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Anathem (Paperback)

by Neal Stephenson (Author)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction (Sep 22 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061694940
ISBN-13: 978-0061694943

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #503,200 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#18 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Stephenson, Neal

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Product Description

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. 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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

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4 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stephenson Dazzles Again!, Sep 30 2008

By	M. Bungay Stanier - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Anathem (Hardcover)

There is something really wonderful about picking up a new book
that's over 900 pages long and every one of them is worth reading slowly
- no skimming ahead - really reading and enjoying every word. Neal
Stephenson's new book is a masterpiece-and boy can I see a movie in this!

It has great writing, a fantastic creation of a world like ours yet not,
set in a future that is not very pretty - the secular world is a
post apocalyptic landscape wasted by years and years of war,
pollution, and rise and fall of societies, resulting in a general population
that lives to consume the latest in gadgets, fast food and entertainment.
Sound familiar?

There is another society, behind concent (or convent/monastic)
walls where the inhabitants are devoted to knowledge - to slowly and
carefully thinking through the big philosophical, mathematical and
scientific ideas, for both the preservation of their own society, but also
for the good of the outside world. In fact their society is allowed to
exist for this purpose. Yet they are viewed with suspicion by the world
outside their walls. What are they doing in there? They dress funny, they
speak funny and they just must be up to something. But enter an alien
threat to the secular world and these scholars are drafted into whatever
fight may come.

Our protagonist Fra Erasmus is 19 years old, and the story is
told from his point of view - which is truly wonderful. He's a teenager,
but he's also part of that scholarly world of ideas and these combine to
make a smart, older than his years,witty, engaging character whose
heroic journey makes a riveting read. One of my favourite lines, comes
when Erasmus or Raz as he's known to his friends, tries to sum up what
he is about to face. His sister Cord, who is from the secular world but
who is joining him to face whatever comes asks him what she can do to
help. Raz tells her, "Our opponent is an alien starship packed with
atomic bombs...We have a protractor." "OK" she replies, "I'll go home and see if
I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string."

Funny, and this book is funny as well as packed with great ideas
about what it means to exist, to be human, to think, and also about
quality of life. It's a timely book. We're facing the realities of global
warming, a world in which everthing fast is good. But the backlash has
begun and people are starting to think about what happens to our planet if
we don't stop, slow down and do more than just smell the roses.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new favorite, Sep 26 2008

By	Alexander H. Tsang (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Anathem (Hardcover)

This magnificent novel is now my favorite book of all time. Stephenson's storytelling is superb, with wonderful thought and attention to detail and many humorous touches. The world that he builds in this book is complex and imaginative, with its own vocabulary and some really staggering ideas as part of its lore. Some people might be put off by some of the philosophical dialogues, but to me this book is a masterpiece.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Re-reading is recommended, Mar 14 2009

By	vrai (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anathem (Hardcover)

Having gone through this short novel (Stephenson short), I find myself all the more impressed with his sudden jumps in form and imagination, from 'Zodiac' to 'Cryptonomicon', through the historical novels, and now this.

In brief, if you enjoyed 'Snow Crash', but were rolling your eyes through the historical novels, this is his closest return to hard sci-fi... and it is very hard sci-fi. Be prepared for a difficult, but ultimately rewarding read. 'The Diamond Age' should prepare you better.

If you enjoyed the historical novels, then you should appreciate the detailed interactions between all the characters in Anathema, but it is harder to keep the 'minor' characters segregated. The plot is not as expansive, but then again, the book is only 900 pages long.

Therefore I strongly urge potential readers to actually read this book, knowing that it is not simple, nor simplistic, but as subtle as really good chocolate.

Neal Stephenson has likened himself to the mayor of Des Moines in terms of his relative fame (some 200,000 might recognize his name) and I consider myself a resident of his community. It gives me some annoyance to see excellent ratings from those who follow Stephenson for this, his most recent book, but, with all due respect, misinterpretating what they are reading.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Parallels to earlier works
Although this is a stand-alone (and a stand-out) novel, for the Stephenson fan it should be noted that there are connections to Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle. Read more

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