How long does it take to read King David's Spaceship?
King David's Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle takes about 5 hours 11 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
Part of CoDominium
Next: The Mote in God's Eye
About 5 hours 11 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1980. 283 pages, about 77,825 words.
11 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 8 hours 39 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 11 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 15 minutes |
The page count is the median across 10 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Four levels of technology collide in this fascinating sci-fi thriller about a Renaissance general racing to extract the secrets of space flight from a forgotten library guarded by barbarians on horseback before the bureaucrats of a re-ascendant galactic empire can finish classifying the Renaissance general's world as a flightless backwater planet fit only for subjugation and exploitation. As is often the case in hard sci-fi, the characters' personalities are neglected in favor of in-depth discussion of military tactics, historical speculation, and political economy, but the writing is tight, thoughtful, and fun, so it's not too hard to suspend your disbelief. This book is a sort of sequel to the much more famous The Mote in God's Eye, but the events are largely independent.
Subjects: Science fiction, Space colonies, Fiction, Fiction, science fiction, general
