Seveneves
Ratings384
Average rating3.9
I just couldn't do it. So many pages of extraneous details. This is why I don't like sci fi. I made it to page 400 and the book was due and while I'm curious how it ends, I'm not THAT curious.
Unlike Anathem, this one drew me in right away. Unfortunately it didn't keep me. The scope and theme makes for a great story – something happens that destroys the moon. How does humanity react? I felt like things went from entirely too optimistic, to way too pessimistic real fast. While relying on imperfect characters to move the plot along, the story leaned too much on their impact on everyone else in a way I felt didn't hold true to those people. Not as good as Anathem, but some interesting points. This book in 3 parts could easily have been 3 books. I appreciate the storytelling, and Stephenson's desire to tell an entire tale at once, but I would have preferred more “Gravity” and less a series of unfortunately decisions.
Seveneves took me a long time to complete, and only after two false starts. I'm glad I endured though, because for as long as the ride was, the destination was worth it. It's a tantalizing, thought provoking, harrowing story of the end of civilization as we know it, and it's beautifully executed.
I do with Neal was better at writing character. I feel like his characters are not as fully illustrated as I wish they were, and I have a hard time relating to them. As a result, I often don't care for the characters as much as I probably should, or as much as Neal probably hopes I would. Despite this, the world building and storytelling is so perfectly done, I can excuse a lack of dimensionality in our characters.
I feel like Seveneves would make a terrific limited series on some streaming service - or a film series. It's split up nicely into three sizable acts already. Act 1: Day Zero until the Hard Rain. Act 2: Hard Rain until the Council of the Seven Eves. Act 3: 5,000 years later.
In a lot of ways, I feel like this novel harkens back to the classic sci-fi of the 50's and 60's. Isaac Asimov. Frank Herbert. Arthur C. Clarke. There's a real sense of the core idea here, and Stephenson explores it thoroughly.
Many people have told me to read books by Stephenson, but I never had. My co-worker was reading this one so I took it as my introductory work. I was not disappointed. I really loved the characters in the first two parts and just how believable their reactions to the catastrophe were, even right up to the end, where laws were not so important anymore. The part where the people on the surface were killed was just stunning. I appreciate the grandiose future that he portrayed in the third part, but I did not find it as gripping as the other parts. I thought that in many ways more would have changed in 5000 years, language would have diverged further, more of the “epic” would have been forgotten due to loss of recordings or ability to read them.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
This is the first Neal Stephenson book I actually liked, though it did take me a while to get into it. I think I fell in love around the 40% mark and read the remaining 500 pages in the space of 3 days. In fact I was reading it on a train at one point and literally had to put the book away because otherwise I would not have wanted to get off the train.
The first thing I love about this book is the very first line: “The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason“. At no point in this 900 page book do we find out why the moon blew up, it just did. And I love that because why the moon blew up isn't the important thing. Seveneves is all about what happened next because the moon blew up.
If that first sentence is enough to make you want to read this book, stop reading this review right now. Seveneves is the type of book where its best going in knowing as little as possible. Go buy the book and come back after you've finished it.
The first 60% of Seveneves takes place directly after the break up of the moon. We see scientists realise that the huge chunks of rock that were previously the moon are going to start breaking up and falling to earth – which the scientists refer to as hard rain – causing the atmosphere to burn and making the earth uninhabitable for thousands of years.
In a way the first part of Seveneves is very similar to The Martian. But instead of Mark Watney you have the entire human race trying to figure out a way to not die. The result is a colony of the smartest people on tiny ships surrounding the International Space Station. We see everything these people go through trying to get to a safe place in which they can start to rebuild the human race.
I don't want to give away any spoilers for the second part of the book but it takes place 5000 years after the moon's breakup and deals with the consequences of the decisions made by the original members of the mission.
I cannot say this enough, I loved this book. I love that we get to see the consequences of one characters action thousands of years later. I love that this whole world feels so fleshed out. I love the artwork made for the second part. I love that this is about evolution and natural selection and genetics. But above all, even with all the super technical sciency stuff, I love that this book is primarly about people and the choices they make
This book scared me at first when it first showed up in the mail. It was large and imposing. I read like 6 other books before I steeled the nerve to read this and I'm glad I did.
