Seveneves

8/10

igen nagyvonalúan 77%-nál, mondat közepén hajítottam a sarokba a sevenevest. az utolsó tíz százalékon öt nap alatt rágtam át magam. az utolsó fejezetig még úgy ahogy elment a történet, de ez már egyszerűen kibírhatatlan. tényleg a tűréshatáromon túl feszegettem a húrjaimat.

először is a könyvet olvasni olyan, mint sajtreszelővel rejszolni mintha valami szórakoztató egyetemi előadáson ülne az ember. szórakoztató, de mégiscsak előadás. ez nem regény, ez tankönyv. és ezért hullajtottam végül porba a fejét, mert az utolsó etapban már nem kap akkora hangsúlyt a tudomány, a világépítés viszont nem erőssége a hapsinak. az elmúlt pár napban már rendesen altatóként funkcionált a könyv kézbevétele, és teljesen nyomorba is döntötte az olvasási kedvemet.
(szerintem egyébként a szerkesztő is az utolsó fejezetnél dobta be a törölközőt, mert egyre több infóismétlésbe botlottam.)

másodszor is arra a megállapításra jutottam, hogy ez a keményvonalas sci-fi nem az én műfajom. jobban érdekel a sztori, a karakterek és a párbeszédek, mint a tudomány. nem azt mondom, hogy nem volt érdekes, de egy idő után már határozott mansplaining érzés töltött el minden oldalakon át tartó okfejtésnél. nyilván én nem vagyok hozzászokva ehhez a stílushoz, de rohadtul zavart.
szóval itt nem a történet a lényeg, viszont ez a nyolcszáznyolcvan oldalba sűrített tömény infódömping kurva fárasztó. pláne úgy, hogy végre történne valami érdekes, de az író úr fölteszi a kezét, hogy álljunk meg egy szóra (vagy ötezerre) és lássuk, ez az anyacsavar mire is jó, ki tekerte be, és egyébként is mi az anyacsavarok általános eredettörténete, hogyan és mi végre pattant ki az ember mint faj agyából az anyacsavar ötlete és miért hasznos ez minekünk itt a végtelen űrben, ahol ugyebár a súlytalanság állapotában szinte minden másképp működik, ezért jól meg kell fontolni, hogy az ember mint faj agyából kipattant anyacsavar, úgy is mint ötlet, megfelelő célt szolgál-e a történet fogaskerekében.

jó, most kicsit gúnyt űztem belőle, de mivel az utóbbi időben kifejezetten sok olyan regény került a kezembe, ahol leginkább is csak a tőmondatokig jutott az író a fogalmazás ördögtől származó bugyraiban, ezért szinte jólesett torgyáni körmondatokat olvasnom. kisebb problémám azzal akadt, hogy ezek a körmondatok még hosszasabb körgondolatokká alakultak és elég sokszor már abban sem voltam biztos, merre vagyok arccal.

viszont ha valaki otthon van a csillagászatban és az asztrofizikában, és sokkal jobban érdekli a tudományos háttér, mint a szereplők sorsa, akkor nyert ügye van és ez a seveneves neki való.

magyarul talán kicsit könnyebb olvasmány lett volna, de most már mindegy.
mellesleg pont ma olvastam egy rendkívül érdekes írást a bookriotön, ami végleg rádöbbentett, hogy ez tényleg nem az én könyvem, soha nem is volt az és valószínűleg nem is lesz.

Long and dense, but a fascinating level of scientific detail. I really enjoyed the thought-provoking ideas about what future evolution of humanity could be like under post-apocalyptic conditions. Well worth the effort.

This may be the best book Neal Stephenson has written. He could easily expand this with at least 2 more books. (that's not really a spoiler, is it?) However, it is a complete story already. Making this into a trilogy would probably be disappointing because he covered the timespan from the most interesting viewpoint.

First two thirds of this were surprisingly compelling, as I'm not really a fan of ‘hard sci-fi'. Unfortunately, the final section tipped over from space-thriller into techno-masturbation, and I was intensely bored with page long engineering blueprints describing exactly how the habitats were designed. Yawn.

Also: mermen? Really?!

enjoyed in fits and starts. As a “hard” SF very satisfying. Ideas concepts portrayed well. But at cost to story pace. Felt like the characterisations and the history of what happened to the key ones was also
an engineered story in order to produce the “Seven Eves” of the title. Great idea, but felt contrived, heavy hand of God [the author] and hardly invisible. Last part of the story line felt rushed to me. Perhaps deserved a book of its own covering the same timeline . Overall though an enjoyable read.

