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Seveneves

Neal Stephenson

Start date: September 1, 2015

Finish date: October 31, 2015

Discussion: Short Fiction Reads Archive

Why we're reading this: Apparently Neal Stephenson has something to teach us about orbital mechanics...for some of us, that would…more
[close] Apparently Neal Stephenson has something to teach us about orbital mechanics...for some of us, that would be everything. That is why we need so long to read it.

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What Members Thought

Jun 04, 2015 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: space-opera, transhumanism, sci-fi, biopunk, 2024-shelf, worldbuilding-sf

Re-Read 4/19/24:

I have to say it's even better on a re-read. I think the trick is in my expectations. Stephenson has a weird way in his writings, pulling certain kinds of bait-and-switches that work extremely well for some of us -- especially when we're so tired of boilerplate plotting.

This isn't any kind of standardized novelization, and for that, I love it even more.

I think I got a lot more out of this, this time. I was now looking for parallels between methods of survival from the pre-and-pos ...more

301 likes · Like · see review

Aug 01, 2016 Philip rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, dying-earth, hard-scifi, 2015-releases

3.5ish stars. Really 3 stars but I'll add .5 for pure chutzpah.

Wow. That was definitely an experience. I have to hand it to Neal Stephenson; the amount of research time that went into this must have been insane. I mean, I have no idea how accurate any of the science actually is but, I mean, it sounded good. After the first few info-dumps, however, I just kept thinking to myself, "Yes, I get it! You're smart! I'm convinced!" I'm sure there are people who are into the nitty-gritty details about as 3.5ish stars. Really 3 stars but I'll add .5 for pure chutzpah.

Wow. That was definitely an experience. I have to hand it to Neal Stephenson; the amount of research time that went into this must have been insane. I mean, I have no idea how accurate any of the science actually is but, I mean, it sounded good. After the first few info-dumps, however, I just kept thinking to myself, "Yes, I get it! You're smart! I'm convinced!" I'm sure there are people who are into the nitty-gritty details about astrophysics, robotics, orbital mechanics, genetics, etc. etc. etc., but I'm just not one of those people. Thus, I was occasionally (sometimes more than occasionally) bored out of my mind. Some of it was legitimately interesting, most of it was not.

The story at the heart of the first part of the novel was fascinating and worth telling. The story at the heart of the second part was sporadically entertaining and maybe worth telling.

The scope and ambition is just incredible. The premise is gripping. The vision and innovation is breathtaking. And that's what got me so invested. Whenever the characters were involved, doing whatever they were doing, I was sucked in. It seemed that those moments were so few and far between. Whenever I saw quotation marks while reading or heard the (honestly kind of awful) narrator change voice to portray a character, I would immediately stop zoning out and pay attention again. I get that this isn't necessarily a character driven story but I liked it best when they were involved because, to me, they were the literal embodiments of civilization's reaction to the disastrous implications the story is based on. Also, I have a huge crush on Ivy.

Having said that, I found it hard after starting over upon the commencement of part 2 to really care about the new characters and feel connected to them. It was interesting in the sense that they were descendants of the characters (blue good! red bad!) I knew and loved, but not gripping in an emotional sense to have much investment into what happened to them as long as red was utterly destroyed and humiliated into obliteration and I hope they all die horrible deaths and I hate Julia. I guess that goes for the second story in general. It was wonderful and necessary to experience the outcomes of what culminated at the end of part one. And I can't really say what would have been a better way to give us that experience. But I don't know if the story we were given was the best way.

Hidden beneath all of the science, Stephenson had a lot to say about humankind as a whole. Put under extreme pressure how would we react? Would we be able to come together as a united body for the sake of preserving everything we are? Humankind having been reduced to eight women (arguably the greatest, or luckiest, humans in existence) how would humanity transform based on their decisions and natures? 5000 years in the future, what would be different and what would be the same? It allows us to ponder on how civilization today is different from 5000 years ago.

Back to the audiobook narrator for the first part. Woof. Doob sounds like Kermit. And he's probably the best-voiced male. It was rough.

Overall: ambitious premise, commendable effort, moderately proficient execution.

Also, was it hard for anyone else to buy that (view spoiler) ...more

57 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2015 Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnfed

The DNF Review:

This is a reviewing feature I’ve been eyeballing on one of my favorite book blogs There Were Books Involved for a couple years now because I think it’s an excellent way to talk about an unfinished book fairly. I’m incredibly grateful because Nikki (the brains behind the blog, who has a most excellent name) kindly allowed me to steal the idea and questions for my own blog. As my list of “amazing books to read” continues to grow, I find I have less and less time and patience to devo ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Jul 31, 2015 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: favourites, 2023-read, 2015-read, audiobook, rereads

Reread 2023

I don’t know why I didn’t review this the first time I read it; it was one of my favourite reads of 2015.

