A review by jammasterjamie
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

5.0

Ooh, that was fun! Anathem starts off a little slowly with all of the necessary world-building, but the pace steadily accelerates throughout to the point where putting the book down as it approaches its climax isn't even an option. There is a lot of math and philosophy in this book, but spooned out in a palatable way that makes it accessible, and the conversations around them are so well-written that you don't even mind taking the break from the action for an info-dump, especially because you know that what Stephenson is telling you will come back to into play later - He writes long books, but he doesn't waste a lot of words. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and as soon as I finished I went back and re-read the beginning just to get an appreciation for how far I'd travelled and how well set-up the whole story was. I'll be reading this one again relatively soon.