Seveneves, Neal Stephenson (4.0)
This book may have the best first sentence ever. I don’t
want to give it away, but basically something extremely shocking happens so
that people realize that earth will be unlivable in 2 years. Imagine the whole
world coming to this understanding and working together to try to save the few
people it can. The first third of the book covers humanity’s efforts to save
what it can during those 2 years – mostly off world. The rest of the book
covers both the near and long term effects of the devastation. Amazing how much
was put into the details of space stations and issues with long-term space
living. Stephenson also addresses many of the social issues involved with
maintaining humanity. Oddly, it isn’t until two thirds of the book that the
mean of the title is revealed! In usual Stephenson style, the book is long,
interesting and full of technically accurate details. My only complaint is that
some of the technical accounts were a bit long-winded for me, but the plot and
characters were riveting and kept me reading at a fast pace.
