varingblaarSeveneves by Neal Stephenson
Spoiler warning: If you haven't read Seveneves, I suggest you do so before going any further. If this spoils it for you, it's not my fault.You have been warned.
I like this sort of book. Change one thing, extrapolate into the future, see what happens. "Something hits the moon. Boom. Gone. Now what?"
Part One
We, as in the human race, quickly figure out we have an end date. Basically two years. The entire world turns its focus towards trying to save as many people as possible. I've said before that the human race is capable of amazing things, but only when there's no other option. We can see a problem coming for decades, like climate change, but it will be denied or made small until there it's almost too late, and only then will the "resources" suddenly become available.
Heads of state meet a random science educator, which is a nice way of saying "influencer but scientist", and decide that we can either go underground or go to space. The decision is "¿por que no las dos?" and then immediately forget and spend 99% of our time getting to space.
It's a little unrealistic how quickly countries started working together, and how they seemed to agree on things in a relatively short time frame. Like the "Casting of the Lots". There's no way the majority of countries will just say "oh ok" and send a few people. As time runs out we realise that even a couple people per country was highly optimistic, but it's the thought that counts. We do see some civil unrest and warlike action during the final days, but it mostly happens "over there" where our story is not directly affected. Probably there were other instances of war actions happening around the world that would've made a long book even longer if we had to go into that much detail.
What I found most interesting, is how they used the technology we had available to backyard engineer solutions. We need to get into space, so use what we already have in space, the ISS which I will call "Izzy" from now on and you can't stop me. We need to get people up there quickly, use the launchpads and rockets we have. We need to build habitats, use technology we already have to make inflatables. "We don't have time to test things" becomes a bit of an unspoken rule, and a certain loss of life is considered acceptable for the greater good.
Towards the deadline, we all have to accept that the majority of people won't make it. It's easy to say it in the abstract. But when it's friends and family, people we know, people we talk to every day, it hits different. Dinah had to say goodbye to her father. Eve had to say goodbye to Cal, although she sort of missed the actual goodbye.
Regarding the storytelling, there's a bit of a disconnect. The science is explained. A lot. I understand not all readers will have a working knowledge of orbital mechanics or centrifuges or any of the other technical stuff. I also understand if we explain the real science, then when we explain the made-up science it feels the same and it comes across more realistic. But I skimmed entire pages of explanations. According to the author it was meant to be skipped, so I don't feel bad about it. This book gets a bit of a pass, because the characters are literally making up technology as we go and that needs explaining. But there really is a lot of explaining though...
Part Two
The first while after Zero Day is fascinating. The entire human race reduced to just over a thousand people. Now we're not dealing with getting people to safety and there's always more where they came from, we're dealing with making sure this group of people survives. The human race is suddenly finite.
This is probably my favourite part of the book. A small group of people in a tough situation, doing what needs to be done to survive. For the first while there's a couple people making decisions, and most people are just happy to have someone decide so they don't have to. But how long do we keep this up before someone starts asking who watches the watchmen?
With Julia (the former POTUS) as a stowaway, that wasn't even supposed to be there specifically to avoid people bringing their irrelevant political power and making things difficult, she starts introducing politics to the whole thing exactly as we suspected she would. Here's the thing, though: This is how humans react. Julia functions as a necessary evil. Yes she instigates rebellion among the Arkies, yes she holds on to "old Earth" ideas because that's where her influence lies, but she also provides a face and a voice for people that don't have the opportunity to affect change. Basically she unionised the Arkies.
Partly due to Julia's intervention, a small group goes off to try colonise Mars, never to be heard from again.
The "cool tech solving a cool problem" narrative is the mission to get ice from Greg's Skeleton, the asteroid. Which goes about as well as you might expect. This then brings us to the next part; Getting to a higher orbit where it's safer, and getting there more permanently.
And then we need to restart the human race... With a very limited gene pool... It took me until here to realise the name of the book refers to The Seven Eves. The seven women that birth the human race.
This is the book I signed up for. We've established the technology involved and we're solving a problem together and then making it to a conclusion that's not perfect but sort of a happy ending. We've read more than 500 pages which is longer than most books I read. We can stop now...
