would be the 24 Richard Sharpe books, written by Bernard Cornwell. I didn't realize there were so many.

Other favorite series:
The Aubrey/Maturin books
Tony Hillerman's 18 Leaphorn/Chee books.
Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books, about 14 of those.
The Lord Peter Wimsey books (actually reading the last one now.)
The 11 Vampire Files books, by P.N. Elrod.
The Brother Cadfael books

I'm in the middle of the Honor Harrington series and Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series.

[Lightray]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Horatio Hornblower (12 volumes)

This one. Also, a whole lot of MZB's Darkover series.

And I think I've read a rather lot of Xanth books, since I've often picked one up at airports for fluff reading, when nothing else looked intriguing. No idea how many of those I slogged through.

[Meurglys]

The first 31 of E.C. Tubb's Dumarest series; I haven't bothered to track down the concluding volume, published over a decade after the rest (even though it's the only one that advances the plot appreciably!)

[KittenKat]

Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 42 novellas featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin; I've read them all.

[Scumpup]

I've read all the John Carter of Mars books. Back in the 70's I read an assload of the Remo Williams books.

[Khadaji]

Originally Posted by Lanzy

The Destroyer series, over 130 so far, read 'em all.
and if we were counting comics, Fantastic Four from #1 to yesterday's.

I used to love those, but once Sapir and Murphy stopped writing them I thought that they got lame. I read them until about 100 or so.

[Dung Beetle]

The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I started reading them because they were on the banned books list and then just continued on until I was all caught up. But she’s still writing them, and is even doing some prequels…I’ve read at least twenty of these things, but apparently there will never be an end. And they’re just these bland little tales. I have no idea how they’d have gotten on that list.

Anyway, I quit.

[UncleRojelio]

The Aubrey/Maturin books and the Hornblower series.

[Redfrost]

The Alex Delaware novels by Johnathon Kellerman.
Sherlock Holmes by Sir Author Conan Doyle.
Most of Tom Clancy's novels.
Many of R.A. Salvatore's Forgetten Realms "Dark Elf" novels.

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Just Some Guy

I've read every Discworld novel so that would be the winner for me. Next runner up is the fourteen books in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series.

Are you me? *makes sure girly bits are still in place*

[Projammer]

Originally Posted by Lanzy

The Destroyer series, over 130 so far, read 'em all.
and if we were counting comics, Fantastic Four from #1 to yesterday's.

Closer to 150 in the Destroyer series. I have them all.

Second place will have to be the Ashes series. A fairly good post-apocalypse set before it died a graceless death at book 35. They've started re-releasing them if anyone is interested.

[SpazCat]

Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who... series. There's 29 of them published and I've read 22 that I can remember. I need to do a massive reread/catch-up sometime.

[Cluricaun]

I've read every book Robert B. Parker has ever written so far available, and a quick check on Wiki says that there are 36 of the Spenser stories alone.

[DeadlyAccurate]

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. There are 14 to date, and I know she recently signed a contract for 17 & 18, so I don't see me stopping any time soon.

[cmkeller]

I've read all 20 of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone novels - and the 8 short stories as well.

[silenus]

Discworld
Destroyer series (most of)

Glad to see there are other fans of Remo and Chuin out there.

[Projammer]

Originally Posted by sqweels

Casca the Eternal Mercenary

Yep.

Originally Posted by Just Some Guy

I've read every Discworld novel so that would be the winner for me. Next runner up is the fourteen books in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series.

About half of Discworld. Though all are in the library awaiting their turns. All of Miles Vorkosigan.

Originally Posted by Harmonious Discord

Since I can't use Shadowrun I'll have to go back even farther and say Zanth.

Ditto Shadowrun. Stopped slogging through Xanth many years ago.

Depending on how loosely you care to define 'series', there's everything in the Heinlein universe, also Asimov. I have quoted Lazarus Long in more than one post here.

12 books of Flinx in the Humanx Commonwealth. 26 if you allow everything in that universe.

Yes, I am personally responsible for the demise of more than one tree.

[Projammer]

Also, it is with no small amount of relief I've noticed the absence of L. Ron Hubbard's 10 books of Mission Earth from the lists here.

[Mahna Mahna]

In terms of longest series by the same author, I think it would have to be The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Eleven books so far, with number twelve still to come. Thankfully, it seems that death put an end to what Jordan could not, unless he pulls a V. C. Andrews or a Tupac Shakur by becoming more prolific in death than he was in the life.

Actually, since it seems that the last novel was unfinished when Jordan died and is being finished by a different writer, I suppose the series will be disqualified as far as the OP's rules go once Vol 12 is published.

I also read just about every one of the classic Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels, but as per the OP, those don't count. (I mean, you didn't think that Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene are real people, did you?)