An e-mail containing the most astounding news just surfaced in my inbox, still dripping wet from the great oceanic Interweb. Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., you know who he is, has a new novel out this September. It’s called Anathem. Below, lovingly hand-transcribed, is the catalog copy:
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.
I’m not sure what we’re supposed to get from this. Sounds like a post-apocalyptic scenario, maybe something along the lines of A Canticle for Liebowitz (which is also set post-apocalypse and also has monks in it)? Anyroad, Stephenson is going back to the future, and I’m very very excited.
(I thought I was first w/ this information, but I see Wikipedia has the pub date. Damn you, Wikipedia, you beautiful million-headed monster.)