Part Three, 5 Millennia Later
Mr Stephenson, this could've been a book on its own. The tonal shift and the writing style is so different that it even feels like a different book.
So 5000 years is a long time and a lot has happened. Obviously there's a bunch of exposition that needs to happen. But the first 100 pages is a little bit of science fantasy, while explaining this incredibly complex system of living spaces they've constructed, while explaining how the seven different races from the seven different eves have evolved away from each other into a sort of neo-racism. It's a lot to take in.
The tech is cool, and I understand it needs to sound super futuristic. The different habitats using different technologies, some of which we remember from the earlier parts but obviously far smarter, is really cool. I don't know whether big whiplash chains would really be used as a practical mode of transport, and I can't imagine there's ever a reason to build a bungie-jumping city, but it's impressive and well thought out.
That's something I must say for all of this. Neal Stephenson clearly spent a lot of time thinking about every aspect of how life would work this far in the future. Technologies that were lost and relearned differently, like firearms. Cultural norms, diets, even how body language would evolve over time. It's very detailed and well designed. Did it really have to be such a lore dump? Often it's explained in a tone of "any Moiran would know" which is supposed to make it sound obvious, but when it keeps happening it starts to feel condescending.
Speaking of Moirans, this whole thing where they "go epi" and wake up a few days later, metamorphosed into an entirely different person, is an interesting concept and could've been a whole book on its own.
There's another side to all this. Because most (if not all) of the events in Part Two were documented, it was possible for future generations to study the aftermath of Zero Day and The Epic as they call it. There are recordings of the fateful meeting where they discuss the future of the human race. 50 centuries later this has turned into a religion. People take names from things mentioned in the recordings, the way we take biblical names. Scholars study the finest details of specific things, like the selfies sent by Cal. They have "eves day" for specific eves and it's customary to wish someone well on those days. It's all the hallmarks of a religion! And it's fascinating! Towards the end of the book they refer to a new movement called The Purpose, but it's never explained who this and even the people in service of The Purpose don't know what The Purpose is. But that's also sort of a religion, or maybe cult-like.
Once this entirely new milieu is established, we can get back to the story, which is actually pretty good. Things were set up earlier and are now paying off. We discover the people that went into the mine with Rufus survived. This is Fallout but we're the people on the outside. It's fascinating to see first contact after so long, and what they refer to as "rootstock humans" (basically non-GMO humans). It all goes well right up until it doesn't. The scene where Doc gets attacked came out of nowhere and it was absolutely riveting. I couldn't put the book down.
The same way the Spacers could chronicle the knowledge they accumulated, the Diggers have "prophets" that memorise the Encyclopaedia. The fact that they're named according to the volume they know, like Sonar Taxlaw being from entry "Sonar" to entry "Tax Law" is brilliant. I'd love to know what others were named.
Then we find out the people Cal were with also survived. Pingers. It's not explained in detail, but from the selfies we figure it was a government operation happening in the background. The 1% of the initial plan we almost completely forgot about? Not sure. These people have adapted to their environment a lot more, but it feels like we're not given enough time to get to know them before we all live (relatively) happily ever after.
Oh also remember the people that went to Mars? Neither do we.
Actually, it feels like the book ends sort of abruptly, with the "happily every after" being an epilogue. So after more than 800 pages the ending feels rushed? That's a little disappointing.
Verdict
It's a good book. The universe is well thought through to the smallest detail. It's well told, although at points it felt like a history lesson which I'm not fond of. There are at least two separate very good stories between all the explaining.
It really feels like this book simply had too many ideas. Part One could've done without the detailed explanations and it would've had a bit more pace. Part Two had a nice flow and is probably my favourite part. Real "hero's journey" type stuff with some politics thrown in. Part Three that shows the longer term aftermath and basically reboots the book, could've told more of a story sprinkling the lore in as we go, instead of lore-dumping 5000 years of culture and then telling half a story.
Would recommend. But don't feel bad if you drop off after Part Two. It should've been two books.
