Like I said, I'm still reading the book, so I don't know if my hypothesis can hold up, or not. They stored his body with the others, in a damaged arklet that would serve as a mausoleum until such time as they could cut a grave out of Clefts surface. An ad hoc committee of spacefaring nations establishes a project of immense scale: the International Space Station will serve as the hub around which will be constructed a Cloud Ark consisting of hundreds of "arklets," prefabricated "cans" rotating in pairs for artificial gravity. The International Space Station, fitted with "arklets," populated with 1,500 people and the Human Genetic Archive, is the foundation around which the Cloud Ark will be constructed. The cannibals had ended up under Ada, who because of her intensity and her charisma had gradually emerged as the leader of the Black Bolo Brigade. Subverted; the artifacts are only a publicity stunt designed to get people to buy into the project. The Seven Sisters Rufus Macquarie saw it all happen above the black ridgeline of the Brooks Range. the Human Genetic Archive is destroyed or lost, Izzy is hit by a bolide, the Swarm scatters, and by three years after the Hard Rain begins there are only eight survivors. *sigh*. Played straight, however, in that there is still some drift in how the members of The Epic are portrayed outside of the actual recordings. rev2023.3.1.43269. I would've glady read a whole book about . I continued my recent SF binge with a look at this mammoth offering from the award-winning writer of speculative fiction. He observed: "Some researchers had begun to express concern over the possibility that a collision between two pieces of debris might spawn a large number of fragments, thereby increasing the probability of further collisions and further fragments, producing a chain reaction that might put so much debris into low Earth orbit as to create a barrier to future space exploration. Five thousand years later after a catastrophic event rendered the Earth a ticking time bomb, the progeny of a handful of outer space explorers--seven distinct races now three billion strong--embark on yet another audacious journey: to return to Earth. How did Dominion legally obtain text messages from Fox News hosts? As the pieces begin to collide with one another, astronomer and science popularizer "Doc" Dubois Harris calculates that Moon fragments will begin entering Earth's atmosphere, forming a white sky and blanketing the Earth within two years with what he calls a "Hard Rain" of bolides, causing the atmosphere to heat to incandescence and the oceans to boil away, rendering Earth uninhabitable for thousands of years. after she goes epi again, someone addresses her as Kath Two and she simply states Kath Two is dead. Ex-President of the USA Julia Bliss Flaherty has striking similarities with both Hillary Clinton (wife of an ex-President that, in that world at least, herself became President) and Sarah Palin (child with Down Syndrome, young Vice President to older Candidate). About 1 in every 1,700 babies is born with cleft palate in the United States. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. LibraryThing members' description Please don't post comments as answers. Ada still wasnt talking, but Julia was. It has racked up near-universal praise of its vision, scope, and technical detail. The Cradle, being a counterweight attached to the Eye, is essentially a floating town that moves above the surface of Earth. Ivy lit the ships attitude control thrusters one last time and pivoted her tail up until it was vertical. vegan) just for fun, does this inconvenience the caterers and staff? "Seveneves" is not an easy read (Stephenson never is), and it isn't his best work, but it is a fun and thoughtful exploration of a concept. Ivy called for a twenty-four-hour pause to grieve and to take stock. Few places in the solar system were as safe as the one where they had come to rest. One of the most talked about books this year, Seveneves is a story about what might happen if a better version of our world had to cope with an unimaginable catastrophe. So it's pretty hard to swallow that they survive for 4500 years with the finite resources brought in a few cans. Consumable resources in Seveneves [spoilers], We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. It only takes a minute to sign up. The vitamins that had been packed into every arklet launched up into the Cloud Ark had been intended to support a population of thousands. Yo soy fundamentalmente humanista, por lo que debo reconocer que algunas descripciones cientficas y tecnolgicas se me hicieron algo largas y densas, a pesar de que el autor se preocupa de presentarlas de tal forma que hasta el ms lego en la materia pueda entenderlas. Not only does this succeed for the most part 5000 years later, but the Epic that forms part of said archives has since become a nigh-sacred aspect of Spacer society. At this point the decision is made not to revert back to the original human genetic template: To undo those decisions by reverting to the rootstock human