Anathem

Overview

Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable-yet strangely inverted-world.Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside-the Extramuros-for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates-at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in.

Editorial Reviews

In this follow-up to his historical Baroque Cycle trilogy, which fictionalized the early-18th century scientific revolution, Stephenson (Cryptonomicon) conjures a far-future Earth-like planet, Arbre, where scientists, philosophers and mathematicians—a religious order unto themselves—have been cloistered behind concent (convent) walls. Their role is to nurture all knowledge while safeguarding it from the vagaries of the irrational saecular outside world. Among the monastic scholars is 19-year-old Raz, collected into the concent at age eight and now a decenarian, or tenner (someone allowed contact with the world beyond the stronghold walls only once a decade). But millennia-old rules are cataclysmically shattered when extraterrestrial catastrophe looms, and Raz and his teenage companions—engaging in intense intellectual debate one moment, wrestling like rambunctious adolescents the next—are summoned to save the world. Stephenson's expansive storytelling echoes Walter Miller's classic A Canticle for Leibowitz, the space operas of Larry Niven and the cultural meditations Douglas Hofstadter—a heady mix of antecedents that makes for long stretches of dazzling entertainment occasionally interrupted by pages of numbing colloquy. An accompanying CD of music composed by David Stutz is suitably ethereal. (Sept.) Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Author Information

Bio of Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson, who grew up in a science-oriented family, started writing while studying physics in college. Now he is the author of several science fiction bestsellers including The Diamond Age (1995), which won the Hugo Award; Snow Crash (1992); and Cryptonomicon (1999). His most recent book is The System of the World (W. Morrow, 2004), part three of the three-volume work The Baroque Cycle, which also includes Quicksilver (2003) and The Confusion (2004). Mr. Stephenson also writes nonfiction for technical publications such as Wired. He lives with his family in Seattle.

Customer Reviews

• Almost done

  Posted November 22, 2008 by Miguel, Chicago

  Really great so far. I am really enjoying the vocabulary Stephenson invents, and the slang he creates for the vocabulary even better. A great introduction to a strange, yet familiar world where it seems value really is contained by thought, imagination, and infinite wonder of life itself. I already know I'll miss most the characters, except perhaps those with the long difficult names to pronounce. Happy Thanksgiving from Chicago.

• Interesting but Wordy

  Posted March 01, 2009 by Kira, Toronto

  Interesting, but long-winded at times. Worth reading

• Far, far, far, far too long

  Posted March 29, 2009 by Keith, Texas

  I am a big admirer of Neal Stephenson's, but Anathem is nearly unreadable. Things happen fairly regularly -- about once every 400 pages, and for the 398 pages between events, the main characters tend to sit around discussing what just happened, and what they think might happen next, in nauseating and infuriating detail. The vocabulary Stephenson has chosen to use for his world adds another annoying -- and arbitrary -- layer to the novel. Definitions for his terms are given at the beginning of each chapter, but are often so inscrutable that the reader really needs definitions for the words used in the definitions. Furthermore, for reasons which are unclear, while many words (like the word for "truck") are different on Stephenson's planet than they are on Earth, other terms ("roller skate", for example) are the same. Ultimately, the central idea of the novel is interesting enough, but the text is so overdone that the whole thing simply crumples under it's own weight: without the added pages needed to describe what someone means by "jeejah", or the seemingly endless parade of characters who need constant lectures on the conflicting points of quantum mechanics, the story could have been told simply and engagingly. As it is, this one is only for Stephenson's most dedicated fans -- or for those who just really, really enjoy a very long Socratic dialog.

• Anathem, Anthem, Anathema. I Enjoyed every minute of it

  Posted April 23, 2009 by Tjaden, Pine Mountain Club

  This book is long, yet I couldn't put it down. It was extremely interesting and I felt I actually learned something. Like school in a novel, or an entertaining discourse. I don't have much reading time, so I found myself sneaking off to read a little more almost everywhere I went. Thank goodness for my eReader. If you enjoy Stephenson's style, and he is one of the best, you will love this book.

• Outstanding

  Posted April 25, 2009 by Opus104, Chicago

  Stephenson draws you into this strange, yet familiar world. A must read for fans.

Additional Info

Imprint

William Morrow &Company

Filesize

1.10 MB

Number of Pages

960

eBook ISBN

9780061701368