Review Tuesday: Anathem by Neal Stephenson

 

 

Anathem

by Neal Stephenson

A planet has first contact with aliens.

A friend who has given me some really fun books in the past gifted ANATHEM earlier this year. her remark was I think you'll find this interesting. She's never steered me wrong before, so, I'm in!

On a planet in another cosmos the population is separated into two main groups: super smart monks with no use for any Gods, and dullard breeders who believe in God. I immediately groaned when I caught that vibe because people who think they are too clever for "sky daddy" are annoying idiots who think way too highly of themselves. Couple that with those annoying people you know who require an hour philosophical discussion on ANY topic brought up, and that's the rest of the book.

The actual FIRST CONTACT part was pretty fun and interesting and how the planet's governments and religions attempts to deal with it while, seemingly, lying to the population about it. However, there just wasn't enough of it. It took forever to get around to it, and even when all the interactions go down, there is little to no explanation for cause and effect.

To me, this was a book with a lot of filler and very little meat. It's way too long. It's very dull. Most of the characters are really annoying. It was a tedious job to soldier on through this thing. This was my daily sleeping pill. I would go to bed, flip on my Kindle, and within a few paragraphs my brain was bored into deep sleep. I think I am not annoyed because I pushed off a bunch of books I really wanted to read instead of this snooze-fest, but since I am no quitter I just kept this one going. Be warned! This monotonous tome does not have a pay off worth your investment of time to read. Steer clear.