Seveneves

By: Neal Stephenson

Narrated by: Peter Brooke

Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The astounding new novel from the master of science fiction. What would happen if the world were ending?

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. But unforeseen dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain….

Five thousand years later, their progeny - seven distinct races now three billion strong - embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown, to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.

A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is at once extraordinary and eerily recognizable. He explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.

©2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited (P)2015 Neal Stephenson

Critic reviews

"Genius." ( Time)
"He makes reading so much fun it feels like a deadly sin." ( The New York Times)
"Fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the 21st century." (William Gibson)
"[Stephenson is] the hacker Hemingway." ( Newsweek)

Earth to space to Earth. What an adventure

An amazing story with a very interesting look at society. Splitting traits into races is something that I have never read before keeping me hooked.

great sci fi

like two books in one. If you liked Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars you Will love this one.

Not his best...

I normally love the detail that the author puts into his stories, but this time it's just too much.
My ears did the aural equivalent of my eyes glazing over. It's technical - very, very technical.
I mostly listen to my books in the car and with this one I found myself blanking out large portions.
There are interesting bits, however, so it isn't a complete washout.
Oh, and some of the accents are way off! It would have been better that the narrator didn't attempt some of them.

Eine Story die genau so gut 3 Bücher füllen könnte

Sagenhaft gutes Buch, das in der Gegenwart beginnt, und in einem genialen SciFi Setting weitergeführt wird. Ich dachte mindestens 4x, dass die Geschichte nun abgeschlossen sei... Nur um dann nochmal richtig Fahrt aufzunehmen und noch besser zu werden. Erfrischend anderes SciFi, auf sehr plausibler Basis, mit hervorragend trockenem Humor!

Excellent story, but the reader should just read

Loved the story, but the reader voice acted all characters, which was really annoying especially because some of his accents are not very convincing.

Interesting concept, boring story

I really liked the premise. Expected things to happen but nothing really did...for 32 hours or so. Not that I didn’t like it, it is very thought provoking. But I feel that there could have been more of a story. And then it just ends... I’ll remember the idea of the book and I’ll think about the premise for a long time. But I can’t really remember the much of the characters or their story. Mixed feelings on this one, I don’t think even RC Bray could have saved it.

Classic Neil Stephenson mired by bad reading.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Legendary actors like Daniel Day Lewis work with a voice coach and do method acting, spending weeks if not months getting into a single character that comes alive on screen for 2 hours, and will have at best 1 hour of continuous speech.

What chance does a narrator have to be faithful in reading dozens of accents from a book that has 30+ hours of voice time? None.

It detracts from the story. Every single time a character we haven't heard in 10 minutes comes back into focus, the listener is jolted with a reminder of how bad that accent rendition is.

Why do this? Why bother? Let the listener's mind fill in the accent. Cadence and intonation? By all means be expressive in the delivery of dialogue. But do not attempt to do the English accent of a Indian born tech guy... or the female voice of a Chinese American... Not unless you have the chops of Mel Blanc or Day Lewis. Where it is not outright offensive, it is distracting.

In particular, Neil Stephenson's female characters are notoriously tough. It's even explicitly said that Dinah was seen as a tom-boy. So why adopt this whiny voice...

... exasperating.

Brilliant and engaging

A Sci Fi story that left me on the edge of my seat for countless moments. The science is rock solid and believable. The characters and the story arcs are very well developed and the ending leaves me yearning for more. I hope there's more one day.

Great idea- and start - last third dragged on

Loved the idea, just dragged on a bit. Narrator not a great job with the different voices

All time favourite reads

One of my all time favourite reads. Get stuck in and geek out with Stephenson in unexpected ways.