I could write an entire post about how good a novella The Old Man and the Sea is, but the Pulitzer Prize committee has conveniently done that for me. Suffice to say that reading Hemingway is like living a lucid dream, as ideas leap off the page into your head. And they stay there, like ribs between your teeth after a barbecue. By writing plainly, and not making the reader jump through literary hoops and ladders, Hemingway lets his ideas speak for themselves. And there are plenty in its 127 pages worth remembering.

The titular character is one of my favorites from recent memory. He is a poor Cuban fisherman whose glory days seem to be long past, but he could be any one of us, especially those of us reeling from this difficult year. His spirit is remarkable. He is lonely (though he has the touching adoration of a young boy), he is old, and he is salao , having gone for more than two months without catching any fish, but none of that stops him from picking up his mast, stringing his bait, and in general facing each new day as an opportunity to change his luck.

Being an optimist myself, of course I find all of that beautiful. However even more appealing than the old man’s courage is his commitment to the moment. He draws spiritual energy from his dreams (the lions on the beach at dusk he saw as a youth), but he never lets nostalgia or wishful thinking hold him back, even during his epic struggle with a thousand-pound marlin in the middle of the Gulf Stream:

“You should have brought many things, he thought. But you did not bring them, old man. Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”

It’s a lesson all of us can do well to learn. How many times have we held ourselves back with thoughts of what might have been or what we could have done, instead of focusing on the present, which is the only time that really counts?

The ending is remarkably bittersweet. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t had the  pleasure of getting that far, but perhaps it (and the whole story) is best summed up by these words.

“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.“

Hope has many faces. There are those of us who dream of great things, but the fact of the matter is: most of us have to struggle even to get by. But if we keep up our efforts, even in the face of withering adversity, we have already won a first victory over failure.

Though I’m a very vocal Mac fan, my first computer was actually not a Mac. My parents, being the practical accountants they were, got a PC – an old Leading Edge XT clone. Nothing builds computer literacy faster than a three-year-old navigating the DOS command line, hoping to find the Reader Rabbit directory. But what I remember most about that dinosaur was the Multimate word processor. Say what you will about Microsoft Word – at least it lets you start typing something within seconds. Multimate had you go through a long series of menus – to specify the type of document, the author, where it should be saved on disk, printing options….my dad never did figure it out. Five years later, having the time and tenacity of an eight-year-old (and still no computer of my own), I soon deciphered it, and learned how to type my homework on it. Needless to say, my parents were shocked and amused with this early display of competence.

Of course, my classmates and my teacher gave me queer looks when they saw my 80’s-esque dot-matrix printouts, but nobody said a word. Money was tight for many in those days, and even basic computers weren’t as cheap as they are now. And besides that, most of my friends were more interested in Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis anyway.

I’ll start by saying that I absolutely love this device. It almost perfectly reproduces the experience of reading an ink-and-paper book, but there are quite a few “gotchas” that you should seriously think about before buying one for yourself.

What I Like

The Size – Though Kindle is far from the sexiest piece of electronica I’ve stuffed in my bag, consider how its size makes it immensely useful. A picture tells a thousand words, so I’ll let my Nikon do the talking:

The Kindle is a little wider and taller than a mass market paperback, but much less thick:

King Arthur vs. The Kindle

It’s much bigger than my iPhone, so it’s not exactly going to fit in my pocket:

Not exactly a pocket device...

But (and this is the important part), a Kindle full of e-books weighs much less than their print equivalents:

Which do you think is easier on your back?

Including a Thomas Pynchon book was a bit of an exaggeration, but still…

The Screen - Kindle’s screen is the closest an electronic device has come to reading an actual paper book. There’s no glare in direct sunlight, and no backlight to irritate your eyes. Of course, this means that you need proper lighting to read it, as if you were reading an ink-and-paper book. Time to bust out the old-fashioned book lights!