It was amazing.
I love how technical and hard science fiction, Neal Stephenson goes with this. I could go on and on about this book but I would rather leave you to discover it on your own.
My best attempt at not spoiling things but still giving you something to go on would be that the first 2/3s of this book are almost a ‘The Martian'-esque (Andy Weirs' novel) following a group of people and how they deal with this global issue. The last 1/3 of the book moves into a more scifi/fantasy area that really allows brings a sense of closure to the nail biting first half of the book.
If you have the time and patience to read this long but worth-it book; do it.
A terrific idea, but as usual with Neal Stephenson, lots of nerdish technical details, that for me (this time) got in the way of the story. The first two parts of the book were, I felt, too long, and the third too short, but, hey, you can't please everyone.
The ending of the book leaves it open for a continuation. I hope so.
Not dissimilar from The Martian, but for the everyone on Earth instead of Mark Watney/Matt Damon. If you liked the scene from Apollo 13 where they threw a bunch of stuff on a table and said, “how do we work with just this to not die” you'll probably like this.
Nice start, ok mid, but the ending was so bad I have a hard time putting it to words. For a book that had such a good idea for a beginning, I have no idea why it switched directions at the end to a different type of book. It went from a Good/OK Sifi book to a run of the mill teen dystopian book. The ending could have been made into a second book possibly saving both (there are some nice ideas for a young adult novel).
I've wanted to read some Neal Stephenson for a while and was recommended this book by a friend.
I'm afraid I found the 880 page Seveneves very hard work, with huge swaths of information dumping, pages of pointless description and dull characters. Towards the middle, I must admit I was ready to bail out.
I hate to abandon books, so I knuckled down and soldiered on and it did improve a lot towards the finish line.
A lot of people have raved about this novel and I know it's me that's wrong. There's an excellent book (or even a trilogy) in there somewhere, it just really needed an editor to whip it into shape.
Having just collapsed off the Baroque Cycle is it purely masochistic of me in thinking that this tale was probably more appropriate for a trilogy? Each section leaves you wanting more, a bit more depth, a bit more options explored, a few less strings left dangling. There were so many aspects of the plot that were introduced and then left unexplored, which is not necessarily a negative thing but, as a new Stephenson fan, I would have welcomed (or at least have been desensitized) to a few extra thousand pages...
Seveneves was a book of two halves. The first dealt with a fantastical situation in a very personal way and with such detail that each and every plot turn felt realistic and believable. Up until the second part I was convinced this was going to be a five star book but unfortunately the second part went too far on the detail while creating a whole new world, sucking out all of the momentum the first half had created. Saying that, it was interesting to see the author answer the questions that most similar books would leave to your imagination. All in all this is a great, if somewhat flawed, book.
When a novel has the premise that everyone on Earth is going to die in two years, it's strange to feel that it's somehow timely. Yet I certainly thought it was apt for current affairs when reading the rapid reaction, or sometimes failure to react well, of the characters in this book when confronted with an all consuming crisis. At least for someone who loves detailed descriptions of propellant use, the most exciting and heartening parts of the novel are the technical challenges in keeping people alive. The most disconcerting are the political dynamics that threaten to upend the entire project. At a time when I'd love to think that we can exert some collective, coordinated action to address pressing problems, it's a reminder that there's a lot of potential and a lot of challenges remaining.
As a story, Seveneves benefits from tremendous imagination and beautiful description of the unfamiliar environments and the ways that characters navigate them. The characters themselves are sometimes hard to follow (there are many!) but it's compelling enough to keep you page-turning. I think if there was one weakness, it'd be that the neatness is just a bit overdone. By the end, it feels like everything tied together in a way that could be amazing, but feels a little bit forced. I take it as a reminder that while plotlines can resolve themselves in an elegant way in fiction, it rarely will in reality.
The plot was great! I'd always wondered what major transitions, of any kind, would look like. And being a fan of science, this hit the mark.
I'm a science fan who doesn't want the nitty-gritty details of the sciences involved, nor do I want to spend time making sure the science is accurate or viable. I want it to be thought provoking and support the plot. Interestingly, this book was all over the place in this area for me.
