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This somehow reminds me of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Its not the same story of course, but I cant help but think of the book.
by mlang23 6y ago
This somehow reminds me of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Its not the same story of course, but I cant help but think of the book.
- xvector 6y agoI really enjoyed the first third of the book, the second third was decent too. I had to drop it when I got to the last third, it just became too boring.
- jlmorton 6y agoYeah, you didn't miss much. Fantastic book nonetheless.
- mlang23 6y agoSame here. I felt like the book could actually end after the remaining women decided on genetic manipulations. What followed thereafter was quite boring, and I stopped reading it as well. Actually sad, because the backstory is likely just preparation for what follows. But it was just too boring to go on. Prompted by a comment from someone yesterday, I actually replayed the Snow Crash audiobook in the evening. Comparing SC and SE I notice that SC feels quite juvenile. I didnt notice that as much when I first read it in my 20s. But these days, it feels a bit too much over the top. Contrary to that, SE somehow feels too grown up.
- j4nt4b 6y agoCompletely agree. He overwrote himself into a blind corner - wasted so much time describing the orbital mechanics of chains that my eyes rolled all the way up into the back of my head, completely spoiled any remote semblance of hard sci-fi he had going with the surprise Ur-Middle Earth origin story, and finally never justified all the self-indulgence with even a single word about the agent.
- iainmerrick 6y agoI haven’t read Seveneves, but that describes many Neal Stephenson novels. The Diamond Age is the clearest example for me -- brilliant beginning, with a really compelling setting; confused middle; terrible ending.
- tialaramex 6y agoI don't get why people dislike the end of The Diamond Age in particular. Spoilers. Like, I mean, this isn't a plot summary, but this is in some sense what happens so look away now if you wish you didn't know: The Primer has been calling her Princess Nell for a long time. Once you realise what's going on with the vast number of "specially adapted" Primers for the orphan girls, that Princess has got a ready made tribe with shared values in the form of the Mouse Army, waiting for her say so. The whole book has been telling you that in this era what matters isn't control over a land mass, which is what the Fists are fighting for in the Leased Territories on behalf of Han, but a Tribe with shared values. The Mouse Army shows up, rescues Nell and takes her to her mother. The Victorian Queen recognises Nell as the leader of a novel but important tribe. The novel is flawed in many usual Stephenson ways (e.g. use of rape in place of actual character development) but I don't know what people expected from these endings, they seemed perfectly satisfactory to me on multiple re-readings.
- kfarr 6y agoYeah our satellites just need a huge asteroid clearing the way if the worst happens
- johncalvinyoung 6y agoHated that book, after reading a bunch of Stephenson's others. Preordered it even. Highly disappointed.