Love Books Daily

Book · by Iain Banks

How many pages is Consider Phlebas?

Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks has a median of 471 pages across 10 English-language print editions with a recorded page count; the middle half of editions run 471 to 478 pages.

Median pages
471
10 editions counted
Range
467–497
shortest to longest edition
Reading time
8.3h
at 260 wpm (fiction average)
Words (est.)
130k
at 275 words per page
Book 1 of Culture series
Series in order

How long will Consider Phlebas take you?

Starts at the fiction average of 260 words per minute and 275 words per page. Move the slider to your own speed.

Reading time
8 h 18 min
At 30 min a day
17 days
At 1 hour a day
9 days

Page count of every edition, by year

Each dot is one English-language print edition. Shaded: middle half of editions. Line: median.

46048050019901995200020051987: 471 pages1987: 471 pages1987: 471 pages1988: 471 pages1988: 471 pages1991: 497 pages1991: 471 pages2003: 467 pages2008: 480 pages2008: 480 pagesmedian 471
460480500199020001987: 471 pages1987: 471 pages1987: 471 pages1988: 471 pages1988: 471 pages1991: 497 pages1991: 471 pages2003: 467 pages2008: 480 pages2008: 480 pagesmedian 471
Open Library edition records (2026-09-30 dump).

Editions counted

The 10 editions behind the figures above, newest first. Open Library lists 28 editions of this work in all languages and formats.

YearPublisherFormatPagesOpen Library
2008Little, Brown Book Group Limited–480OL33425549M
2008OrbitPaperback480OL9759601M
2003OrbitPaperback467OL8998734M
1991SpectraMass Market Paperback497OL7825209M
1991Orbit–471OL22109754M
1988St Martins PrHardcover471OL9623032M
1988Futura–471OL15125217M
1987Macmillan–471OL24614679M

More by Iain Banks

All 7 books by Iain Banks with page counts

Questions

How many pages is Consider Phlebas?
About 471 pages: that is the median of 10 English-language print editions on Open Library. Editions range from 467 to 497 pages.
How long does it take to read Consider Phlebas?
About 8 h 18 min at 260 words per minute, assuming 275 words per page. At 30 minutes a day that is 17 days.
How many words is Consider Phlebas?
Roughly 130,000 words, estimated from the median page count at 275 words per page. Open Library does not record word counts, so this is an estimate.

Data: Open Library monthly data dumps (works, editions, authors, reading log, ratings) (Open Library / Internet Archive); How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate (Marc Brysbaert, Journal of Memory and Language 109 (2019)); Wikidata: part of the series (P179) and series ordinal (Wikimedia Foundation / Wikidata contributors).