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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."
I really enjoy his books. The strengths far outweigh the shortcomings for me. I usually feel smarter after reading his stuff, at least for a little while. He has a knack for weaving little interesting facts into his stories and that really appeals to me.
"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
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.
I've actually noticed how the people who are or at least consider themselves the 'intellectual elite', (And yes, this includes slashdotters, for the most part) tend to insulate themselves away from the more mundane world, even while sometimes bemoaning their own insulation.
I'd never thought of putting it into an actual story with a more structured actual separation.
Should be a good read. He can be rather better at predicting how people react to changes in technology rather than how most people think we'd react. (I.E. Relationship role changes and the way we interact fundamentally changed rather than just slightly bent.)
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.
For what it's worth, Quicksilver was easily the driest of the three--it really felt like a history textbook, and I honestly don't blame anyone who gave up on the series (and possibly the author) after trying to make their way through it. I know it took me two tries, and even then it was a struggle. He started picking up steam with the second book though, and the third was quite excellent.
Ack!
Agreed. I really *did* enjoy Quicksilver, with no reservations. But the following two were less dry and more engaging, even though the individual scenes became a bit more violent and disturbing. Scattered throughout all three volumes were various little nuggets of Stephenson humor -- not just the people struggling with concepts we would consider old-hat (in the modern sense of the term, not that prevalent as slang as recently as the 1940s!) -- but modern euphemisms. If I remember correctly, these became more common in the later two volumes.
Snow Crash vaulted into the "OK" category with the single line "after that it's just a chase scene". Everything else was rich, velvety, cholesterol-laden icing on the cake.
Yes, he's a self-indulgent geek. And damnit, I love that. So am I.
Reading his books, you can't help but feel that he's constantly nudging and winking at you, sharing the joke and deligt of writing as it were. I can see why some people would hate that, or not have the patience to wade through it, but I can't get enough of it.
In that, he reminds me of Roger Zelazny. Lately, though, I find Charles Stross to feel rather similar.
Would you like a slice of toast?
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 can only hope it doesn't include something like that planet-o-hippies, the Gaians.
The worst would be if he tried to tie the Baroque Cycle, the Cryptonomicon, and Snow Crash all together in this book, like Asimov did at the end of Foundation.
Pity that S.F. authors seem to go a little nuts when they get old.
Klingon programs don't timeshare, they battle for supremacy.
I don't get it. What makes this news? Some dude wrote a book. So what? It happens every day.
What am I missing? That's a genuine question.
He's Neal Stephenson. If you want an idea of why Slashdotters enjoy him, check out his (free to read) non-fiction piece In the Beginning was the Command Line.
And don't forget to read his highly entertaining Slashdot interview answers, especially number four.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
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.
Ok, genuine answer here.
I strongly recommend Cryptonimicon as a good start. It's a big novel with two storylines from different historical points converging to a single dramatic and climatic end, with a subtle blend of emotions, tensions and strong, believable obligations. Woven throughout is an intensely technical drama concerning the power of cryptography and the people who had a life and death effect on the world around them because of their knowledge. Possibly the best insight into the ancestors of computing in the WWII era. Hugely scientific, well-drawn characters, mathematical, and a truly gripping read. Dangerously engaging in the way that only a truly great novel can affect your sleep cycles. This book, good sir or madam, is for the geek, and a new novel from him is profoundly Stuff That Matters.
I will be hanging out for the new book, and he's got at least one guaranteed customer.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Gah, what awful stuff. It was like drinking urine
Hush, don't give Neal any ideas for even more revolting sex/romance scenes.
That's the one thing about his novels, the sex/romance scenes will make a normal person want to toss their cookies, or maybe contemplate joining an order with chastity vows. A list of gems and highlights might include sex orgy with pivot gangbang girl reduced to ashes and eaten to get result of computation, or description of guy deprived of sex or masturbation so long everything from his knees to his nipples becomes (in protagonist's mind) a giant sex organ and then he finally relieves himself when his virgin girlfriend impales herself onto his pole with a single extremely painful leap and he immediately ejaculates "a Canadian imperial gallon" (sic) into her, or the King of France getting his hemorrhoids cut off sans anaesthetic while a woman feigns moaning in orgasm so those outside won't know the king is having surgery, or where a guy with syphilis and a half-burned off penis gets his load blown with the kind help of a sympathetic women who wraps bung around her finger and jabs him in the prostate via the anus (at least we can be spared Neal's idea of foreplay).
I could go on about Stephenson sex/romance but I think the point has been made. Stephenson sex is pain. My apologies to those of you of a more sensitive nature who read this and don't have your therapist on speed-dial.