
Anathem
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Narrated by:
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Oliver Wyman
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Tavia Gilbert
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William Dufris
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Neal Stephenson
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By:
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Neal Stephenson
About this listen
Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals.
Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet always the avout have managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. Erasmus, however, has no fear of the outside - the Extramuros - for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.
Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fras and suurs prepare to venture outside the concent's gates - opening them wide at the same time to welcome the curious "extras" in.
During his first Apert as a fra, Erasmus eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected". But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the perilous brink of cataclysmic change.
Powerful unforeseen forces threaten the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros - a threat that only an unsteady alliance of Saecular and avout can oppose - as, one by one, Raz's colleagues, teachers, and friends are all called forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster.
Suddenly burdened with a worlds-shattering responsibility, Erasmus finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of everything - as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of an unfamiliar planet...and far beyond.
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Story? Classic. Narrator? Ugh.
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The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
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A comment on negative reviews
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List of stories from
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They create a computer using a 30 million man Army
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In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself.
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I’m sorry I waited so long to read this book.
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Story
When a foreign exchange student is found murdered at an Iowa University, Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks finds that his investigation extends far beyond the small college townall the way to the Middle East. Shady events at the school reveal that a powerful department is using federal grant money for highly dubious research. And what its producing is a very nasty bug.
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Et tu, Neal?
- By Richard on 06-16-11
By: Neal Stephenson, and others
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Zodiac
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Sangamon Taylor's a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil - all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places. Before long, Taylor's house is bombed, his every move followed, he's adopted by reservation Indians, moves onto the FBI's most wanted list, makes up with his girlfriend, and plays a starring role in the near-assassination of a presidential candidate.
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kinda meh
- By L P SCHUTT JR on 05-14-20
By: Neal Stephenson
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Interface
- By: Neal Stephenson, J. Frederick George
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 25 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In this now-classic thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a shocking tale with an all-too plausible premise. There's no way William A. Cozzano can lose the upcoming presidential election. He's a likable midwestern governor with one insidious advantage - an advantage provided by a shadowy group of backers.
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Interface
- By Dianne on 08-14-10
By: Neal Stephenson, and others
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The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson, Nicole Galland
- Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard, Shelley Atkinson, Laural Merlington, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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From best-selling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world.
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Exceptional voice cast, unconventional format
- By Jesse on 07-03-17
By: Neal Stephenson, and others
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The Big U
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times Book Review called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious". But if you want to know Stephenson was doing 20 years before he wrote the epic Cryptonomicon, it's back-to-school time. Back to The Big U, that is, a hilarious send-up of American college life starring 30-year-old junior Casimir Radon.
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Bad first novel by great writer
- By clint on 01-03-21
By: Neal Stephenson
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Blindsight
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold. After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.
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Gothic Horror Hard Science Fiction
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-24-15
By: Peter Watts
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Sinner
- A Prequel to the Mongoliad
- By: Mark Teppo
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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A severed head and a cry of “Witchcraft!” start a frenzied witch hunt in a sleepy German village. When her dead husband’s severed head appears on her doorstep, a local woman is charged with practicing heretical rituals. It is up to the knights to discover the truth behind the brutal murder before the torches are lit and the woman is burned at the stake. Their task proves daunting, though, as the townspeople have their own long-buried secrets and sins that they want to keep hidden - even if it means allowing the sacrifice of an innocent woman.
By: Mark Teppo
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Worlds of Exile and Illusion
- Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume—Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Three remarkable journeys into the stars: Worlds of Exile and Illusion includes Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions. These three spacefaring adventures mark the beginning of grand master Ursula K. Le Guin’s remarkable career. Set in the same universe as Le Guin’s groundbreaking classics The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these first three books of the celebrated Hainish series follow travelers of many worlds and civilizations in the depths of space.
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Well and Beautifully Told
- By K.E.H. on 04-07-25
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Some Remarks
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels - works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, pop culture, and philosophy, his books are the products of a keen and adventurous intellect. Stephenson ponders a wealth of subjects, from movies and politics to David Foster Wallace and the Midwestern American College Town; and more.
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Worth a revisit
- By Duncan on 08-09-12
By: Neal Stephenson
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Diaspora
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Behold the orphan. Born into a world that is not a world. A digital being grown from a mind seed, a genderless cybernetic citizen in a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the Solar System into one scape, from the outer planets to the fiery surface of the Sun. Since the Introdus in the 21st century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software.