It seemed the author was thinking out loud, walking thru the situations to solve the various issues of what it would take to make all the transitions necessary. I liked some of the detail but not paragraphs and paragraphs that stalled plot over and over. I'm sure someone who likes to deep dive will really enjoy this aspect of the book.
this could have easily been two books, and the first one of them would have gotten a five star rating from me. The initial story is gripping and well-paced, with characters we grow to like, but the “epilogue” tells a completely different story, with new and weaker characters that goes on for two thirds of the book.
Though I liked the book overall, I felt that the second half was poorly developed. There were extensive descriptions of the new technology, but very little character and plot development. I mean, the plot for the second half can be summarized in one or two sentences—that's how little actually happened.
I almost gave up about 300p then again about 600p but I finished the book , from cover to cover.
I do not have any problem with expositions in any book (I actually like it ) but I honestly find that Kim Stanley Robinson does a better job on this than Neal Stephenson (taking Seveneves as a starting point) as I think that KSR when describing Space, ships, planets, etc is way more interesting, compelling and clear. I find the expositions on Seveneves almost boring and with too many ramifications that at the end were not even important to the plot.
On the other spectrum when the plot is actually happening and there is an argument Neal does an amazing job. I would say this book could be like 300p shorter.
For the last third that got so much criticism I do not think it is bad but I sympathize with those who say that it could be just another book.
This was the best book I have read in years! Stephenson's vision of what the near future would be like in the face of apocalypse is more realistic and well thought-out than any other apocalypse type book I have read by far (and I've read a few).
Within this grand view of the world he portrays, piles of imaginative concepts and inventions are thrown in, from developments in robotics to human genetic modification. These little side-inventions contribute largely to how realistic this world feels.
The characters that drive this story are very well-developed, in some cases so much so that their traits take a life of their own. There is a refreshing number of strong and deep female characters, and for any fans of Bill Nye or Neil DeGrasse Tyson, there is a character that seems like an amalgamation of those two as well.
To read a book that was this well-researched and imaginative really forces the reader to push the boundaries of their own imagination, and in many ways, that is the whole purpose of fiction. Despite the large size of this book, I was upset when it ended. I just wanted to know every detail of the world the author created and I never wanted the joy of reading such a creative work to end.
I have a whole family of feelings about this book. I guess overall my rating of a 4 suggests mostly satisfaction. My 5th form English teacher Mrs Brown used to wear a tee shirt that read “I may not be perfect but parts of me are excellent”. This book is a bit like that, although Mrs Brown was a 5 stars. Lots of great ideas but missing the finesse to make them all sing together, and yet mostly satisfying but not completely. I think the thing the author does best is imagine a 5,000 year future that feels real and he tells a story that makes it mostly come alive. Thanks for the recommendation Jonah.
Ah, Neal Stephenson. “Lange lange boeken met ingewikkelde ingewikkelde plots”, zo zit die mens in mijn hoofd. De schuld van Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle en (vooral) Anathem.
Zijn eerste werken, helemaal in de sfeer van cyberpunk (ah, the memories), had ik gelezen toen ze uitkwamen, en Cryptonomicon ook en de drie boeken van de Baroque Cycle ook, maar door door Anathem ben ik niet geraakt. En ik besefte heel lang niet dat de mens van Snow Crash dezelfde mens van System of the World was, zo verschillend vind ik ze geschreven. Net zoals ik het wel ergens intellectueel kan bevatten dat Stephenson de mens van Mongoliad is, maar het niet echt helemaal visceraal besefte.
Het was dan ook met een zekere “ahem ik vraag me af waar ik me deze keer aan kan verwachten” dat ik aan Seveneves begon. Want ah ja, naar goede gewoonte had ik geen korte inhoud, reviews of opinies gelezen.
Bijkt: 't is het einde van de wereld, en wat er daarna gebeurt. Net op een mystieke manier of zo (alhoewel, misschien, zei hij ‘spoiler alert' knipogend), maar op een zo realistisch mogelijke harde SF-manier.
