pharmdad2007's review against another edition
5.0
My favorite space novel since The Martian. Breathtaking in scope but still very readable and enjoyable. Will definitely read again!
tamiror's review against another edition
4.0
A well though-out near-future apocalypse, that spirals out of control with drastic effect in the last 200 pages or so... Well worth a read, but some would likely prefer avoiding the "adventurous" spin that is the novel's final act, be it for its audacity or for its somewhat smarmy final scene. This kind of gambit may have worked exceedingly well in "Anathem", but is far from effective here, and costs Stephenson my 5th star.
mst's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
mazza57's review against another edition
2.0
I had this book recommended to me, to be fair it is not a book that I would normally pick but i was intrigued by the synopsis. I thought the first part of the book leading up to the "hard Rain" was well done and pretty well balanced. I struggled with the absolute mass of technological descriptions which i felt could have been cut by 90% and still have got the idea across. I was much more interested and invested in the character driven scenes. Part three was for me just a mess. The author should try putting a few chapters into this and perhaps something to draw the writing together. I found that after the first hundred or so pages of this 300 page chapter I could not have cared less about what was going on. The action was simply a drone in my head.
About 500 pages of this book could be jettisoned through one of the arklets and perhaps what remained would be a readable whole.
About 500 pages of this book could be jettisoned through one of the arklets and perhaps what remained would be a readable whole.
kimu's review
5.0
It's going to take me a while to collect my thoughts on this book, but what I'll go with for now is: wow.
Note: Yes, it really took me 5 days to read this book, which is unreasonable given the length of the book. I blame Neal Stephenson for the amount of sleep debt that I've just incurred.
Note: Yes, it really took me 5 days to read this book, which is unreasonable given the length of the book. I blame Neal Stephenson for the amount of sleep debt that I've just incurred.
kazalicious's review against another edition
3.0
If Windows Media Player hadn't screwed up the order of tracks- seriously going from part 2 to part 3 to part 2, this probably would have made a lot more sense. By the time I got frustrated with the "way" the book was written, with all the jumping around and found the problem, I knew what happened in some parts and wasn't going to listen again to all in the right order. That being said, Part 1 was terrific!
13burkhart's review against another edition
4.0
This book is very well written. Although in my opinion, lackluster in the end. After all that build up... A very poor climax and conclusion.
grandgranini's review
5.0
I haven't read anything by Neal Stephenson since "Cryptonomicon", but I might have to catch up on his work because "Seveneves" is excellent. Stephenson is doing his best Robert A. Heinlein impression here, and very successfully so. The books is long and rather technical at times but I was never bored. Highly recommended.
leo9_1's review against another edition
5.0
An amazing, sprawling and intricate thought experiment about how the human race might overcome the apocalypse. Grueling and highly tense in it's best bits, and a little self indulgently fantastical at it's worst.
Everything about this book is calculated to make the space nerd's heart do somersaults. The ISS features as a loveably familiar 21st-century Enterprise, and the ingenious ideas built on it build to a relentlessly ambitious climax by the end of the book.
The characters have been called stilted, and somewhat mocked for their keen resemblance to modern figures, but I found this effective in helping connect emotionally to such an enormous catastrophe. When it comes to people, and to society, it's a representational style, rather than a realistic one that the book takes. But the scope of the work demands it, I think.
In terms of Stephenson's other work, this is a much more intelligible, relevant Anathem. It's mere size gives it away as a novel in that mold rather than a Snow Crash/Diamond Age-alike. But some of the awe of the Diamond Age is there, as well as a little of the caricatured intensities of Snow Crash.
I really, really enjoyed this novel, maybe not because it's of the best quality I've ever read, but it suited me well in many ways by being detailed, geeky, imaginative and ultimately optimistic about the human condition.
Everything about this book is calculated to make the space nerd's heart do somersaults. The ISS features as a loveably familiar 21st-century Enterprise, and the ingenious ideas built on it build to a relentlessly ambitious climax by the end of the book.
The characters have been called stilted, and somewhat mocked for their keen resemblance to modern figures, but I found this effective in helping connect emotionally to such an enormous catastrophe. When it comes to people, and to society, it's a representational style, rather than a realistic one that the book takes. But the scope of the work demands it, I think.
In terms of Stephenson's other work, this is a much more intelligible, relevant Anathem. It's mere size gives it away as a novel in that mold rather than a Snow Crash/Diamond Age-alike. But some of the awe of the Diamond Age is there, as well as a little of the caricatured intensities of Snow Crash.
I really, really enjoyed this novel, maybe not because it's of the best quality I've ever read, but it suited me well in many ways by being detailed, geeky, imaginative and ultimately optimistic about the human condition.