Seveneves

I have long been a fan of Neal Stephenson and found his latest work, Seveneves, to live up to my expectations.  The book grabs you from its opening line of “The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.”  The first & second parts of the book explore the consequences of that event (extremely catastrophic) and the race to save something of Earth’s biosphere.  In the third section we jump ahead 5,000 years to see what the result of all the struggle we just witnessed was.  Throughout the book we are treated to some excellent explorations of scientific & engineering questions with imaginative solutions to the problems our protagonists encounter.

The book was very moving (hard to avoid when almost everything dies) yet didn’t sink into moroseness or saccharine reflection.  Ultimately it celebrates survival and provides the reader with an epoch spanning adventure though I do quibble that (spoiler) we never did find out if the Moon’s destruction was a deliberate act or very long shot accidental event.  Recommended.