Following the establishment of the seven races, there is a period of weeding out the worst genetic errors: Correction was the name given to the phase that had begun after the first round of Gestations, when Eve Moira had fixed errors that had led to several nonviable infants. There are a couple of places where they mention how, after the Hard Rain started to abate, they replenished the oceans by altering the orbits of ice comets. After the moon inexplicably explodes, Dubois Harris and others figure out that they have around two years before the debris starts raining from the sky and ends all life on the planet. about worrying about Neoanders cannibalizing his people to Bard, a Neoander descended from the Eve known for cannibalism. The brain-trust is tasked by leaders to engineer a self-sustaining environment capable of maneuvering away from larger fragments, and withstanding 5,000 years in near-earth orbit until the planet is stable enough to be terraformed into supporting life. When the population got still bigger, it began to differentiate again as people started to select their mates for showing certain archetypal characteristics. There were definitely people of mixed race in the book. It was a meditative piece, a secular eulogy for those who had fallen, but in retrospect it seemed to mark an inflection point in the survivors thinking. World leaders in science, defense, and politics are mystified, referring to the causal Agent. Endurance was no longer a ship but a building. They come to a decision in less than three minutes. After that, 7 tumbling boulders still bound by gravity remain. In Seveneves, what happens to this mission? Could six women put two women in jail? . Not so much "outgrown" as "beaten out of them." I'm in the process of reading the book now and I'm wondering the same damn thing. He observed: "Some researchers had begun to express concern over the possibility that a collision between two pieces of debris might spawn a large number of fragments, thereby increasing the probability of further collisions and further fragments, producing a chain reaction that might put so much debris into low Earth orbit as to create a barrier to future space exploration. vegan) just for fun, does this inconvenience the caterers and staff? An optimistic theory circulates, claiming the moon's gravity will gradually draw together all the fragments, but vivid meteor showers seem to contradict this notion. It is decided that the only places anyone might survive are in space, or deep underground. in part due to their ancestor being a badass Russian cosmonaut. But she didnt. Privacy Policy. Is the word "vitamin" meaning "any item shippable to space" a creation of Neal Stephenson in Seveneves? They tended to collect at different points around the ring. So a Julian and a Moiran could have three kids, who might randomly be a Julian, a Teklan, and an Aidan. The ultimate, permanent, destination is a massive iron moon remnant scored with a Grand Canyon-sized zone named Cleft. That stuff, as Sean Probst had well known, would be priceless as nutrients to support agriculture. The Red military has squads of genetically reimagined Neanderthals who are naturally as strong as Teklans and use whips of microbots in combat, Humanity is in the process of repopulating the Earth, but it is divided against itself into two warring alliances: The Blue nation and the Pingers against the Red nation and the Diggers. The Cradle, being a counterweight attached to the Eye, is essentially a floating town that moves above the surface of Earth. Book about a good dark lord, think "not Sauron". The vitamins that had been packed into every arklet launched up into the Cloud Ark had been intended to support a population of thousands. The Moirans have the unique ability to "go epi" and reshuffle their genetic phenotype, making them the most versatile race of the Seven. By the time they land on Cleft, they have limited amounts of all types of consumables, especially water and food. They had demanded that J.B.F. These will support the last people to escape Old Earth, as well as the vital Human Genetic Archive. The biggest issue I had with it was the problematic second act. I'm wondering how. The one Swarm had thus fissioned into two smaller ones, neither of which was as viable, and thereby worsened the same problems that had led to the split in the first place. The breakup of the Moon by an unknown "Agent" leads to a "Hard Rain" of. Near the ending, it turns out the underground group has survived for 5,000 years, and it is revealed the underwater effort might have been as big as the space effort, with elaborate plans and multiple habitats. And when Ada and the others finally came to their senses and began to push back against J.B.F. One of the most talked about books this year, Seveneves is a story about what might happen if a better version of our world had to cope with an unimaginable catastrophe. The project is designed also to engage those left behind, and prevent worldwide chaos. Seveneves was included on President Obama's Summer 2016 reading list. But look at the (later) attraction of Kathtwo and Beled, and imagine a world where frequent sexual reproduction and avoiding inbreeding were absolutely essential to the survival of the human species. Seveneves was one of only five books recommended by Bill Gates as "must reads" for Summer 2016.. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epica grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. Its hard to punish people who are already starving to death in a confined space. . Facing the inevitable, humanity has roughly two years to figure out some kind of rescue plan, but in the end, there are only two ways how to avoid certain death: Go underground, or, go skywise. By: Neal Stephenson. These now projected upward like leaves. Noun. It is decided these metals can be smelted and used to produce building materials. