About the book
Neal Stephenson sets his science fiction novel on Arbre, a world where thinkers have lived for thousands of years inside walled concents, cut off from saecular society and barred from most advanced technology. Fraa Erasmas, a young avout at the Concent of Saunt Edhar, prepares for Apert, the week-long rite held once a decade when the gates open and outsiders may come in, and looks forward to seeing family he has not seen since he was collected. Before the week is out, unforeseen forces threaten both the cloistered mathic life and the world beyond the walls. Its themes include the old philosophical dispute between Platonic realism and nominalism, and the many-worlds reading of quantum mechanics.
Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, said he read it soon after it came out because Stephenson is an author whose new books make him drop everything, and he has read all of them.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Michael Arrington (Founder/TechCrunch)
I read Anathem about six months ago when it was first released. Neal Stephenson is another author where I drop everything and read whatever he’s published as soon as possible. I’ve read all of his books: The Big U (his first book), Zodiac (eco-thriller), Snow Crash (world chaos, envisions a future Internet called the Multiverse), The Diamond Age (nanotech), Cryptonomicon (cryptography, computer history), and The Baroque Cycle (historical). Anathem is completely new and deals with an imaginary world where monk-like mathematicians have segmented themselves from the rest of society, mostly ignoring their wars and other petty issues. The avouts occasionally venture out from their sanctuaries to mingle with everyone else. Besides creating an entirely new vocabulary and writing a beautiful story, Stephenson also shows how even large problems can be overcome with intelligence, if you have enough time on your hands. Just don’t give up on the book early, it gets better and better as it goes on. And when you’re done, go read everything else he’s written.
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