Anathem by Neal Stephenson Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.33 You Save: $24.62 (82%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Anathem
Book Review: A labor well-rewarded
Summary: 5 Stars
This may now be my favorite book I have read, and that is in 2 decades of reading the Genre. It blends some of my favorite quantum science that you may get from books by authors like Brian Greene, accessible socratic and modern philosphy (nothing too post-modern bizarre), and lingusitics, with a quirky sci-fi(ish) plot.
If you are new to Stephenson, be warned -- expect lots of digressions --- some may be slow at times, but usually they are thought-provoking, smile-inducing gems.
NS's books are all quirky and go off in many linguistic and mental tangents. Some have me laughing out loud, some have my mind racing, and others cause me to work-out my speed-reading skills. The same person that loves Cryptonomican may be bored by all the tangents in Anathem, and vice versa. I personally loved them both!!
As usual with NS, the plot is only a fraction of the story...the use of language, tone, setting, philosophy/science, and characters are more what he writes about...the plot is just the vehicle that drives it all together.
And for those saying he needed an editor, and he has become too wordy --- I do not think it is a matter of the Author changing...I thinks its a matter of the Author getting respect from the publishers and getting the leeway. Without NS's prior success, the publisher probably demands a harder edit on this book.
My opinion, if you like NS's writing, this book is worth a shot. And don't get too bogged down with the vocab. Like Gene Wolfe, most can be understood from the use and context, and there is no need to use a glossary and/or try to memorize definitions like some have suggested.
Just read it, an be prepared for 1-page a minute read, not 2-3 page per minute read. If you want "book-candy" NS is not the author to turn to. If you enjoy having to stop to think about what you are reading at times, and don't mind linguistic tangents that are not always plot-relevant, than take your time and enjoy this one!!
The labor is well rewarded. This read was one that I didn't want to end --- and I was so sad to get to the last page, I went back and re-read portions for the next 2 weeks ;)
Book Review: A return to science fiction, a preservation of form
Summary: 4 Stars
When a book has a glossary, it has one strike against it. A glossary means the book is full of words the author has made up or changed the meaning of. If you actually need the glossary, it has two strikes. It means that the words aren't explained enough or have so little context that you have to keep going back to hte glossary to understand what's being said.
I'm happy to say that Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" has only one strike, and perhaps only half a strike. The glossary could have been eliminated without damage to book or reader.
If you're a fan of Stephenson's last four books, you don't need my review. You've already purchased it, and are working your way through it slowly and lovingly.
If you hated his last four books, you don't need my review either, except to confirm that this one is put together much like the last four. But if you're in the middle, then read on.
Structurally "Anathem" is put together pretty much like Stephenson's four previous books. It has lots of little discourses, a stately pace punctuated by wild moments of action, interesting characters, and enormous historical depth. There are multiple simultaneous plots to be juggled and an enormous cast of characters.
On the other hand the history is all made up, a number of the discourses are actually critical to understanding the book, and the entire story is told from a single characters point of view. It's also one of the more interesting re-visits of a standard SF trope that I'd thought had been mined out.
As for what I said above about the glossary: it serves a purpose in alerting you that you shouldn't necessarily assume the words introduced don't have exact counterpoints in English. For example, Stephenson gives you a word which you quickly decide actually means "monastery." But if you're not paying attention, you miss the immediate clues that this is really some other thing which we have no adequate analog for. Hence a new word is appropriate, and the sort of short descriptions you get in a glossary are inadequate to properly describe it.
Stephenson does this repeatedly in the book. The opening pages give you an immediate impression of a monastery, with monks living in simplicity and poverty. With the next breath he gives you a couple of details which, if you stop to think about them, mean that these 'monks' are neither poor nor simple. Nor, for that matter, are they monks except in the sense of being largely separated from regular society.
Even when Stephenson uses language we're used to, it can be misleading. The residents refer to themselves as living under the Cartesian discipline. The adjective Cartesian is explained fairly quickly, but you've been fooled - in this case, discipline is meant in a sense other than self-discipline. But I can't say more without veering towards spoilers for the plot.