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Not only does this succeed for the most part 5000 years later, but the Epic that forms part of said archives has since become a nigh-sacred aspect of Spacer society. In the extended short term, they can manage to sustain a very small population through a very efficient recycling process, but the fact remains that Izzy and the Arklets brought effectively jack squat when you look at the prospect of building an advanced society in the hundreds of millions. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. No one wanted to talk to her. This is the backdrop against which Neal Stephenson has set one of his most ambitious and visionary fictions: Seveneves. The first contact between the Diggers and the Pingers is said to have occurred some time in the past. From coronal mass ejections they were equally immune. After scores of pages of this, my eyelids were succumbing to a powerful gravitational force. My guess would be that at the very beginning, when the Eves themselves were still having children, racial lines were reasonably clear. I was commenting to someone that the book could be 100 pages shorter if we dumped the super detailed description of orbital mechanics that occurs as an info-dump over and over again. Ivy shut down the thrusters. The last third is pure unadulterated speculative fiction with damn fine worldbuilding and extrapolation from the first 2/3rds. They did not know quite what to do with Julia and Ada. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. The human race faces a catastrophic event which leaves them scrambling to survive. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epica grand story of annihilation and survival spanning. Sean Probst's Ymir spacecraft completes a half-year journey to capture the "Greg's Skeleton" comet. Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Part 1 1.2 Part 2 1.3 Part 3 2 Characters 2.1 Parts One and Two 2.1.1 The Seven Eves 2.1.2 Others My conclusion is that this is a hard science fiction book from the astrophysics perspective (expertise of the author) but completely magical realism regarding genetics. I continued my recent SF binge with a look at this mammoth offering from the award-winning writer of speculative fiction. The seven Eve's descendants are mating with each other all the time, but a baby will always randomly come out as one of the seven "races," because of some genetic programing the seven women put into their offspring to ensure that the trait they wanted to "fix" in humanity lived on. Stephenson first began planning his novel around 2006, while he was working at Blue Origin. In 2016 Skydance Media and Imagine Entertainment hired screenwriter William Broyles Jr., director Ron Howard, and producer Brian Grazer to adapt the feature film.[14]. Seveneves proposes a not-too-distant future where the moon is blasted apart by an errant asteroid and what that means for the future of humanity. They agree that each of the seven "Eves" gets to choose how her offspring will be genetically modified or enhanced. according to Cyc, the Pingers evolved solely through selective breeding. Scientists are confident the Agent will be identified. Ivy lit the ships attitude control thrusters one last time and pivoted her tail up until it was vertical. They sent Buckies and Siwis out ahead of them to illuminate dark spaces and aim cameras into hidden corners. Part 3 lists several stages in the development of the races. Corporal punishment was at least a theoretical possibility. Descriptions for each of these conditions follow. As far as I can see, I just got two novels for the price of one. Seveneves is a hard science fiction novel by Neal Stephenson published in 2015. rev2023.3.1.43269. 600 pages of concentrated awesomesauce, let down a little by Stephenson's decision to devote so much of the last part to backfilling the 5000 years of future history he skipped absent the underpinnings of character or narrative. Do you have an in-universe explanation for how the races remained separate for thousands of years? It's not just that it's intellectually lazy (it is, though, full of strawmen) or that it's politically objectionable (Stephenson has his heart in the right place). However, I don't know how realistic this redifferentiation scenario is. For more information, please see our When Endurance reaches the safety of the Cleft, there are only eight female survivors, only seven of whom (Dinah, Ivy, Ada, Tekla, Camila, Moira, and Julia) are able to bear children. Stephenson imagines the worst that can happen, and insists. A breakneck 565-page tech-action-disaster story of tremendous force and focus is followed by what amounts to a 300-page epilogue, set 5,000 years later, that is built on the idea that character . Are the United Nations ever mentioned in Seveneves? Other things like cellulose and starch can be used to make plastic as well. They land on the Cleft with what's left of Izzy and a few Arklets some of which are exclusively used for storage. The result is an astonishing portrait of the human future, a future only Neal Stephenson could have imagined. The micro-chips and the wireless tech of the Spacers. Seveneves is available now in the US and May 21st in the UK from HarperCollins. It only takes a minute to sign up. Tekla then went in, taking point, with Dinah and Ivy watching her back. Ada's faction in the Swarm eventually becomes this, Julia ends up firing the gun from said holster at Tekla, injuring her, and Aida's group uses it to kill one of the survivors when they invade Izzy, her tongue has been fixed in place with washers on a bolt running from the floor to the roof of her mouth. The only places anyone might survive are in space, or deep underground were succumbing to a powerful force. Is designed also to engage those left behind, and politics are,... The human race faces a catastrophic event which leaves them scrambling to survive of Neal Stephenson could have kids... 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