--- description: The 'Seveneves' author weighs in on the great shows of 2015 title: The Year in Culture: Neal Stephenson on Novelistic TV image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5257a9e10ae9c8cb/698874b9cd1bba59d76fe742/screen-shot-2015-12-09-at-4-23-30-pm.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Neal Stephenson Explains the Rise of Novelistic TV by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/), [Adam Perez](/author/adam-perez/) and [Salima Koroma](/author/salima-koroma/) Dec 17, 2015 4:49 PM CUT  by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/), [Adam Perez](/author/adam-perez/) and [Salima Koroma](/author/salima-koroma/) Dec 17, 2015 4:49 PM CUT Neal Stephenson’s epic sci-fi novel [_Seveneves_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062190377/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") was one of [10 books](http://time.com/4135131/top-10-fiction-books-2/ "undefined") that especially impressed TIME’s editors this year, but many of the works of culture that caught Stephenson’s own eye weren’t on the page—but rather, on the screen. “This year, the thing we’re going to remember is how good television was,” he said. “There was enough really good TV that it became a problem: Which show am I going to binge-watch now?” Citing top-notch shows like _Silicon Valley_ and _Game of Thrones_, Stepheonson said, “It may be the case that TV competes with reading books—I guess technically it does—but I think the reason that TV is so good and it’s succeeding so well now is because of the writing. It’s because it is novelistic in its scope.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4143589/neal-stephenson-year-in-culture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4143589/neal-stephenson-year-in-culture/"},"headline":"Neal Stephenson Explains the Rise of Novelistic TV","datePublished":"2015-12-17T16:49:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T11:56:36.587Z","description":"The Seveneves author weighs in on the great shows of 2015","url":"https://time.com/4143589/neal-stephenson-year-in-culture/","keywords":["Books","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5257a9e10ae9c8cb/698874b9cd1bba59d76fe742/screen-shot-2015-12-09-at-4-23-30-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Adam Perez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/adam-perez/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Salima Koroma","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5257a9e10ae9c8cb/698874b9cd1bba59d76fe742/screen-shot-2015-12-09-at-4-23-30-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2015-12-09 at 4.23.30 PM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4143589/neal-stephenson-year-in-culture/","name":"Neal Stephenson Explains the Rise of Novelistic TV"}}]}] ```