Mark Lawrence’s Reviews > Seveneves > Status Update
Mark Lawrence
is on page 50 of 872
I'm enjoying the story, though I have major technical objections.
I can't see that it is possible to break the Moon into 7 big pieces - fragmentation would start immediately.
If it were possible it would take hours at most, not 7 days, for scientists to note the inevitable catastrophe.
It's orders of magnitude easier to survive underground in bunkers than in space.
— Feb 26, 2026 11:13AM
I can't see that it is possible to break the Moon into 7 big pieces - fragmentation would start immediately.
If it were possible it would take hours at most, not 7 days, for scientists to note the inevitable catastrophe.
It's orders of magnitude easier to survive underground in bunkers than in space.
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Mark Lawrence
is on page 688 of 872
I have some significant reservations about the 3rd part.
With hard SFF where pages are spent exhaustively explaining systems, I feel that it's fair to speculate about the science, just as with historical fiction there are people who focus on historical accuracy.
The idea that this populaton of 3 billion, after 5,000 years still can't match our microchips (which they have examples of along with info) is ... wrong.
— Mar 06, 2026 05:06AM
With hard SFF where pages are spent exhaustively explaining systems, I feel that it's fair to speculate about the science, just as with historical fiction there are people who focus on historical accuracy.
The idea that this populaton of 3 billion, after 5,000 years still can't match our microchips (which they have examples of along with info) is ... wrong.
Mark Lawrence
is on page 608 of 872
It's a big fat book, broken into 3 parts that could each be a smallish book.
I'm in section 3 which takes place much later. Huge amount of "world building" (excuse the pun) about world building, reams of detail about how this or that system works.
I did enjoy the urgency and drama of the closing sections of the previous part.
— Mar 05, 2026 01:09AM
I'm in section 3 which takes place much later. Huge amount of "world building" (excuse the pun) about world building, reams of detail about how this or that system works.
I did enjoy the urgency and drama of the closing sections of the previous part.
Mark Lawrence
is on page 150 of 872
It has a lot of the detail porn that made me DNF Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars.
I just waded through pages and pages detailing the controls and maneuvers for two pods to spin around on a tether. I don't mind a little, but this is a lot.
However, I'm still engaged because:
a) it's still not as dry as Red Mars
b) the doomsday scenario makes it all more tense and emotional and interesting.
— Feb 28, 2026 10:19AM
I just waded through pages and pages detailing the controls and maneuvers for two pods to spin around on a tether. I don't mind a little, but this is a lot.
However, I'm still engaged because:
a) it's still not as dry as Red Mars
b) the doomsday scenario makes it all more tense and emotional and interesting.
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Matthew
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Feb 26, 2026 11:21AM
I found this like a lot of Stephenson books, incredible ideas but not much to get your teeth into somehow. I didn’t hate it but, like Cryptonomicon, I felt I was eating an enormous bowl of stew which had every ingredient in the kitchen thrown into it - a bit of restraint might have made it more palatable.
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I had to read this outdoors on a day where the moon was visible the whole afternoon and I could keep an eye on her because it made me so anxious. A big change from all the swashbuckling and syphilus of the Baroque Saga!
until I get a definitive denial from the author, I'm going to hold on to my pet theory that the basic idea is a tribute to Douglas Adams' description of the band Disaster Area:"Their songs are on the whole very simple and mostly follow the familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being beneath a silvery moon, which then explodes for no adequately explored reason"
Like dragons, magic and magic systems are soo believable 😁
Grasha wrote: "Like dragons, magic and magic systems are soo believable 😁"That's missing the point...
