Anathem
Cover of the hardcover first edition, featuring an analemma behind the author's name
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| Author | Neal Stephenson |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | William Morrow and Company |
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Publication date
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2008-09-09 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 937 |
| Awards | Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2009) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardback) 0-06-147410-X (mass market paperback) |
| OCLC | 191930336 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3569.T3868 A53 2008 |
Anathem is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major themes include the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the philosophical debate between Platonic realism and nominalism.
Anathem is set on and around the fictional planet Arbre. Thousands of years before the events in the novel, the planet's intellectuals entered concents (monastic communities) to protect their activities from the collapse of society. The avout – intellectuals separated from Sæcular society – retain extremely limited access to tools and are banned from possessing or operating most advanced technology and are supervised by the Inquisition, which answers to the outside world. The avout are allowed to communicate with people outside the walls of the concent only once every year, decade, century, or millennium, depending on the particular vows they have taken.
The narrator and protagonist, Fraa Erasmas, is an avout at the Concent of Saunt Edhar. His primary teacher, Orolo, discovers that an alien spacecraft is orbiting Arbre – a fact that the Sæcular Power attempts to cover up. Orolo secretly observes the alien ship with a video camera, technology that is prohibited for the avout. Erasmas becomes aware of the content of Orolo's research after Orolo is banished (in a rite called Anathem) for his possession and use of proscribed technology within the concent. But the presence of the alien ship soon becomes an open secret among many of the avout at St. Edhar. The alien ship eventually declares its presence by shining a light upon the Millenarian Math of Saunt Edhar, the bastion of those avout who have taken a thousand-year vow not to interact with the outside world. The Sæcular Power calls forth many avout from Saunt Edhar, including Erasmas, along with one Millenarian – Fraa Jad.
Erasmas and several companions, including Fraa Jad, decide to seek out Orolo. After a dangerous journey over the planet's frozen pole, Erasmas and his comrades eventually arrive at a concent-like establishment called Orithena, and reunite with Fraa Orolo. Orolo holds discussions with Erasmas about the nature of the cosmos and consciousness, and how he believes that the aliens are not simply from another planet, but from another cosmos that is influenced by Arbre. During the discussions between Orolo and Erasmas, a small spacecraft lands on Orithena. A female alien is on board, but dead of a recent gunshot wound. She brings with her four vials of blood – presumably that of the aliens – and much evidence about their technology. Shortly thereafter, the aliens propel a massive metal rod at a nearby volcano, triggering an eruption that destroys Orithena. Orolo sacrifices his life to ensure the safety of the dead alien's remains, an event that leads to his canonization as Saunt Orolo.
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