Anathem
Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
4.4
(396)
Neal Stephenson
A #1 New York Times Bestseller, Anathem is perhaps the most brilliant literary invention to date from the incomparable Neal Stephenson, who rocked the world with Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and The Baroque Cycle. Now he imagines an alternate universe where scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians live in seclusion behind ancient monastery walls until they are called back into the world to deal with a crisis of astronomical proportions. Anathem won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the reviews for have been dazzling: “Brilliant” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel), “Daring” (Boston Globe), “Immensely entertaining” (New York Times Book Review), “A tour de force” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), while Time magazine proclaims, “The great novel of ideas…has morphed into science fiction, and Neal Stephenson is its foremost practitioner.”
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More Details:
Author
Neal Stephenson
Pages
1008
Publisher
Harper Collins
Published Date
2009-10-06
ISBN
0061982482 9780061982484
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"Extremely interesting ideas, ponderously explained"
J P
Jean-Claude Paquin
"I am having a difficult time getting through this, because nothing much seems to be happening after 300+ pages. Lots of ideas, but Stephenson's rendering of relationships is so spare compared to the detail about ideas, the configuration of architecture, etc., that Erasmus, Lio, Ala, Tulia and everyone else in the crowded story don't stand separately in my imagination. Plugging on, but compared to The Baroque Cycle, which was really charging along at this point in the first book, Anathem is proceeding at a crawl.<br/><br/>UPDATING after reading the whole book. Ultimately, I was disappointed by Anathem, as it relied too heavily on exposition of ideas without delivering a story with tension that matched the high-flying philosophy. The neo-platonist mysticism that underpins the story never reaches full clarity, in fact it is diminished by the conclusion of the book."
M R
Mitch Ratcliffe
"I absolutely LOVED this book! It is somewhat reminiscent of another of my all-time favorite novels, A Canticle for Leibowitz."
S P
Stephanie Peterman
"This book is a thick brick, not for everyone. If you can stand the slow start and philosophical digressions, I think the payoff in the end is great"
D C
David C
"5/10"
L
Lil-Farrah
"One of the great literary accomplishments of the past 50 years. "
B
Buckyg66
"Really interesting read. Like all Stevenson's books. It's a really excellent hard scifi without becoming overly technical blending seamlessly into the narrative.
I was going to write more but I think the best way to read this is coming in as cold as possible.
I knew nothing but the name and found myself thoroughly intriguing. "
A N
Alexander Nemo
"I had to read it twice to really understand it, but a fascinating experience"
T E
Tanner Eitman