And what a plot that is. The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon (if you liked them) could be described simply as interesting things happening to interesting people, with the plot almost secondary. That's not the case here, although there are certainly interesting things happening to interesting people. There are huge things afoot, and this entire world is on the edge of a critical and disruptive change.
A great deal of the joy of the book is seeing and understanding just what that change is. Stephenson's narrator is young and moderately naive, and he presents things as he sees (saw) them. You may be getting most or all of the facts, but you may not be seeing the larger picture or may lack the context to understand what those facts actually mean. That doesn't mean Stephenson is misleading you or deliberately obscuring things; no character in the book actually has a complete understanding of what is happening. That's what makes the book work so well. There are multiple mysteries in here, both in the sense of things unknown and things which are generally known which turn out not to be true.
Stephenson's discourses are an important part of this. Some of the little asides about philosophy, history and mathematics are simply that: asides. As one reviewer put it, Stephenson likes to wear his erudition on his sleeve. But others are actually laying critical foundation for you to understand what's going to be happening later in the book, and you'd better be paying attention or you're going to be lost.
This is not to say that every mystery is tied up in a neat bow. In particular, one critical set is only partially explained. We know that what of what happened, have some implications about the why, and only glimpses as to the how. This in general is a good thing. It's a messy and complex world that Stephenson has created for us, and tying everything off neatly would be a false note and a disservice to the wonderful complexity he's built.
I liked it a lot. It made me think a lot while reading it, and I find myself mulling it over again and again. I will almost certainly re-read it, and soon. It's not for everyone, but if you are a patient and observant reader with an appreciation for scientific and mathematical concepts, this is your cup of tea.
Book Review: A review for Stephenson fans who are leery about this book...
Summary: 5 Stars
I feel compelled to write a review of Neal Stephenson's latest work, Anathem, because quite simply it is one of the best, most eye-opening books I've read in the last five years.
Now, this qualification comes with some qualifications of its own.
First of all, if you're the average kind of guy with a short attention span, who gets angry when internet discussions get side-tracked by people who're talking about something you don't understand, then this book is not for you. If you've read and enjoyed Neal's other work, but wish he'd just get on with telling the story instead of providing the reader with endless descriptions of, say, the techniques involved in breakfast cereal degustation, then this book's not for you.
If, on the other hand, you enjoy Stephenson's insights into western history, culture and philosophy - especially rational, scientific philosophy - then you'll want this book in your suitcase on your next holiday to wherever it is you go to read Fun Stuff.
I feel compelled to point out that it is not necessary to have a deep background in math or science to read this book, as some reviewers have claimed. Frankly, it was these claims (by people who otherwise enjoyed the book) which put me off of reading Anathem and made ultimately buying it a bit of a shot in the dark for me, even though I'm a rabid Stephenson fan. What I feared were long discourses on, say, numbers theory and the like which I would not be able to follow at all.
I'm happy to say that this is not the case.
I'm a social scientist with a nodding acquaintence with philosophy - enough that I could probably identify one out of every five philosophers that Stephenson uses in the book. And that's not much. I mean, I'm savvy enough that when Stephenson talks about "Gardan's Steelyard", I understand that he's referencing what our world calls "Occam's Razor". I know that the "Protans" are probably stand-ins for our world's "Proteans". But that's really about it: the level of knowledge anyone who had to sleep through a freshman "philosophy of science" course should have. As a social scientist, however, my math skills don't go beyond what was required to get me through my sophmore "Statistics for Sociologists" course and of physics, I know next to nothing, having dropped that as a senior in high school.
But I was still able to read this book quite easily and with great interest. In fact, I think it would serve as a fun primer for one of those freshman-level philosophy of science courses. It's certainly made me want to read more of Stephenson's sources.
So if you've been holding off reading Anathem because you were afraid of the depth of the material, I'd say give it a shot. A simple undergrad university-level education should be more than enough for you to get through this and to enjoy the journey.
