Seveneves

Starred review from March 9, 2015
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. When the moon explodes, it doesn’t take long for scientists (including Doc “Doob” Dubois, who bears no small resemblance to Neil DeGrasse Tyson) to realize that the debris will soon cause the destruction of Earth. The residents of the International Space Station, including roboticist Dinah MacQuarie and commander Ivy Xiao, immediately begin working with their colleagues on Earth to turn the ISS into a viable habitat for as many people as possible. The next two years are filled with heroic sacrifices, political upheavals, and disasters, most of which are only exacerbated when Earth finally succumbs to the “Hard Rain,” meteorite bombardment that last for millennia. The survivors—seven fertile women—are destined to repopulate the human race, and it’s only here, over halfway through the story, that Stephenson (the Baroque Cycle) really shows his hand, moving ahead 5,000 years to explore the moral and political implications of the earlier events. There’s a ton to digest, but Stephenson’s lucid prose makes it worth the while. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff and Verrill.

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're the last hope to keep humankind alive. The writing is outstanding, the acting perfect. This is one of Neal Stephenson's best. M.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine