Details
Rent Anathem
Author:
Format: Quality Paperback, Unabridged-CD, Unabridged-MP3
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: Sep 2009
Genre: Fiction - General
Retail Price: $19.99
Pages: 1008
Synopsis
For ten years Fraa Erasmas, a young avout, has lived in a cloistered sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside world. But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change—and Erasmas will become a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world, as he follows his destiny to the most inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.
Anathem is the latest miraculous invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle—a work of astonishing scope, intelligence, and imagination.
Reviews
Weighing in at 28 disks, it is one of the longer audio books I've come across. At first, I was a bit disappointed, as I was expecting a darker more dystopian narrative when in fact the story is read in a more casual, bordering humorous tone by the narrator. The story takes on depth as the plot develops, however, eventually weaving deep philosophical concepts, religion, and quantum theory in the mix. The author does this obliquely by way of using concepts we'd know and renaming them something else. Give this book at least 4 or 5 disks worth of a listen before deciding to put it down or listen to the rest if you're expecting a 'hook', none is forthcoming right away. Some critics have said the book is a bit dull and plodding and far too grand in scope for the plot presented, but likely it was a critic with a typical MTV generation attention span, too busy on their gee-jaw's to really appreciate the depth of Mr. Stephenson's work...