(urth) OT: Anathem

[brunians at brunians.org]

I hope not: 'Snow Crash' wasn't that bad.

I have no idea if Brooks is good or bad apart from Shannara: the one
Shannara book I read traumatized me so badly that I am unlikely to risk
exposure to another of his books.



.


> Let's be fair... is Stephenson really capable of something along the
> lines of the Shannara series?
>
> (In Terry Brooks' defense, his "Running with the Demon" series was
> pretty good.  Once he stepped away from epic fantasy he's not a
> terrible writer.)
>
> Lane
>
> On Sep 15, 2008, at 8:56 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:
>
>> It looks like Stephenson has done a 'Sword Of Shannara' on TBOTNS.
>>
>> What a maroon!
>>
>>
>>
>> .
>>
>>
>>
>>> is it really totally OK to write a fantasy book about a future
>>> version of
>>> our planet and call it "Orth"?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Matthew Groves
>>> <matthewalangroves at gmail.com
>>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Mostly I agree with Dirda; however I think I like it considerably
>>>> better
>>>> than he does.  I admire and approve of Stephenson's project.  I
>>>> suspect
>>>> Stephenson really was thinking about the Harry Potter crowd when he
>>>> wrote
>>>> this -- some of whom would be approaching the age of the
>>>> protagonist,
>>>> Fraa
>>>> Erasmus, and his friends.  I may be reading too much into the
>>>> novel, but
>>>> I
>>>> am convinced that Stephenson was presenting his science-and-math
>>>> monastery
>>>> (the Mynster) is a counterpoint to the Hogwarts "school for
>>>> wizards,"
>>>> replacing the realm of wish-fulfillment fantasy with the realm of
>>>> abstract
>>>> theories and ideas.  (The novel seems to be geared toward a just-
>>>> post-YA
>>>> age
>>>> group who were thrilled by the steadily increasing page counts of
>>>> the
>>>> Harry
>>>> Potter sequels and thus won't be scared off by this 900+ page
>>>> monster.)
>>>> Stephenson is trying to uplift the Harry Potter crowd with a taste
>>>> of
>>>> philosophy and science, and offering some positive alternatives
>>>> to the consumer-driven, intellectually barren,
>>>> fundamentalism-spawning culture they've grown up in.
>>>>
>>>> Unfortunately, he's going to lose many of those Harry Potter
>>>> readers (as
>>>> he
>>>> nearly lost me), most likely between pp. 12 and 23, in a long
>>>> description of
>>>> the Mynster that far outlasts any curiosity you may have developed
>>>> about
>>>> the
>>>> place by this point.  It was while slogging through these pages
>>>> that I
>>>> kept
>>>> thinking about how Wolfe introduces us to Severian's world and
>>>> implies
>>>> all
>>>> sorts of fantastic things about it without interrupting the story to
>>>> take us
>>>> on a walking tour of the citadel and the Matachin Tower, pointing
>>>> out
>>>> details left and right.  But that's just the kind of thing
>>>> Stephenson
>>>> does
>>>> at several points in *Anathem*, and whereas Wolfe's details are
>>>> integral
>>>> to the story, Stephenson's are mostly just flavor.
>>>>
>>>> But once I forgave Stephenson for not transcending popular fiction
>>>> with
>>>> a
>>>> new *Book of the New Sun*, I started to enjoy *Anathem*.  I have
>>>> more to
>>>> say about the book, but I'm curious about others' reactions to
>>>> Anathem.
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Matthew Keeley <
>>>> matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Anyone read Michael Dirda's review of Anathem in The Washington
>>>>> Post?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402460.html
>>>>>
>>>>> Dirda compares Anathem with The Book of the New Sun, which he
>>>>> says is
>>>>> much
>>>>> superior.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Matt
>>>>>
>>>>
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