Er vliegt iets in de Maan — een zwart gat, iets anders, maakt niet uit: het gevolg is dat de Maan in zeven grote stukken uiteen barst, en dat zeer snel duidelijk wordt dat de hele mensheid niet zo lang meer heeft. De brokstukken botsen namelijk tegen mekaar, vallen daarbij uiteen in kleinere stukken, die ook tegen mekaar botsen en lang verhaal kort: zeer binnenkort zal er met aan zekerheid grenzende waarschijnlijkheid een situatie ontstaan waarbij er zoveel brokstukken zijn dat het onvermijdelijk is dat er ergens binnen een jaar of twee een kettingsreactie komt waarbij een groot deel van die kleine en grote brokstukken op de Aarde gaan neerregenen, en dat het geen week duurt of de hele aardoppervlakte staat in brand, de zeeën verdampen, einde van dit hoofdstuk leven op Aarde.
Twee jaar om een noodplan uit te werken, met technologie die niet zeer veel verder staat dan wij op dit moment.
Volgen spannende avonturen in probleemoplossen, pragmatiek en politiek. In ruwweg twee helften van gelijke grootte: de race naar de ruimte om zoveel mogelijk mensen te redden, en dan wat er tijdens de cruciale eerste jaren gebeurt met die mensen in de ruimte. En om het helemaal af te maken: ergens dik voorbij de helft van het boek begint een hoofdstuk met het equivalent van “...en vijfduizend jaar later...”.
Wat u dus eigenlijk twee boeken in één geeft: een apocalyptisch verhaal en een genesis-achtig verhaal. Het eerste heeft niet zo heel veel happy ends, het tweede is wat utopischer en open van einde.
Geen groots of fantastisch boek, daarvoor vind ik de genetische woo-woo in het tweede deel té veel woo-woo, en zoals (helaas) vaak bij Stephenson is het idee gelijk veel beter dan hoe het uiteindelijk allemaal afloopt. Maar geen verkeerd boek, hoegenaamd niet. Content het gelezen te hebben. En voor wie bang was van Stephenson na zijn moeilijke boeken: Seveneves leest als een (ruimte)trein.
“The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason”
This captivating opening line sets the stage for what I believed would be yet another exceptional 5-star book by Stephenson.
The book consists of three parts. The first part reveals that the world has only two years left until the complete annihilation of humanity. The central question is: How do we ensure the survival of humanity?
Part 2 begins with the apocalypse and the aftermath, while Part 3 presents Stephenson's vision of humanity's development after 5000 years.
I love speculative fiction, especially when it delves into profound philosophical questions. It's okay if you don't grasp everything immediately; in fact, I enjoy nerdy elements. “Anathem” is one of my favorite books because of these aspects.
So, what's the issue with this book? Ensuring the continuation of humanity does indeed pose a grand question.
The first part covers about a quarter, and the last part around one-third of the book. That leaves roughly half (a bit less) for the second part. In the initial part, Stephenson explains potential solutions for humanity's survival. It has a good pace and provides ample food for thought: how does humanity confront an impending end? Of course, in Stephenson's signature style, he delves into technical and scientific topics. However, as the story progresses, there's an excessive focus on engineering-like solutions, with every “solution” being over-analyzed. This begins bothering me somewhere in the latter part of the first section and doesn't stop.
There are explanations about orbits, orbital plane changes, apogee, perigee, Newtonian physics in weightlessness (very important for matial arts in space), solar flares and Stephenson's endless obsession with chains, chain links, and bullwhips (I wonder what Freud would have thought about that). While it's all quite interesting, the middle section of the book suffers from an overload of “instruction manual”-like technical explanations. Perhaps it would have been better to dedicate more pages to the first part and further explore the social and political consequences of the impending disaster. Also, a few extra pages for the third part could have given it more substance. Alternatively, about 250 pages could have been trimmed.
On the other hand, the end of the second part was fascinating, though it left me feeling like I emerged from a sort of IKEA-desert.
The third part was more speculative. Despite its 300 pages, which could have been a book on its own, the storyline felt thin and one-dimensional. It seemed more like an appendix than the culmination of an epic tale.
What began as a 5-star book gradually dwindled to 3.5 stars in my view. It's by no means a bad book, but given my high expectations, it was somewhat disappointing.