Neal Stephenson: Anathem (2009, Atlantic Books)
Paperback
Published Jan. 4, 2009 by Atlantic Books.
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 …
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.
...and honestly, I'm glad I went back for thirds. I felt like I finally understood a lot of things that previously eluded me. It's actually made me want to go back and revisit some of Stephenson's other books (Cryptonomicon especially) to see if I can wrap my head around those a little better.
Bin ein wenig Zwiegespalten, man taucht in eine interessante Welt ein, viele neue Namen. Die Handlung ist hier eher fast nur dazu da, um die Welt zu beschreiben. Irgendwie wünscht man sich dann mehr.
As good as the first time I read it. I think I grasp it a little better this time too.
I love how he will casually throw a concept in - one that barely takes up half a paragraph - that you will be thinking about for days afterwards.
A masterpiece of genre bending and my favourite Neal Stephenson book.
Not as tightly written, plot wise, as Big U or Zodiac, but contains just enough Stephenson-style Cooperesque diversions to be "of a kind" like the Baroque Cycle or Cryptonimocon.
If you want to try reading a Stephenson-style move but don't want to dive into those longer times, you can't beat Anathem.
For me this was too long of a book for what was in it.
Frequent references to the thousands of years of history on this not-Earth world and the fact that many key terms are invented words make this a very dense book. Density aside, it's also a very long book.
If you enjoy nerding out with lots of philosophical dialogue using not-quite-English words, you may enjoy this as a book. I suspect this story would well as a movie.
I first tried reading Anathem back when it was relatively new, but couldn't get past the first 100 pages or so. Now, having the benefit of a decade more worldly knowledge (such as the history of the Catholic church, Western philosophy, etc.), I've finally finished it and I can say that it was an incredible read.
Is it an collection of philosophy dialogue? Is it an action-adventure novel? Is it actually just Snow Crash presented differently?
Yeah, kind of, but it's also a book that gets exponentially more exciting as it goes on and also says some pretty profound things. (The profound things are, unfortunately, fiction, but it would be a high bar for an action-adventure novel to also truly advance philosophy.)
So if you're considering reading this, just know that you shouldn't worry too much about the made-up words - you'll understand them in due time - and that …
I first tried reading Anathem back when it was relatively new, but couldn't get past the first 100 pages or so. Now, having the benefit of a decade more worldly knowledge (such as the history of the Catholic church, Western philosophy, etc.), I've finally finished it and I can say that it was an incredible read.
Is it an collection of philosophy dialogue? Is it an action-adventure novel? Is it actually just Snow Crash presented differently?
Yeah, kind of, but it's also a book that gets exponentially more exciting as it goes on and also says some pretty profound things. (The profound things are, unfortunately, fiction, but it would be a high bar for an action-adventure novel to also truly advance philosophy.)
So if you're considering reading this, just know that you shouldn't worry too much about the made-up words - you'll understand them in due time - and that the crazy stuff starts happening 1/3 of the way through and even crazier stuff 3/4 of the way through.
In writing an action-adventure novel based on philosophy and physics though, I think the author has run into a bit of a conundrum: it's too rigorous for readers wanting a fun read yet not rigorous enough to hold together well when the crazy stuff starts happening. That is, he takes a long time to set up a theoretical foundation for what happens, but as he stretches the theory to advance the story, he stretches a little too far and leaves a lot of holes.
Untypisches Buch von Neal Stephenson - es spielt nicht auf der Erde sondern auf einer Art Parallelwelt auf der Vieles anders ist. Und es hat eine großteils lineare Handlung. Viel Stephenson-typisches gibt es aber doch: Vor Allem die Detailverliebtheit - er erfindet dafür 3500 Jahre in sich stimmige Kulturgeschichte des Planeten. Ich halte es für ein Meisterwerk - auch wenn ich verstehen warum sich die Begeisterung von so machem Stephenson-Fan eher in Grenzen hält.
Veel filosofie, theologie, thermodynamica, quantumtheorie, en andere fysica in dit boek. Vooral in het begin worden deze onderwerpen behandeld tijdens discussies in een klooster. Dat maakte de start voor mij vooral doorwroeten, ook omdat Engels niet mijn sterkste kant is. Naar het einde toe zijn deze onderwerpen meer verweven met actie, en dat maakt het dan wat sneller te lezen, en eigenlijk ook begrijpelijker. Het boek is erg origineel, en laat je nadenken over parallele universa, over tijd en ruimte, ingebed in een verhaal, dat beoogd spannend te zijn, maar dat zeker niet altijd is.
[Vous pouvez lire mon avis sur mon blog, merci :)]
Have you ever read Neal Stephenson? Can you tell when someone is way smarter than you and that compels you to listen? Do you enjoy when you’re confronted with ideas that are so fascinating that you struggle to believe an individual mind came up with them? Does all of that compel you to actually work through reading a book to completion? Then this book is for you!
