Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" Due In September

Alexander Rose writes "Neal Stephenson's new novel, ANATHEM, germinated in 01999 when Danny Hillis asked him and several other contributors to sketch out their ideas of what the Millennium Clock might look like. Stephenson tossed off a quick sketch and promptly forgot about it. Five years later however, when he was between projects, the idea came back to him, and he began to explore the possibility of building a novel around it. ANATHEM is the result, and will be released on September 9th, 02008." Read Rose's complete posting for more information about the release of the book, which he describes as set "in a genre bending alt-future-retro world where mechani-punk technology meets space opera in a blend of the best of Snow Crash and the Baroque Cycle."

Comments

Temporal sickness?

[Anonymous Coward]

01999

02008

Can I have some of whatever your smokin'?

Re:Temporal sickness?

[larry bagina]

He's smoking pole. If you want some, just go to the men's room and tap your foot 3 times.

Re:Temporal sickness?

[4D6963]

No, it makes perfect sense, the guy is just a visionary.

Currently we only think of 4 digit years, but the guy thinks out the box and has foreseen that one day, sooner or later, probably in a few millenniums, we will have 5 digit years, and that then just like we already put a bunch of zeros for years before the year 1000 we will one day put zeros for years before the year 10000!

And allow me to blow your mind by predicting that one day we will reach 100000 and that therefore we might as well start right now writing it 002008!

Re:Temporal sickness?

[maniac/dev/null]

For that matter, shouldn't it be September 09, 02008? I mean, there will come a time when we need to use days higher than 9, people!

Re:Temporal sickness?

[4D6963]

For that matter, shouldn't it be 0September 09, 02008?

There, fixed it for you!

Re:Temporal sickness?

[dryueh]

WHOOOOOSH! Oh shit, and there we go again! Now I'm going to have to explain a dozen times again how I was being sarcastic.

000012 times??!

Re:Temporal sickness?

[Anonymous Coward]

I see you're one of slashdot's many elitists. I'm sorry we don't get your 'humor'.

Re:Temporal sickness?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you always feel this neurotic need to control what other people talk about? You must be lots of fun at parties. "No, I wasn't talking about The Hobbit, I was talking about The Lord of the Rings! Stop introducing your own thoughts and respond only to mine! You can make a joke, but only if it's a direct continuation of mine and makes exactly the same point (whatever it was)!"

Re:01999? 02008?

[4D6963]

No, obviously since it starts with a zero it's in octal. Mmmmh.. except for some reason calc.exe doesn't like 8s and 9s when I try to punch these as octal numbers...

Re:Urgh...

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't like Snow Crash? Get the fuck out of here. Your Slashdot license has been revoked.

Re:Waiting for a review of the ending

[maxume]

Just pencil in "and they all lived happily ever after". Problem solved.

Re:The only question that really matters

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know - he'll probably just

0what 0is 0with 0the 0zeroes 0?

[wardk]

prefixing a zero onto the date is GENIUS!

and so very very cool.

when will mySQL start storing dates in MMDDYYYYY format?

or is it more properly 0MMDDYYYY?

I want my iPhone to display years this way, because it's sooooooo cool

Re:0what 0is 0with 0the 0zeroes 0?

[Mountaineer1024]

I'd be happy if the damn thing displayed dates as YYYYMMDD, because then I don't have to bother trying to figure out if it's in US (MMDD) or the rest of the world (DDMM) style.

You guys keep going with your inches, pounds and gallons bit though, I get a laugh whenever an expensive toy smashes into another planet.

Re:0what 0is 0with 0the 0zeroes 0?

[Anonymous Coward]

You guys keep going with your inches, pounds and gallons bit though, I get a laugh whenever an expensive toy smashes into another planet.

A native got a video of the explosion on his cell phone. You can watch it at www.youtube.mars

Search "Dumb Earthlings". It's the third entry down.

Re:01999? 02008?

[smitty97]

its the Y10K bug

Re:GAH

[gad_zuki!]

Sounds like steampunk Star Wars except that Han blasts Pennywise and Sex Pistols in the cockpit and occasionally makes out with Chewbacca. Not for the kiddies.

Geez

[Quiet_Desperation]

in a genre bending alt-future-retro world where mechani-punk technology meets space opera in a blend of the best of Snow Crash and the Baroque Cycle."

Wow. I'm already bored.

Edited for clarity and asshattery

[Rob T Firefly]

...which he describes as set "in a [...] world"

There, that's better.

Re:01999? 02008?

[famebait]

Don't worry. It's just an in-joke for those who read _and_ understood the summary.

Re:The only question that really matters

[Quiet_Desperation]

Will he write an ending for it, or will it just sort of stop in mid-page?

Wait... Neal didn't write the final episode of The Sopranos, did he?

No, no... he wrote the secret alternate final episode where Tony sets up a data haven in East Orange, New Jersey in order to get at the Civil War gold hidden by steam powered robots that fled Sicily in 1860. He puts his son in charge, but A.J. whines like a bitch until even his own sister, Meadow, finally has enough and whacks him herself. And then there's a four hour monologue by the ghost of Big Pussy.

Hey, I read his last one...

[Illbay]

..."ATALAS SHRUGGED." It was very good, but not quite on par with his first novel, "THE FOUNTAINAHEAD."

Re:The only question that really matters

[operagost]

Nah, it was just fucking postmodern. That's one of the rules of postmodern writing: Don't resolve anything.

Absolutely. You know, I've always thought of becoming a postmodern writer myself. The one thing that I have discovered, is that