Everyone’s probably read it by now, but second part of Seveneves there’s a lot of great non-rocket systems for getting stuff into space (like skyhook also mentioned in Wikipedia article) there’s one part of the story where a bolo-type setup is used for an emergency extraction from earth which still makes me gasp in amazement to think about :)

In conclusion: if you liked the launch loop idea but haven’t read Seveneves then go buy/download it right now!