SFF Readalongs led by Kitty G discussion

This is the thread for discussion of ALL of Seveneves.

Congratulations, you have read all of the book! YAY! :)

Let us know your thoughts overall!
Did you like it?
Dislike it?
Love it?
Who did you like?
Who were you rooting for?
What did you rate it?
Would you read more by Stephenson?

Well overall it was a good story slow at times but still gripping. You can tell that Stephenson dedicated a lot of time to researching this storyline as the event was explained and backed up with good science.

I did like the book, probably the first "story" more than the second. Liked all of the characters, even the frustrating ones because they brought a lot of conflict and emotion to a story that revolves around science.

Sonar Taxlaw is my new favorite character name. For all the hard science only one part of the story felt off. That Rufus and the submarine guy were both connected to people on the space station and BOTH found their own "race". I feel like any descendants on earth who survived wouldn't be so conveniently related to each other. Rufus can't have been the only group to try digging an underground bunker to survive.

Naturally I will always read more by Neal Stephenson. I used to think I'd read a lot of him, but there still so many of his books to read.

I also thought the connections to the 2 races on earth were a little too convenient but I liked part 2 better. I thought the story was better because it was more character driven than part 1. I thought the differences of the 7 was really cool, even cooler because it was backed by science.
part 1 was a little too heavy on the science for my liking. I was able to follow it fine, but I definitely like my characters to be flushed out because people are not one dimensional and with all that science there just wasn't room to explore the characters more. Snow Crash is still my favorite book by Stephenson.

Okay so I just finished the book (I know I'm a little late but oh well!) and I am also going to give it a 3*s. For me it was just such a mixed journey because there were some really, really interesting elements and moments to the book such as the 'Seven Eves' and learning to live in confined Arks in Space and the divisions in culture.

The second 'story' (part 3) was a little bit more slow for me at first and I couldn't ever really connect with the main character. She just didn't interest me, however seeing the evolution of the human races and the genetic modifications etc was great.
I agree that it was a bit overly convenient about Cal and Rufus were the 'founders' of the other two races as surely more people would have done the same (as Brock said) but I still enjoyed hearing about their cultures and the idea of Sonar and the other Cycs made me SOOoo interested! What a way to live.
The Amphibious nature of the other race was equally very cool. I wonder if in 5,000 years it would be possible to 'live' underwater most of the time and adapt so much... Maybe? But certainly something to think about!!

On the whole it was science-heavy and well researched (clearly) but it just lacked that real emotional connection I wanted. If I had cared just that extra bit about the character it really could have had me on the edge of my seat at some of the more dramatic moments but as it was I didn't 'care' about the character, more the plot and ideas.

I am giving this a 3*s as I said because I had such mixed feelings but overwhelmingly I think I liked it :) I do own Reamde by Stephenson so I will read that at some point, but I think my brain needs a little break from 'hard' sci-fi for now!

Yeah Stephenson does like to use science as a character over people. I kept nerding out over the space station and orbital velocity jargon. I'm playing Kerbal Space. Program right now which uses all the physics that Stephenson references in the book. It made the game and the book more fun. I'd read about it in the book and then put it into practice in the game. Maybe I should build my own orbital ark.

Brock wrote: "Yeah Stephenson does like to use science as a character over people. I kept nerding out over the space station and orbital velocity jargon. I'm playing Kerbal Space. Program right now which uses al..."

Well that would certainly be impressive! I've heard that's a pretty difficult Space Game, but I am sure Stephenson helped :D