Neal Stephenson's new book gets it right!

Other readers of Neal Stephenson, enigmatic cyberpunk-turned-historical writer have probably suffered the same frustration as I: trying to adjust as a favorite writer of action-packed wired science fiction began to turn out book after book of dense historical fiction.

His Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) consisted of three doorstopper sized tomes that weighed in at over 1,000 pages each, and tried the stamina of even the most persistent reader. Anyone who longed for the razor sharp drama of Snow Crash or The Diamond Age was sorely dissapointed, although the Baroque Cycle's characters did manage to breathe life into otherwise dry history.

His newest novel, Anathem, while still approaching the thousand page mark, is anything but dull. Once I started this one, I spent every spare moment for the next week (I don't have a lot of spare moments) eagerly devouring the enigmatic work. I can honestly say I have never encountered anything quite like it. The aura and feel of history is there, combined with the strange flavor of an alternate world. Set on the planet of Arbre, the book deals with a young man named Erasmus, who is an avout. This means that he is a member of a math, which in his world is a mirror equivalent of a monastary. On Arbre, however, those who are cloistered are the scholars. these scholars' discipline is not the study of religion, but pure theory. They are forbidden from using praxis, or technology, and instead spend their time formulating theorics and forgoing the theories' applications.

Difficult as it might be, I could explain enough of the story that you would understand what this book is about, but I will not. If you want a spoiler, go to Wickipedia. I prefer to let you know that the voyage to discovery of the truths in this book is a truly interesting and mysterious journey, and I urge you to find room in your bookbag or backpack and spend a week or so engrossed in this fine and indefinable tale!