Anathem, by Neal Stephenson


Bloody hell. What kind of idiot takes a 900 page book on holiday with him? Well, me. To be fair, I had thought that I would finish it before I went away, but got distracted by the Gaiman proof, and I really wanted to complete this before starting something else. Still, a chunky thing, and I suspect the size alone will put off some people. Alright, I know the Baroque Cycle was three pretty hefty books, and this is a done-in-one deal, but still. Anyway, I like Stephenson (although I've never read the Baroque books, which is pretty poor of me), and when I got properly going on this one - which did take me a while - I found that I couldn't imagine leaving it behind, I was enjoying it so much. The size and subject may well put people off, but once the book gets going it really is very very good. There is an argument that it could do with a bit of an edit, and there is certainly some stuff that could be taken away without distressing the structure too overtly, but that doesn't really feel like the point. Immersing oneself in the world that Stephenson has built - and by God, has he built this world - requires a willingness to accept the seemingly irrelevant details along with the vital, and I believe that trimming would have led to the novel losing some of it's raison d'etre.

However, I also believe - and I'm going to get upset about this - that the pre-story frippery in this book (the acknowledgements, note to reader and so on) are dreadful, and hugely off-putting. The first line in the former, for example, is "Anathem is best read in somewhat of the same spirit as John L. Casti's 'The Cambridge Quintet'". Is it? Is it really? Well now I feel like an idiot, and I'm pretty well read. I've never heard of Casti. Alright, that's entirely my problem, but still... A bit later on, we get "recipients of this Advanced Readers' Edition might like to know, if it's not already obvious to them, that the ideas..." and so on. Of course it isn't obvious to me yet, this is the first page of proper text in the whole book! Yeah, OK, maybe the acknowledgements will go in the back in the finished copy, but that whole piece really made me wonder if I wanted to read the book ahead. It wasn't helped by the 'Note to the Reader', which basically says 'if you don't read SF, here's some useful information - how to pronounce words, and a utterly incomprehensible timeline for the planet we're on'. Hooray, that'll convince the non-SF reader to carry on...

I'm being a bit unfair, but really, I think the whole opening section of the book-as-physical-object - basically, before the novel itself actually starts - is incredibly off-putting. Which is a shame, because the first two or three hundred pages of the book itself don't do much better. They're interesting, certainly, and well-written, and there are flashes of plot, but they do meander a lot. I never felt that it wasn't worth reading - it was quite clear that a lot of this stuff was important background to the world of Arbre, our setting - but I did begin to wonder when anything was actually going to happen. I wouldn't have really minded a few hundred pages of messing around with a bunch of sort-of-monks, discussing philosophical problems and learning about the almost-Earth they live on, but it was quite clear that there was something going on in the background, and the wait for the main plot to kick in became, at times, a little exasperating. And just when it seemed as if this was it, this was the moment of beginning, back we'd go...

Once we do get started, though - and get out of the Concent, the pseudo-monastery - the book doesn't leave behind the philosophical and scientific musings and sidesteps that Stephenson so obviously enjoys. To be honest, it does at times feel as if he's come up with his overarching plot purely so that he can cover all of the theories and methods that he wants to. That doesn't mean that it isn't a strong plot, though - as we slowly begin to get an idea of the bigger picture, and as our focus pulls out from one Concent and a handful of young avout, it becomes clear that the sequence of events is going to end up with some planet-wide (and further) events end effects. Part of the fun is in trying to predict what is actually going on, and the fact that our main protagonist, Ras, is as uncertain as ourselves allows Stephenson to play with the reader. Multiple possible solutions are offered, and there is little indication as to which one may be correct. And as soon as one 'problem' is solved, another one looms up behind it, and we're left with an enjoyable but often confusing whirl of facts, half-recognisable versions of Earth people and beliefs, and a frequently exciting through-plot.

That may sound a little like faint praise, but I did enjoy the book and the fact is, Stephenson is a very good writer. He can juggle complex explanations and debates with the odd action sequence, some very funny slapstick 'business' and an explanation for everything that is going on that still makes my head hurt a little, although it made sense within the confines of the book. Our main character is a very enjoyable person to spend nine hundred pages with, although occasionally I did want to give him a good shake, and some of the cameo and bit-part characters are deeply memorable. Equally, there can be no doubt that huge amounts of effort have gone into the creation of this world. The initial feeling of disorientation does persist for a while, as many things are very like the earth equivalents, but there is no doubt that by the end, my picture of Arbre (or at least the bits we've seen) was coherent and surprisingly detailed. I'm very very sure that this book won't be for everyone - it is a hard read at times, and the better bits (for me at least) came about five hundred pages in, by which time some might have given up - but if you're prepared to put the effort in, if you're prepared to think about what you're reading, and if you're not put off by SF, this is probably well worth a go. If you'll take my advice, though - don't take it to the beach.

I read a proof, and the Hardback is published next week, ISBN: 9781843549154.