Wireless Kindle Store – This is a very big draw. You can browse the Amazon store on your Kindle and buy books directly from the device; they are sent over Sprint’s EV-DO wireless network. This means if you can get a cellular signal, you can browse the Kindle store. You can also buy books on your computer, and they will still be sent wirelessly. You don’t even need a computer to use it! Can you download a novel to keep you busy on your Passage to India? Yup! Can you start Wizard and Glass after traversing The Waste Lands? You bet.

Third-Party-Compatibility – Thankfully, Amazon included the ability to read books from sources other than its store. If you have a Palm Reader, Mobipocket, or .txt file, you can plug in your Kindle via USB and drop the files onto it like a flash drive. If your book is an unencrypted PDF, HTML, or Microsoft Word document, there’s a little more work involved. You can either e-mail it to your Kindle (via a special address) for conversion (at $.10 a pop), or you could e-mail it to a “free” conversion address, which will send you back a Kindle-compatible file you can manually copy.

This generally works well, though it tends to screw up funky PDF layouts. It’s also the single best reason to own the device.

If you’re familiar with Gutenberg.org, you’ll know that it has many classic (in the public domain) books available for free download. Imagine being able to take these classics with you, anywhere, for free! Think Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens….I’ve probably read more Gutenberg books than I have Amazon Kindle Books. Generous authors like Cory Doctorow also release their books via Creative Commons licenses that allow free download. A good deal in this sucky economy.

The Dictionary – This might seem a minor feature, but anytime you’re reading on the Kindle, you can pull up the built-in dictionary to look up a word. Just like your mother told you when you were little. Believe me, when navigating James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, this came in handy many times (apparently a last name of “Brady” is no guarantee of Irishness).

The Battery Life - My biggest beef with most mobile devices is the battery life. My iPhone lasts only a day under moderate usage. My laptop can barely push 2 hours. The Kindle can push 2 days, with the wireless radio on, or a week with it off. This is significantly less than the advertised time, but still pretty darned good. This is partly because the Kindle’s screen only draws power when it’s being refreshed.

What I Don’t Like

The Interface – Try not to laugh when you first use the design. The interface was obviously designed by engineers – that’s not a compliment. It consists of a two-way clickable scroll wheel to move the cursor around the screen, pull up menus, and make selections. It’s like something I would have designed to get a C on my Senior Thesis. I’m not asking for an expensive touch screen or voice recognition, but have they even used a Blackberry?

It’s fully functional once you figure it out, it’s just…extremely inelegant. To an Apple-loving yuppie like myself, that’s a grave oversight.

Device Price – This thing cost me more than my Playstation 3, my Wii, both my iPhones, my monitor…I do think they could have created a non-wireless version at a steep discount, since I’m always near the computer, but what can I say? I’m a a sucker for new technology.

Content Price – Kindle books are released around the same time as their hardcover cousins, and usually cost $9.99 for the most popular ones. Classics are around $2, though as I said before, you can get them from Gutenberg.org for free. I understand the publishers need to make money, but seriously? $10? Does it cost that much to upload a file to my computer? The only real reason to pay this much for books is so that you don’t clutter up your house. See the above photo again.

The Screen – It’s easy to read, but it’s monochrome, and the resolution’s not that high. It’s perfect for reading text, but pictures tend to get butchered in the Kindle e-books. It was for this reason that I decided to buy a print edition of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book – how could I miss Dave McKean’s exciting illustrations?

Refresh Speed – It takes about a second for the Kindle to advance in the book. Depending on how large you set the text, you might advance the book several times before moving on to the next “page”. It’s fine for leisurely reading, but absolutely sucks for flipping through a book at lightning speed. The Kindle e-books support hyperlinks, and there’s a system-wide search feature, but this is a serious shortcoming.

Fixed Layout – The iPhone browser rocked the world by rendering a full website, and letting you zoom into your favorite parts. Not so here. All the content is formatted for the Kindle’s fixed width layout (about the dimensions of a paperback book), making it entirely unsuitable for reading books where preserving the printed layout is important (like graphic novels and highly illustrated textbooks).

