Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves
Already acknowledged that I like this particular author’s work, sure, that’s a known quantity.
- “He was already thinking about the videos he was going to make to teach his baby about calculus when he climaxed.”
Excerpt From: Stephenson, Neal. “Seveneves.” HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015-04-15.
Pulled a quote for one of the Sisters.
- “These organizations were staffed by conservative old-line engineers, not far removed culturally from the slide-rule-brandishing nerds of Apollo and Soyuz fame.”
Excerpt From: Stephenson, Neal. “Seveneves.” HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015-04-15.
Then there’s the idea of looking ahead.
Maybe a little after the halfway point I the novel, there’s a scene that I was sure was going to kill off a favorite character. I closed the book up, rolled over and went to sleep, upset that a particular fictional construct I cared about, upset she was about to die. The next day, as I read and scrolled down further, I was mistaken. Still, there’s a care of craft when I get emotionally hooked. Sign of a good author.
“Luisa likened it to the growth of spiritualism after the First World War. During the 1920s, many who had not been able to bring themselves to accept the loss of life in the trenches and the subsequent influenza epidemic had fallen prey to the belief that they could communicate with their lost loved ones from beyond the grave. They had, in effect, sidestepped grief by convincing themselves that nothing had happened.”
- Excerpt From: Stephenson, Neal. “Seveneves.” HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015-04-15.
Always thought provoking and oftentimes bits and pieces that fits in my world, too.
And then, in a single span, perhaps a homage to 2001? Interesting visual. The more I cogitate and reflect, the more I’m inclined to thin that it was deliberate author exercise, a illustrious reference to one of the grand masters of the art.
“This was not so much a definable idea or philosophy as it was a prejudice, operant at a nearly subliminal level.”
Always works in sly and brilliant observations couched as fictional constructs.
Fascinating, too, is the mythic quality to future vocabulary taxonomy and etymology. That brief section s a wondrous discourse into the way certain phrase evolves in the story’s future.
Within days of being released, I picked up a delicious-feeling, rather substantial hardback version, then proceeded to read a digital copy. Part way through, though, I was pulling the pristine copy off the shelf to refer to schematics of the highly intricate designs of the plot pieces.
“What mattered to them, he had finally come to realize, was that they believed such things to be true.”
- Excerpt From: Stephenson, Neal. “Seveneves.” HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015-04-15.
As always, it’s a very satisfying novel to read. Very satisfying,
My book cover is here.
Seveneves
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