Anathem

[markjbaldwin]

A bit of "The Glass Bead Game" in the avout notion.

[PraxisAxis]

2 or more camera angles: Good for TV drama, action packed movie scenes etc. Not so much necessary for Neal Stephenson interview!!! :-)

[KingMP21]

I'm almost half way through the book, it took a couple hundred pages for me to really get into it, but now I'm enjoying it alot. This has to be the most intelligent writer ever.

[Zaning]

I wish there were concents irl...

[GrantOnTheRocks]

A line of dialog somewhere between pages 300 and 400: "Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor." THAT was the second I realized I hadn't been so absorbed in a book since I was a freshman in high school. And I'm almost 30 now.

[skell121]

@GrantOnTheRocks

Ditto on that line smacking you in the face and making you realize how awesome this book is

[aorellana]

Um... as much as I admire NS avatar is a Hindu concept, not a word invented by NS. He applies it for the first time, in the way we do, in a cyberspace setting, if you will. Claiming he invented the word avatar would be like claiming he invented the word reincarnation.

[aorellana]

@AzoriaEilan You're reading out of context because the original comment I replied to is no longer here, I replied to a poster that wrote something to the effect that NS had invented the word "avatar". Cheers.

[Wintermute888]

Neal Stephenson looks the way I imagine Fraa Jad...but dressed like a saecular.

[xanderthegreatt]

@Wintermute888 nah, he's too young... maybe one of the Valers

[luarionte]

@Wintermute888

It's funny that you've mention it because i've always imagined Neal Stephenson not as Jad but as Sammann!

His photo in his Quicksilver book (where he has long hair and beard) fits Sammann's description almost perfectly!

Also I would always consider Stephenson to be more related to an Ita! :)

[darwingodwin]

you rock SAUNT Neal!

[darwingodwin]

you ROCK fraa Neal...

[4v8sk30gpq]

That's SAUNT Neal to you.

[canislupusnova]

It was excellent in every way. The world he created felt very much alive and lived in. Instead of just using the time line to provide a somewhat cool backdrop he takes that history and liberally rubs it all over the book. There are about 100 different glimpses of other stories that would make a good book all by itself. The statue of the guy with the Sniper Rifle fending off an invading horde during one of the sacks just being a single example of this. I very much loved the book. As good as Dune!

[UniversalMonad]

I can't agree with you more. This book really means a lot to me.

[gnorville]

I love Stephenson's books, it seems like he puts so much research into them.

[georgiantriangle]

I just briefly perused the wikipedia synopsis of the novel. I almosy wonder of there's a critique of the church as sequestered dogmatic intellectualism vs. application in its works. I'm sure there are many levels of analogy and allegory ; and with its own language you can be sure there are going to be challenges to the failures and successes and mischief of words and labels reminiscent of 1984.

[UnconcernedCitizen]

What a cool, original concept

[Orochimaru1592]

Spaaaaaaam comments

[UnconcernedCitizen]

Pardon me, but do you have the time?

[D4Shawn]

Coolest dude EVAR!