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Sep 30, 2008

Matt rated it:

I think that Neal Stephenson is very intelligent and a terrific writer. That said, I found all the made-up googlies in this snarfle, really boinged my thnoode. Surely there is a slankier way of telling us that we are reading about another zoof than to make up every other googly. It made it very difficult to forkle the snarfle and I put it down after only 80 ziffies. This will not stop me from attempting the next Neal Stephenson snarfle, however.

41 comments like (163 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2012

Simeon rated it:

There are a number of technical problems to writing sci-fi and fantasy. Chief among them is the tremendous amount of work required to set up a cultural matrix: a language, a history, an iconography, etc. that makes the world fully realized and engaging. In this new 900-page doorstop, Stephenson tries to solve this problem with approximately 200 pages of exposition, setting up the mindset of a post-apocalyptic monastery where you have religious scholarship without the religion (mostly). So you More...

4 comments like (26 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Matt rated it:

After digesting Stephenson's latest 937 page tome, my response basically boils down to "Meh."

Ok, maybe not, "Meh." exactly. Maybe more like, "Hmmm." I wish I could say something more elegant about it, but the problem is that there isn't a lot to say about the book as a whole because the book as a whole isn't really that good or that interesting. The book as a whole is difficult to describe, because so much of the book seems like a digression from even More...

8 comments like (40 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2008

Lori rated it:

I may end up giving this 5 stars, depending on how it stays with me. I loved it, but it should be noted Stephenson is one of my favorite authors. THis book is a lot less verbose than his last trilogy and even Cryptomonicon. But it's also a slower, harder read - there's hard science in here, and not just science but quantum physics, the hardest of all!

The story takes place on a planet in a different cosmos. The society here has a long, involved history with many different words to le More...

3 comments like (24 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

Andrew rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

6 comments like (21 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

Brittany rated it:

Anathem is an astonishing, enormous, intimidating, and intensely enjoyable book. However, it is also the most "science fiction-y" of any book he's written so far, and that may turn some people off. Also, I'm given to understand that some people would prefer not to have to think about polar coordinates, geometric proofs, bubble universes, string theory, or relativity in their pleasure reading. That is, of course, their prerogative. Also, it's long. And at times there are scenes that go More...

9 comments like (24 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2008

Coral rated it:

I really believe this is the best book Neal Stephenson has written. For one thing--I don't want to spoil it too much, so I will be vague--it has an actual, honest to goodness ending. The book's size might be a little daunting, especially to those readers who have come to expect unnecessary verbosity from him, but I think it's entirely appropriate: he covers a hell of a lot of ground. (Full disclosure: the page of cereal discourse in Cryptonomicon didn't bother me, or even seem out of place More...

2 comments like (17 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2008

Mike rated it:

I keep putting off my review, uncertain how to engage without scattering little spoilers everywhere--but also just a bit flabbergasted over how to describe the experience.

For about 200 pages, the endless pilgrimages to the glossary really wore me down. The future setting intrigued me, but information is slowly parcelled out--the Chinese Water Torture method for context-building. And while I kind of like the alternate-world-building of much sci-fi (or, hell, fiction generally), the More...

6 comments like (17 people liked it)

Oct 08, 2010

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it:

Anathem is another incredible book by Neal Stephenson, although probably not for everyone. Highly philosophical, brimming with hard science, it is the story of a world where scientists have been more-or-less sequestered for centuries in "maths" (the scientific equivalent of a monastery), living ascetic lives and devising high philosophy of the universe. It is the story of a specific Avout (=monk), Erasmus, and what happens when the world that they know is turned upside down by an unexp More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2008

Corey rated it:

Some novelists pander to their audience. Others challenge them. Neal Stephenson might be determined to make his audience feel stupid, in the nicest possible way.

The American novelist has long been considered one of the great madmen of science fiction, a towering intellect who synthesizes technical mumbo-jumbo and a Monty-Pythonesque capacity for silliness into daunting tomes as entertaining as they are impenetrable. Stephenson mashes up genres with the flair of Thomas Pynchon and the More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

Chad rated it:

I finished Anathem last night, staying up far later than I'd planned. It is That Good. The fact that I stuck around for 900+ pages says a lot.

I haven't read a lot of Stephenson's other books - Snow Crash was something I mostly enjoyed, but it lost me in the mythology and such. I tried reading Cryptonomicon back when it was first released, but for reasons I can't remember I never made it past the first 50 pages. I'm told that the man has problems writing endings, that most of his book More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2012

Stephen rated it:

4.5 stars. Another original, robust effort by Stephenson who is one of the best SF writers working today. Highly recommended.

Winner: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2009)
Nominee: Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2009)
Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2009)
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2009)
Nominee: Britsh Science Fiction Award for Best Novel (2009)

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

Ben rated it:

This is only my third Stephenson novel. The other two being Snow Crash (great) and The Diamond Age (good).I was drawn to this one because of how "science fictiony" it sounded, relative to his more recent work. Though it is hard to top Snow Crash, simply due to how much fun it was to read, I think this is a much more impressive work.

Part social commentary, part philosophical dialogue, part physics lesson, he somehow makes it all interesting. The world he created in Arbre and More...

11 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2008

Thorin rated it:

Many stories end with the action heroes saving the day thanks to some world’s-last-only-hope-McGuffin-weapon that the world’s best scientists had been working round the clock throughout the story, albeit completely unbeknownst to the reader. This book shows you those scientists. And you quickly realize that what they’re working on, the ideas they’re debating and developing, are a lot more exciting and important than whatever Mr. and Mrs. Action Hero are up to. And frankly, they’re more fun to re More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2008

Brian rated it:

The book is just ridiculously good. Thought-provoking, engaging, complex, well-developed... Trying to explain it seems almost counter-productive, though, since it's 900 pages of speculative fiction. We've got a world where scholar-monks shut themselves into their "maths" -- part university, part monastary, which may only open their doors once a year, once a decade, once a century, or once a millenium. And that's just the framework for the story. It's pretty much a must-read, unles More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2009

Doug rated it:

I just finished my second read-through of this massive tome. If you don't like novels that could also be used to bludgeon a small elephant to death... READ THIS ONE ANYWAY.

