(urth) OT: Anathem

Mon Sep 15 21:25:02 PDT 2008

I've had other people say similar things to me, but I don't see it as all
*that* good. But then I don't really like either Pynchon or Gibson either.

.

> I haven't read the Baroque cycle be Stephenson, but "Snow Crash"
> continues to top my list of favorites.  It's like Thomas Pynchon and
> William Gibson had a baby.
>
> Terry Brooks writes terribly juvenile fiction, which is when I read
> the entire Shannara series (or at least, the series as it existed in
> the 1990s).  I picked up "Running with the Demon" and its sequels, and
> actually enjoyed them.  Brooks plays with more mature subject matter
> and breaks out of the Standard Epic Fantasy story mold, which is
> nice.  Though I hear with his latest books he is attempting to tie
> these books to the Shannara series, which has kind of ruined it for me.
>
> Lane
>
> On Sep 15, 2008, at 11:03 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:
>
>> 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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