"Anathem" by Neal Stephenson – The Power of Rationality

Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Book cover)
In Anathem, by Neal Setphenson, author of classics such as Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, we are presented with a strange, alternate world where men of science, mathematics and philosophy are confined to live in seclusion behind the walls of an ancient monastery, keeping on doing their work in complete isolation from everyone else.

However, suddenly the threat of an existence-ending cataclysm looms on the horizon, and humanity is helpless to stop it. In a last-ditch effort to save the day, the scientists, philosophers and mathematicians are brought back into the world once again and are asked to try and deal with the impending doom about to swallow everyone. Naturally, they all agree, and so begins a quest of intellect to stop and unstoppable doom.

Anathem is a very special book to me, because even though I’m not exactly a big Neal Stephenson fan, this is the one novel that I will associate with him, probably for the rest of my life.

For those who have heard about it, yes, the book does contain a language invented by Neal Stephenson himself, although it isn’t nearly as complex or developed as Tolkien’s Middle Earth works.

There is a glossary at the end of the book as well as dictionary notes spread throughout. I have to say that even though it takes a couple hundred pages for the story to actually get going, they are some of the finest two hundred pages I have ever read.

The world of the book is described so vividly that you can close your eyes and feel yourself actually being there. A true adventure for the mind and the senses.

As far as the story goes, it is one of the best science-fiction plots I have read; a huge cataclysm is about to swallow everything whole, and humanity’s last resort isn’t to fire some kind of rocket at it or find some kind of ancient technology.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Book cover)
No, they use the power of the human mind, the power of intelligence, the power of man-made concepts as well as scientific and philosophical discoveries. There isn’t exactly much for the action aficionado, but those who like intelligent, methodical, original, and relatively slow-paced novels, this is definitely a read worth investing your time in.


Neal Stephenson (Author)

Neal Stephenson


Personal site

Neal Stephenson is an American writer and game designer whose many novels have touched on science-fiction, cyberpunk and historical fiction.

Some of his better-known novels include Snow Crash, which earned him a nomination for the Clarke Award, and Cryptonomicon, which won him the Locus SF Award and the 2013 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

“The Locked Door” by Freida McFadden – Roots of a Lost Innocence

Image
  Freida McFadden has been quietly writing some exciting and original thrillers in her spare time from being a practicing physician, and The Locked Door is one of her latest offering in the genre.  It tells the story of Nora, a surgeon and daughter of a serial killer now in jail, who sees her life assaulted from the dark as someone begins to recreate her father's work with the exact same signature.
Read more

“The Lost Colony” by A.G. Riddle – A New Home Among the Stars

Image
A.G. Riddle's Long Winter Trilogy Series is one many of us will remember for the amazing story it brings of humanity's last stand against an overwhelming enemy in times of hopelessness. In The Lost Colony , the third book in the series, we follow James and Emma on their own respective struggles as humanity tries to settle itself on a new planet with an unseen danger none could have foreseen.
Read more

“Winter World” by A.G. Riddle – Ice Age from the Void

Image
A.G. Riddle is a true literary explorer seeking to push humanity to its limits and beyond, setting them on a desperate collision course with something beyond its understanding in Winter World . With a sudden ice age dawning on humanity entire swathes of land become uninhabitable and people begin dropping like flies, with anarchy reigning supreme. Looking to the stars for a miraculous solution, the remnants of humanity find a massive mysterious object floating near Mars ...whatever it is, our civilization's hopes of survival rest entirely in its hands.
Read more

“The Girl on the Stairs” by Barry Ernest – The Small Thorn you Can’t Ignore

Image
Girl on the Stairs , by Barry Ernest and with a foreword written by David Lifton, is an exploration of one specific aspect of the JFK assassination. More precisely, it looks into what a little girl by the name of Victoria Adams saw on that day while standing in the staircase of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald was supposedly making his escape.  Actually, it is more about what she didn’t see than what she did see. Victoria was on the staircase Oswald supposedly used, at the exact same time he supposedly used it. If he were to be there, even the little girl she was, Victoria would have noticed a nervous man quickly running down the stairs. However, she says that on that day, she was alone there, with nobody to be found, especially Oswald.
Read more

“Three Comrades” by Erich Maria Remarque – The Other Side of the Barricade

Image
The two World Wars have been documented, discussed and depicted from virtually every perspective imaginable, ranging from small children caught in a crossfire all the way the leaders of each country. However, it seems that here is a startlingly small amount of attention dedicated to the small hiatus period between the two wars, a time during which many changes came to pass in Germany in a very short amount of time.
Read more