Neal Stephenson

Anathem

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.

Pierre

I could not finish this book because I could get into it. Not as funny as the other Stephenson's. Too dry maybe. First time in a long time that I give up on a book.

The latest magnificent creation from the award-winning author of Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle trilogy. Erasmas, 'Raz', is a young avout living in the Concent, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers. Three times during history's darkest epochs, violence has invaded and devastated the cloistered community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe. But they now prepare to open the Concent's gates to the outside world, in celebration of a once-a-decade rite. Suddenly, 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.

Simon Lund Larsen

🤯

A dense and difficult book but extremely rewarding if you give it the time and energy it truly deserve. A modern masterpiece.

Janice Hopper

I thought I didn't like Neal Stephenson's writing. Apparently I just hadn't read the right book yet!

I spent a week being totally engrossed in this novel. It's true that the beginning is a bit of a slog. You have to get used to the vocabulary that's specific to the book, and the physical and philosophical situations presented. 

Then it really sucks you in. In a GOOD way. 

I thought the ending was a little weaker than the rest of the book, so 4 stars instead of 5. But it was a good, intriguing, thought-provoking read.

Hans Gerwitz

I like Stephenson's writing, and the Mathic world he has built here, even if the space scenes are laborious. There's a bit too much happy serendipity in the plot and Erasmus is too shallow a character. (Though perhaps this is appropriate for a 19-year old man.)

The story, though, feels like a fable meant to educate the reader on two concepts. The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and Penrose-style quantum explanations of consciousness. The former is interesting and I applaud bringing it to a wide audience, but the latter is hocus-pocus claptrap. Weaving them together only serves to make both quantum mechanics and the philosophy or mind seem hopelessly mystical and fantastic.

Sigh.

For ten years Fraa Erasmas, a young avout, has lived in a cloistered sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside world. 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—and Erasmas will become a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world, as he follows his destiny to the most inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

Fraser Simons

2.5 rounded up

This is about primarily about Erasmus, a monastic monk in a futuristic, Roman Empire allegory society where science is so feared and anti-intellectualism gained such traction, that these monks were contained in monasteries called Concents. Depending on the type of science they do, they are sorted into different orders, all of which only open up to the outside world every so often. From every year to ten years to one hundred years to one thousand years (if I recall correctly). Thus sort of siloing each cluster to not be able to do much “damage”, a rejection to when a more than even a nuclear bomb was invented. 

When a small group of contrarians spot a UFO on the sky and try to figure out what the heck is going on, the plot spins off from there. Of course, that particular inciting incident for the plot to begin is about 150 pages into this 968 page book. So we spend most of our time familiarizing ourselves with the world and the characters up to that point. 

Perhaps it’s to be expected that this book is one of a couple interesting ideas that uses paper thin plot and characters to convey the ideas and explore them (somewhat). After all, I did subject myself to Snow Crash and The Diamond Age previously and those are very much like this, in that respect. But I was told this was much more intelligent and more interesting. 

The ideas are actually much better articulated and somewhat less trite, but it by no means uses the form of the novel as a an exceptional vehicle for the ideas being explored. At a thousand pages and heralded as an “idea” focused book, you then also have to compare the form chosen to other ways to examining and articulating the ideas. The whole point of this form is to engage with the format. 

But reviews about what the book is about and the ideas contained in them are better and more entertaining than the book itself because the plot takes a backdrop, we spend all our time with characters that are poorly drawn and almost to the point of YA mouth breathers in their diction and intelligence when discussing anything. The ideas they discuss don’t fit well in their mouths because for most of the time they’re talking about inane love lives, a B plot that is laughably bad. And once again Stephenson shows he simply cannot write convincing women and they almost always are relegated to plot devices. A bit of trolling about rape culture in this one but not an actual rape as a plot device, so maybe a modicum better than the two previous, at least. 

So who is this for? If you aren’t aware of platonic realism and nominalism, and you like the concept of monastics being scientific based, world building that is occupied with trolling anti intellectualism and being satirically sometimes clever-sometimes, I would say, eye roll worthy bad, and you simply don’t care about plot and characters (much like the old tradition of sci-fi, I’d say), then this book is probably for you. There are meaty chunks of explanation—generally through dialogue and exposition—regarding physics and math and philosophy that I think are pretty easy to grasp, which is to be commended. There’s visual aids sometimes that are fun. It can be quite engaging. 

But it is also not a fun reading experience nor a good use of the novel format, especially at nearly one thousand pages, to justify my recommending it to absolutely anybody. If you are adamant against doing reading on these concepts in any other way and must have it through your fiction, and you somehow don’t care about the vehicle and manner of its conveyance otherwise, I guess it’s for you. As someone who does not like comedy, and thinks it’s almost always not pulled off well and generally undermines the actual subjects under discussion, much of this doesn’t work for me. 

It’s YA contemporary in its language and diction, tropes, characterization, humour, and sentence/paragraph structure. The characters match that, with their archaic gender performance and social interactions and drama. It is completely grating at times. The voice is not well crafted. 

However. Technically a story was told and the ideas conveyed. And, as mentioned, the interrogation of these concepts does feel pretty novel to me. It’s the best novel of his I’ve consumed. 3 stars.

Donald

This is Harry Potter but for adults who like math and philosophy.

Melody Izard

Whew! That was a read. I’m out the other end and I’m not sure what exactly happened. I went through several cosmos and went back and forth between the Mathic and Sæcular world and questioned my perceived “thisness” and ended the whole damn thing with a kiss.

Adam

On an episode of the Think Relevance Podcast, a book was mentioned where monk chants were used to convey and solve mathematical problems. That was the first I’d heard of Neal Stephenson, and knew I had to check it out. The Anathem world is different from our own. It’s a world where scientists and mathematicians live in the equivalent of buddhist monasteries with limited access to the outside world — some only interacting with it every 100 years. The abundance of made up terminology takes some getting used to in this book, but it’s worth the ride.

Jeremy Cote

I thought the book was very interesting. It's one I wanted to read for a long time, so I probably had high expectations going into it. Unfortunately, the difficulty with Neal Stephenson's books is that they are extremely long. As such, I either have to be all-in on the book, or not at all. In this case, it was sometimes difficult to connect with the characters and keep track of the entire storyline. I also found it difficult to parse all of the events in the final parts of the book. I would probably have to go through the book a second time.

Overall, I thought the book was a fun read, and had a lot of interesting components. Just beware of the length. The book is a long investment.

Les Reynolds

Mind boggling and enthralling. The ideas he explored are incredibly deep and complex, but he managed to make them understandable, and then wrapped them in a story that sucked you in and wouldn't let go.

Ralston Hough

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César Steven Toribio


Erasmas, 'Raz', is a young avout living in the Concent, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers. Three times during history's darkest epochs, violence has invaded and devastated the cloistered community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe.

But they now prepare to open the Concent's gates to the outside world, in celebration of a once-a-decade rite. Suddenly, 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.

Anathem

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