I’m about 200 pages from finishing a review copy of this. Loving it.
Combining an apocalyptic thriller with a speculative vision of a believable possible future, Seveneves has enough hard science to make Weir’s The Martian look like a Big Bang Theory screenplay. It is full of action but not as silly preposterous as REAMDE. Plus, there is a Neal deGrasse Tyson character and an Elon Musk/Richard Branson hybrid.
I enjoyed Reamde, but parts of it read like a “novel about guns.”
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If Neal could write faster than I can read I would be set.
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It takes off around page 200.
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I couldn’t be happier. There is no other author I look forward to reading more than Neal Stephenson. He isn’t the quickest writer, but more often than not it is some of the most thoughtful and interesting writing you can get your hands on. It isn’t for everyone, but I really love it. I really can’t wait.
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Why are you hating on The Martian? Or am I missing the joke in your excellent parody of an overblown hyperbolic book review? I guess I will get to compare when the Stephenson book comes out.
Cryptonomicon was the book that my future wife was reading when I met her. I had happened to have just finished it. I don’t know how we got to talking about it because the party we were at didn’t have anyone that would have been interested in science fiction but it became our shibboleth and allowed us to recognize that the other was a person we would like to get to know better. It worked out. if I ever meet the seemingly incredibly reclusive Neil Stephenson I will have to carefully thank him.
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I think Stephenson has entered Stephen King territory; editors run screaming from his editions, and thus they needlessly turn into billion page tomes. Reamde probably could have lost at least 100 pages, same with Anathem, and not suffered. The Baroque Cycle could have easily lost a full 500 pages, and would have benefited greatly from it.
I agree though, his earlier stuff was a bit more interesting. Though, I will say, Anathem was a brilliant remix of A Canticle for Leibowitz, though the ending was… er… Stephensenian.
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I enjoyed the Martian, especially the space science. Seveneves has even more explicit descriptions of the specifics of surviving off-planet. I did find the main character of the Martian to be a bit too much of a geek bro. The disco jokes wore thin quickly and the “geez, Spock isn’t from Star Wars…” level of humor was annoying. IMHO, Seveneves has even more compelling science and way fewer geek jokes. Thus the Big Bang Theory comparison.
I’m not sure how my comment was hyperbolic, considering that it is just my opinion and by no means exaggerated. I was trying to give a sense of the book with no spoilers…
Wait… I was told not to judge a book by its cover…
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Perhaps hyperbole was incorrect. Your expression - <> has enough <> to make <<book in same genre with less/different use of characteristic>> look like <>. Seemed to me to be a classic phrase in book reviewing. I think I was complementing your phrasing while standing up for Martian.
Chacun son goût.
I guess I’ll find out when I read it.
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