When I saw this book at the local library, I snapped it up and then was pretty stressed out I wouldn’t be able to finish it in the four weeks I had lent it. It’s around 900 pages and I’ve read Stephenson before.
Turns out it wasn’t so hard (being sick at home helped). The book is a much easier read than the Baroque Cycle, almost juvenile in its themes and plot.
Anathem is set in an alternative world where the scientists are sequestered in huge monastery-like structures called maths. They are forbidden contact with the outside Seculaer world for one, ten, 100 or 1,000 years, depending on the math. Basically, every smart person ill-at-ease with the outside world (which is a parody of modern America, without culture or science) has the possibility to withdraw to a world of community, self-sufficiency, and pure thought.
Our hero, Erasmas, is a typical guy in these stories. Not too smart, trouble with girls, problems with authority etc. Things happen outside, he and his friends must venture forth to solve the mystery and save the world, yadda yadda.
Stephenson is an entertaining writer, if less so here than in his other books. The ideas in it are inspired by the Long Now Foundation and the interesting problem of how to preserve knowledge for millennia. The central plot point is nice SF too with a lot of giant space engineering involved.
If you’re not put off by huge books, I can recommend this whole-heartedly.