Product Description
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. Anathem is the latest miraculous invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle—a work of astonishing scope, intelligence, and imagination. … More >>
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Most of us spent at least part of our student days wrestling with Great Ideas, but almost all of us moved on to the prosaic life of paying bills and working at mind numbing jobs until our highest thoughts were about a football game or a cold beer.
The author of this book is retarded in the sense he never moved on. Years after his student days, age-wise, he’s still thinking Great Themes. You can garner that from the many four and five star reviews on this site. However, for most of us, this books is just plain Too High — all the way to inaccessible through incomprehensible.
Other reviews will tell you that if you manage to wade through 300 or so pages of gibberish, you’ll finally get to an exciting and stimulating story. Having read this author’s other works, I believe them entirely. I’m just not up to the job of reading sentences such as, “He rode his ieueu into the owiskslsl finding aksieyh had, after kadlasi settled, found much uuuaksl to aeuel”. Presumably, had I been able to stay awake for those 300 pages, eventually that sentence would have made sense to me and I’d be off and reading in style. If that sort of sentence was isolated, well, that’s ok with me, but that is the entire book.
I am rating 3 stars because I believe the others who read and managed to decipher this tome, but I need to warn those who may have day jobs – watch out. This book is quite heavy and it’ll give you a nasty set of bruises falling on you after you fall asleep due to reading a paragraph or two.
Rating: 3 / 5
I’m with most of the others here giving 1-star, and I’m also a huge fan of Stephenson. But, while I appreciate his effort at something different, Anathem is TOO different for me.
In short, I truly felt like I was reading a 12-year-old’s first attempt at writing fiction. Stephenson is a MUCH better writer than this, so I can’t help but wonder “what’s happened?” His writing in this novel feels very adolescent (borderline childish), and I found myself unwilling to read beyond the first several pages. You might insist to me that the “meat” is found futher on, but I’ll pass, thanks.
I hope people will read these 1-star reviews fairly, for most of them come from true Stephenson fans (myself included, and I am 100% on-board for his next opus). We’re disappointed because Anathem seems like it could be such a great story if it hadn’t been ruined by Stephenson making such absurd “creative choices”.
I’m truly not a NS-hater … I just hate this book of his.
Rating: 1 / 5
Neal Stephenson after a promising start as a novelist has “jumped the shark”. Starting with the three volume *Baroque Cycle*, and culminating with *Anathem*, Stephenson has become self-referential, ponderous, and verbose. And these problems have made his latest book an unreadable bore. I’d recommend people not waste their time with it. Read Zodiac, Snow Crash,The Diamond Age,or Cryptonomicon for a view of Stephenson at his best.
Rating: 1 / 5
I usually enjoy fantasy and sci fi novels, so I decided to try a new author. However, I was unable to develop an interest in this novel. It was so full of gibberish that I began to think this was a satire. This novel was simply too boring to continue reading. I will donate the book to the local library with the hope that someone will enjoy it.
Rating: 1 / 5
I loved “The Diamond Age” and with all the hype in the tech community I could hardly wait to get my hands on this book and dig in. I was giddy with excitement as I cracked the book open and began to read. What a disappointment. This book is so tedious and boring I could not stomach past 100 pages. I’ve seen complaints about the language, but that really didn’t bother me. It is just exceedingly boring. I don’t know who this book appeals to and I can’t imagine the average sci-fi fan finding this book at all interesting. Perhaps this review will kill my geek cred but I simply can’t recommend this book.
Rating: 1 / 5