Anathem
by Neal Stephenson
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Book Reviews of Anathem
Book Review: He Needs an Editor
Summary: 3 Stars
A good concept. There is another world, Arbre, which is like earth, but not like earth, with about 3000 years of extra history added on. The powers of Arbre realize that the intellectuals are very bright but they are apt to come up with some just horrible concepts if allowed to use technology, like bombs that will eliminate all life. So they are imprisoned in a series of convent-like places called concents (or maths), allowed to think all they want, not allowed to reproduce, and not allowed much in the way of technology. They write books on actual leaves. Until, of course, there is an emergency and the secular powers really need them to strategize and design weapons and such.
It is a good picture of this world, and Stephenson makes it internally consistent, to a point. The problem, like the problem with the Baroque Cycle is that it is way too long. Too much thick, technical, boring (yes, boring. I'm really not into long circular philosophical arguments about meaning and nothingness and alternative universes in the mind. There's a place for them in this book, but they could have been a lot shorter. Especially when there are major inconistencies regarding alternative air and water and food that aren't explained at all.)
So, if someone could chop maybe 200-300 pages out of this it would have been a lot more interesting. Also what I used to call the mushy part when I was a kid is missing something -- like any reason for sparks to suddenly fly between two people who apparently disliked each other all their lives. There's also a bit of effort gone into foreshadowing that is just dropped.
Oh well, there is a good story buried within all of this, clawing and scratching to get out of the overlayers of pedantry.
Book Review: Yet another mind-blowing novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Neal Stephenson has written yet another mind-blowing novel, IMHO. I have read just about everything he has written, and this book is one of his best. Somehow he has produced a novel that is an amazing combination of science fiction, speculation, philosophy, mathematics, historical fiction, alternate universes/cosmi (read the book!), and character story. He's even managed to work in a love story or two as well.
A lesser author would have set this book in on Earth. Instead Stephenson has created a world that in many ways is similar to ours, and in the long run, related, with a language that hints at universalities. I found myself reading the glossary he supplies repeatedly, but that wasn't a bad thing.
I could go on with many details. I will say the book took time to get into, but patience is well rewarded. The characters are as fascinating as the world he has created. The story moves along and builds slowly and goes off in directions unexpected yet logical. I will warn you that he pulls some tricks and you are left wondering what is real and what isn't at some points, but it all works within the many many layers of thought and concept he manages to pile into this book.
Some of the storytelling is deceptively simple and straight forward. It is not as dense in the way it is written as the Baroque Cycle, but it is no less complex and fascinating. You WILL at times have to put it down as your mind comes out of an "oh WOW" response and you catch your breath. But you will enjoy it.
So altogether, if you have read any of his other work, you must read this one. Please don't be intimidated by its length. It works just fine to read it in small chunks. Enjoy!
Book Review: I Read for Pleasure
Summary: 2 Stars
Let me start this review by being honest: I only read to page 125 of this book.
I am (was?) a Neal Stephenson fan. I loved Cryptonomicon. I liked The Diamond Age and Snowcrash. I did not care for The Baroque Cycle, though, and didn't make it all the way through that. Still, I couldn't resist buying this book the first day it came out and diving in.
Reading this book is like work. It's hard to get through one paragraph without having to reread something to get it clear in your head. There is so much proprietary terminology. A little bit of this is cool and interesting, but so so SO much of it just really bogs down the writing.
By page 125, there still didn't seem to be an actual story here. Inventing a world obviously takes a lot of pages. At the point I quit, the main character was giving a tour of his concent (look it up!) to a group of prospective students. The tour went on for pages and pages, prose with no dialogue at all, until I finally had to ask myself, "What is even going on here?"
No doubt Stephenson is a genius. It's very plain in his writing. I enjoy thinking about math and science. And that's why I give this unfinished reading two stars instead of one - because in the small portion I read, there was some witty dialogue and some great ideas I was genuinely interested in reading more about. I consider myself a good reader and like a challenge (to an extent) but this is too much. I work all day - I want to relax and just read a good story in the evening. It really kills me to have to quit a book and think to myself, "I am just too simple-minded to read this." I'll think twice before buying the next Neal Stephenson book.
Book Review: Dialog, maybe; Literature, not
Summary: 3 Stars
Neal Stephenson's novels have always been novels about ideas. Cryptonomicon, about cryptology and anarchy, the Baroque cycle about the rise of the modern West. But in these previous novels the idea-stuff was balanced with enough literature-stuff: characters, plots, extraordinarily sharp use of language. One always had the nagging suspicion that the literature part was optimized for male teenagers--particularly when it came to the sex and violence--but still others could listen in with pleasure. Particularly if you were a geek who enjoyed Stephenson's love and understanding of technology.
This balance gets destroyed in Anathem. This time the core ideas are the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, Plato's theory of Ideals, the philosophy of language, the nature of consciousness and the place of intellectuals in society. Perhaps a large list even by Stephensonian standards. Moreover ideas that are speculative and likely to be unfamiliar to even geek audiences. As a result, unlike, say, Cryptonomicon, where the ideas unfold through the story, here the exposition of ideas actually displaces the literature-stuff.
As a result what is left as a novel is just the optimized-for-teenagers part: how a crisis throws a group of kids into adult roles and their ensuing adventures--including martial arts in space and unmentioned biological interactions on hospital beds. There is none of the linguistic artistry of the earlier Stephenson. The commentary on real society is flat and direct and lacks the inventiveness of Snowcrash.
A not-so-great novel from an undoubtedly great author.
Book Review: Another Epic Metaphysics Epistle
Summary: 5 Stars
It's interesting to watch Neal outgrowing his fans, as attested to by 10% 1-star ratings here. His use of language here is no worse than "A Clockwork Orange" (the book, not the movie), and I for one savor the experience of becoming thus engrossed in the world.
The physics behind and hidden within this book seems somewhat more extensive than works past. Despite Neal's exhortations that he's not a scientist or a mathematician, the quality of his research really shines here; i think most folks will learn more than a little about the way our own real world actually works, and how mathematics describes it. Some folks call this boring. So be it.
Where this book really shines is in Neal's ongoing exploration of the delicate relationship between physics, humans, and metaphysics. What is truth? This is not idle fancy, and has occupied the works of great natural philosophers since well before Leibnitz and Newton (remember those folks?). The approach here is sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic, but it's in inexorable weft and weave nonetheless, in the tradition of Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose" (book, not movie) and "Foucault's Pendulum". In the days after i finished the novel (which really didn't take very long), i felt like i was peeling away onion-layers of connections as i walked back through it in my mind.
Neal has always constructed works that have strongly internal consistence, and are full of intellectual minutae woven into conceptually vivid plots. This work is a very mature, more pondersome, and powerful addition to his corpus. In some ways, it continues to haunt me.