Anathema (Neal Stephenson)

Neal Stephenson is one of the most prestigious writers in the field of science fiction.

In my opinion, along with Robert J Sawyer , of which we speak when we write about the novel Flashforward, Orson Scott Card, creator of the Ender Saga and Dan Simmons, form the "Poker Aces" of the genre and have been regulars nominees and winners of the most prestigious awards-Hugo, Locus and Nebula-in science fiction in recent years.

My experience with science fiction novels started with Cryptonomicon, which is the best-known work of Stephenson. This book I was curious in the genre, and from there I met the other three writers. In total I estimate I will have read in the last ten years between 35 and 40 of them novels, most in-house NOVA.

One of the posts, but will have to be a series, I have planned is about science fiction and these authors, but that's for another day. Today we will talk about the novel's title post.

Before situaros a little about Stephenson. This worked tremendously writes novels, but are always quite "tochas". In fact, the original version Cryptonomicon is a book of about 1000 pages, was published here in three parts, editorial issues. Its original then the Baroque Cycle, are originally three novels, published here in 8 parts.

This gives us an idea of ​​the dimension that often have their jobs. However Anathema has published a whole, occupying some 700 pages, but with a letter rather small, and dominance of the narrative of dialogue.

Despite what I like the author I must admit that is a dense novel that has cost me to "take" and I've had months without progress, probably because it is the most suitable for reading at night, and requiring to be something "cool" to follow.

History is a novel that could be defined by saying: put in a shaker "Name of the Rose", add a bit of the wild-style "Mad Max", a bit of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", along with notions of mathematics and philosophy, shake it all, and that we allow to stand Anathema. Taste calm and unhurried ...

Though a bit exaggerated that's the idea. The first thing that surprised us the title. An anathema is, according to the SAR , an excommunication, a curse or divine condemnation. However, the book has at its center, far from religion, but would have added to the above recipe.

In an abstract something more serious than the recipe, this would be about, and without "spoilers", the story line.

On the planet Arbre, after a series of revolts that nearly caused their extinction, learning focuses on the "avotos" living imprisoned in monasteries, but entirely devoid of religious character. These avotos devote their lives to study and live in isolation from the rest of the world, interacting only with the rest of the world every ten years, which open their doors to see the relationship in the world and share knowledge with other monasteries.

Our protagonist, fra Erasmas, is one such avotos, which is about to experience his first start of doors (Apert) since he entered the monastery, which means you must choose the order to which she will spend the rest of his life (which are basically divided between pure scholars, watchmen, or people closer to practice). However, all this is altered with facts about his teacher, who seems to have made a discovery that puts uncomfortable "Secular Power," which would be equivalent to the government on the planet.

His quiet life will be altered, because this discovery will involve extraordinary call of all outstanding avotos to propose solutions to this discovery, which may involve contact with an alien civilization, which are unknown intentions.

Continue entering the details you could remove grace to whoever read the book. Just say that your life will not be so easy and it will face at some point, the outside world more than I had imagined. Then, play a decisive role along with most of their FRAs and SURS (the way of referring to women in the monasteries) in the resolution of the story.

The story is not easy to follow, Stephenson is an author with a unique style, very descriptive, which is complicated when the world is imaginary, since it requires extra effort to follow the story. His sentences are long, even in moments of dialogue, and in this case does not help the amount of vocabulary "invented" despite having a vocabulary at the end of the book.

I, like most of his works, I'm out enjoying Anathema, although I admit that probably is not the book for the discovery of the author. To recommend that the Cryptonomicon, which is set in the late 90's and World War II, making it easier to follow.

Moreover, the "billet" is anathema to the book does not best placed to carry.