Neal Stephenson's "Seveneves" is one of those massive, crushing, momentous, century-spanning and era-defining hard sci-fi novels. It starts with the immortal line "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason." Classic! It dives into a world plagued with Kessler syndrome and the grimly inevitable consequences for the future of humanity. Scalzi's latest book is cheesy homage - fromage if you will - to that giant of literature. It asks an equally important question. What if,…
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The bad news is - this book isn't released until September 2023... The good news is - I have an advance reader copy. So I get to revel in it now! I appreciate that you might not consider that much of an upside. But sucks to be you, I guess? Scalzi's writing reminds me why I love to read. It is fast, funny, and filled with righteous ire. The plot is... look, it's identical to Scalzi's other books. "Who? Me? A nerdy guy is called on to save the world? But all I have is my nerdy references and…
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Oh! But this is ridiculously fantastic fun. An unemployed sci-fi geek escapes the pandemic by going all David Attenborough with Godzilla. Yes, it is an exercise in nerdy wish fulfilment. But who among us wouldn't have rather spent the last two years being chased by giant scary monsters rather than cowering away from a microscopic virus? It a joyful piece of bubble-gum sci-fi. It plays well with tropes and, much like Redshirts, gives the reader exactly what they need. It isn't very subtle. …
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