Neal Stephenson's latest sci-fi novel lands high in this week's New York Times' Best-selling List. "Seveneves," released last May 19, debuts at number three on the list.

The novel explores the possibility of humans living earth to inhabit a place outside the planet. When a moon collision hits the earth, a small group of people have left the planet for Cloud Ark, a space station, that becomes their home for five thousand years. But life in the space station is not easy. Aside from the physical challenges of living in Cloud Ark, the inhabitants must also battle anxiety, depression, and the complexities of human emotions. Now, the population of Cloud Ark had reached seven distinct races, and decide to journey back to Earth.

The reception for the novel has been mostly positive. The Chicago Tribune commented on the book's length, saying, that "all those pages can speed by like a bullet train" and calls the book "a superb exploration of his abiding fascination with systems, philosophies and the limits of technology." Booklist also praised the book's pace, saying that it is "well-paced over three parts covering 5,000 years of humanity's future." Publishers' Weekly commended the book and the author, noting that the book is a "worth the while."

Stephenson said that it took him eight years to complete the lengthy novel that spans thousands of years. In an interview with Tap Milwaukee, Stephenson, 55, said that the idea for the book came to him as a young boy. Going way back, there's a subgenre of science-fiction books about the end of the world, people getting on an ark and going into space. I read some of those when I was a kid," the author said. "On some level, I always thought it would be cool to write one of those. But I didn't really act on it until recently."

Meanwhile, other debuts in the New York Best-seller's list for hardcover fiction this week include romantic read "Beach Town" by Mary Kay Andrews which landed on the sixth spot, detective novel "The Scarlet Gospels" by Clive Barker debuts at number nine, and the continuation of Robert B. Parker's novel "Kickback" by Ace Atkins debuts at the the tenth spot. Other best-sellers on the list are Paula Hawkins' "The Girl on the Train" at the top of the list, followed by "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr at the second spot, while "Memory Man" by David Baldacci is is still in the fourth place.