or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
33 used & new from £4.80
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Anathem
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Anathem (Hardcover)

by Neal Stephenson (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
RRP: £18.99
Price: £11.36 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £7.63 (40%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 24? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
20 new from £7.93 11 used from £4.80 2 collectible from £44.99
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 19 used & new from £9.06
Paperback £9.99 £5.46 27 used & new from £5.09
Mass Market Paperback (Reprint) 10 used & new from £2.46
Audio CD (Audiobook) £48.82 £49.09 16 used & new from £17.94

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Anathem + Cryptonomicon
Price For Both: £18.32

Show availability and delivery details

  • 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

  • Cryptonomicon 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

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Cobweb

Cobweb

by Neal Stephenson
4.2 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.96
Spook Country

Spook Country

by William Gibson
3.5 out of 5 stars (33)  £6.79
Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon

by Neal Stephenson
4.2 out of 5 stars (85)  £6.96
The Temporal Void (Void Trilogy 2)

The Temporal Void (Void Trilogy 2)

by Peter F Hamilton
4.3 out of 5 stars (30)  £4.49
The System of the World: Volume III of the baroque cycle

The System of the World: Volume III of the baroque cycle

by Neal Stephenson
4.7 out of 5 stars (16)  £6.96
› Explore similar items

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 x 7.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 33,848 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

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

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

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.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(20)
(14)
(6)
(3)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 12 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Anathem
86% buy the item featured on this page:
Anathem 3.9 out of 5 stars (51)
£11.36
Cryptonomicon
4% buy
Cryptonomicon 4.2 out of 5 stars (85)
£6.96
Snow Crash
4% buy
Snow Crash 4.2 out of 5 stars (51)
£6.96
Unseen Academicals
3% buy
Unseen Academicals 4.5 out of 5 stars (84)
£9.45
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

51 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (20)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (51 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
44 of 47 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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
35 of 38 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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
40 of 46 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.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Polycomsic Genius
Neal Stephenson's house-brick size novels are always constructed in meticulous detail, and 'Anathem' is no exception. Unfortunately, his painstaking (laborious? Read more
Published 3 days ago by Quicksilver

4.0 out of 5 stars Great imagination
Neal Stephenson seems to be interested in a great variety of topics and ideas, as can be seen in this latest book, which attempts to assimilate almost all of them. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Blackbeard

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute treaure of the intellect
There are very few books that would prompt me to write a review on here. This is one of them. This is an absolutely astounding book, easily the best book Stephenson has written,... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mr. B. M. Collier

1.0 out of 5 stars A difference of opinion
I'd better start this by being honest: I confess I only got as far as page 300. This is significant because it is the page that one of the professional reviewers of this book said... Read more
Published 16 days ago by Captain Scarlet

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably the most difficult book I have ever read
Now I must freely admit that I ordered this book without putting too much research into so I was mildly suprised when it turned up and it looked as if you could stun an elephant... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Russell G. Pottinger

4.0 out of 5 stars Long slow intro that repays the investment
Those of you who read the Baroque cycle will be familiar with Stephenson's meticulous love of science. Read more
Published 1 month ago by WJ Davidson

1.0 out of 5 stars Bloated homage to Gormenghast
I have enjoyed some of his previous books but this was so dull I threw it in the bin. Last time I did that with a book was The Da Vinci Code. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Matteus

3.0 out of 5 stars Not really worth it
Just finished this one, after a long couple of weeks. First, the cons...

Anathem is certainly not a page turner, unless you don't mind skipping the drawn-out... Read more
Published 2 months ago by C. Akritidis

5.0 out of 5 stars Dear lord, what will the next book be about?
Stephenson defies pigeonholing again. Whatever you might have been expecting, whatever of his stuff you've read before, you just never get more of the same. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sulis

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent slow burner of a book...
Other reviewers say it all but just wanted to give this book my vote (5 stars). Slow to get going but then around page 200 you realise just how involved you have become and how... Read more
Published 3 months ago by SF

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Music cd? 2 October 2008
Publication Date 5 September 2008
› See all 2 discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.