So far, I’ve only read Seveneves and Anathem by Stephenson. I also picked up Snow Crash but put it down for the same reasons I almost put down Anathem. I walk away from these experiences in awe of the mind that can articulate such complex ideas.
Diax said something that is still very important to us, which is that you should not believe a thing only because you like to believe it. We call that ‘Diax’s Rake’ and sometimes we repeat it to …
Have you ever read Neal Stephenson? Can you tell when someone is way smarter than you and that compels you to listen? Do you enjoy when you’re confronted with ideas that are so fascinating that you struggle to believe an individual mind came up with them? Does all of that compel you to actually work through reading a book to completion? Then this book is for you!
So far, I’ve only read Seveneves and Anathem by Stephenson. I also picked up Snow Crash but put it down for the same reasons I almost put down Anathem. I walk away from these experiences in awe of the mind that can articulate such complex ideas.
Diax said something that is still very important to us, which is that you should not believe a thing only because you like to believe it. We call that ‘Diax’s Rake’ and sometimes we repeat it to ourselves as a reminder not to let subjective emotions cloud our judgment.
Harder to navigate than other Neal Stephenson novels I've read, but still (or maybe because of that)a very satisfying read.
That said, I'll probably need to revisit it some day to grasp some of the science treated in the book.
At the half way point I was completely in love with the setting of this book, I couldn't put it down, and then towards the end it becomes truly mind blowing. The only reason that this isn't a 5/5 for me is that I feel like the ending was satisfying, but it left a lot of things implied without delving into the consequences enough after the fact.
Still a great work of fiction and absolutely recommended.
To elaborate, we spend all of this time building a great world and dealing with the reactions to a sudden alien visitation, and like 90% of the way through we find Rhetors and Incanters are real, which is incredible and yet believable in this completely non-magical world... then after the Convox is evacuated and everyone splits into cells, and the space mission, and Fraa Jad obviously altering the worldtrack into one of the rare …
At the half way point I was completely in love with the setting of this book, I couldn't put it down, and then towards the end it becomes truly mind blowing. The only reason that this isn't a 5/5 for me is that I feel like the ending was satisfying, but it left a lot of things implied without delving into the consequences enough after the fact.
Still a great work of fiction and absolutely recommended.
To elaborate, we spend all of this time building a great world and dealing with the reactions to a sudden alien visitation, and like 90% of the way through we find Rhetors and Incanters are real, which is incredible and yet believable in this completely non-magical world... then after the Convox is evacuated and everyone splits into cells, and the space mission, and Fraa Jad obviously altering the worldtrack into one of the rare ones in which Arbre and the Geometers make peace... but after all of this takes place, there's virtually no discussion of the consequences of these people existing.
Erasmas et. al. all know that their perception of what happened doesn't line up with what everyone else perceived, and perhaps we're supposed to assume that their brains slowly altered to come into agreement with everyone else but I don't think that was directly stated and since the book itself is implied to exist in world (Erasmas having "started this record" when he was being punished I believe) that might not even be internally consistent.
I just would have preferred for this information to be gone over a bit more in dialog with the other avout, because the existence of these hyper powerful avout is pretty world breaking.
Instead, the Everything Killer situation kind of became a dead end and we get this very sweet, movie-like (which Stephenson even lampshades in the final sentence) ending to the book.
NULL
It took three months to read, but really it was done in three rather lengthy marathons with several weeks of not reading it in between.
Overall, a decent story. Very ambitious, and Stephenson's world-building is as good as ever. There were some great parts, and he even managed to make the long discussions mostly bearable.
That said, I had a few problems with the writing. For one thing, Stephenson is not the best word-maker, and his "slang" is hit or miss: "Concent" was the only word that really stuck out as a good invention. While this isn't a huge deal in and of itself, the problem came when characters started discussing complex mathematical/philosophical ideas in unfamiliar terminology.
All of this adds up to the fact that this book probably is one that would need to be re-read a number of times to really "get it." However, while it was enjoyable …
It took three months to read, but really it was done in three rather lengthy marathons with several weeks of not reading it in between.
Overall, a decent story. Very ambitious, and Stephenson's world-building is as good as ever. There were some great parts, and he even managed to make the long discussions mostly bearable.
That said, I had a few problems with the writing. For one thing, Stephenson is not the best word-maker, and his "slang" is hit or miss: "Concent" was the only word that really stuck out as a good invention. While this isn't a huge deal in and of itself, the problem came when characters started discussing complex mathematical/philosophical ideas in unfamiliar terminology.
All of this adds up to the fact that this book probably is one that would need to be re-read a number of times to really "get it." However, while it was enjoyable enough on a first read, I don't think it merits the sort of repeat readings that certain other works of similar size do.
I liked Anathem. It's a good mix of physics, philosophy and fiction. I don't want to give away too much - I really liked the way things were unraveled slowly and I don't want to deprive anyone reading this review of the same. Don't expect a lot of action. Toil through the first 10% of the book (it was hard for me) and you'll be rewarded. Think of the whole book as a thought experiment.
