Anathem
by Neal Stephenson (Author)
Review
Release on September 9, 2008
Amazon review about this book:
"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. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.
Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond."
Review From Publishers Weekly
"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. (Sept.)
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Review By Gabriel Tarr
"First off, I'll let slip that I am a big Neal Stephenson fan, although I did not enjoy the Baroque Cycle. Anathem is, in some respects, "difficult" to read. Yes, there is language here that Stephenson made up, although he didn't take it to the same level that Tolkein did in his Middle Earth works. (There is an glossary of terms at the back, and entries from a dictionary are spreckled throughout the book.) And Anathem may be "slow" in that it takes approximately 200 pages to get to the core of the plot. However, I never found myself bored with the writing.
It is a difficult book to describe to others. In some ways, I felt like I was reading a novelization of "Goedel, Escher, Bach". There are some complex ideas here, some of which are expanded upon in appendices, which contain dialogues (ie in the Socratic sense of a philosophical or mathematical discussion between two people of differing views). I find such discussions intriguing, so I never found the book dry or boring, though strictly speaking, much of the material could have been removed to focus strictly on the plot. (This would, however, have weakened the reader's understanding of the plot.) Such digressions are quite characteristic of Stephenson's work (ie the discussions of language theory present in Snow Crash), and for a certain audience, it is quite enjoyable. If you have a tolerance for (or perhaps even enjoy) side-discussions of interesting material, and enjoy speculative fiction, then none of this should put you off. If you read xkcd, or liked Snow Crash, or the Foundation series by Asimov, then Anathem is likely a good bet for you. If mathematical or philosophical concepts make you cringe in fear, then you would probably not enjoy Anathem (or anything else by Neal Stephenson for that matter).
This review is based on an advance copy."
Review By J. Brian Watkins (San Dimas, CA United States)
"Stephenson's is a fascinating mind. He latches on to so many differing ideas and swirls them into a world both familiar and unique. In Anathem we are introduced to a world drenched in history from the viewpoint of a scholar class that is set apart from the popular culture.
The hallmark of Stephenson's writing is an effortless ability to explain and illuminate the big questions. Anathem tackles the biggest of questions and to elucidate further risks draining the reader's motivation to tackle a 1,000 page story. Suffice it to say that the journey is entirely worthwhile.
The author invites his readers to examine their beliefs--not only what they think they believe but to engage in the dialogue familiar to the students of philosophy. Stephenson is adept at weaving exposition into the narrative without seeming overly preachy; although, as he did in the Baroque cycle, his disdain for shoddy thinking is always present: witness the many references to BS, which echo Dr. Frankfurt's illuminating work.
Frankly, I don't quite know how a Stephenson novice would approach Anathem. Like anything artfully and skillfully complex, Anathem requires one to reach for the "upsight," it requires one to think--and I don't believe that I could pay this work a higher compliment than that. In a world that is increasingly defined by torrents of BS, Mr. Stephenson invites us to rejoin the great thinkers of the past and to try and make some sense of the situation in which we find ourselves."
Review By Peter J. Ward (Lewisburg, WV. USA)
"Anathem is another in a line of unique novels from Neal Stephenson. His earlier books like Snow Crash and the Diamond Age are excellent glimpses of the concept-driven novels that he has been writing for the last ten years. One weakness of his earlier books is that he didn't end stories particularly strongly (Snow Crash being a notable exception) but he has gotten progressively better at that, particularly with the System of the World, the last of the Baroque Cycle trilogy. Starting with Cryptonoicon, he started writing "long" fiction. One typical thing about these novels is that they have a slow build while you get introduced to the characters and situations. I know several very bright people who couldn't stomach the long lead-up in Quicksilver and never got to the fantastic 2nd and 3rd novels in the series, The Confusion and System of the World. Like the beginning of a rollercoaster where you need to climb to the crest of the first hill, the first sections of his novels pay off as the rest of the story becomes comulsive reading.
No spoilers to follow: Anathem finds him back in top form with a new cast of characters, a new world, and a new language. Not surprisingly, this means that the first chapters of the book are challenging and somewhat difficult, but as another review stated, nowhere near as convoluted and involved as The Lord of the Rings or (in my opinion), Dune. The more you know about history and ancient Greek thought the more you will be blown away by Anathem. A re-imagining of intellectual history, only Neal Stephenson can make the fine points of esoteric philosophical and intellectual minutia so much fun to read.
For me, one of the high points of the Baroque Cycle was how he made European history, the history of science, alchemy, and the history of banking and commerce so unbelievably enjoyable to read about. Anathem moves into more speculative areas by showing how the differnet ways in which we frame our thoughts have real and powerful impact on the world at large, even if it takes a long time for those speculative thoughts to produce concrete effects. I get the feeling that his novels are the product of his own intellectual curiousity about history, science, mathmatics, and now philosophy. Thankfully, he has a knack for packaging these ruminations into adventurous exciting novels and I'm incredibly happy that he's kept it up for this long. Highly recommended."
Review By A. Bester
"Neal Stephenson has matured as a writer, which is good, but I think his writing has lost some of its charm. Stephenson creates a detailed, self-consistent world, full of some very interesting ideas, and that can't have been easy, but this book is almost wholly without the little turns of phrase and two page digressions on Captain Crunch which I so enjoyed in his previous work. There's no: "I'm sure they'll listen to Reason", or even a "Once again, Waterhouse is pleased to see his commanding officer displaying signs of a tasteful and expensive education." It's a good, solid work with some interesting ideas, but it's not as fun as some of his older stuff."
