A three-part novel, Seveneves was written by Neal Stephenson and published in 2015. Stephenson is an American author who is most well known for his science fiction novels. Though his works have been categorized in many different genres, Stephenson’s work consistently incorporates different elements of math and science and other concepts like cryptocurrency or even philosophy, as Seveneves demonstrates here. Not only is he just an author of some fictional scientific concepts, but he has also actually worked for companies looking to develop futuristic inventions, such as Blue Origin and Subutai Corporation.
Seveneves is yet another novel set in the post apocalyptic world, right after a chain of catastrophic events strikes Earth, but this novel is unique in its hard science fiction aspect of different relevant scientific concepts embedded in its plot. Essentially, our Moon has been shattered (in the novel’s very recent past) by something completely unknown to the people on Earth. The first seven pieces that the Moon fragments into start colliding into one another, and it is soon apparent that these collisions will begin to affect Earth in an extremely destructive way in the novel’s near future. This prediction results in the creation of a “Cloud Ark,” that is essentially parallel to the International Space Station currently already in orbit around Earth today.
As time progresses in this apocalyptic environment, and the plot moves on in this novel, we see the clear division of seven races, all descendant from the seven women with viable reproductive systems who created descendants from parthenogenesis, a biological term that refers to an egg alone being able to divide and create an embryo and normal offspring. Here, we see the origin of this novel’s name, Seveneves, or Seven Eves, as the seven women who repopulated their respective races are the metaphorical “Eves” in this story. In Seveneves, Stephenson explores the interesting topics of evolution and genetic modifications, and also pushes the modern day limits of science and technology.
