Seveneves

I think this should have been two books of around 600 pages each: one covering the first two thirds of this book and a sequel covering events of the last third and beyond.

The first two thirds were highly detailed and very interesting, if a bit overwhelming at times, whilst the last third felt a little rushed and a bit of a missed opportunity.

I found myself far more attached to characters than I expected from a book so heavily focused on the science of space. I was brought close to tears by the deaths, struggles and heroism during the first part and some of the second part. (Dinah and Rufus' final messages come immediately to mind. As does pretty much everything Sean accomplished.) The third part didn't give us enough time to grow particularly attached to anyone, but certainly left open the opportunity for a sequel, so maybe there'll be a chance in the future.

I occasionally felt, as I always do with Neal Stephenson, that he could benefit from an editor more willing to actually edit his books. It certainly seems that as he grew in prominence his editors became less willing to cut down sections and they've ballooned rather spectacularly.

I'd definitely recommend reading Seveneves, but be prepared for enormous sections about the minor details of how some space manoeuvre is brought about.

It's this sci-fi about a slow sort of apocalypse, allowing for people on earth to prepare survival arks in near orbit. It has a huge timeline - 5000 years, and really just massive and epic. But it got really really superboring in the middle. There are a lot of technical explanations of space stuff - orbits, the mechanics of movements of large objects in space, overall just a lot of jargon. Lots of interesting ideas. If he just spent a similar amount of time developing the characters as he did explanating orbital mechanics, it definitely would have been a much more pleasant reading experience. As it is, I plodded through the whole thing because I somehow got it in my head that sometimes you just have to grin and bear it, and I already read so much, don't quit, desiderata, etc. etc.

The final portion felt rushed. It should have been much longer. I really wanted to see how the different cultures would interact.