The idea of using whip cracks for acceleration features fairly prominently in Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. None of the instances in the books are sized for orbital launch but that was the first time I encountered the idea.

In general, it was fascinating to see how much of Seveneves was devoted to acceleration and orbital mechanics.

All they ways they used the energy from deorbiting mass was just so fascinating. Almost makes you wish the moon could shatter in real life.

It can't with that attitude.

Not really a surprise, though, after Anathem.

Funny, earlier today I was thinking about how Anathem was fascinating but the least approachable book I've ever read

I'll admit I was a bit confused after the first section in which they interview Flec. I read that section again, and then everything made sense. It may have helped that I have read (numerous times) Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer, of which the initial chapters of "mathic" life in Anathem are a sort of pastiche.

Stephenson gets plenty less approachable. I have tried multiple times to read at least two of the three books in The Baroque Cycle, and every time I have failed to progress.