Anathem (2008) By Neal Stephenson

If you are looking for lite reading, move on.  If you are looking for a book where every paragraph will challenge you, pick up Neal Stephenson's Anathem, and don't even think you will only need to devote a week's time to the book.  At 932 pages -- not counting the glossary and supplements, including geometric diagrams -- this book took me nearly 3 months to read.  Was it worth it?  Yes.

Stephenson is the master of what is known as "speculative fiction."  I had previously read and reviewed (November 2011) his book Snow Crash, and loved it, even though it was initially a tough read.  Compared to Anathem, Snow Crash is a children's bedtime story.

Speculative fiction "is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts." [Wikipedia]

Anathem is not Flash Gordon, or even Star Trek ... it's more like Sir Arthur Clarke on LSD.

In Anathem, a future Earth that is recovering from several millennia of warfare, has settled down into an arrangement whereby the smartest people on the planet are selected to live in academic monasteries called “Maths” where they can postulate to their hearts content.  But, there’s a catch:  they are, for all practical purposes, employees of the general population known as "the Saeculars.” The plot, with intrigue to spare, and grossly oversimplified by me, is this:  the Saeculars put the Maths to work at figuring out how to fight off an invading species from another universe/dimension.

The book has multiple layers of linguistics, multiple layers of scientific theories, competing schools of philosophy and numerous denominations of theology, all tied together by an action-story.  All in all, fun stuff.   And though I’m sure a re-read will have me discovering many things I have surely missed this first time around, I can’t imagine working up the energy required to read this book again, at least until the next Centennial Apert.