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Anathem (Hardcover)

by Neal Stephenson (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
RRP: £18.99
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  • This item: Anathem by Neal Stephenson

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 800 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Books (1 Sep 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1843549158
  • ISBN-13: 978-1843549154
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.8 x 7.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,063 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #3 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > S > Stephenson, Neal

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Product Description

Product Description
Here is another brilliantly original novel from the cult author of "Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon".Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians. There, he and his cohorts are sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable "saecular" world, an endless landscape of casinos and megastores that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, dark ages and renaissances, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides it is only these cloistered scholars who have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his friends, mentors, and teachers are summoned forth without warning into the unknown.

About the Author
Neal Stephenson is the author of eight novels, including the cult successes Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon. he has been shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award five times, winning with Quicksilver. Three of his last four novels have been New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Seattle.
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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews
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3 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Rewarding reading if you persevere with it, 12 Oct 2008
By wedge (Scotland) - See all my reviews
Anathem was a complete surprise to me. I had deliberately avoided reading anything about the book before I bought it, willing to trust the author to come up with another excellent novel comparable to Snow Crash, The Diamond Age or Cryptonomicon.

After reading the first 50 or 60 pages, I was wondering if I'd wasted my money. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. The many invented words peppered throughout the text didn't help either - you can immediately decipher many of them from context they're used in, but it is annoying to do it as often as Anathem requires.

However, I kept going, and by the time I'd gotten through the first 100 pages or so I found myself quite enjoying it. After another couple of hundred pages I was reluctant to put it down, and eventually ended up reading the last third of the book in a single session.

What I would say is that once you become familiar with the dialect used by the characters and get past the relatively slow opening chapters, Anathem becomes a far more engaging and interesting book. Sci-fi action sequences are interspersed with frequent philosophical or metaphysical discussions between various characters, which may of course not be to the liking of every reader, but I found it both interesting and entertaining.

Now that I've finished the book I am planning to wait a few weeks and then read it again, as I suspect that reading the opening chapters will be a far better experience the second time around.
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, 23 Sep 2008
I got the same feeling reading Anathem that I got reading Cryptonomicon - that is, after reading 100 pages, I was thrilled that there were 800 more. It's a ripping yarn peppered with mathematical, mechanical, and linguistic nuggets. There's a little odd vocabulary, but it doesn't take long to get used to, and it's fun to look up terms in the glossary, which is interesting in itself. If you are daunted by the fact that there's a glossary and few appendices, then don't bother. This isn't a book to be idly flicked through. But that's not to say it's difficult or tedious; it's driven by an intricate and enthralling plot, and I found myself completely immersed. Stephenson is a freak of a writer, and this book is wholly impressive.
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36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars I'm not sure, 29 Sep 2008
Stephenson is probably my favourite author so I waited with bated breath for his latest, Anathem, and have just finished reading it for the first time.

The story is set on a fictional world which is divided in basically 'doers' and 'thinkers'. An event occurs which upsets the whole stability of this world.

It is not as accessible as his other titles, using as it does a fictional language to describe many ordinary things and does not rattle along like many of his other books. There is a large amount of philosophical discussion which can be rather dense, particularly when using the made-up language. I've also a feeling that you'll learn a lot about orbital mechanics while reading it. However, by the end of it, I think I understand what he was talking about. It's also a book you have to sit down and read - not one for reading on the train to work. There is also not as much overt humour as in his previous books.

That said, I am just about to start reading it again and I think it will make a lot more sense this time round (one of the things I like about his books is you can read them again and again and you'll always find things you hadn't noticed or understood previously). The rating may well change then.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing but ulitimately disappointing
If you order this, as I did, expecting a standard paperback, you are in for a shock when the postman rings and hands you a book the size of two bricks. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Mr. Nigel JB McFarlane

5.0 out of 5 stars Despite the slow opening it is NS's best work to date
I am a huge NS fan and the Cryptonomicon & Boroque Cycle are among the best things I have ever read, his ability to mix science and philosophy with the fiction so naturally... Read more
Published 20 days ago by M. Kiss-Toth

5.0 out of 5 stars Should you read it? It depends...
If you haven't read other Neal Stephenson books, whether you like this or not will depend on your definition of good sci-fi. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Bounce

4.0 out of 5 stars anathem in the wild west
I had no idea what to expect, and when this vast tome landed on my desk my heart sank; however, this is three books in one; it is a good old fashioned good guys/bad guys yarn... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Charles MacKinnon

4.0 out of 5 stars Learn How to Cut a Cake Equally
If you're the kind of person that had difficulty with your math and physics classes, or if you were prone to fall asleep during philosophy class, this book is probably not for... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Patrick Shepherd

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Spectacular
This one book is worth more than the entire cultural output of the planet over the last 30 or so years. Read more
Published 2 months ago by John-Paul May

3.0 out of 5 stars Admirable world building though heavy going
This is a large book and can become over-bearing at times when characters speak extensively about physics and geometry. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Tubby

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth persevering with
It's an odd one, this book, as the many previous reviews will attest.

A lot seems to have been made about the author's use of a made-up language and how 'difficult'... Read more
Published 2 months ago by P. Fox

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting... for a while.
Anathem's main issue is that it seems an exercise in world-building, and pedagogical lecturing on subjects that interest the author. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Karim Rashad

4.0 out of 5 stars Anathem: a new direction for the cyberpunks
It seems like the historical authors like Sansom and our own cherished Stephenson are finding common ground. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Steve Perry

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