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 Anathem
by Neal Stephenson
Anathem, the latest
invention by the New York Times bestselling author of
Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent
creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination
that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely
inverted—world.
Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the
Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians,
scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting
influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone,
honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries,
cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs
violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and
devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have
always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out
of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology
and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the
Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long
ago.
Now, in celebration of the week-long,
once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to
venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them
wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert
as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the
landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected."
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.
Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the
peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of
the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of
saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his
colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the
safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster.
Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas
finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the
future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey
that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners
of the planet . . . and beyond.
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