[ben_w]

I really enjoyed Snow Crash; I felt that Seveneves was two completely different books that were coincidentally in the same universe, nether of which felt bad in isolation, but they definitely didn’t feel unified.

I wasn’t a fan of Quicksilver, but as that was the first historical novel I’ve listened to, and as it was award winning, I assume it must be more about my tastes than the quality of the writing?

[davidw]

I liked the second part of Seveneves, but the first bit felt really depressing, and more than a bit unrealistic.

I liked Quicksilver, but could easily see how it's not everyone's cup of tea.

[robbiep]

Apologies for breaking seveneves for you:

Why do they need to generate artificial Y chromosomes when there is a whole bunch of perfectly good ones in the last man alive who just died with them; and thousands upon thousands in the scattered genetic material in the frozen tin cans floating about in various orbits between earth and the shattered moon? And why does that have to lead to essentially speciation of the survivors?

[ben_w]

The tin cans heavily exposed to radiation? And in direct sunlight so more likely desiccated than frozen? And didn’t that guy just die of cancer? Though I was wondering why they didn’t start collecting semen and egg samples immediately after the total loss of the first samples.

Perhaps I’m misremembering, but I didn’t perceive the description as true speciation, more like socially defined racial groups.

[ravi-delia]

What about the first bit seemed unrealistic? I mean, besides the hand of God smacking the moon into bits. I loved the commitment to rock hard scifi, and the slow decay of relations on board resonated.

[davidw]

The fact that they could eke out an existence in such a challenging environment after so much went wrong just seemed a bit far-fetched.

[ravi-delia]

You know what, now that I think about it you're probably right. I think that the story just played into my feeling of a small team being able to carefully navigate where a large group takes on a mind of its own, and usually for ill. That's true in my experience for some things, but in space? With no backup? Probably doesn't carry over.