One thing I should add, however, which pleasantly surprised me, is Stephenson's continuing maturation as a writer. In Anathem, the "worst" of those long "side tracks" which Stephenson so loves to engage in are sequestered off as seperate appendixes which can be read if, as and when the reader feels up to them. They reward attentive reading, but are dry enough to pose huge stumbling blocks to the story. By shunting them off to the appendixes, Stephenson has made the book much more accessible and enjoyable to the average reader without depriving the rest of us of the übernerdity which we so enjoy in Neal's work.
This was a very good and mature decision of the writer - or his editor - and should be applauded.
Also, this is the first Stephenson book which I've ever read that has a coherent sense of closure - obviously something Neal really worked at bringing about, given the book's last sentence. Normally, this man's books are a bit like roller coasters: one reads them not because of where they lead, but because of the thrills along the way. Anathem, however, comes to a logical and satisfying ending with all loose ends nicely tied up except for those upon which reasonable and rational sequels might normally be hung. Again, this strikes me as a definite advance for Stephenson in terms of his writing skills.
All in all, Anathem is a great book - perhaps a real science fiction classic on the level of LeGuin's "Dispossessed" or Asimov's "I, Robot". If you like Neal's work and haven't read it yet, or simply enjoy well-thought out and rigorously researched science fiction, pick it up now!
Book Review: ANATHEM will assuredly find a following
Summary: 4 Stars
ANATHEM, Neal Stephenson's new novel, centers on a young man named Fraa Erasmas, a monk, of sorts, residing within the walls of the Concent of Saunt Edhar. There, he and his fellow residents/students devote their lives to the understanding of math, science, cosmology, metaphysics and more. Everything must have reason and be provable, or it is invalid. In such a place, the residents are segregated, to a degree, and in some instances none can know what the others know.
Fraa Orolo, Erasmas's mentor, finds himself "Thrown Back," or cast out of the concent for a violation. Erasmas, Lio, Ala, Jesry and a handful of others begin a secret quest to discover what it was Orolo was working on that got him Thrown Back. When they discover that he has located what appeared to be an alien ship orbiting the planet, it is not too long before they, and others, are called upon and shipped out of the concent as well, destined to meet at another location for a special gathering.
Erasmas, however, is intent on finding Orolo. Splitting off from the main contingent, he begins a quest to locate Orolo and bring him back to the meeting. There, the gathering of the avout will determine the proper course for dealing with this alien arrival...if they don't destroy each other first. Or if the aliens don't launch their attack before a decision can be made.
Yes, ANATHEM is science fiction. The events take place on a planet known as Arbre. Even so, it bears many striking similarities to Earth. While it can be somewhat disconcerting, a number of things are given new names, but descriptions eventually lead you to understand what they are. Of course the presence of an alien spaceship qualifies it as a science fiction tale, yet, at its core, the book is more about thought than, well, enjoyment.
At any given moment, Stephenson sits back and spends an inordinate amount of time regaling you with his brilliance. And let's be honest, he is brilliant. Even so, paragraph upon paragraph of intellectual infighting amongst scholars, page upon page of metatheoric argument and scientific regurgitation make the reading of ANATHEM a true slog. The book begins slowly, introducing you to Saunt Edhar and its setup, and the introduction of Erasmas and a few of his companions. And the clock. And how the clock works. And why the clock works that way. And who designed the clock. And who decided it would work the way it works. And what scientific formulae were used in such a decision. This depth of explanation, while creating a fully immense world, can weigh far too heavily on the mind of the person trying to read it.
Within ANATHEM, there is a book called, ironically enough, The Book. It is a tome of punishment. The punished are forced to read and copy and understand the chapters they have been assigned and will then be quizzed on those chapters. Each chapter of The Book is increasingly more difficult, and at one point they become so preposterously difficult that the reader is ultimately driven to insanity. Reading ANATHEM can have a similar effect.
Not wholly unworthy, ANATHEM will assuredly find a following. But on the whole, it pales in comparison to Stephenson's previous gems, such as SNOW CRASH, CRYPTONOMICON and The Baroque Cycle.
--- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard
Book Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
Only Stephenson could mix A Canticle for Leibowitz with modern speculative fiction to create a masterpiece like this. It's a marked departure from his earlier work and I can only hope that his future books are as finely crafted as this one.