race was viewed almost as a kind of auto-genocide. The last third is pure unadulterated speculative fiction with damn fine worldbuilding and extrapolation from the first 2/3rds. There were definitely people of mixed race in the book. Not long after, Swiss astronaut Markus Leuker replaces Ivy as commander of the Ark, and announces that all political/national allegiances no longer hold, and declares what amounts to martial law pursuant to the Crater Lake Accorda sort of new Constitution prepared on Earth during the massive production of materials in Seattle. But they did. . If you order a special airline meal (e.g. Do you have an in-universe explanation for how the races remained separate for thousands of years? No cosmic radiation could touch them here. Members of Survey and Snake Eaters are tasked with monitoring and reporting on the growth of New Earth's ecosystem which, after millennia of seeding using manipulated DNA preserved from Old Earth and oceans replaced with melted comet ice, is nearly ready for human reoccupation. Betas are the most numerous of the subraces and don't seem to have a specific defining trait, which can make them a counter to Moirans. Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. Besides, the artists and their music . Oh we've never let up on SevenEves. When she talked to you, she watched you too carefully with those avid, penetrating eyes, as if she saw, or imagined she saw, too deeply. Finally they opened the hatch and began to explore it one module at a time. With immediate needs accounted for, the discussion turned toward the obvious problem at hand. It is not a stretch to think that they used the same technology to harvest things they needed (water, metals other than iron, certain naturally-occurring compounds, etc) from elsewhere in the Solar System. 3. All rights belong to authors and publishers.Information on this website is provided solely for induction purposes, so you can read books online for free without registration. Then when the population started reproducing on its own, racial lines were blurred, but because they were always watching The Epic (video of their history), people always had a clear image of the seven ancestral types. Thanks for the edit @gowenfawr. Reading the book now and have the same concerns. This had led to a variety of responses that had determined the history and politics of the Swarm ever since: among some, a further retreat into mysticism and wishful thinking, based on a belief that the Agent had been some sort of avenging angel sent by God, or by aliens so powerful that they might as well be God, to bring about the end of days and the merging of all human consciousness into a digital swarm in the sky; among others, a frank embrace of cannibalism in the sense not of killing people for food but of eating those who had died of natural causes as a stopgap measure until J.B.F. However, I don't know how realistic this redifferentiation scenario is. The storytelling and character development not so much so. Izzy is mostly water, but probably has quite a few other elements mixed in. Tav, to his credit, had backed away from any efforts to elevate him to prophetlike status. Seven Eves: Directed by Mark Nordhagen. They are called the Seven due to Luisa's having passed menopause. They did not know quite what to do with Julia and Ada. If those unusually dark- or light-skinned people selected each other, you could have a reemergence of a group of dark- or light-skinned people, given enough generations and a big enough population. One idea that I had was that NS could have just included one line that says that Moira developed some kind of genetic coding that ensured the babies would carry the genetic traits of the mother always. Did Neal Stephenson make up the nickname for the ISS in Seveneves? (Or, should I say, 'two books'? and passes that belief onto all of her progeny. The Eye itself constantly moves around the Ring Habitat, acting as a form of transport. As a contingency/safety measure, the Ark as yet has no command center. Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron. Meanwhile, leader Markus Leuker and robotics engineer Dinah MacQuarie take a small crew to an ice comet fragment that billionaire Sean Probst has gotten into Earth's orbit for the purpose of providing propellant for the space station. This appears to be commentary, not an actual answer to the question. It was a meditative piece, a secular eulogy for those who had fallen, but in retrospect it seemed to mark an inflection point in the survivors thinking. Thanks for contributing an answer to Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange! Various structures ramified outward from it like boughs. The personal website of author Neal Stephenson, unless it's been hacked. The President's Science Adviser, Dr. Pete Starling, is as devastated as everyone else when informed that the Cloud Ark must be self-sustaining for 5,000 to 10,000 years. Could six women put two women in jail? @ScottWhitlock Mixed race people were a tiny minority. This explained, at least in a general