Posted on 09/18/2008 8:54:54 PM PDT by maclay
Is anyone else reading Anathem (Google), Neal Stephenson's latest? I'm about 100 pages in, and as with all his books, I think it is quite excellent so far.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Sci-fi ping
Thanks for the heads up. I love Stephenson’s work but didn’t know this was coming out. What’s it about (not that that’s important)?
He and I went to high school about 5 miles apart.
the link is nonsense. Not the continuation of the review, just a google page. His last book was horrible pretentious crap.
from the book jacket:
"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."
I felt that if I posted a link to a bookseller, it might be interpreted as spam.
His last book was horrible pretentious crap.
His last book was a series of 7(?) To which one are you refering?
A BTT and many thanks. Love Stephenson’s work.
Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has been blogging about it for weeks. He likes it.
About a third of the way in so far ... slow start, takes a while to get past the word games.
Plot starting to take off, so I’m sticking with it.
I mean, it’s not like the first time I read Hunter Thompson’s ‘Great White Shark’, but then it’s not wading through LeGuin’s ‘The Handmaids’ Tale’ either.
Cryptonomicon. I just found it unreadable. I made it about 80 pages before giving up. I did enjoy his short stories, but my view is he is an average writer, at best, with an above average imagination. His clever ideas can carry a short story, but collapse under the weight of his prose in a novel.
In fact of everything I’ve read of his I find his non-fiction to be by far his best writing. He did a series of articles for Wired magazine in the late 90s that were fabulous.
He has always seemed like William Gibson’s junior cousin when it comes to fiction.
Dont like word games so i doubt I will get past slow start of this one.
Well, this is not the sort of thing I usuallly read, but I loved the Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon—ate them up, marvelling at how good Stephenson really is. So even though I’m not the science fiction type, I’ll try this. I think the guy is very bright, very gifted.
I believe “The Handmaid’s Tale” is by Margaret Atwood.
No, but I’d like to... I’ve read Diamond Age and Snow Crash, and I’d like to get my hands on a copy of Cryptonomicon sometime when I have a little less homework.
A libertarian buddy of mine told me that Stephenson was a popular author with that group, and suggested I give him a read. I read two of his novels, but probably won’t read any more. I do read a fair amount of science fiction, but these were just not my cup of tea.
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