7 Reasons to Read Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves
Neal Stephenson has been one of the defining voices in speculative fiction ever since he disassembled and rebuilt the cyberpunk thriller with his instant-classic breakthrough Snow Crash. These days, the release of a new Stephenson novel is a special event, to be anticipated and cherished. His latest lengthy future epic, Seveneves, arrives this month. Here are, appropriately, seven reasons we can’t wait to read it.
Seveneves
Hardcover $37.50
Seveneves
Hardcover $37.50
1) The explosive opening
Seveneves‘ opening sentence is one of the all-time great attention-grabbers in sci-fi: “The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.” If you can stop reading there (or even after the brief prologue, which ends with the chilling image of a massive cloud of debris reflecting oddly in the night sky), you have far more willpower than I do.
2) The sheer scope
You can always count on Neal Stephenson to deliver a doorstopper that’s worth its considerable weight in hardcover. At nearly 900 fast-moving pages, Seveneves joins the ranks of Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, Anathem, and Reamde as a genre epic that will envelop you for days at a time.
3) The audacity of the storytelling
It’s no spoiler to say that, at a critical point in the novel, many characters have died, along with much of the human race (this is an end-of-the-world tale, after all). As if that wasn’t gutsy enough, then you turn the page and are greeted with the words “5,000 years later.” It takes a special sort of writerly confidence—in ability, in the audience—to pull off a stunt like that. Stephenson makes it look easy.
4) The real science
Heaven forbid we ever have to deal with the reality of the moon unexpectedly exploding, its fragmented chunks entering Earth’s orbit and slowly creeping toward crashdown over the course of two years. But if it ever happens, it will likely happen a lot like it does in this book. Stephenson is an autodidactic and obsessive researcher, and the astrophysics of this tale never seem less than terrifyingly plausible.
5) The characters
It’s a tough thing to take in, the end of all life on Earth. It’s difficult to feel much more than numb at the idea of seven billion deaths. Stephenson provides a widow to the end of days through the eyes of a disparate group of scientists, politicians, and geeks, many of them smart, strong women (take another look at that title). Their determination in the face of blind panic, their resilience in the face of stomach-clenching fear—it will make you care whether any of us get out of this alive.
6) The big ideas
You’ve got to give Neal Stephenson credit: he packs these nearly 900 pages with impossibly huge sci-fi concepts, from apocalyptic disasters, to genetic manipulation, to interstellar voyages, to orbiting cities and anti-gravity trains—and that’s just scratching the surface.
7) The writing
Stephenson stands with the ranks of genre writers with true literary chops. His wry, wandering, information-packed prose has drawn comparisons to stylists no less revered than Thomas Pynchon. That’s not to suggest reading him requires a Master’s in comp lit—this is a book in which the moon explodes, remember—but neither is it one to keep half an eye on while you try to stay awake on the train. It’s writing that demands, and earns, your full attention.
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1) The explosive opening
Seveneves‘ opening sentence is one of the all-time great attention-grabbers in sci-fi: “The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.” If you can stop reading there (or even after the brief prologue, which ends with the chilling image of a massive cloud of debris reflecting oddly in the night sky), you have far more willpower than I do.
2) The sheer scope
You can always count on Neal Stephenson to deliver a doorstopper that’s worth its considerable weight in hardcover. At nearly 900 fast-moving pages, Seveneves joins the ranks of Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, Anathem, and Reamde as a genre epic that will envelop you for days at a time.
3) The audacity of the storytelling
It’s no spoiler to say that, at a critical point in the novel, many characters have died, along with much of the human race (this is an end-of-the-world tale, after all). As if that wasn’t gutsy enough, then you turn the page and are greeted with the words “5,000 years later.” It takes a special sort of writerly confidence—in ability, in the audience—to pull off a stunt like that. Stephenson makes it look easy.
4) The real science
Heaven forbid we ever have to deal with the reality of the moon unexpectedly exploding, its fragmented chunks entering Earth’s orbit and slowly creeping toward crashdown over the course of two years. But if it ever happens, it will likely happen a lot like it does in this book. Stephenson is an autodidactic and obsessive researcher, and the astrophysics of this tale never seem less than terrifyingly plausible.
5) The characters
It’s a tough thing to take in, the end of all life on Earth. It’s difficult to feel much more than numb at the idea of seven billion deaths. Stephenson provides a widow to the end of days through the eyes of a disparate group of scientists, politicians, and geeks, many of them smart, strong women (take another look at that title). Their determination in the face of blind panic, their resilience in the face of stomach-clenching fear—it will make you care whether any of us get out of this alive.
6) The big ideas
You’ve got to give Neal Stephenson credit: he packs these nearly 900 pages with impossibly huge sci-fi concepts, from apocalyptic disasters, to genetic manipulation, to interstellar voyages, to orbiting cities and anti-gravity trains—and that’s just scratching the surface.
7) The writing
Stephenson stands with the ranks of genre writers with true literary chops. His wry, wandering, information-packed prose has drawn comparisons to stylists no less revered than Thomas Pynchon. That’s not to suggest reading him requires a Master’s in comp lit—this is a book in which the moon explodes, remember—but neither is it one to keep half an eye on while you try to stay awake on the train. It’s writing that demands, and earns, your full attention.
Shop all Science Fiction & Fantasy >