Anathem

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Stephenson, Neal
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Stephenson, Neal	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Stephenson, Neal	4-week checkout	Due 05-12-2024

Raz, a mathematician, is among a cohort of secluded scientists and philosophers who are called upon to save the world from impending catastrophe.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Reading Neal Stephenson Makes me Want to Brush Up on Everything submitted by josh warn on August 14, 2009, 5:47pm like medieval history, string theory, Plato's Dialogues, semiotics, BUT the book is enjoyable and it held my interest (after the second chapter. It does start out kind of drily and baffling). Stephenson tells a good story with a light hand, even though the wide range of themes and subjects on which the plot hinges do provoke thoughts of weightier matters. I listened to the book on CD, because I was commuting a long way for a while, and I think the reader managed to keep the drama going, but probably even as a silent read, it will keep people turning pages. I was well sucked-in after the first few chapters.
It starts with some dry facts abut the history of the protagonist's world and it continues bringing up, without explanation, facts and events about which we have no previous knowledge. These mysteries are resolved as the story continues. I suspect the author chose this method of introducing readers to a new cosmos, because if he had laid it all out schematically at the start, it would be quite boring. His is, after all, a pretty ambitious and wide ranging vision. After a few chapters I was beginning to have a basic idea of Stephenson's worldscape, but it was actually quite satisfying even toward the end of the book, when some features of the place that had remained mysterious throughout the story were elucidated in the context of the plot.
I started through the book a second time and found that the chapters that were boring at the first view, became more interesting now that I understood this neighboring cosmos a bit more. Like many good science fiction writers Stephenson does not neglect the human side of his speculative milieu. The values his characters struggle to define and preserve are a big part of what makes the book compelling.

Captivating submitted by brady.emmett on July 31, 2011, 11:25am This book is great. The drama of a new contact with an outside race, in a world where scientific knowledge is kept inside "Concents" around the world, makes for a great read. we follow the story of a young "monk" who gets involved in bigger things than he knows. As he learns about the challenges facing his world, the story slowly unfolds. What at first is disconcerting to the reader becomes familiar.

One of my favorite reads in 2010.

Not a light read submitted by crwilley on June 12, 2015, 1:19pm ...either physically (a 940-page hardcover weighs a bit) or mentally (it examines the nature of reality by poking into the intersection of philosophy and quantum physics) - there were times when I had to just put the book down for a few days in order to process what I'd read. (But no background in either philosophy or quantum physics is necessary to enjoy the book - Stephenson explains important concepts on a pretty accessible level, I think, and the student-teacher relationships between characters let that work in the story without feeling like expositional infodump). I plan to reread it at some point - I think I'll get a lot more out of it the second time through.

gathers momentum submitted by ssands on June 28, 2015, 2:56pm This starts out painfully slowly, but becomes more and more interesting. It is worth pushing past the first few chapters.