The Hermit Doctor of Gaya vs Project Cyclops
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
308words between them — 1 min of it
The Hermit Doctor of Gaya is longer — 140,150 words against 139,842 for Project Cyclops, a difference of 308 words or about 1 min of extra reading. Project Cyclops is the harder read, at grade 5.9 against 5.8.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Side by side
| The Hermit Doctor of Gaya | Project Cyclops | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Wylie, I. A. R. (Ida Alexa Ross) | Hoover, Thomas |
| Words | 140,150 | 139,842 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 9h 21m | 9h 19m |
| Unique words | 10,111 | 11,608 |
| Sentences | 10,191 | 10,889 |
| Average sentence length | 13.8 words | 12.8 words |
| Reading grade | 5.8 | 5.9 |
| Reading ease | 78.3 | 75.7 |
| Long words | 7.5% | 8.9% |
Highlighted cells are the larger figure — except reading ease, where higher means easier.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions, same counting rule·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How this is worked out
- Both texts are counted the same way, from the same source, with Gutenberg's header and licence footer struck first.
- The gap is stated in words and then in time at 250 words a minute — the rate is printed because a duration without one cannot be checked.
- Difficulty is compared on Flesch–Kincaid grade, which reads sentence and word length only. It cannot see irony or dialect, so treat it as a measure of surface, not of effort.
gap = |140,150 − 139,842| = 308 words 308 ÷ 250 wpm = 1 min of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, The Hermit Doctor of Gaya or Project Cyclops?
The Hermit Doctor of Gaya is longer — 140,150 words against 139,842 for Project Cyclops, a difference of 308 words or about 1 min of extra reading. Project Cyclops is the harder read, at grade 5.9 against 5.8.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 49555 and no. 34319 — and from no other source. Neither book’s text is set on this site.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·US public domain·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Word counts and reading levels are computed from a specific public-domain edition and will differ from other editions and from other counting methods — see the method page.
