“Five Thousand Years Later” (569).

Stephenson is no stranger to epic stories. Consider his three volume, eight book, 3,000 word Baroque Trilogy! Still, how do you write a unified story that hinges on the words, “five thousand years later”? Stephenson accomplishes it with style.

He begins the story with these words:

The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason. (3)

The book tells the tale of what that explosion would entail and how humanity would respond in the ultimate survival situation.

Seveneves is a science-fiction book with a strong emphasis on science. Much of the sprawling page-count is devoted to explaining theoretical technology. Don’t let that dissuade you, though. Stephenson instructs in the context of the narrative without making the dialogue feeling forced or artificial.

This is simply the best science fiction book I have read in over a decade. (I don’t say that lightly either—I checked my archived reviews!) Seveneves is a page-turner with enough substance to hold the readers mind over many late nights.

—Neal Stephenson, Seveneves (New York: William Morrow, 2015).