# Anathem, by Neil Stephenson **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703 "2008-09-15T14:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/1 "2008-09-15T14:52:00Z")
Anybody read this yet? I’m about halfway through. It’s set on a world, a lot like Earth, where this monastic order of mathematicians preserve mathematical knowledge in spite of the chaos of the outside world. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/2 "2008-09-15T14:59:24Z")
I’m reading it right now. ---
**Author:** ![KnitWit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/3 "2008-09-15T15:12:37Z")
I’m leaving my desk at work to go ask a co-worker if I can borrow it. I’ll catch up with you guys later. Love Stephenson. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/4 "2008-09-15T15:24:22Z")
Stephenson has a new book out!? ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/5 "2008-09-15T15:33:31Z")
Working on it. Only about 100 pages or so in so far. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/6 "2008-09-15T15:48:34Z")
Came out last week to absolutely no fanfare, since I hadn’t heard about it either. [anathem](http://www.amazon.com/Anathem-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061474096/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221493542&sr=8-1) Neal is spelled wrong in the title, BTW. The Publishers Weekly review hits Neal squarely on the head: > [@](#): > > long stretches of dazzling entertainment occasionally interrupted by pages of numbing colloquy ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/7 "2008-09-15T15:53:20Z")
I’m going to be getting it this week. I’m a little apprehensive, the first twenty pages or so I read online are definitely his voice but there better be more action than page after page of charts and drawings. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ecks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/8 "2008-09-15T16:30:05Z")
I’m reading this on my kindle right now. It’s an interesting book, and has that Stevenson feel to it. Seems to lack his humor, though. Of course, I do have some problems with it. First, why does he say right out in the opening note that this is not earth, and the carrots, grapes, and such are not really carrots and grapes, but local equivilents he calls the same name to avoid undue confusion. Ok, fine- but then whenever a character uses a device, he gives it an exotic name, even when it’s clearly a device that exists here and we are completely familiar with. ex. speelycaster=videocamera, jeejaw=cellphone. It seems silly and doesn’t add much in the way of mood, considering that the world outside the “monastary” is obviously a crude parody/accurate reflection of our current society. Also, anyone get the impression that the novel is just a clever way to deliver a series of math lectures? ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/9 "2008-09-15T16:51:31Z")
I finished it this morning. I does have humor, but often it is delivered so dryly that unless you are in the know it doesn’t leap out, kind of like when Randy Waterhouse exclaimed that no one in his family had ever been in a position of power. Afer the Baroque Cycle, that was hilarious. Beast with two backs is delivered in the same way. I nearly dropped the book. I wasn’t bothered by the alternate names for extra devices; the device names would be fluccish and the vegetable names would be in Orth. I liked the math. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/10 "2008-09-15T21:13:49Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > Working on it. Only about 100 pages or so in so far. Only something like 1500 more to go, then, I suppose? 😛 I confess to having made it to the end of Cryptonomicon and then giving up on him. Does Anathem continue the whole Baroque Cycle universe, or is it a new direction? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/11 "2008-09-15T21:18:43Z")
It’s not set in the Baroque Cycle/Cryptonomicon universe. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/12 "2008-09-16T14:32:44Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ecks](#): > > Also, anyone get the impression that the novel is just a clever way to deliver a series of math lectures? You mean, as opposed to any other Stephenson book? ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/13 "2008-09-16T15:49:39Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > You mean, as opposed to any other Stephenson book? Yeah, pretty much my fear. I mean, I loved Zodiac and Snow Crash and pretty much enjoyed Cryptonomicon, but then it suddenly became long, LONG lectures about math. Lots and lots of math and economics. I felt he needed an editor who could say ‘no’ to him, and needed it badly. Still, if this gets good reviews and isn’t a series of math lectures, I’ll pick it up. I like his writing voice. It’s just his topics that bore me to tears. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/14 "2008-09-18T04:37:40Z")
The biggest math lectures in the book were pulled out of the main body and only told in full in the appendix. I enjoyed the whole thing. The one thing that felt odd was that it had a proper end which was quite satisfying to me. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/15 "2008-10-01T05:43:30Z")
I reread Cryptonomicon almost in its entirety each year and I’ve read the Baroque Cycle comepletely twice and portions of it several times. That said, todays’ [XKCD](http://xkcd.com/483/) pretty much sums up my thoughts on Anathem. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/16 "2008-10-01T13:27:41Z")
This is on my list, after I make it through the Baroque Cycle. I loved _Cryptonomicon_, and I loved parts of _Quicksilver_, but it bogged down in the middle, maybe because I didn’t like Eliza. I like Stephenson’s math lectures, but economics bores me. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/17 "2008-10-01T13:53:37Z")
I liked it, but I did not think it was as full of awesome as _Cryptonomicon_ or the Baroque Cycle. I’d rate it as a lesser work than _Snow Crash_ but better than _The Diamond Age_. In short, well worth reading and if written by another authour it would be a major find - but his recent stuff was, IMO, a hard act to follow. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/18 "2008-10-01T14:08:12Z")
Loved it. I Almost like it better than Cryptonomicon, i had to twist my brain like i havent twisted it in a lot of time to understand the topics and i loved loved loved that :). I think you can gain some IQ points only by reading it. The funny thing is that i think i disagree with Stephenson’s position, Fra Frodo would probably be a Procian (Symbols have no inherent semantic meaning) and not ah Protean. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/19 "2008-10-01T14:19:16Z")
> [@MikeG](#): > > I reread Cryptonomicon almost in its entirety each year and I’ve read the Baroque Cycle comepletely twice and portions of it several times. > > That said, todays’ [XKCD](http://xkcd.com/483/) pretty much sums up my thoughts on Anathem. Loved XKCD today. Too many of the books I read need to learn that lesson. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703/20 "2008-10-01T14:24:16Z")
I just finished Cryptonomicon about a month ago, and only recently found out there was a wider universe of these characters’ families in other stories. Can someone recommend a reading order? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anathem-by-neil-stephenson/463703.md?page=2)