Anathem by Neal Stephenson - B-

Yesterday, I finally finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson, our first Daniel Suarez Virtual Book Club Selection. I know of no one else reading the first VBC selection as the one person who was reading it put it down about 120 pages in. We'll try again in a couple of months with this so-far failed experiment.

I had to look through my recommendation system to arrive at a B- for this book. I couldn't give it anything in the A range because it's science fiction, and a recommendation in the A range necessarily means that "if you're a reader, you should enjoy."  As I told my mother, who is a huge reader, yesterday--"you'd hate it."  And she would.  She hates science fiction, and the whole premise of this particular novel would turn her off.  Since I can't not recommend this excellent, dense, thought-provoking book, anything below a B- would be inappropriate.

Why a B- and not a B or B+? Only because this novel is work. You're not going to start and finish this book effortlesslessly, and I didn't want to imply that the novel was for everyone who likes science fiction. Ergo, B-.

I call this a "you get out of it what you put into it" novel. You cannot read Anathem solely for the story (which is a good one). There are countless themes here. I could have spent three times as long as I did reading this novel and still missed a bunch. I could have taken notes. I could have had my trusty highlighter on me at all times (though given that I borrowed the book from the library--as always, with apologies to the publisher and author--the highlighting thing would have been particularly bad form).

I did have two bookmarks for this book. One for my place in the book and one for the first page of the glossary at the back. You're going to need that glossary at times.

Anyway, here's a general synopsis (those of you who have read Anathem know why providing a synopsis is particularly difficult here), and feel free to jump to the New York Times review if you want more background.

One of our few blog readers, Josh, who was responsible for the recommendation that I read Anathem, commented on Anathem earlier on the blog, and I couldn't have said it better myself (so I'll let him say it):

"Anathem can be read on two levels: as a SciFi story set on an alternate world, or as a brilliant metaphor for the history of philosophy (from the Greeks to modern times). But if you read it for the former, which by itself is a good story though plot and character development isn't what you read Stephenson for, you can't help but pick up on most of the points of the latter because the book is so rich."

Again, you get out of Anathem what you put into it, and starting the novel is making a big commitment on your part--a big time commitment and a big brainpower commitment.  If you want a light, quick or effortless read, this isn't the book for you.  If you want to be challenged and tested, I highly recommend Anathem.  I finished it last night, and my head still hurts.

Superfreakonomics is next, and I expect to complete it by the weekend.  I know some of you out there are reading it or have read it.

RIF.