SFF Readalongs led by Kitty G discussion

This is the thread for Chapter 2 of Seveneves. I hope you're all enjoying it so far, let us know all your thoughts :) (but no spoilers for later parts of the book please!)

How are the characters?
How's the set up?
Do you like the style?

Okay so chapters in this book are loooooong, but equally very exciting. So by this point we have met a lot of the major chaarcters both on Earth and up in Space with Izzy. I have to say that I am enjoying both storylines fairly evenly right now, which is very promising as usually I tend to have a favourite storyline, but so far I think it's written pretty well.

I like the character of the Dr becuase I think he's a fairly impressive guy in terms of his credentials. He's the one who first came up with the theory after seeing the 'Seven Sisters' become Eight (at least from the American side of things).
I like the pragmatism he has over the fate of the world, but also that he feels pretty real in the way that he disconnected a bit when the speech was happening and has been making the most of the new relationship he's been having with his lover (the teacher).

Up in space we have Ivy and Dinah and at the moment I think Dinah is the one I like a little more becuase she seems to be a little more compassionate and a little bit more highlighted so far both with her special 'robot' project which has been very interesting to read about and also with her plan to save the Russian Scout.
I think she's a character I will enjoy getting to know more about as the story goes on and I am quite looking forward to seeing what she'll do next.

On the whole I feel like this has a great amount of potential to grow and develop. It could easily go past the point of the White Sky and show us what the reality of the new Cloud Ark is like. I think if it did that it will make for some pretty sad, lonely but equally very interesting moments.
I'm also quite looking forward to the Casting of Lots thing where the 'young people' will be trained and selected etc. I immediately imagined that this would be like a version of Battle Royale, but maybe that's just me overthinking it :) Can't wait to see what will end up happening to them all and the world in general.

This is so different to everything I personally have ever read as I don't often read Sci-fi. However, I have been finding that when I do, particularly space-based sci-fi, I do seem to really like it. For sure this has more science-y terms than some of the others I have read, but it still feels really action-packed and very very readable too. So far I like it!

The characters are pretty fun, though their personalities are very internalized. It's fascinating to see the passivity of their lives on the station while the earth prepares for it's fate.

Stephenson has so many well structured paragraphs it may ruin paragraphs for me. He knows how to end each one with the perfect amount of punctuation. I cheer every couple of lines. Also amazed that the science in this book isn't dull and boring though it easily could be. Keeping track of this many variables can't be easy for Stephenson but he's obviously taken the time to consider them all.

The robots are pretty cool. I wonder about their use later on as things really...heat up.