This second time around I listened to the audiobook, which for the most part was excellent. Mary Robinette Kowal narrates the first part of the book, and for the most part does an excellent job. The exception would be the characters with British accents, which she unfortunately does very poorly. They come across almost as stuffy caricatures. But aside from that, this long and detai ...more

23 likes · Like · see review

May 25, 2015 Lindsay rated it really liked it

This is a brilliant book. Actually, to be fair, there's a brilliant book inside this book along with about 300 extra pages.

Unfortunately the 300 extra pages are filled with standard Stephenson over-long didactic info-dumps and many repetitive technical bits. Yes, I know what pykrete is. Actually, I knew what it was before reading this book. I don't need additional description every time it is mentioned. But that's all standard Stephenson fair. I was as sick of crypto and entrepreneurial startups ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2015 Robyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

3.5 stars that I'm rounding up because of the enjoyment factor. This is an epic, flawed book full of interesting ideas and even more interesting characters. The disconnect, however, between the pace of the two main stories really threw me off, along with some minor quibbles. I think that both stories would have been served better by attending to them on their own, rather than in one volume. ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2015 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

This was my first Stephenson book and I'll definitely be checking out more of his work. 5 stars goes to the exciting "end of the world" premise which immediately sucked me into the story and held my attention, along with throwing in a crash course on space travel (although I don't know how much of that was reality or stretched a bit, and some of this did get a bit tedious). And 2 to 3 stars for some of the bits that dragged on. But when there was action I found the book hard to put down, along w ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2015 Amanda rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars.

I'm a bit of a loss as to how to rate this book. Somewhere in there was a 5 star read but it just didn't play out that way for me. I think this would have been better as a trilogy. Cut out some of the blah blah blah and some part in between the 5000 years.

I listened to the audio and I wasn't crazy about the narration but I wouldn't have liked it any better in print. One good thing about audio is the ability to speed up the tedious parts.

So overall I liked but didn't love this as muc ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

May 28, 2015 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, abandoned

I'm DNFing at 20% because I'm incredibly bored by the blah blah blah monologues. The story was cool, the execution not so much. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Aug 20, 2015 Liam || Books 'n Beards rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, science-fiction, 2015, bought-2015, specfic-group-reads

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Man, that was certainly a book. I have two conflicting opinions on it.

To start off, this is probably one of my favourite books I've read this year, and in general. Parts 1 and 2 are some of the best writing I've read and the fact that I read all 870~ pages of it in a week (waaaaaaay more than my average weekly reading) probably speaks to how enjoyable and readable the book as a whole is.

Heavy spoilers from here on in.

I've never read any Stephenson before, so I don't know if Seveneves is represe ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2015 John rated it really liked it

The first 1/3: 5 stars. Total page-turner. Loved it.
The second 1/3: 2 stars. Bleh. Just wasn't into it at all.
The last 1/3: 4 stars. Started slow but had some really cool stuff in it.

All of which averages out to, uh, math math math...let's call it 4 stars.

I should also say a bit about the Audiobook narrators. There were two. The first one...I hate to be so negative, but honestly she was really bad. The cast of characters is very international, and she tried really hard to do accents for everybod ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2014 Cobwebs-in-Space-Ice rated it it was amazing

Shelves: a1-i-own-books, all-sci-fi-my-challenge, march-2015_reads, armchair-california, armchair-london, a1-edelweiss-reviewed, armchair-pacificnw-us, armchair-england, 2015_lp_spring-challenge, 2015_reads

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2019 Suzanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

There were certainly parts I liked better than others, but I'm glad I read it. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 23, 2015 Cindy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Thought provoking? Yes. Exciting? Not so much. I am glad that I opted for the audiobook, else it might have taken me 5,000 years to wade through some of the more intricate discussions on astrophysics. The book is more a thought experiment than a novel (ok many, many thoughts). If Atlas Shrugged is about Capitalism, and Anathem is about Physics, Seveneves is about Adabtability. It's a good read if you like all the tech woven with a thin bit of plot and insubstantial characters. (I liked Anathem m ...more

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Jan 01, 2016 Jessica rated it did not like it

I loved how this book started out, with a bang! but, it became equivalent to a trilogy in the sense that you like the first part, the second part is necessary filler to get you to the end but really boring a lot of times -this books' middle was tough for me to get through. too much facts. Then the end, wow has so much potential and then I will tell you when I flipped the page and it said acknowledgements I was upset. the whole book left me hanging. just when it finally got started. they never ex ...more

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Feb 08, 2022 Fred Handrick rated it it was amazing

Grooooossartig!

Die ersten beiden Teile erzählen eine hochspannende zusammenhängende mindfuck Geschichte, die mich so sehr gefesselt hat auf intellektueller Schiene wie auch im Unterhaltungswert wie schon lange kein Werk mehr. Das letzte könnte Anathem vom
Selbem Autor gewesen sein.
Der drittel Teil schliesst zwar inhaltlich mit einer marginalen Auslassung von 5000 Jahren an, beginnt erzählerisch aber enorm langsam. Wer die ersten beiden Teile mochte, wird aber belohnt.

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