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Neal Stephenson Returns with "Anathem"
Lev Grossman writes to tell us that Neal Stephenson, author of greats like Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, has another novel due for release in September. The catalogue copy gives us a small glimpse at what may be in store: "Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians--sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable 'saecular' world that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides that only these cloistered scholars have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his cohorts are summoned forth without warning into the Unknown."
"Hilarity ensues as the naive monks wander into an Orange County mall and are adopted by a gaggle of teenage girls."
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Plus, it's usually up to the reader to provide the last chapter or so. Weave away, reader. It's a brilliant way to write books, because each one ends up being lovingly tailored to the individual reader's mindset.
I think it's possible that Neal himself has been sealed in a Monastary for 3,400 years, actually. I don't know how else he could have written the Baroque Cycle, along with the works mentioned, and still have had time to come up for air and produce something new, too. Looking forward to it. Are you watching, George Martin? See? Wriiiite... publish!
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
That book was great the first time I read it, when it was called A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Keep in mind this is a guy who, in one novel, actually named the hero and protagonist "Hiro Protagonist".
Christ on a kitten huffing bender, man, what are you on about? I can't even figure out whether you are right-loony, left-loony, libertarian-loony, or just an Ayn Rand fetishist based on this post. How you managed to read ANY of that into this preview of Stephenson's new book, I'll never know.
;)
Look, this is the Internets, you have to be more specific in your insults and more obvious in your humor.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I was reading "The Baroque Cycle" for so long that when I finished it, there was a noticeable vacuum in my life. I struggled to remember a time when I *wasn't* reading "The Baroque Cycle" and searched in vain for something as dense, interesting and clever to fill my newly idle hours. I hope I speak for many others besides myself when I express hope that the new books compare favorably in both mass and density (and thus volume) to the old.
"Pity that S.F. authors seem to go a little nuts when they get old."
It isn't a pity, it is the way of things. A young S.F. can obscure the fact that he is, in fact, nuts by his creativity. The problem with age, is that it tends to bring less creativity and thus unable to hide that which was always there.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Oh, sorry. I guess I need some sort of Venn diagram.
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
Ha exactly. I was going to ask if this one actually had an ending.
After Diamond Age and Cryptinomican, I half expect any book I read by Stephenson to end in mid-sente
I'm particularly fond of the fact that his male protagonists are generally depicted in close, lifelong friendships with other men, that women tend to play little roles in their lives, but by Jeebus they're not gay. I haven't seen such repression since Batman and Robin sank so far into the closet, they could see Narnia.
not funny!