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Fabulous Story, Disappointing Performance
- By Ben on 12-08-13
By: Greg Egan
What listeners say about Anathem
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- No_name
- 08-28-18
bad reading
talking about great emotional resonance, that inspires, in a dead pan boring voice that sounds like a 1995 Microsoft sam text to speech.
other than the start, its an interesting book
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- unknovvnMike
- 11-28-19
Philosophy means love of Knowledge
While the theorics can get heavy, it's worth multiple readings to get the nuances. I would recommend at least two.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- J.W.
- 10-12-08
Wonderful.
In many ways Stephenson's writing seems to have gotten even better since the days of Snow Crash and Diamond Age (not to say it wasn't good then). The characters in Anathem are more three dimensional and the dialog more natural. Also, although the book bleeds erudition and is filled with abstraction, it doesn't have that annoying characteristic often found in sci-fi in which breakneck action is clumsily broken by digressions into "ideas" that the author is "playing with."
Stephenson does make extensive use of made-up words. The made-up terms represent real ideas, most (or all) of which we are familiar with, but you can't call a Platonic ideal a by that name on a different world that has no connection to Earth, can you? The novel deals with math, logic, science, and philosophy of science, and many important ideas have to be renamed for the story to work. Don't worry though, it is usually quite clear from the fictional name what Earth word is equivalent. For example:
Consent = convent or monestary
Cnois = gnosis or knowledge
Syntax = binary device or computer
Again, don't worry about the terminology and history at the beginning. Listen to the first 4 hours and you will realize that most new words are obvious from their root or synonyms, and proper names don't really matter. It's a large book and takes time to get going, but it's wonderful and one of Stephenson's best works (and one of the best books I've read on Audible in the last year or two.
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- Donna
- 08-26-13
Most engaging book in years.
What did you love best about Anathem?
This is a story which grows with each telling. I have listened to it probably 30 times now and each time something new is revealed. The story is fresh and the characters are interesting. Most of all, I love the language. I grew up with a brother who made up his own vocabulary and only he and my cousin could understand it. Although this has mainly normal english speech, the addition of off the wall words is a treat.
Any additional comments?
I have to be honest, I always preview the narrators before I consider a book for listening. This book has numerous, interesting characters and the narrator nails them. After while, I knew who was speaking just from the voice. This made the book even more enjoyable.
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- Erik
- 05-17-19
Has its moments
Like it’s been said, the beginning and intro is a bit hard to get into but eventually the story picks up and it’s a good one. I love some philosophical dialogue in a story but it goes overboard here on many occasions. This continues without and sometimes goes on for long sections that are very easy to get lost in. Particularly since there is language developed specifically for this book making it even more difficult to follow along at times. Overall a good story, held back by being great IMO
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- LA Parent
- 12-05-19
4*, long long long story
Some of the narration was too loud, but overall pleasing.
The story itself was too complicated to be well served by solely an audio version. Had to fandom search names of characters, places, etc. Definitely not a bed time audiobook for me.
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- Amyloo
- 11-12-14
I adore this book
What did you love best about Anathem?
What I like best: The world that Stephenson created; Erasmus and many of the other characters but especially him; the wild wide-ranging nature of the setting.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Anathem?
A small moment: Fra Jad insisting that the office supply store must have some comprehension of geometry.
Any additional comments?
I gave the performance only 4 stars because the section introducer annoyed me: She seemed to have to be trying to remember to enunciate, and pronounced concent conSENT.
Overall I truly adore the book and have pushed it on my son, who liked it too. I have listened to it many times, and will dip into it to listen to a favorite section, usually only to get caught up all over again and want to hear the whole thing.
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- Malcolm
- 11-03-08
Brilliant
A fascinating book extremely well read. I can always count on two or three enjoyable listens out of a Neal Stephenson book. I would buy Mr. Stephensons Grocery list if it were sold on Audible and read by these narrators.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-13-17
Get it!
Yes, it like most of Stephensons books, slow to start and full of strange terminology. But welll worth the listen.
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- t_j
- 03-05-17
Amazing depth!
What a book. There is greatness in the world! Amazing stuff Neil!!!!!! Keep up the good work. You r doing some really strong stuff!!
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