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This book took me forever to read. Mainly because of the emotional difficulty I had with the subject material.
I've written before about how giving birth seems to have made me totally unable to deal with end-of-the-world tales. But this was Neal Stephenson! One of my favorite authors! I'd been looking forward to this book for months! But it still hit me hard.
As others have noted, there are three distinct parts of this book: The exit from Earth, the struggle to survive in space, and the return to the planet. I didn't like the first third, I didn't mind the second third, and I wanted WAY more of the third third.
Others have complained about the characters, but I actually didn't mind them. What I did mind was the pages of details about orbital mechanics. I'm amazed Stephenson (and his characters) worked it all out, I'm sure it's fascinating to those of a more mechanical bent, but I tended to skim those sections. I do wish there had been more detail on the genetic side of things. They mentioned the black-footed ferret program several times, but never discussed how the humans overcame the challenges that program faced (immune system weaknesses especially).
Once humanity survived, it felt like the book had finally started. I wanted to hear way more about repopulating the Earth. (The idea of trying to replicate specific ranges and species sounds ridiculous; did people really think that?) I also wanted to hear more about the faction that went to Mars, about the Pingers (SO much more about the Pingers) and about the miners. Stephenson said that a good book should leave readers wanting more, but I don't usually want this much more, this urgently.
I enjoyed the book, but it's not my favorite Stephenson. There were great ideas in here, I just wish some of them had been fleshed out a little more.
I've written before about how giving birth seems to have made me totally unable to deal with end-of-the-world tales. But this was Neal Stephenson! One of my favorite authors! I'd been looking forward to this book for months! But it still hit me hard.
As others have noted, there are three distinct parts of this book: The exit from Earth, the struggle to survive in space, and the return to the planet. I didn't like the first third, I didn't mind the second third, and I wanted WAY more of the third third.
Others have complained about the characters, but I actually didn't mind them. What I did mind was the pages of details about orbital mechanics. I'm amazed Stephenson (and his characters) worked it all out, I'm sure it's fascinating to those of a more mechanical bent, but I tended to skim those sections. I do wish there had been more detail on the genetic side of things. They mentioned the black-footed ferret program several times, but never discussed how the humans overcame the challenges that program faced (immune system weaknesses especially).
Once humanity survived, it felt like the book had finally started. I wanted to hear way more about repopulating the Earth. (The idea of trying to replicate specific ranges and species sounds ridiculous; did people really think that?) I also wanted to hear more about the faction that went to Mars, about the Pingers (SO much more about the Pingers) and about the miners. Stephenson said that a good book should leave readers wanting more, but I don't usually want this much more, this urgently.
I enjoyed the book, but it's not my favorite Stephenson. There were great ideas in here, I just wish some of them had been fleshed out a little more.