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.

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 clichés.” — 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

[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 .

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 clichés.

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.

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.

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.

Seveneves can be fascinating. . . . Insights into the human character shine like occasional full moons.

[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.

This is hard sci-fi in a real and welcome sense, ruled by unremitting physical laws, unlike the negotiable rules of the action thriller.

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.

This is hard sci-fi in a real and welcome sense, ruled by unremitting physical laws, unlike the negotiable rules of the action thriller.

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.

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.

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 clichés.

A daring feat of speculative fiction…ANATHEM offers the reader a luscious arrangement of words, jokes, and speculations.

Electrifying . . . hilarious...a picaresque novel about code making and code breaking, set both during World War II and during the present day.

A hell of a read.

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.

08/01/2015
The moon is struck by an unknown object and destroyed, leaving humanity two years to prepare for the inescapable meteor shower that will wipe out the surface of the earth. An international collaborative effort to launch a small fleet of arks into orbit to save a remnant of human culture is threatened by internal politics, clashing personalities, and natural disasters. Millennia later, descendants of the surviving colonists—the new human races, plural—attempt to recolonize the planet but face their own set of obstacles as they make first contact with a very different Earth. Mary Robinette Kowal and Will Damron narrate the present-day exodus and far-future return phases of the book, respectively; both readers help give a warm human tone to a story that's often grim and occasionally bogged down by discussions of orbital mechanics. VERDICT Recommended for fans of the author, those who appreciate hard science in their sf, and readers looking for a space story that doesn't need to leave Earth's orbit to be epic. ["The huge scope and enormous depth of the latest novel from Stephenson is impressive even from an author known for wallowing in the details": LJ 4/15/15 starred review of the Morrow hc.]—Jason Puckett, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta

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