What I Use It For

Pulp Novels - Books that I only intend to read once, that haven’t really earned a spot on my (severely limited) shelf.

Travel Reading – When you have to go streaking through Airport Security, it’s easier to pack a single Kindle instead of a couple of books. Not to mention if you get bored, you can always download more from the Kindle store.

Guilty Pleasures – Books like the Kama Sutra and Tropic of Cancer have serious literary and culture merit, but try telling that to nosy co-workers. Not to mention that the Kindle is what allowed me to read the Twilight series incognito. Ah, the power of technology!

That leaves me buying print books only if it’s a collectible (any Tolkien book), heavily illustrated, or something I want to flip through again and again. The Amazon Kindle is a huge step in the right direction for electronic publishing, and I can’t wait to see what Amazon will do for the next version.

If you answered “alien invasion” or “nuclear detonation”, you’re only half correct. The almost primal joy a fireworks display can bring is quite fascinating; it’s as if Disney, knowing our innate need to feel part of something greater than ourselves, has mastered the power of taking us back to the time when we sat on our father’s shoulders, looking heavenwards and realizing that God is somewhere out there.

But I digress. Today’s piece is about recording these displays in a way which reminds you of how spectacular they were.

I like this image. Nothing too spectacular going on technically (1/500 sec shutter at f/11, using my “nifty fifty” lens), but like most good photography, it was all a matter of decent timing – the flare of the torch, the brilliant descent of spent fireworks, and the smoke dissipating in the wind. It fills my head with grandiose notions – the Olympics, the gift of Prometheus, reading an Ayn Rand book…

The only problem is that, for the most part, it’s a static image. The real beauty of a fireworks display lies in the motion of light, as the brilliant rockets ascend, break apart, explode, and fall into the lake. You might think this would be impossible to capture in still photography, but you might be surprised what happens if we get a little creative.

Those of the Pastafarian creed might recognize their lord and savior! The key to conveying motion in still photography is your shutter speed. Most of the time, we only care about making sure it’s high enough (1/60 sec- 1/250 or more, depending on your lens) to freeze the action and avoid camera shake, but what happens if we deliberately choose a slower speed (1/30 or longer)? The dynamic subject leaves trails in the exposure that give the eye a sense of its motion.

Of course, keeping the shutter open longer means that you will have to decrease your aperture (often to f/8, f/11, or f/16) to avoid overexposing the photograph. Or you can use your camera’s “Shutter Priority” mode (often marked with an “S” on the command dial) to have this automatically handled for you. The next time you’re at a fireworks show, try this on your point-and-shoot or SLR camera:

1. Zoom out as far as you can (point-and-shoot), or use a wide-angle lens. (on your SLR)
2. If you’re using an SLR, manually focus to infinity (it’s clearly marked on your lens).
3. Switch to shutter priority mode, and choose a slow shutter speed, like 1 second.
4. When the fireworks are launched, trigger the shutter just before the explosion. Keep shooting as the fireworks fade; you never quite know what you’ll get.
5. Check your shots – if they’re too “messy” (light messily sprayed all over the exposure), try decreasing your shutter speed (to 1/2 sec or less) . If they’re too “static” (your shot looks “frozen” in time), try increasing it (2 seconds or more). Remember, the slower the shutter, the more motion you will capture.

To make things easier, you could lug a tripod or Gorillapod with you, but I prefer to hand-hold my shots. Not only can I move the camera a bit faster, but the added camera shake can make for some interesting effects. Note that if you want to include static subjects like buildings in your picture, you WILL need to use a tripod, or everything will look like a blurry mess (don’t even think your IS or VR lenses can save you!). All these shots were taken at Disney World, during the Epcot “Illuminations” or the Magic Kingdom “Wishes Spectacular” show:

A spongy-sea creature?

A distant nebula?

Who needs Rorschach ink blots when we have funky fireworks! Show them to your friends, and show them how crazy they really are!

