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Loading... Anathemby Neal Stephenson
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  briandarvell | Nov 8, 2009 |  Skillful, thought-provoking, often entertaining, with some exciting adventure elements, but hundreds of pages too long. Lots of mysterious possibilities to cultivate a reader’s interest, but the work involved in attaining rudimentary understanding of the theoretical discourse, especially many very lengthy passages of it, far outweighed the satisfaction received from the story’s conclusion. The recurring multiple realities/consciousness theme affected the outcome in a way that was very obscure to me, and less essential to tying things together than expected. (  ) fwendy | Nov 7, 2009 | I found the beginning part of the book the most interesting. The last part wasn't bad, but I'd like to see more of the culture and interactions of the world. The tone & style of the story seemd to shift several times, which probably helped keep my interest. (  ) JonathanGorman | Oct 31, 2009 | This book is a showcase for Stephenson's strong and weak points. It was going great guns when his hero decided to trek across the tundra, then it improbably started reading like a return to Snow Crash. Don't get me wrong, he's a very good writer but I would argue that this book could have used stringent editing. Less is more. Also, it's time to retire the ninja fetish. I'm talking to everyone. Embracing branching timelines, which was interesting and clever, nevertheless took some of the drama from events. If only we all could step into the outcome that was most pleasing. Stephenson fans, it's well worth it, everyone else read Cryptonomicon. wcpweaver | Oct 29, 2009 | popomo | Oct 28, 2009 | 
 Stephenson's world-building skills, honed by the exacting work he did on his recent Baroque Cycle trilogy, are at their best here. Anathem is that rarest of things: A stately novel of ideas packed with cool tech, terrific fight scenes, aliens, and even a little ESP.
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0061474096, Hardcover)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. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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To be sure, Stephenson does something with Anathem that most authors either cannot do or cannot get away with doing. He rambles and extends chapters continually. While he does this however, it can often be to great benefit to a reader wishing to come across a different way of looking at whatever theme Stephenson is trying to mention. At odd times the rambling can come across as pointless and arbitrary - likely Stephenson saw a point to it but it was lost in translation along the way.
Unlike most reviewers I have noticed, I enjoyed the first one-third of Anathem the most. It was intelligent, slow-paced and basically developed what the reader was immersed with. To me, it was amazing. The mid-section of the novel was also good but took quite a different style than the first sections. It was faster paced with more going on and with some eventual "action" sequences that were almost non-existant in the first third. The last third of the book was a letdown to me. The novel became even more fast-paced with yet again more changes to the novel's style and I felt Stephenson was trying to rush a conclusion a bit.
Overall, I can definitely understand how many readers would not enjoy this book. It's a book for people who want a slower paced, more thought-based novel with an imaginative setting and lots of various themes being touched. At times incredibly slow, it was still overall a decent novel, I only wish that the artful quality that the book began with could have continued through the later chapters. (