Neal Stephenson’s “Seveneves: A Novel” opens with a catastrophic event that shocks the world into stunned disbelief: A cosmic anomaly has caused the moon to explode into seven pieces. The sudden shattering of the moon sets the stage for a desperate race against time. Scientists predict that Earth will become uninhabitable within two years due to an impending “hard rain” of meteorites.
Scientists soon realize that the Earth will experience a “meteorite bombardment such as the Earth has not seen since the primordial age,” beginning in two years and lasting for up to 10,000, utterly obliterating everything on the planet’s surface. The timer is set. Humanity must act within two years to prevent its extinction.
