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A review by gamercow
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
5.0
What a book. This is Neal Stephenson at his nerdiest. Some say that Anathem is more of a text book about phys than a fiction book, some say the first half rips off Harry Potter, some get angry at the use of a made up language, and others claim that they thought the concept was lame.
To these people, I say bah. I enjoyed this book TONS more than the Baroque cycle, but that is most likely because I understood the subject matter in this book. Much like the Baroque cycle was heavy on history and political science, Anathem is heavy on physics, astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, and metaphysics. Luckily, I love all these things, and add that the main characters are, for lack of a better word, "physics monks", academics who are cloistered apart from society so their learnings and discoveries won't destroy the rest of civilization.
All in all, I found the 900 page book to be a real burning read, but not only because I was itching to find out what happened next, I was also immersed in their world. Many critics bash Anathem for going into heavy detail and conversations about the above subjects, which may be true, but it is crucial to the story, and crucial to the characters involved. These are people that are used to having dialogs, all day, every day, so why would they act any different in a time of crisis? Would Stephen Hawking pick up a flamethrower to push back the zombie horde? No, he'd probably figure out how to bend time, and teleport himself somewhere. But back to the flow of the book. I can understand how it would be slow for people who don't like physics and cosmology, but I found myself welcomed into a conversation.
As for the made up language: 1)There's an extensive glossary in the back. 2)There are many inserts with definitions of important words that have just been used, or will be used soon. But I found myself looking to the glossary very rarely, because most of the words can be figured out from context. To say someone put a geometric calca on a chalkboard showing that the angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees tells me that calca = proof. And many of the made up words are similar to their English counterparts, such as dialog instead of debate(and the English "dialog" would suffice, as well), arks instead of churches, fraa instead of "brother" or "father"(in the monkish world), suur instead of "sister"(monkish), Saunt or Savant instead of Saint, it all makes easy sense to me.
Even with all of the above stated, there IS a good story there. Its not as action packed as Snow Crash, Zodiac, or even Diamond Age. Its a good ride the whole way though, and reminds me of Cryptonomicon's tale as told from the modern day Waterhouse. Travels far and wide, unseen difficulties overcome by a distinctly non-superhero person. Towards the end of the book, I had to re-read a few sections to make sure I comprehended what was going on, but once I did, I was glad of it.
In short, I grokked this book(Anathem wasn't the first sci-fi book with made up words, naysayers) and would happily recommend it to anyone who wonders about the universe around them and how it works. I'll be sure to read this again one day, its going in my favorites pile.
One last word: Don't read the foreword. It ruins some surprises.
To these people, I say bah. I enjoyed this book TONS more than the Baroque cycle, but that is most likely because I understood the subject matter in this book. Much like the Baroque cycle was heavy on history and political science, Anathem is heavy on physics, astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, and metaphysics. Luckily, I love all these things, and add that the main characters are, for lack of a better word, "physics monks", academics who are cloistered apart from society so their learnings and discoveries won't destroy the rest of civilization.
All in all, I found the 900 page book to be a real burning read, but not only because I was itching to find out what happened next, I was also immersed in their world. Many critics bash Anathem for going into heavy detail and conversations about the above subjects, which may be true, but it is crucial to the story, and crucial to the characters involved. These are people that are used to having dialogs, all day, every day, so why would they act any different in a time of crisis? Would Stephen Hawking pick up a flamethrower to push back the zombie horde? No, he'd probably figure out how to bend time, and teleport himself somewhere. But back to the flow of the book. I can understand how it would be slow for people who don't like physics and cosmology, but I found myself welcomed into a conversation.
As for the made up language: 1)There's an extensive glossary in the back. 2)There are many inserts with definitions of important words that have just been used, or will be used soon. But I found myself looking to the glossary very rarely, because most of the words can be figured out from context. To say someone put a geometric calca on a chalkboard showing that the angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees tells me that calca = proof. And many of the made up words are similar to their English counterparts, such as dialog instead of debate(and the English "dialog" would suffice, as well), arks instead of churches, fraa instead of "brother" or "father"(in the monkish world), suur instead of "sister"(monkish), Saunt or Savant instead of Saint, it all makes easy sense to me.
Even with all of the above stated, there IS a good story there. Its not as action packed as Snow Crash, Zodiac, or even Diamond Age. Its a good ride the whole way though, and reminds me of Cryptonomicon's tale as told from the modern day Waterhouse. Travels far and wide, unseen difficulties overcome by a distinctly non-superhero person. Towards the end of the book, I had to re-read a few sections to make sure I comprehended what was going on, but once I did, I was glad of it.
In short, I grokked this book(Anathem wasn't the first sci-fi book with made up words, naysayers) and would happily recommend it to anyone who wonders about the universe around them and how it works. I'll be sure to read this again one day, its going in my favorites pile.
One last word: Don't read the foreword. It ruins some surprises.