- Stephenson, Neal. Seveneves. New York: William Morrow, 2015. ISBN 978-0-06-219037-6.
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Fiction writers are often advised to try to immediately grab the
attention of readers and involve them in the story. “If you
haven't hooked them by the end of the first chapter, you've probably
lost 'em.” Here, the author doesn't dawdle. The first
line is “The Moon blew up without warning and
for no apparent reason.” All right, now that's an
interesting premise!
This massive novel (880 pages in the hardcover print edition) is
divided into three parts. In the first, after the explosion of the Moon,
scientist and media talking head Dubois Jerome Xavier Harris (“Doob”),
a figure much like
Neil deGrasse Tyson
in real life, calculates that the seven large fragments of the exploded moon will
collide with one another, setting off an exponential cascade of fragmentation
and further collisions like the
Kessler syndrome for
objects in low Earth orbit, with enough the scattered debris bombarding the
Earth to render its surface uninhabitable for on the order of five thousand
years.
The story begins in the near future, when the International Space Station
(“Izzy”) has been augmented with some additional
facilities and a small nickel-iron asteroid retrieved and docked
to it for asteroid mining experiments. Technology is much as at the
present, but with space-based robotics having advanced significantly.
Faced with what amounts to a death sentence for the Earth (the heat from the
impacts was expected to boil off much of the oceans and eject the atmosphere
into space), and having only around two years before the catastrophic
bombardment begins, spacefaring nations make plans to re-purpose Izzy as
a “Cloud Ark” to preserve the genetic heritage of the Earth
and the intellectual capital of humanity against the time when the home
planet can again be made habitable. Thus begins a furious technological
crash project, described in detail, working against an inexorable
deadline, to save what can be saved and launch it to the fragile ark
in space.
Eventually the catastrophe arrives, and the second part of the novel
chronicles the remnant of humanity on the Cloud Ark, with Izzy as its
core, and most of the population in co-orbiting rudimentary habitats.
From the start there are major technical challenges to overcome, with
all involved knowing that high technology products from Earth
such as silicon chips and laboratory equipment may not be able to be
replaced for centuries, if ever. The habitat ecosystem must be closed,
as there will be no resupply. And, people being people, the society of
the survivors begins to fragment into factions, each with its own
priorities and ideas about how to best proceed. Again, there is much
technological derring-do, described in great detail (including one of the
best explanations of the fundamentals of orbital mechanics I've
encountered in fiction). The heroic exploits of the survivors are the
stuff of legend, and become the legends of their descendents.
Part three of the novel picks up the story five thousand years later,
when the descendants of the Cloud Ark have constructed a mature
spacefaring civilisation, tapping resources of the solar system, and
are engaged in restoring the Earth, now that the bombardment has abated,
to habitability. The small population of the Cloud Ark has put the human
race through a serious genetic bottleneck with the result that the species
has differentiated into distinct races, each with its own traits and
behavioural characteristics, partly determined by genetics and partly transmitted
culturally. These races form alliances and conflict with one another,
with humanity having sorted itself into two factions called Red and
Blue (gee, how could such a thing happen?) which have largely separated
into their own camps. But with possession of the Earth at stake, Red
and Blue have much to dispute, especially when enigmatic events on
that planet call into the question their shared history.
This is a rather curious book. It is so long and intricate that there's
room for a lot in here, and that's what the reader gets. Some of it is
the hardest of hard science fiction, with lengthy technical explanations
which may make those looking for a fast moving story yawn or doze off.
(In fact, there are parts where it seems like the kind of background notes
science fiction authors make to flesh out their worlds and then include
random portions as the story plays out have, instead, been dumped wholesale
into the text. It's as if Obi-Wan shows Luke his father's light sabre,
then spends ten minutes explaining the power pack, plasma containment
system, field generator, and why it makes that cool sound when you
wave it around.) The characters seem to be archetypes of particular
personality traits and appear to be largely driven by them rather than
developing as they face the extraordinary challenges with which they're
presented, and these stereotypes become increasingly important as the
story unfolds.
