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Speaking of Neal Stephenson: Anathem release announced.

sparkchaser

sparkchaser

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Neal Stephenson's new novel Anathem will be released September 9.

Amazon's description:

Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world.

Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.

Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." 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.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.
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960 pages!

There's a mini-review available here.

I can't wait.
 
I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this (through LibraryThing.Com). I was hoping to read it and a post a review before it was released, but seeing as my reading time is limited, and it's enormous page count, I was only fooling myself. It took me an hour to get through the first 20 or so pages, so I put it down. It's a struggle sometimes to read a less complicated story with average prose with the few moments I get to read. There was no way I could tackle this one right now.

There is some geeky type stuff that I liked seeing: a time line to let the reader know about the past of the society. And it is an old society. Some of the entries are quite detailed. It looks to be an excellent book.
 
Oh, I plan on reading it. Just not going to be able to do it before the release date. I get more time to read in the winter.
 
Scoot! How's the little one?

Sparky, speaking of Stephenson, did you see his lecture that he presented in London not too long ago? Go here.

ds
 
I should point out that I have not yet watched the video. Given the lackluster response to it on Slashdot, I think I'll watch something else.
 
I picked this up a few weeks ago and I know it's destined to sit on Mt. TBR for the next few months.
 
That poor book has accompanied me on the plane from the United States to Germany to Ukraine and to the United States and back to Germany and still hasn't been read. Dammit.
 
sparkchaser said:
That poor book has accompanied me on the plane from the United States to Germany to Ukraine and to the United States and back to Germany and still hasn't been read. Dammit.
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Honestly, unless the second half is a huge improvement over the first, I'd say don't bother. It's bogged down in endless exposition and not nearly as much fun as Snow Crash.
 
I think he has succumbed to the BIGGER IS BETTER fever that is going around. I think he caught it while writing The Baroque Cycle.
 
Snow Crash was the fun book of all Stephenson's for me.

Cryptonomicon was fascinating but bordering on slow going. I bogged down at about the first quarter, but I will finish it one day.

I gave up on the Baroque Cycle early in the first book (Quicksilver?), and can't imagine going back to it. Historical figures, feh!

And now Anathem. I guess not. Ever.

But a reread of Snow Crash? A great idea now that I think of it. Yays!
 
sparkchaser said:
What about Zodiac and The Diamond Age (one of the best SciFi books ever written)?
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I simply haven't seen Zodiac to comment on it. And Diamond Age slipped my mind while posting, but I think that means it didn't stand out as much in my memory as Snow Crash, which is still true. Even though I did very much like the concept of the book.

Somehow, Sparky, it seems that the best sci-fi doesn't impress me as much as it should. I'm thinking of Ender's Game now, which also seemed less than outstanding to me. I guess it is really not my genre, and therefore really my loss.
 
I'm happy to report that Anathem picked up a lot towards the end. Still not enough to make it more than just barely a good book, which is a pity as it really is very clever and all of Stephenson's infodumping eventually pays off... He even manages to make his own inability to write a good ending part of the payoff. It's just that, both in the story and for the reader, it takes a very long time to get there and there's really no excuse for at least 100 of the roughly 400 pages of the book made up of socratic dialogue about quantum physics. :star3:, and not a strong three.
 
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