Comments on: Reading Recommendation: Anathem (Neal Stephenson)

By: brenda

brenda — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:22:54 +0000

Well, yes, it was rather a sweet love story. Very low key but very real. It also really felt a love affair with knowledge, and yet a reach beyond what we see as science today today. Fraa Jad was a fabulous character.

By: brenda

brenda — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:21:17 +0000

I tried on the Baroque Cycle. I really did. I’ve read everything else he’s written. But I couldn’t finish those books. I don’t know why – I could tell they were good. Maybe because it’s hard for me to find whole days to do nothing but read any more.

By: Rick York

Rick York — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:39:54 +0000

“Anathem” is a stunning work of art.

In fact, if you look at Stephenson’s total work, you are working through a most astonishing intellectual journey. I know that it’s huge but, if you make the time, the Baroque Trilogy may be one of the most complete intellectual histories of the period in which our western civilization was created.

By: C.E. Grayson

C.E. Grayson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:59:29 +0000

Had the exact same experience. The beginning was a bit of a slog, but then, when I’d been in the world enough that it starts to make sense (for me, this was bout the time of Apert), I was so absorbed in it that I couldn’t put it down and I finished it in, I think, about four days.

I also liked the love story, and found it nicely low-key and realistic, but very touching. That might be because I married someone very much like Ala.