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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9797695" data-attributes="member: 7035894">Finished Anathem. It's a singular novel that takes huge swings, I found kinda boring to read, and yet interesting to think about.About 3/4 of the way through this seriously epic novel a new character is introduced who is literally named Jules Verne, after the author, which really helped me crystalize my thoughts on Anathem. I mentioned earlier that it felt like a throwback novel, in terms of narrative style. That was obviously what Stephenson was going for, and more specifically inspired by the pioneering sci-fi author.The thing with Jules Verne novels is that they are super talky. They have these really cool, high concept plot hooks, but most of the novel is about 10% plot and 90% exposition. Like, re-read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: it is pages and pages of Nemo explaining stuff, punctuated by occasional flashes of excitement when a bit of plot happens. That is Anathem, except at ten times the scale.The world-building is almost Tolkien-esque, and an impressive feat in its own right as it constantly weaves in the history of the alternate Earth that is the main setting. The "science" aspect of this sci-fi novel is a sort of mash-up of Platonic Idealism, Cartesian Rationalism and quantum mumbo jumbo; as in most Stephenson novels you don't want to look too closely at the details...except this is a novel that dwells endlessly on them. So for me that often made it tedious, kind of like if Star Wars was 90% people talking about how The Force works rather than just hand-waving the nonsense and getting to the action. So that makes this novel more like the prequels than the original trilogy, if you want to stretch that analogy.So, yeah. Ambitious, unique, occasionally riveting and often stupefyingly dull...it's one of a kind. I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't recommend it to most readers.</blockquote>

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