Reading order
Cities in Flight reading order
- 3 volumes
- Volumes
- 1955–1962
- Published
- about 10 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
Quick answer
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Publication order
3 volumes1955–1962Completed
- James Blish’s four novels in which whole cities lift off from Earth on antigravity “spindizzy” engines and roam the galaxy as migrant workers, their people kept alive for centuries by anti-ageing drugs.
- The story order differs from the order of writing: They Shall Have Stars, A Life for the Stars, Earthman, Come Home and The Triumph of Time, which ends with the end of the universe.
- Earthman, Come Home, with the flying New York of Mayor Amalfi, is the heart of the cycle.
- Often sold as one volume.
A plan for the whole series
3 volumes, 562 pages, about 10 hours. At 45 min a day that is 14 days.
Stages
This series fits in one stage. You finish around November 12, 2026.
- Stage 110 h14 daysby November 12, 2026
- 1. They Shall Have Stars
- 2. A Life for the Stars
- 3. Earthman, Come Home
- 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
No volume in this series has enough ratings to enter a ranking yet, so the list carries no scores — the order and the volumes are still complete.
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 28, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which Cities in Flight book is the longest?
“Earthman, Come Home” is the longest at 255 pages; the shortest is “A Life for the Stars” with 148 pages.