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A review by themtj
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
3.0
Woof. Stephenson's books are a chore.
Let's start with what I loved:
The premise! The moon blowing up and the world falling into political anarchy is a great concept. Even better, fast-forwarding 5,000 years until the earth has been terraformed and watching people repopulate the earth.
What I didn't love... excessive and excruciating detail on scientific miscellany. I don't know who the audience for that is, but it isn't me. He seems to get his jollies doing scientific research and consultation about speculative problems. The issue is that it isn't interesting... at all. More than likely, it will date the book in years to come. That is the danger in hitching yourself to "hard science" rather than speculative sci-fi. Also, you open yourself to criticism since the areas he chooses to go "hard sci fi" on are arbitrary. For instance, would people speak 21st-century English 5 centuries from now?
The characters are mostly forgettable and the political jockeying is a substantive portion of the plot but isn't particularly interesting either since the reader has no vested interest in any particular party or outcome.
I think I would have loved this book if it were a 250-300 page thought experiment or else a series of books. No reason these three parts couldn't have been a fascinating trilogy. But writing a single volume of this length makes the reader question the length of certain sections and reluctant to ask for more of anything.
Finally, give us some damn chapter breaks! Seriously, what the hell. I was reading this at bedtime and my wife said, "are you ready to goto sleep?" I said, "yeah, just let me finish this chapter." I flipped, and flipped, and flipped, only to discover that I was 300 pages away from the next chapter break.
Let's start with what I loved:
The premise! The moon blowing up and the world falling into political anarchy is a great concept. Even better, fast-forwarding 5,000 years until the earth has been terraformed and watching people repopulate the earth.
What I didn't love... excessive and excruciating detail on scientific miscellany. I don't know who the audience for that is, but it isn't me. He seems to get his jollies doing scientific research and consultation about speculative problems. The issue is that it isn't interesting... at all. More than likely, it will date the book in years to come. That is the danger in hitching yourself to "hard science" rather than speculative sci-fi. Also, you open yourself to criticism since the areas he chooses to go "hard sci fi" on are arbitrary. For instance, would people speak 21st-century English 5 centuries from now?
The characters are mostly forgettable and the political jockeying is a substantive portion of the plot but isn't particularly interesting either since the reader has no vested interest in any particular party or outcome.
I think I would have loved this book if it were a 250-300 page thought experiment or else a series of books. No reason these three parts couldn't have been a fascinating trilogy. But writing a single volume of this length makes the reader question the length of certain sections and reluctant to ask for more of anything.
Finally, give us some damn chapter breaks! Seriously, what the hell. I was reading this at bedtime and my wife said, "are you ready to goto sleep?" I said, "yeah, just let me finish this chapter." I flipped, and flipped, and flipped, only to discover that I was 300 pages away from the next chapter break.