Executive Summary: Another interesting book from Mr. Stephenson, that was somehow a bit too short for me despite its 32 hour duration. This one won't be for everyone, but I'd put it on par with many of his previous books.Audio book: This was my first time listening to a book narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal. She's really excellent. So excellent, that I was pretty disappointed when it changed to Will Damron for Part 3. I'm not sure why they did this. Was Ms. Kowal too busy to finish recording? Was it intentional?That isn't to say Mr. Damron is a bad narrator. I just didn't like him as much as Ms. Kowal, and the change in narration was jarring. If there was any place in the book it was appropriate to change, it was with Part 3, but I think it would have been better suited if they had just stuck with Ms. Kowal.Full ReviewI've been a fan of Mr. Stephenson ever since picking up [b:Snow Crash 830 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1424472532s/830.jpg 493634] back in college. I haven't read all of his books, but I've enjoyed all but 1 of those that I have.I had no idea what this book was about when I volunteered to review it. Much like most of his work, it's long. The start is a bit slow, and as usual it goes off on tangents and into way more detail than is necessary on things. In some of his books, I've enjoyed those tangents and the excess of detail. In others, less so. This one was somewhere in the middle for me.This is the kind of thing that will turn many readers away early on. I was never bored myself, but I wasn't really engaged in the book until nearly halfway. In a book this long, that will be too much of a commitment for many. However, I suspect if you enjoy the detail and tangents, you'll be engaged much sooner.This book is split into three parts. The first part is essentially a present day disaster story. The second is largely a space opera, and the third is a bit of a post apocalyptic tale.Many authors might have focused on one aspect of this story. Instead of giving us bits of history that help shaped the world of part 3, we live many of the details in parts 1 and 2. For me personally, I would have liked part 1 to be shorter with more time spent on part 3. Part 2 was my favorite of the book, but that may be because I felt despite being a third of the book, part 3 ended too soon. I have questions still. A lot of them. Is Mr. Stephenson planning a sequel that will contain some of these answers? I hope so.This isn't a case of a long book that abruptly ends though. For me the issue is that Mr. Stephenson did such a good job with the world building that I want more. I felt like there wasn't enough. I would have happily sacrificed much of the present day (which I found slower anyways), for more time in the future story with the world he created.Mr. Stephenson doesn't spend all the time on world building either. He develops several interesting characters that are used to make most of the story character-driven. We have a largely female cast, and somewhat diverse background for most of them. Overall, while this isn't my favorite Neal Stephenson book, I really enjoyed it, and I hope we get another book set in the same world that he built in part 3.

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.

In this epic sci-fi novel, we follow present day Earth as the moon explodes due to some unknown force. However, the various pieces all loosely keep their same assembly and their same orbit around Earth. Scientists quickly realize that in about 2 years time, all of those pieces will start slamming into each other at such a high velocity that they will start raining down on Earth, raising the temperature and wiping out all life. Therefore, they have 2 years to get as many people into and around the ISS with the proper equipment to survive for thousands of years as they can. The first half of the book follows this 2 year span, as well as about 5 years after the Hard Rain. The second half of the book has a huge, 5000 year time jump, showing what has become of humanity and their endeavor to reinhabit Earth.

I absolutely loved the first half of this book. It is definitely a hard sci-fi, with so much science involved. It was so fascinating to see how Stephenson showcased the human fight for survival, as well as the psyche as they watch their entire home demolished. It was masterfully written. This premise could become incredibly impersonal because of the scale, but Stephenson does a great job of making the characters that have made it into space feel very relatable and human.

However, after the time jump, I felt like the story took a very strange turn. Without going into too many details, there ends up being distinct human races with very different characteristics and mannerisms. To me, this seemed very strange because of the tight quarters they had to live in for thousands of years. I also felt like the plot got boring in this second half. There were obviously all new characters that I had a hard time connecting with. It just didn't work as well for me.

Overall, I felt like this book was a very ambitious story to tell, and Stephenson did a commendable job with it. The second half just fell short for me.

Fantastic story. Loved it.