way, everything that had happened, save possibly for the physical mutilation of both Julia and Tav. Efforts to terraform Earth for the past several hundred years have proven fruitful; although the process is incomplete, some have resettled the planet in violation of treaty agreements. compounds of carbon and hydrogen). Isolation led to Caricaturization: breeding, pursued consciously in some cases and unconsciously in others, that had the effect over many generations of intensifying racial differences. While melting and splitting the water theyd used for propellant, they had extracted from it many tons of phosphorus, carbon, ammonia, and other chemicals, left over from the dawn of the solar system, that had once cloaked Gregs Skeleton in a reeking black carapace. Nobody needs legs in Space; the starving population of the breakaway swarm turns to this when things get dire. It turns out to be a plot point after the time skip. Ada still possessed an air of menace. Harris himself benignly names them Potato Head, Mr. Spinny, Acorn, Peach Pit, Scoop, Big Boy, and Kidney Bean. You break my heart, Mr. Howard, you break my heart. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. could be toppled and replaced by people who knew what they were doing. We are working toward an epic groundbreaking series for Amazon. The population is divided into seven races, each of which descends from and is named after one of the seven Eves and carries distinct racial characteristics that harken back to the personalities and characteristics of the original Eves. After so much death, division, and brutal hardship, those remaining on the Ark rechristen it as Endurance. Primarily, humankind is divided into two factions: Blue, aligned with the traditions of Endurance, and Red, following Swarm beliefs and philosophies. Most Arkies are selected with that in mind. Insights into the human character shine like occasional full moons." -- Boston Globe Five thousand years later, their progeny seven distinct races now three billion strong embark on yet another audacious journey . Are the United Nations ever mentioned in Seveneves? Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Julia is the last President of the United States, and the ancestor to a religion-obsessed race aligned with the Blue. 1 title per month from Audible's entire catalog of best sellers, and new releases. The project is designed also to engage those left behind, and prevent worldwide chaos. The healthy ones patched holes, repressurized modules, got the torus spinning again, and turned it into a sick bay, which filled up immediately. After breaking away from Izzy the Swarm eventually becomes that, as Arkies try to find solace in a bizarre mix of spiritualism and scientific concepts. Thanks for contributing an answer to Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange! Seveneves is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2015. So even when there was mixing, the seven lines would continue as they started. She then called a meeting of the entire human race: Dinah, Ivy, Moira, Tekla, Julia, Ada, Camila, and Luisa. Checking for the International Space Station, he lashes to his knee a self-designed telegraph key and taps a messageLOOK AT THE MOONto his daughter, Dinah, a roboticist on the ISS (known as "Izzy" to occupants). The questionable section is added not as characterization but as polemic. But look at the (later) attraction of Kathtwo and Beled, and imagine a world where frequent sexual reproduction and avoiding inbreeding were absolutely essential to the survival of the human species. Privacy Policy. This hints that they retained a notable knowledge about space travel and civil engineering. Is the word "vitamin" meaning "any item shippable to space" a creation of Neal Stephenson in Seveneves? I finally managed to finish it. The predicted "hard rain" starts 701 days after the moon's shattering, and Earth's surface is annihilated. Compare Supplements By Price Per Unit and More . The *science* and world-building is awesome. The one Swarm had thus fissioned into two smaller ones, neither of which was as viable, and thereby worsened the same problems that had led to the split in the first place. Ivy opened with a report on their general situation. Additionally, this physical isolation encouraged a culture where some actively worked to maintain separate racial identities. The Swarm had always had a sort of quasi-divine status to some, who had perhaps read too much chaos theory too superficially and were prone to believing that its collective decisions, lying beyond human understanding, partook of the supernatural. Kulak of the Red is that, at least during construction. Su trabajo de investigacin al abordar la amplitud de aristas que intervienen en todos los hechos que se comienzan a desencadenar, es realmente asombroso. The result is an astonishing portrait of the human future, a future only Neal Stephenson could have imagined. Human civilization, as well as nearly all life on Earth, is obliterated. 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