Stuff I've Read: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

It’s the end of the world as we know it. An unknown event has shattered the moon. The debris will rain from space and ignite our atmosphere, turning Earth into a ball of hot meteorite death. Humanity’s last, best hope is in a plan to wait out the destruction in orbit until the Hard Rain stops, and Earth is habitable again… in about 5,000 years. Neal Stephenson tells a fascinating tale about what humanity is, what it means, and what it can be in his 2015 sci-fi epic, Seveneves. This is a vastly ambitious novel and difficult to discuss without giving anything away. A Spoiler Warning is hereby issued to anyone who hasn’t read this yet.

Spoiler Alert: Skip to the end to avoid!

An unidentified event leaves the moon broken into seven pieces. After the initial panic subsides, humanity adjusts to the new night sky. However, as the remaining pieces collide with one another, they send debris raining down to Earth. Dr. Dubois Harris comes to the horrifying realization that the collisions will continue exponentially until all the remaining pieces of the moon are ground to bits. The parts that are further out will form a spectacular ring system around the planet; the rest will fall to the ground. That shower of moon rocks called the “Hard Rain,” will turn the atmosphere into a giant ball of fire and pummel the Earth’s surface with bolides comparable to the one that killed the dinosaurs. Life as we know it would end.

The solution is to send Earth’s 1,500 best and brightest young people to the International Space Station, which is bolted to a near-Earth Asteroid when the book opens. The refugees would be sent into space in a “cloud ark,” self-sustaining pods that can dock together in groups of six. They would carry with them a genetic archive of life on Earth. Once at the ISS (or “Izzy”), the 1500 people would have to figure out how to stay alive in space until the Earth cooled off enough to terraform again, in about 5,000 years.

Seveneves is a meaty read, a daring undertaking on all sides. The stakes are breathtakingly high, the scope is broad, and yet Neal Stephenson paints an intimate portrait of humanity as a species. Once the focus is narrowed from the planet to the space station, there’s a powerful sense of what it’s like—what it means—to be alone in the universe. The Cloud Ark is in space, and all they have is essentially what’s in their pockets. No one is coming to save them. Their plan is so slapdash that a tech billionaire has to figure out how to redirect a comet to Izzy so that the station doesn’t run out of fuel and water. Events like this are frequent, especially in the first two-thirds of the novel, and it makes for a joy to read. The first 560 pages of Seveneves are a masterclass in storytelling.

The last third, however, is tripped up by its own ambition. There’s a 5,000-year time jump, and the descendants of the Cloud Ark survivors find themselves strangers in a strange land. The Earth has been terraformed again into the blue-green world it used to be, and humans can finally return home. However, while surveying this new, alien world, the descendants get the sinking feeling that they’re not alone.

The entire paragraph sounds like a completely different book. It reads that way too. New characters, new relationships, and a new backstory turn the last 290 pages of Seveneves into a new, different, and almost unrecognizable story.

This is my first Neal Stephenson novel. He comes highly recommended by someone I respect, and he said that this is the best place to start. I can understand why. Most of his characters are strong and capable women, and that’s shamefully rare in literature. Beyond that, there is a situational PTSD that is present on every page, in every scene. This vision of the near future is bleak and yet realistic in an uncomfortable way, and I am here for it. Stephenson has no use for government, religion, consumerism, or any of the other distinctly American creature comforts—aside, of course, for the internet. The fact that so much of the first two-thirds of the novel uses social media as a tool to control the narrative around this extinction-level event tangibly hits home. I mean, just look around.

Where this book fails for me is in the time jump. The decisions made at the end of Seveneves’ middle section lead to the creation of seven distinct races of humanity by the time the Earth is ready for repopulation. From that jumping-off point, the final 290 pages include an introduction to the new major players; a gloss-over on how humanity went from living in a crevasse on the core of the moon to how they divided up the ring system; and 5,000 years of political, social, and technological history. A diagram page at the beginning of part three is only marginally helpful. The Seven Eves—the women from whom humanity’s new races are built—are elevated to near mythological status. Recordings of the early days of humanity’s departure from Earth have survived for 5,000 years. As humankind takes its baby steps toward reclaiming the home planet, they find their homecoming unwelcome. Their survival is complicated by two groups of humans indigenous to Earth, whose ancestors found places to hide from the hellfire raining down on the planet. That is a compelling premise that could have been the heart of its own book, and at nearly 300 pages, it almost qualifies. Instead, we get a heavily compressed and hard-to-follow timeline while trying to develop feelings and opinions on a whole new set of characters. By the time you do, it’s over. For me, the three parts of Seveneves could have each been made into its own novel; you could have spent two or three stories mining the intervening 5,000 years between parts two and three. My most significant criticism of this book is that at 867 pages, it didn’t have enough space to tell the complete story.

Seveneves’ ambition is dizzying. I had a hard time connecting with the last third of it. That’s more my issue than an issue with the writing or the quality of the story. Don’t be intimidated by the size of the book. The tale of humanity through the death and rebirth of our home planet is essential reading, especially in these strange days.

Pros: The end of the world in a fantastic, yet scientifically accurate way; solidly built characters; women carry most of the narrative; ambitious storytelling.

Cons: Last third of the novel has all-new characters; rushed explanation of 5,000-year time-jump; could have told even more story.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

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