Released translation of Neil Stevenson's book "Semieve"

In the free market (both in paper and electronic versions), a new sci-fi book by the popular American writer Neil Stevenson, The Semieve, appeared. Translation and publishing of the book involved the guys from FanZon. The book, like the author himself, is favored by the many enthusiastic reviews of critics and other literary awards, which are given to modern fiction.

Many fans of the genre were looking forward to the translation, and some did read the original. I will not spoil much, I will say one thing: a book about space. Who wants to form their own understanding of the new work of Stevenson, who, of course, knows how to write books - do not go under the cut. All the rest can familiarize themselves with my position, why I mastered only half of the free previews a month ago and do not intend to buy the book. And not because I am a goon or a pirate, but because in some places everything is very bad right here even in the beginning.

I understand that the topic is toxic, but let's discuss what is wrong with her, the book. All that is written on is pure subjectivism. I warned.

Syllable

Who read my articles knows: I have to build massive, complex, even sometimes difficult to read from the first time. From the experience of translating from English, I can say that in this language one can build truly virtuoso phrases.
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The syllable "Semievia" is banal It seems that the target audience of the book is people who are educated or at least knowledgeable, but the way the book is written is not impressive. Simple monosyllabic constructions, a rather primitive language, which is here and there interspersed with technical terminology. It is not known, the author himself, the editors at the publishing house, who wanted to “grab” the audience wider (who I lie to, of course, wanted to), or our not very resourceful translators, are to blame. I hold the opinion that all three factors have played, because as a manuscript, do not force it, but something in it should have remained from the original syllable, if it was there.

In the case of "Semievy" miracle did not work. Reading aesthetic pleasure does not deliver. Perhaps I am biased, but if you have no problems with the language of Dostoevsky, Tolkien or Dreiser, and you even liked it, then you will not get this pleasure in Semievyya. For example, I am talking about such constructions, which are very often with Dostoevsky, so as not to go far:

The general grinned a little, but thought and paused; then he thought more, squinted, looked his guest once more from head to foot, then quickly pointed out a chair to him, sat down somewhat obliquely and turned to the prince in impatient anticipation.

There are also questions about the structure of the narration, which is simply difficult to follow, since much remains “behind the scenes”.

The technical part and everything else

Stevenson himself, by the way, is an engineer. For this reason, his worlds are quite realistic and elaborated, which is constantly noted in the reviews of his books. I am not an engineer, but I have Google, a calculator, some knowledge of mechanics and common sense.

Opening the Semievia stub-preview file, I expected to feel the full power of Stevenson's engineering knowledge, logic, common sense, visionaryism in terms of technology, because it happens in the near future (talking about a couple of decades ahead). Instead, I got a rotating (banal and ineffective in many ways) donut torus with a diameter of 40 (forty) meters. Stevenson is tactfully silent about how he was locked into orbit, mounted and attached to the ISS. Further, the author describes that Thor gives quite comfortable “light” artificial gravity which slightly attracts to the floor and does not allow objects to “soar from the table or roll down from its surface”. By the way, according to the description of the author, a large table "would visually go to the ceiling if you stand from the edge of the room." Interpretation of the description is free, but I think it is understandable. After doing light calculations, I received quite real figures for the Torah rotation period at the level of 39 seconds to create 0.1g. Everything would be fine, but for some reason Stevenson did not take into account the reaction of the vestibular apparatus and the organism in general when in such a torus and the difference in accelerations for the conventional heels and the top of the crew member. Also, with the description of the table, the problem of understanding the dimensions of the torus itself crawls out.

In order for the described optical effect of “leaving the table to the ceiling” to take place, this table must be at least 8 meters long, as well as the room itself. Can you imagine a ten-meter meeting hall in orbit? Me not. Moreover, these are rough calculations "from edge to edge" in a straight line, the surface of the table due to the torus bending will be even larger, in fact, like the room. And the more closely we look at our forty-meter torus, the worse it gets.

If we imagine that its internal useful section is only 2.5 meters (that is, we are talking about the habitable part, the “pipe” where the crew hangs out), then for a torus with a diameter of 40 meters we get a pipe with an approximate volume of almost 2,200 cubic meters. For you to understand, this is a room with a size of 60x18x2 or almost 1/4 of a standard (international) football field. At the same time, the author says that even if there are 14 people at the station (and there are more modules besides the torus), it becomes cramped. I do not exclude the fact that somewhere could be mistaken with a comma, but, it seems like I was not mistaken.

And of course, cranberries. In Stevenson’s book, Roscosmos is a sexist office without female cosmonauts that easily sends its crews to death by giving them a “one way ticket”. Some statistics:

If we get into Wikipedia, we will see that the Soviets have lost only 5 cosmonauts for all the time (the last case occurred in 1971). NASA, on the other hand, lost 19 (!) People (most recently in 2003, we all remember), refused to use the shuttle and now everyone quietly flies on the terrible Russian "Unions". By the way, over the 25 years of its history as part of modern Russia, Roskosmos, it seems, did not suffer losses at all. Correct me if it is not.

And of course, where would it be without a Russian female character with a name so popular with us as Thekla.

Total

Instead of hard science fiction (to which “Semieviye” belongs) I personally got a mediocre syllable, problems with spatial thinking from the author, scant descriptions of “where, how, what,” and a dose of cranberries with political correctness. Because the commander on the ISS, like her assistant, are women. And in general, half of the station is women, although it is not clear why, because the real statistics are completely different, and I see nothing wrong with the fact that mainly men are engaged in such dangerous work. I would even say it is predictable.

All of this I "hapnul" when reading about 60-70 pages of previews. Perhaps, it will be better further, but all the enthusiasm and desire to read have beaten off the above described things.

I do not say that I have only claims to the Torah and women, far from it. These are simply the brightest, so to speak, “reference” examples. Problems at the "Semievyya" enough. I think Stevenson could have been better, seriously.