Paperback, 872 pages
English language
Published May 16, 2016 by The Borough Press.
When a catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb, it triggers a feverish race against the inevitable. An ambitious plan is devised to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere...
Five thousand years later, the survivors' progeny embark on another audacious journey into the unknown, to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.
I hated less than I enjoyed. Could have been great if it were under half as long.
All of the positive raving for this book is true! All of the criticisms are also true! Stephenson is his own thing and he breaks all the rules of fiction. He breaks them in a couple different ways in this book. When it's great it's REALLY GREAT. When it's not so great, it kinda sucks. At different moments, I wanted to give this five stars. It's a hell of a book and I absolutely recommend it to any "hard" SF fans. Know that the exposition can really be a brick wall in the storytelling and it's not artfully done at all. But Stephenson has certainly earned himself a place on the hard-core SF shelf with this one (if he hadn't already).
Disappointing. The first 500 or so pages could have been compressed into 50, or even 5. I skipped over many pages in the first half of the book.
Arthur C. Clarke would have covered the first half in quite a short book. Sherri S Tepper could have written a better second half.
I found it unlikely that the world would unite peacefully to populate a single space station. China at least could have launched another space station. Many countries with millennial religious groups would simply declare war on their neighbours in order to hasten the end times. Other countries would simply not believe the warnings.
There were too many infodumps. The author also invented jargon that was only used twice, but spent pages pointlessly explaining it. This also caused me much page-skipping.
I found it hard to believe that, after 5000 years, the English language had merely gained some Russian …
Disappointing. The first 500 or so pages could have been compressed into 50, or even 5. I skipped over many pages in the first half of the book.
Arthur C. Clarke would have covered the first half in quite a short book. Sherri S Tepper could have written a better second half.
I found it unlikely that the world would unite peacefully to populate a single space station. China at least could have launched another space station. Many countries with millennial religious groups would simply declare war on their neighbours in order to hasten the end times. Other countries would simply not believe the warnings.
There were too many infodumps. The author also invented jargon that was only used twice, but spent pages pointlessly explaining it. This also caused me much page-skipping.
I found it hard to believe that, after 5000 years, the English language had merely gained some Russian words and Cyrillic letters, but otherwise would have sounded very similar to today. Very few languages have existed for 5000 years, let alone significantly unchanged.
Somehow, despite limited semiconductor production, and an absence of metal, plus massive damage to the space station, video and text survives undamaged over 5000 years.
What an epic adventure!
Neal Stephenson always delivers a fun and engaging read. This fairly rocked until the final third which felt tacked on and unnecessary. It was all very well written with strong female characters. The first two thirds were a strong hard science fiction adventure story. I can certainly recommend this.
Interesting, the first time I tried to read this I didn't much like it. This time I loved it. Great story, great writing, very evocative and highly recommended. Not quite 5 stars, but high on my shelf.
The man needs to learn to edit his work better (or find a brave editor). The story dragged its feet in the middle. But I'm giving the book 5 stars anyway. The writing is not as tight as some of his better books, but the story is just as engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking.
Not up to his usual standards. Never really gets started. Highly recommend his other books.
