Reading order
Noughts & Crosses reading order
1
2
3
4- 7.77.7 / 10100 ratings
- Score
- 4 volumes
- Volumes
- 2001–2008
- Published
- about 30 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Dystopian
- Genre
Quick answer
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Publication order
4 volumes2001–2008Completed
- Read them in order.
- Blackman wrote a world where the power between Black and white is reversed, and each book hands the story to the next generation: Callum and Sephy in the first, their children in Knife Edge and Checkmate, and Double Cross follows Tobey.
- The later books are built on what the first one costs its characters, and the first is the one that makes the reversal land.
- Blackman returned to the series later, so it does not end where our list does.
A plan for the whole series
4 volumes, 1,715 pages, about 30 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 6 weeks.
Stages
2 stages, with 1 short book from outside the series between them. You finish around December 14, 2026, 4 days later than in one go.
- Stage 114 h19 daysby November 17, 2026
- Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.8
- Stage 217 habout 3 weeksby December 14, 2026
- 3. Checkmate
- 4. Double Cross
- The end of the series
We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.
How this plan is calculated
The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →
Every volume in order
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which Noughts & Crosses book is the longest?
“Double Cross” is the longest at 474 pages; the shortest is “Knife Edge” with 368 pages.