Apr. 1st, 2009

Anathem

Apr. 1st, 2009 12:40 am
lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
Anathem Anathem by Neal Stephenson


My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
Okay, so I think this is what you get if you take a slim young adult book about a bunch of extremely geeky teenagers who end up saving the world, and grow it up into a 900 page doorstop about quantum mechanical polycosmic theory, but keep the sense of humor exactly the same.



Yeah, that was pretty fun, if long and a bit wandery. Monks in space! Volcanoes! And it's all pleasantly alternate reality in an unsubtle 'holding up a mirror' way that was shockingly not annoying.



Yeah, the resolution is a bit of a let-down – I called the climax a few hundred pages out, for one thing. And for another, I like my quantum mechanical skiffy to actually boggle me intellectually, rather than mildly bemuse, but what can you do.




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