Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic-a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. 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. A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant. Editorial Reviews No slim fables or nerdy novellas for Stephenson: his visions are epic, and he requires whole worlds-and, in this case, solar systems-to accommodate them....Wise, witty, utterly well-crafted science fiction. - Kirkus Reviews Stephenson's remarkable novel is deceptively complex, a disaster story and transhumanism tale that serves as the delivery mechanism for a series of technical and sociological visions... there's a ton to digest, but Stephenson's lucid prose makes it worth the while. - Publishers Weekly (starred review) The huge scope and enormous depth of the latest novel from Stephenson is impressive... a major work of hard sf that all fans of the genre should read. - Library Journal (starred review) Well-paced over three parts covering 5,000 years of humanity's future, Stephenson's monster of a book is likely to dominate your 2015 sf-reading experience. - Booklist [Stephenson] plays with hard ballistics, hard genetics, hard sociology. And what thrills me, is that he makes it interesting. That he makes life and death in space about actual life and death . - NPR Books Written in a wry, erudite voice...Seveneves will please fans of hard science fiction, but this witty, epic tale is also sure to win over readers new to Stephenson's work. - Washington Post Seveneves offers at once [Stephenson's] most conventional science-fiction scenario and a superb exploration of his abiding fascination with systems, philosophies and the limits of technology.... Stephenson's central characters, mostly women, serve as a welcome corrective to science-fiction clichs. - Chicago Tribune Seveneves can be fascinating. . . . Insights into the human character shine like occasional full moons. - Boston Globe [A] novel of big ideas, but it's also a novel of personalities, of heart, and of a particular kind of hope that only comes from a Stephenson story. Science fiction fans everywhere will love this book. - BookPage Stephenson... knows the life-sustaining power of storytelling, since storytelling is what he does...Today's post-apocalyptic stories routinely aim to convey the loss of the old world through the personal losses of a few characters. Stephenson makes you feel the loss of Earth on the scale it deserves. - Salon This is hard sci-fi in a real and welcome sense, ruled by unremitting physical laws, unlike the negotiable rules of the action thriller. - Nature Stephenson's storytelling style combines the conversational and the panoramic, allowing him to turn his piercing gaze on the familiar aspects of a strange future, encompassing the barely conceivable detail by detail. - Seattle Times - From the Publisher Seveneves offers at once [Stephenson's] most conventional science-fiction scenario and a superb exploration of his abiding fascination with systems, philosophies and the limits of technology.... Stephenson's central characters, mostly women, serve as a welcome corrective to science-fiction clichs. - Chicago Tribune Well-paced over three parts covering 5,000 years of humanity's future, Stephenson's monster of a book is likely to dominate your 2015 sf-reading experience. - Booklist Stephenson's storytelling style combines the conversational and the panoramic, allowing him to turn his piercing gaze on the familiar aspects of a strange future, encompassing the barely conceivable detail by detail. - Seattle Times This is hard sci-fi in a real and welcome sense, ruled by unremitting physical laws, unlike the negotiable rules of the action thriller. - Nature Well-paced over three parts covering 5,000 years of humanity's future, Stephenson's monster of a book is likely to dominate your 2015 sf-reading experience. - Booklist Written in a wry, erudite voice...Seveneves will please fans of hard science fiction, but this witty, epic tale is also sure to win over readers new to Stephenson's work. - Washington Post Seveneves offers at once [Stephenson's] most conventional science-fiction scenario and a superb exploration of his abiding fascination with systems, philosophies and the limits of technology.... Stephenson's central characters, mostly women, serve as a welcome corrective to science-fiction clichs. - Chicago Tribune This is thought experiment as extreme sport, speculation taken so far it seems to verge on something else entirely...we expect setup and payoff on a grand scale [from Neal Stephenson], and on that front he reliably delivers...Although the first two sections touch on politics and governance, in the last section the ambition of the novel ramps up, and widens out to include in its already broad survey topics including race, psychology, interplanetary diplomacy and evolutionary theory. Much of what seemed incidental in the earlier portions becomes, in the last third, the basis for a future civilization, and the way the puzzle fits together is ingenious...Seveneves would be a great way to pass the time while waiting for the end of the world. - The New York Times Book Review - Charles Yu [Stephenson] plays with hard ballistics, hard genetics, hard sociology. And what thrills me, is that he makes it interesting. That he makes life and death in space about actual life and death . - NPR Books Stephenson... knows the life-sustaining power of storytelling, since storytelling is what he does...Today's post-apocalyptic stories routinely aim to convey the loss of the old world through the personal losses of a few characters. Stephenson makes you feel the loss of Earth on the scale it deserves. - Salon Written in a wry, erudite voice...Seveneves will please fans of hard science fiction, but this witty, epic tale is also sure to win over readers new to Stephenson's work. - Washington Post Seveneves can be fascinating. . . . Insights into the human character shine like occasional full moons. - Boston Globe [A] novel of big ideas, but it's also a novel of personalities, of heart, and of a particular kind of hope that only comes from a Stephenson story. Science fiction fans everywhere will love this book. - BookPage This is hard sci-fi in a real and welcome sense, ruled by unremitting physical laws, unlike the negotiable rules of the action thriller. - Nature Lib A daring feat of speculative fiction...ANATHEM offers the reader a luscious arrangement of words, jokes, and speculations. - Boston Globe on ANATHEM Electrifying . . . hilarious...a picaresque novel about code making and code breaking, set both during World War II and during the present day. - New York Times Book Review on CRYPTONOMICON A hell of a read. - Wired on CRYPTONOMICON It's hard to sum up a 1,000 page tome in a short review, so if you don't feel like reading this rather long one, I'll boil it down to three words: I loved it. - Tor.com on REAMDE A cosmic cataclysm hits the moon and shatters it into seven chunks, spelling doom for Earth in two years. The only hope for the future of humankind is a makeshift ark created from orbiting space stations. Narrators Mary Robinette Kowal and Will Damron effectively tell the story of a group of people who know they're the last hope of humanity. The narrators make it clear how hard the characters work to keep panic and despair at bay, even though their emotions bubble under the surface. If the characters seem untouched by the horror of knowing their planet faces destruction, it's because they know they must succeed in their mission--or all is lost. The writing is outstanding, the acting perfect. This is one of Neal Stephenson's best. M.S. AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine - DECEMBER 2015 - AudioFile