Justin Younger reviewed Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Review of 'Seveneves' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I hated less than I enjoyed. Could have been great if it were under half as long.
861 pages
English language
Published July 6, 2015
"What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . . Five thousand years later, their progeny--seven distinct races now three billion strong--embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth" --
I hated less than I enjoyed. Could have been great if it were under half as long.
All of the positive raving for this book is true! All of the criticisms are also true! Stephenson is his own thing and he breaks all the rules of fiction. He breaks them in a couple different ways in this book. When it's great it's REALLY GREAT. When it's not so great, it kinda sucks. At different moments, I wanted to give this five stars. It's a hell of a book and I absolutely recommend it to any "hard" SF fans. Know that the exposition can really be a brick wall in the storytelling and it's not artfully done at all. But Stephenson has certainly earned himself a place on the hard-core SF shelf with this one (if he hadn't already).
Enormous and still a little unsatisfying but a place this full, one that demonstrates such a love of science, adventure, and the dark side of humanity has no other ranking than 5 stars.
This was quite a good book, with lots of grand topics and epic feats as ordinary people struggle against the forces of nature. It has a decent set characters, though it changes part way, and there is no single main character across the whole story. In typical hard-scifi fashion, a lot of time is spent describing scientific concepts, such as orbital mechanics or genetics. I was OK with this, but your mileage may vary.
For a more in-depth review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2019/07/book-review-seveneves-by-neal-stephenson.html