Anathem (P.S.)

by Neal Stephenson

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.

• ISBN10: 006147410X
• ISBN13: 9780061474101
• Publish Date: 25 August 2009 (first published 1 September 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 1008
• Language: English

Reviews

Simply amazing. Neal Stephenson reaffirms his status as my favorite author. I haven't read a better book this year (or maybe even last year).

[adamfortuna]

On an episode of the Think Relevance Podcast, a book was mentioned where monk chants were used to convey and solve mathematical problems. That was the first I’d heard of Neal Stephenson, and knew I had to check it out. The Anathem world is different from our own. It’s a world where scientists and mathematicians live in the equivalent of buddhist monasteries with limited access to the outside world — some only interacting with it every 100 years. The abundance of made up terminology takes some getting used to in this book, but it’s worth the ride.