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Geeky Heroines and Heroes



A Wealth of Technical Details

Let me get this clear up front.  I’m a Neal  Stephenson fan.   Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books.   I also loved the Baroque Cycle series.  Snow Crash, not so much. That said, I was ambivalent (right up until the end) about whether to give this 3 stars or 4.  But the last section did it---four stars it is. My ambivalence is because of the very thing that makes Stephenson’s writing what it is---the plethora of technical details. Certainly Stephenson knows about space.  After all he worked for American aerospace company Blue Origin.   So there’s a real authenticity to the wealth of detail in the first two sections of the book.  

My quarrel with the book would be that sometimes, Stephenson gets bogged down in the hard technical stuff that he understands so well.  Actually, he's got an almost Aspergian obsession with technical minutiae.  In that sense, this reminded me of "The Martian", although "Seveneves" is a much better book.  Or put another way, I thought that sometimes the details got in the way of the story instead of advancing it.


  I became less certain about this as I progressed, since in many cases the technical details were the story.  This became more apparent in the last section, which took place in the far future.  Still, I think some of those details could have been cut and the book would have been better.


 The best moments in the book were those highlighting old fashioned narrative elements like character, story, and emotion.

Summary

Here's a summary:

Section One--Humanity's Last Two Years on Earth

In the first section, some unknown factor dubbed "The Agent" causes the moon to break apart.  I think the time frame for this is contemporary. TV science commentator Doc Dubois, a.k.a Doob, determines that this will cause a massive meteor shower known as the White Sky which will destroy the earth, rendering it unihabitable.  Mostly this will happen through a rain of fire known as the Hard Rain. (I wonder if Doob, an African-American astronomer whose full name is Dubois Xavier Jerome Harris, PhD, is modelled on Neil DeGrasse Tyson).

  Humanity has two years to prepare. So, most of the first section concerns a mad rush to save the human race by sending a small, hand picked cadre of assorted scientists, engineers, and other geeks into space.

Section Two--Earth is Defunct, Now What?

Section Two starts with the destruction of earth's seven billion via the White Sky, which precipitates the Hard Rain.  It ends with the main space station of survivors finding an asteroid remnant of the moon, The Cleft, in which they can safely dock the space station, which has undergone various changes of name and configuration.  The heroic acts and deaths of those who sacrifice themselves to save the human race make an amazing story.  In the end, there are seven eves, women of childbearing age who will perpetuate the race.  The Council of the Seven Eves includes Ivy Xiao, a scientist who is the captain of the space station; Moira Crewe, the geneticist;  Dinah MacQuarie, astronaut, roboticist, and jill of all trades;  Tekla, an Amazonian Russian cosmonaut who is an athlete and security guard as well;  Camila, a young Muslim woman;  and two others (not revealed because they are spoilers).

Section Three--Five Thousand Years in the Future

Section Three takes place five thousand years in the future. The human race is once again thriving, with three billion descendents of the Seven Eves living on a sort of Dyson ring in space known as The Habitat. It's an engineering culture. There are seven races, one descended from each Eve.  Reflecting the friendships formed when the Eves were alive, the Moiran, Teklan, Dinan and Ivyn races have an alliance called Blue.  The other three have an alliance called Red. Scientists have been terraforming earth in preparation for a massive return to the Earth's surface. A small interracial group--a Seven--is formed to take an exploratory trip to Earth. The expedition is headed up by Dr. Hu (a sly pun on...guess who?) What they find there is quite astonishing. I think the scope and breadth of the story are what won me over.

Bechdel Test

Also, I think this passes the Bechdel test. ( ) Lots of strong female characters that talk to each other about topics other than men. This is very rare in science fiction, especially in hard science fiction, so kudos to Neal for this.  

Audio Readers

The audio had two readers.  Mary Robinette Kowal read the first two sections and I did not care for her reading.  She got most of the foreign accents laughably wrong, her renditions of male characters made me cringe, and she mispronounced lots of words.  Will Damron, who read the last section, was much better.

Please forgive any typos, etc.  My computer is broken and I am waiting for parts so I can repair it, but in the meantime my only online access is via my old and cranky Android phone or 45 minute computer sessions at the library..when it is open.