Anathem
by Neal Stephenson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Neal StephensonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-08-25
ISBN: 006147410X
Number of pages: 1008
Publisher: Harper
Book Reviews of Anathem
Book Review: Great physics, annoying philosophy
Summary: 5 Stars
Neal Stephenson writes books that you can't get out of your brain once you've let them in. "The Diamond Age" remains for me the quintessential "paradigm shift" novel of ideas; I think about the world differently having read it. Anathem is not quite up to that level, and also does not seem quite so spectacularly original as his other books. The special kids taken in to be trained up behind high stone walls at the age of 10 who then choose or are chosen for separate orders reminded me of Harry Potter, and the travel over the polar regions to a place where the "alternative universe" sources of consciousness can be explored echoed The Golden Compass (and Stephenson seems to give the nod to that trilogy by contrasting consciousness with "dust" at one point). Nevertheless it is rare to find an author who can write so felicitously and can also clearly explain some of the most abstruse physics issues out there. I especially liked the idea of astronauts floating in space who cut themselves off from measurement by any outside force and thereby become a waveform that can take on an infinite number of possibilities that can all exist at the same time, with some of the possibilities seen through dreams. I also liked the hard science exploration of space flight possibilities by individuals. I even liked the incorporation of Max Tegmark's ideas that the entire universe is just one big mathematical expression if seen from the right vantage point, and that our occasional glimpses into that framework could correspond to Platonic forms. Stephenson also directly takes on religion and highlights the ways that it prevents the rational brain from achieving the truth, although he less than courageously denies that this was his object in post-book blog posts. His language is endlessly inventive; the coinage "deolater" for god-worshipper in his alternative universe brilliantly highlights the worldview of those who use this word. Other wonderful neologisms: "avout" for a "devout" one minus religious baggage, "concent" to evoke both a "convent" and a "concentration camp," which aptly describes the places to which the intellectuals in the novel's world have been banished. What I didn't like was endless discussion about the niceties of assigning names to various philosophical approaches, with the concept being that if only we could "mathematize" philosophy we could write equations manipulating it the way we do physics. There are also some science aspects of this that seem unreasonable on their face: part of the plot depends on objects and animate beings from several different universes operating under different laws of physics being able to travel together through the "multiverse": Stephenson doesn't even begin to provide a theory as to how that could work. Notwithstanding these quibbles, this one is a "must read."
Summary of Anathem
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.
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