“They look like rabbits, but if you call them smeerps, that makes it science fiction.” The Issue at Hand, James Blish.
On the one hand, Anathem is an amazing book filled with deep thoughts and a tightly crafted universe. On the other hand, it reads like Neal Stephenson sat down with a Mathematics History book and made up new names for all the great theories-and how hard would that be?
Anathem is a great book to listen to, leaving the problem of dozens of unfamiliar words to the Audiobook Reader. Neal does a good job of slowly introducing all of these words as needed by situations in the story, but there are still plenty of times when confusion is the word of the day. For the most part this is not a big deal, as it becomes kind of a game to figure out which theorem or rule or equation is being discussed using a different name.
Syntax aside, the story is a nice mix of Utopia and Post Apocalypse. Imagine a world where the Socratic Method was so popular that it sprouted monasteries in every city in the world and the study of philosophy and mathematics continued (mostly)uninterrupted for the past six thousand years or so-even as the outside world rises and falls and rises again. There were a few interruptions, but the sciences weren’t too restricted. In fact, the higher Mathematical Orders are doing science that pushes right past the Magic Barrier.
Anathem is a great book that makes me wish we had Maths of our own, places where unwanted children are dropped off to spend their lives winding clocks and studying the deeper questions of life, the universe, and everything. The story has to do with an alien invasion, but for the most part, it’s just an excuse to get our cloistered heroes out of their monastery. I much preferred the time spend inside the walls of The Math.
Anathem was a fun read in which I often laughed, occasionally cried, and spent a good deal of time wondering what the hell everyone was talking about. I didn’t like the ending, but the rest of the book was so good, it didn’t really matter.
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