Okay, it's actually not for everyone. This review will try to help you decide if you should delve into Anathem.

It helps if you like science fiction at least a little bit. It's not a space opera, nor is it anything that could be concretely labeled sci-fi, but there is that element, and it does take pl More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2008

Valerie rated it:

That took a while. I was afraid to read it at night for fear I would suffer a head injury when it fell on me. I haven't enjoyed orbital mechanics so much since reading Have Spacesuit Will Travel. In fact, this book reminded me very much of Heinlein. I'm not sure why. Noble teenage narrator, math whizzes in charge of everything, the plot--as mere filler for the scientific content, etc. I will read this again during the summer.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2009

Kerry rated it:

I was giddy reading this book. It was amazing. I love Neal Stephenson SO HARD.

I will say what I say about every Stephenson book that I've read, which is that he has a talent for creating incredibly likable characters. I love everybody -- I even love reading about the "bad guys" (although we didn't really get to know too many in this book.) Everyone is smart and funny (whether intentional or not) and I really liked how everyone in the concent looked out for each other. More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2009

Jesse rated it:

An odd but intriguing melding of socratic dialogue with modern novel, complete with lessons on math, metaphysics, rhetoric and history, sprinkled in with Mr. Stephenson's usual sly commentary on human foibles. I really liked this better than any book of his since The Diamond Age, and I think it's a much more mature effort than that. He pulls from pretty much the entire western canon of philosphy, with heavy emphasis on Plato and his successors, although Kant and Husserl factor in as well. Geo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2008

Ted rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

I must admit that at the end of this book my reaction was "finally". I'd been pretty much ready for it to end for some time...probably before encounter.

The book is (in my opinion) more of an "experience" than a story. It's an intricate exercise in world building that takes things from "the world" and altering them just a bit sets up a layered society.

The best part of the book in many ways is/are probably the the dialogs based on the logician More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2008

Marcella rated it:

I got lucky and won an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher Harper Collins, It's for people who like big, fat, thoughtful scifi.

There is something really wonderful about picking up a new book
that's over 900 pages long and every one of them is worth reading slowly
- no skimming ahead - really reading and enjoying every word. Neal
Stephenson's new book is a masterpiece-and boy can I see a movie in this!

It has great writing, a fantastic creat More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2008

Lee added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

11 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 08, 2008

Jenne rated it:

Oh wow. This was cool.
Basically what you have here is a sort of alternate universe where they have these monasteries that are scientific instead of religious. And with lady and gentleman scientists both. And they sort of cloister themselves off for different periods of time, like 1 or 10 or 100 or 1000 years, so the outside society is constantly changing while the monasteries more or less stay the same.

It also is about different philosophical/mathematical/scientific ideas tha More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Diana rated it:

It's Neal Stephenson for goodness sakes! Dense, complex, wordy to the extreme but also strangely enthralling this novel involves love, loss, parallel worlds, religion, philosophy, and quantum physics. The synopsis provided by GoodReads is a good start. In a world divided into two major population groups, one Saecular, the other Avout, the two meet for ten day intervals once a year, decade, century, or millennium. Erasmus, a young avout in the Concert, discovers extraterrestrial observers lurking More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2009

Rod rated it:

First, it's no "Cryptonomicon." I say this knowing full well the author had no intention of writing another "Cryptonomicon". I say this to the readers of "Cryptonomicon" who seek another duplicate performance. You will be disappointed. However, if "Cryptonomicon" whets your curiosity for more Stephenson, you may find what you seek in "Anathem."

This is solid, intelligent sci fi. Good for SF fans. But it may not have the broader appeal t More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 20, 2010

Sandra aka Sleo rated it:

Whew, I finished it. What a weird experience. Like a geek telling a romance tale, filled with quasi-medieval trappings, wild speculative thought, space drama, technology aka praxis, and ending with a wedding.

It was funny at times. I liked some of the characters, weird as they are, and some of the action was good. The science? Not my field and mostly bored me until he got on with it. The vocabulary was cutesy and was annoying after a bit.

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2008

Alan rated it:

Anathem is a great, sprawling book that, once you take the dust cover off, even looks very much like a religious tome. It's also a demanding book, slow to get started (though it's not strictly true to claim that it begins with two hundred pages of exposition) and full of thorny concepts, words and dialogue.

Once Stephenson gets rolling, though, he's unstoppable, and it eventually becomes clear to the discerning reader that Anathem is a major work of speculative literature, concerned w More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 21, 2009

Peter rated it:

Not since Tolkien have I read a a book with such a fully realized world. Stephenson has created a world much like ours with a complex history of nations, empires, religions, and cultures that have risen and fallen over the centuries. One key difference that sets our world apart from theirs is that instead of science becoming instilled in the universities it blossoms in the monasteries. Monks make vows and set apart worldly possessions to study mathematical proofs and practice the scientific meth More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2011

T.W. rated it:

After reading Cryptonomicon, I was prepared for a slow start so that wasn't as off-putting as it normally would've been. Stephenson didn't disappoint -- about 200 pages in, the story was so compelling that I couldn't stop reading until my eyes quit focusing 400 pages later. I quickly finished what I had to do the next morning so I could devour the last 200+ pages. The various concepts about the multi-cosmos are so intriquing that I know I will have to go back and analyze them. In that regard More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

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