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I still can't get over how dumb the concept of seven races that have frequent contact and close (and even intimate) relationships but somehow have managed to avoid interbreeding to the point that seeing a mixed-race person is rare is. It makes basically zero sense on any level, and requires a huge amount of authorial fiat to just declare that's how it is. Adding the  strong racial determinant of behavior and identity makes it even worse.Basically can we chop off the entire third section of the book and replace it with something that doesn't rely on such a dumb premise?
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Dec 18, 2015 22:52
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If the book was set on a fictional planet that was superficially similar to 20th-century Earth but had that kind of divergent history, would it be easier for you to suspend your disbelief? It sounds to me like you're not letting yourself think of the setting as fictional alternate-reality Earth, but instead interpreting it as real-life modern Earth and pointing out all the inconsistencies between real life and the fictional setting. Setting a story in an environment that's familiar to the readers and then revealing that the assumptions they made from that familiarity are wrong is a pretty solid narrative technique. Take Anathem, for a lesser example. You probably thought through the entire first 2/3rds of the book that all of the characters were standard-issue human, because there was nothing to indicate otherwise, until you got to see an actual human from Earth and were told how unsettling and different Earth humans looked compared to what the main characters looked like.
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Jul 28, 2016 00:25
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I legit remember none of the plot of the last third of Seveneves, just setting details, despite reading it only a year or so ago. I also remember the setting details being really, really dumb. Kinda mad that this is part of the same book that described the end of terrestrial civilization so vividly that I cried in public.
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Jun 7, 2017 18:41
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