Recently, I read Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. It was an alternate-universe, science fiction book that was just unbelievable. How unbelievable? Well, I read a book in a few hours if it’s a print novel and devour an audiobook a week. Generally, if I love a book, I’ll read everything I can in that series, by that author, or in the “if you like this…” list until I overload on the genre, cannot find anything else in that series, or become seriously disappointed. After this book, I had to leave science fiction, and even fantasy, and go to listen to a substantial story that’s completely and totally different.
Anathem is a third-person story from the viewpoint of Fraa Erasmus, a scientific “avout” in a world where the mathematicians and scientists are cloistered away from the public with contact with each other and outsiders at intervals of varying levels, in powers of 10 years – 1 year (the Unarian order), 10 years (the Decenarians), 100 years (Centenarians), and 1000 years (Millenarians). At first, it seemed as though this world had no religion and that science was their religion (the monks were called avout, their most-beloved were called savants, or more familiarly saunts or just St., etc.), but that was not true. There are deioleters (misspelled, unfortunately, because I read the audiobook edition), who have various arcs (factions) and may only share the fact that they believe in one or more gods. Interestingly, there are also the Ita, who are among a society whose name’s derivation has been lost to time (although it was generally believed the first two letters stand for “information” and “technology”) and who care for and improve upon the new technologies amongst the masses while still keeping it accessible (e.g., the motor, which could have been further improved upon to run for a human lifetime without issue, but would be beyond repairable by 98% of non-cloistered non-Ita). The avout have been locked away for a number of reasons, the strongest being:
- they won’t be sullied by non-rationally-based lines or reasoning or uses of technological short-cuts,
- their learning can be focused from an extremely young age, and
- their faith in the scientific method and the ways of their consent can control what they do and what they have access to, and they therefore won’t be a threat to the rest of the world (technology is now so very sophisticated that few people can understand what can be created or done).
This concept would be enough to capture my interest and hold it for 8 hours to read the first section. Now throw these sheltered folk into the outside world and add a outside-threat-with-a-quantum-physics-basis plot line. Awesome. It held my interest for the additional 24 hours of audiobook. I won’t add any other spoilers. It was a really fun, fascinating read for both the anthropologist/sociologist and the scientist in me, as well as the story-lover.
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
How did I find this book? Well, first I read Quicksilver, the first portion of volume 1 of Neal Stephenson’s “Baroque Cycle.” It is set in the late 1600s, following the perspective of the intelligent, but fictional, Daniel Waterhouse as his life crosses alongside the daily lives, scientific theories, and failed experiments of the Royal Society, including the soon-to-become-Sir Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, and so many more.
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Book One), by Neal Stephenson
It was fascinating to read about the scientific Renaissance, but I was not held by the storyline and the audiobook went on for so long (or seemed to – it was less than half the length of Anathem). In addition, I didn’t feel like there was a “next book” in that timeline. The next book in the Cycle was set in a completely different world and less math-and-science-based, and the book that sparked the Baroque Cycle, The Cryptonomicon, is set centuries ahead, in WWII. So although it’s in my iPod, I haven’t gotten to book two, King of the Vagabonds, yet. Maybe if the two pieces of the first Volume in the cycle had been together, I might have been held. But I’m not sure.
I should note that I highly recommend Quicksilver as a novel of historical fiction that may appeal to science-minded folk, and The Cryptonomicon, although I have not yet read it, was awarded all kinds of awards and praise and is on my Sci-Fi Must-Read list.
There is a great deal of detail on Neal Stephenson’s site about Anathem (including portions of their dictionary), the Baroque cycle, and The Cryptonomicon, if you would like to learn more before buying. However, if you check out the reviews in Amazon, you may learn too much about Anathem (although not necessarily too much about the rest).
