How long does it take to read The Years of Rice and Salt?
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson takes about 12 hours 45 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 12 hours 45 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 2002. 695 pages, about 191,125 words.
26 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 21 hours 14 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 12 hours 45 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 7 hours 58 minutes |
The page count is the median across 13 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
With the incomparable vision and breathtaking detail that brought his now-classic Marstrilogy to vivid life, bestselling author KIM STANLEY ROBINSON boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know....The Years of Rice and SaltIt is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur--the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe's population was destroyed. But what if? What if the plague killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been--a history that stretches across centuries, a history that sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, a history that spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. These are the years of rice and salt. This is a universe where the first ship to reach the New World travels across the Pacific Ocean from China and colonization spreads from west to east. This is a universe where the Industrial Revolution is triggered by the world's greatest scientific minds--in India. This is a universe where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions and Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson renders an immensely rich tapestry. Rewriting history and probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power, and even love on such an Earth. From the steppes of Asia to the shores of the Western Hemisphere, from the age of Akbar to the present and beyond, here is the stunning story of the creation of a new world.From the Hardcover edition.
Subjects: Fiction, Black Death, Science Fiction, Long Now Manual for Civilization, Fiction, alternative history, Science Fiction - General
