Isn't just the title of this Hacker News entry and the connection with the book a massive spoiler? Could argue it got me intrigued, but wondering what Stephenson intended. (I always wonder about not putting spoilers in movie trailers for instance)
The title of this post, "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason", is the very first sentence in the book [0]. It's not a spoiler for any meaningful definition of the word, the word spoiler should be reserved for things that spoil the enjoyment of a work, like a surprise ending.
For what it's worth, when Stephenson does readings he always reads passages of the book that won't give spoilers. He made a statement when reading seven eves "let me tell you now. The moon blows up. That's not a spoiler, it's the first sentence. And no, I won't tell you why. It blows it in the first sentences so I don't have to come up with a reason." (My paraphrasing)
Everything in the title and the linked article happens or is described in the first chapter of the book. It's effectively the premise of the book. No reading experience of the book should be disturbed by this.
Where do you think the book is going to go from "the moon blew up?" Orbital mechanics follows logically from the premise. Again, people who have read the book, myself included, are telling you: this is not a spoiler.
As one who has not read the book, but very well might, it’s not a spoiler at all. The blurb (and first sentence of the book) says the moon blows up. Well, by golly if there isn’t some discussion of pieces of moon and orbital mechanics, and if those pieces just sit up there and inertly do nothing, that is going to be one hell of a boring book.