A technocrat's pie in the sky. A missed opportunity: Too much technobabble and too little of the truly interesting aspects. Human ingenuity and futurology is cool, but the book is 800+ pages and some of the technology reads like a well-written wikipedia article with no narrative function. That being said, there is enough interesting ideas and characters that make the book worth reading.

Mmm, ok - I couldn't finish this book. It was like a large-scale The Martian (i.e. how do we solve this big problem with science), but without any of the humor or a character that I found compelling. (What I loved about The Martian was the zany first person irreverent narrator)

I was bored, skimming ahead hoping it would get more interesting... and I just gave up. Starting to think I need to give up on reading Stephenson (I loved Crytponomicon but can't get through any of his other works.)

I really enjoyed this book. The first 2/3 were fantastic and the last third was good as well although the change in the narrative took me a little while to get used to.

Truly an amazing book!

I read this after Adam Savage and the crew at Tested.com recommended it, and boy was it worth it.
If you like technical talk, if you loved The Martian, go read this!

My only problem with this book was that I felt the third part could've been a separate book, a sequel if you may.
But the first two parts of the novel will make you laugh and cry, feel anxious and tense as never before, and you will hate some of the characters even more than Umbridge (trust me on this).

Definitely going to read more Neal Stephenson books after this one!

For fans of Stephenson this is a must read! My boy other Neal has a penchant for trying to communicate where in IRL science and history he’s drawing concepts and also for what I lovingly call academic ADHD where you can practically feel the passion he has for any number of oddly specific subjects or ideas. I absolutely love that about him, but go in to this story with that in mind and just get lost in the musings of someone with something to say and a genuine love for scientific history, “the Great Ideas” found therein, and the sometimes bizarre conclusions that can come from dwelling on those ideas.

First book of 2023 done, and I spent the first 75% of it thinking it was another book and waiting for a particular plot point to happen. Given it's almost 900 pages and I was still hooked even though that wrong plot was “taking forever” to develop, I'd say that speaks volumes for the book. I really enjoyed it. Great way to start off the year!

“At the end it is just a Neal Stephenson book”

And that's it.

Except this one is a bit different. For once, I enjoy most of the writing and never felt this “why is it written like this” feeling. But on the other hand this book very much lacked a good editor because there are a lot of parts where rambling goes on for 10 or more pages that has absolutely nothing to do with the story, or any characters or pretty much anything. Something that could be written in 2 pages.

The other, and usual, complain is the ending. This is pretty much expected that a book by him just ends so abruptly that it feels like ran out of ideas and therefore a proper ending. It feels rushed, like in three pages we are done, while other things take 50 pages to explain.

Still, this is the first book by him where I can give four stars without feeling bad, because even though with all my complaining I really enjoyed it.

Fantastisk bok som tyvärr är alldeles för lång. Stora delar består i princip bara av att Stephenson vill säga “Titta vad smart jag är!”. Ändå lyckas “Seveneves” på något sätt vara en sjujävla läsupplevelse.

Not my favourite Neal Stephenson book. His style has certain features (or flaws, if you want), and here they seemed a bit more pronounced. Also, he has apparently written a book, then decided it needs another book to explain how things got set up like that. The result is massive, and there's plenty of detailed explanations of various things.

The main premise is really interesting though, and I found the first two parts in particular gripping. The beginning of the third part, not so much, but fortunately it picked up speed in the end. All in all worth the rather hefty amount of time reading this book required. For Neal Stephenson fans, but the rest of you should probably start from somewhere else in his bibliography.

An epic hard sci-fi!

Epic, sweeping science fiction

3.5*. From one point of view this book is truly fascinating. An amazing study of ‘what if moon blows up' studied from so many angles it is really mind boggling how the author processed it. From a different perspective the narrative is rather dull being more of a chronicle of humanity at the brink than a novel. This created a weird mix of feelings for me. I was very interested how they can tackle different problems, what kind of issue can arise, etc. but I was not really entertained by the writing itself. The third part of the book changed into more of a pure sci-fi/fantasy story 5k years later. This brings some freshness to the writing, but then, imho loses the hard sci-fi part and believability. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed going through this chronicle as a whole. It could make into a good TV show.

The book is definitely not a masterpiece from beginning to end, but it does achieve moments of greatness at times, especially in the second of the three parts. The science is not overbearing and the story is epic and powerful. Having said that, the writing style is a little dry so some of the more descriptive parts lose some steam. Overall a fantastic achievement from the author!