i09:
“We’ve heard rumors about Neal “Snowcrash” Stephenson’s new novel, but nothing more concrete than that it would be called Anathem
and it would be a space opera about math and aliens. That would mark a
real departure for the novelist, who has dealt only with human
histories and futures in his previous works like The Diamond Age, Snowcrash, and Cryptonomicon. Now Lev Grossman, Time magazine’s nerd correspondent, has more details about the plot of Anathem.
Grossman says he’s received a notice from the publisher with this catalog copy about the book:
Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a
3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and
mathematicians—sealed off from the illiterate, irrational,
unpredictable “saecular” world that is plagued by recurring cycles of
booms and busts, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a
higher power, driven by fear, decides that only these cloistered
scholars have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one
by one, Raz and his cohorts are summoned forth without warning into the
Unknown.
A little bit Ender’s Game, a little bit Name of the Rose? You know, that is sort of the perfect combination for Stephenson. But where are the aliens? And the space opera?”
The Return of Stephenson [Nerdworld]
[...] Possible plot? [...]