Anathem by Neal Stephenson Book Review: Bloody Maths

Anathem by Neal Stephenson is the kind of brilliant book that nevertheless frustrates the reader constantly by being so utterly unapproachable. As a big fan of Stephenson’s, I gave this book a lot more chances than I might have had I not been familiar with the author’s work. It wanders from opaque to engage then back to off-putting before wandering back into page-turning territory like a drunken mathematician spouting obscure formulas between anecdotes about his sexual exploits in Delta Phi Delta.

Boiled down to its purest essence, Anathem is the story of a first contact situation with extra-dimensional aliens by a group of not-quite ascetic monks whose devotion is to mathematics instead of religion on a parallel world that might have been Earth except for various divergences in history. While it sounds simple, the author takes over 200 pages just to give us the first glimpse of that plot. He moves along at an incredibly slow pace, obsessing over small details while fleshing out the parameters of the world in exhaustive detail. This is an extremely dense work, full of words the author made up himself. It takes at least 200 pages just to get a grip on the language through his copious sidenote definitions and context. The author’s clear love of mathematics and meta-philosophy is evident, though it devolves into over-written self-indulgence at too many points in the story.

All that said, I enjoyed Anathem greatly. Yes, it’s a chore to get through at times, and I had to stop reading the appendices at the end of the book that were nothing more than narrative solutions of mathematical word problems. Stephenson has often been criticized for poor endings (The Diamond Age in particular was an abrupt, frustrating ending) but I felt the ending of this one actually worked and wrapped up the narrative neatly. If you can manage to make it through the first twenty or so pages without wanting to throw the paperback across the room, keep at this. It will reward you for your dedication.

I give Anathem 4 out of 5 stars.

August 7, 2012 at 9:12 pm | Books | No comment

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