On balance, I'm glad I read this book. It's a solid, well-told yarn which will
make you think about just how humans would respond faced with a near-term
apocalypse and also whether, given how fractious and self-destructive
they often are, whether they are likely to survive or, indeed, deserve to.
I believe a good editor could have cut this manuscript in half, sacrificing
nothing of importance, and making the story move along more compellingly.
And now there are a number of details about the novel which I cannot
discuss without spoiling the plot and/or ending, so I'll take them
behind the curtain. Do not read the following unless you've
already read the novel or are certain you will never do so.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.At the start of the novel the nickel-iron asteroid “Amalthea” has been docked to Izzy for experiments in asteroid mining. This asteroid is described as if “laid to rest on a soccer field, it would have stretched from one penalty box to the other and completely covered the center circle.” Well, first of all, this is not the asteroid 113 Amalthea of our solar system, which is a much larger rocky main belt asteroid—46 km in size. Why one would name an asteroid brought to the space station the same as a very different asteroid known since 1871 escapes me. Given that the space station does various maneuvers in the course of the story, I was curious about the mass of the asteroid. Assuming it is a prolate ellipsoid of revolution with semi-principal axes of 9.15, 9.15, and 36 metres (taken from the dimensions of a standard soccer field), its volume would be 12625 m³ and, assuming the standard density of 5.32 g/cm³ for metallic asteroids, would have a mass of 67170 tonnes, which is 1.3 times the mass of the Titanic. This is around 150 times the present mass of the International Space Station, so it would make maneuvers, especially those done later in the book, rather challenging. I'm not saying it's impossible, because complete details of the propulsion used aren't given, but it sure looks dodgy, and even more after the “megaton of propellant” mentioned on p. 493 is delivered to the station. On p. 365 Izzy is said to be in an orbit “angled at about fifty-six degrees to the equator”. Not so; its inclination is 51.6°. On p. 74 the arklets are said to “draw power from a small, simple nuclear reactor fueled by isotopes so radioactive that they would throw off heat, and thereby generate electricity, for a few decades.” This is describing a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, not a nuclear reactor. Such generators are usually powered by plutonium-238, which has a half-life of 87.7 years. How would such a power source sustain life in the arklets for the five thousand years of exile in space? Note that after the Hard Rain, resources to build new nuclear reactors or solar panels would not be available to residents of the Cloud Ark. When the Ymir makes its rendezvous with Izzy, it jettisons its nuclear reactor to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. Why would you discard such an irreplaceable power source? If you're worried about radiation, place it into a high, stable orbit where it can be retrieved for use later if needed. Humans could expect no further source of nuclear fuel for thousands of years. The differentiation of the races of humanity in the final part of the novel strikes me as odd and, in a way, almost racist. Now, granted, genetic manipulation was involved in the creation of these races, but there seems to be a degree of genetic (with some help from culture) predestination of behavioural traits which, if attributed to present-day human races, would exclude one from polite discourse. I think the story would have been made more interesting if one or more members of these races was forced by circumstances to transcend their racial stereotypes. The technology, or lack thereof, in the final part of the book is curious. Five thousand years have elapsed, and the Cloud Ark population has recovered to become a multi-racial space-dwelling society of three billion people, capable of mega-engineering projects humans today can only dream of, utilising resources of the solar system out to the Kuiper belt. And yet their technology seems pretty much what we expect to see within this century, and in some ways inferior to our own. Some of this is explained by deliberate relinquishment of technology (“Amistics”, referring to the Amish), but how likely is it that all races and cultures would agree not to develop certain technologies, particularly when in conflict with one another? I loved the “Srap Tasmaner”. You will too, once you figure it out. Given that the Moon blew up, why would an advanced spacefaring civilisation with a multitude of habitats be so interested in returning to a planet, deep in a gravity well, which might itself blow up some day?Spoilers end here.
