A Review - Seven Eves by Neal Stephenson

This is not Snow Crash

Dove into my old style of reading by tearing through the 1000 pages of Neal Stephenson's 2015 novel 'Seven Eves' in a week.

Interesting book, interesting premise, unexpectedly one dimensional characters. When I consider the book after reading it - I think it was a Tolkien-esque effort more than a literary one.

As Tolkien did in the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings, - what Stephenson was actually doing with his trilogy-in-one was world building.

He creates a world with Dwarves (Diggers) Merfolk (Pingers) High Elves both dark and light (Red-Julians and Blue-Moirans) and races that roughly equate to trolls, orcs, wizards, hobbits, and others. In total 13 human races.

He creates a 'New Earth' that has magical unexplored geography, a space opera high tech civilization in orbit, and an open door for a race of Martians to enter the mix from a mission that is never conclusively called a failure but which would have stranded humans on the Red Planet and her moons for five thousand years.

There are rumors that a movie version is being adapted - but I'll be more interested to see if Stephenson decides to tell more nuanced stories in the worlds that he has built here. In truth, the closest we get to a relatable and sympathetic character is only revealed in the last few hundred pages, Ty Lake - a bartender/veteran working for the mysterious cabal behind 'The Purpose'. An earlier character who very much seemed like Neil DeGrasse Tyson came close to being more than one dimensional in the earlier parts - but ultimately missed the mark.

I'd have a hard time recommending this book - I'm sure the science was spot on and the story was interesting in a sort of apocalyptic survival way. In all - it was really a pretty dry read - with some fascinating world building experiments within it.

I’m glad to have gotten through it.