Review By J. Brian Watkins (San Dimas, CA United States)
"Stephenson's is a fascinating mind. He latches on to so many differing ideas and swirls them into a world both familiar and unique. In Anathem we are introduced to a world drenched in history from the viewpoint of a scholar class that is set apart from the popular culture.
The hallmark of Stephenson's writing is an effortless ability to explain and illuminate the big questions. Anathem tackles the biggest of questions and to elucidate further risks draining the reader's motivation to tackle a 1,000 page story. Suffice it to say that the journey is entirely worthwhile.
The author invites his readers to examine their beliefs--not only what they think they believe but to engage in the dialogue familiar to the students of philosophy. Stephenson is adept at weaving exposition into the narrative without seeming overly preachy; although, as he did in the Baroque cycle, his disdain for shoddy thinking is always present: witness the many references to BS, which echo Dr. Frankfurt's illuminating work.
Frankly, I don't quite know how a Stephenson novice would approach Anathem. Like anything artfully and skillfully complex, Anathem requires one to reach for the "upsight," it requires one to think--and I don't believe that I could pay this work a higher compliment than that. In a world that is increasingly defined by torrents of BS, Mr. Stephenson invites us to rejoin the great thinkers of the past and to try and make some sense of the situation in which we find ourselves."
Review By tethernaut (Kirkland, WA United States)
"If you read science fiction because you like to immerse yourself in different worlds and have your mind stretched and boggled by big ideas and their implications on life, culture, and technology, all while being entertained by a good adventure, Anathem is a book you need to read.
One caveat- it takes about 300 pages before the 'action' part of this book kicks in, and the first several dozen pages take a little effort to read as you get accustomed to the new language Stephenson has created for his characters (Orth). But those 300 pages are so beautifully rendered that the initial slow pace of the plot is actually a good thing - it gives you time to get absorbed in the world his characters live in - and by the time the action starts you really care about the characters and are so fully engrossed that you'll catch yourself slipping into Orth in your everyday thought processes.
The level of research, thought, and exquisitely detailed worldbuilding that Stephenson put into this work are truly amazing, and it is a first-rate example of what Science Fiction can and should be."
Review By Austin Mullen "amateur literary critic" (Iowa City, IA)
"If I could, I'd give it a four and a half, but since I can't, I'll round up.
Anathem is... actually, I don't know exactly what Anathem is. If you like Dune, you'll fall in love. If you liked the Da Vinci Code, well, look elsewhere. The story, when it gets going, is exciting and relatively fast-paced and all that. But it takes some 600-700 pages to get there, during which time you are immersed in the world of Arbre and its native culture. The first few pages are chock-full of in-world jargon à la A Clockwork Orange, and it will be difficult to read. (Not to worry-- there is a glossary, and selections from the Arbran dictionary appear throughout the text) Once you break through the wall of comprehension, though, you'll see that this book is even more ambitious than The Baroque Cycle-- where the Baroque Cycle took about one hundred years of real history and made it alive, Anathem takes eight thousand years of fictional history and makes it as relevant and meaningful as anything from the Cycle. Alas, there's really not that much I can say about the plot of the book itself that wouldn't give things away too quickly. But trust me-- slog through the initial phase and you won't be disappointed (I know I wasn't, and I'm a pretty harsh book critic.)
The book is not without its flaws (and perhaps someday when I am feeling less charitable, I will update this to reflect them). But they are minor flaws on a near-perfect diamond and don't diminish the beauty or power of the book."
Review By Jason Alexander
"In the future on the planet Arbre, great thinkers are clustered behind the "Concent" walls where they control knowledge from the illogical thinking "Saecular" masses. Preadolescents who show a strong logical ability for rational thought are taken away from the masses to be educated as logical scientists or pragmatic mathematicians inside the cloisters. They learn early on their responsibilities as knowledge is power and knowledge used unwisely is dangerous thus must be coveted and protected.------------ Nineteen year old Raz showed signs of brilliance when he was eight, he was collected to be trained as a muse. He has become a "Tenner" over his decade plus of intense learning. Thus his time to go outside amongst the low life Saecular is coming an event he is allowed once every ten years hence a Tenner. However, the cloistered soon realizes a pandemic catastrophe from outer space is coming soon. Much of the older Concent members feel strongly that physical intervention is prohibited as they debate what to do. However, teens like Raz and those he associates with have not lost their need for adventure. Foolishly perhaps without adult supervision and some would say in violation of their elders, they set forth to save Arbre.---------- This is a fascinating tale mindful of Gulliver's Travels to Laputa, the flying island of scientists and mathematicians. The debates and discussions on history and the upcoming calamity are enjoyable to follow, but can turn tedious as long stretches purposely lack action those behind the walls are reflective thinkers not necessarily doers except perhaps the teens. Fans who appreciate a cerebral science fiction thriller with as much philosophizing as action will want to read Neal Stephenson's brillian, interesting but different ANATHEM.
Another story I enjoyed this week was, strangely, about a seagull. As a fan of fables (in addition to science fiction), I couldn't resist Squawk!: How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results"
About the Author
"Neal Stephenson is the author of seven previous novels. He lives in Seattle, Washington."
If you would like to buy this book, you can check out its available for Anathem (Hardcover) at amazon.com
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