“When something is lost, something greater is returned.” I suppose when the great wordsmith Terry Pratchett wrote this, he was telling us to look for the good in the calamity of our life. However, if you’re as disorganized I am, that saying takes a whole new meaning.

Namely, that when you’re scouring your room for something (like an old PSP game), you find something much cooler instead (a $25 gift card). It had no obvious expiration date, and I was suffering a major case of cabin fever, having barely left the house since the end of October. You can guess what comes next.

That’s right – Toys R’ Us, Times Square, two days before Christmas. I am a certified madman.

One might compare the scene there to the evacuation of Dunkirk – a tense order barely imposed on the entropy of evacuating shoppers, most of which are tired, hungry, and seriously regretting their procrastination;  a sense of inevitability as you confront the giant evacuation checkout line that wraps several times around the department floor. There are children, nieces, nephews, and grandkids to surprise this Thursday, and so, economic crisis or not, it is a ritual they endure. Browsing for the best way to blow your $25 requires an ironclad will.

Ah, Christmas in New York. There is that tree in Rockefeller Center, Santa in Herald Square, and lights, banners, and wreaths on every street corner, but there’s even more, if you know where to look.

• It’s waiting on that checkout line, watching with amusement as mommy restrains Junior from picking up every single game in sight.
• It’s staring at the billboards in Times Square for a whiff of news – two wars, a sinking economy, and a Madoff associate who took his own life for fear of being forced to live like the rest of us.
• It’s ducking into the withering cold, carrying half your body weight in oversized shopping bags, pushing your way through the crowds like blood cells in a coronary patient’s heart.
• It’s riding downtown to Union Square, smiling at the booths selling various esoterica – from baby Buddhas to “Baby Seals for Obama” Tees.
• It’s lounging at a table at Starbucks, nursing a $6 latte in a red snowflake-labeled cup, waiting for your friends as the soles of your feet recover.
• It’s knowing that the area will never see such a burst of activity again – until it comes time to return all that swag.
• It’s meeting friends for dinner. “What’re you up to these days?” “Oh, I’m…in between jobs”. In between. Because the only meaningful definition of life is what happens to pay the bills at the moment.

But it’s all a tradition we’ll gladly cling to – holidays are a sort of anchor in the lives of many. Because even if we don’t know whether we’ll have a job tomorrow, we’ll always have Christmas. Here’s looking at you, kid.

There have been only two books I’ve managed to read cover-to-cover in the span of a single day. Grace, by Richard Paul Evans, is the second, having devoured my entire Saturday. It’s a Christmas tale, yes, but not one that will leave you feeling warm inside; about an America past, where dark secrets were buried under a veneer of stilted optimism.

This beautifully-written coming-of-age tale is narrated with a mix of nostalgia and regret by Eric, an aged man recalling his first autumn as a teenager in Salt Lake City. His account begins with the usual childhood exploits – exploring the neighborhood, working a crummy job, struggling to fit in at school – but his world is completely changed the night he finds a girl foraging in a dumpster for food. The girl, who calls herself Grace, says that she’s run away “for kicks”, but Eric, a kind-hearted boy, is too worried about her safety to worry about whether or not she’s telling the truth. He and his brother Joel invite her to their “clubhouse”, where their paralytic father and hard working mother are usually too busy with their own problems to notice.

As you might imagine, watching their relationship evolve is where the joy of this novel lies. At first, the boys treat her as a kind of pet, coming up with some clever schemes to keep her warm and fed, and hidden from the prying eyes of the adults around them. But a funny thing happens between boys and girls who spend a lot of time together, and as the dynamic between the lovably awkward Eric and the preternaturally wise Grace changes, all three have to face a plethora of obstacles -  jealousy, Eric’s low self-esteem, and wanted posters of Grace appearing all over town; not to mention the raging Cold War (”The possibility of a nuclear holocaust was just something we carried around in the back of our minds, like an overdue library book”, writes Eric), and their mutual sense of impending doom, as their secret becomes harder and harder to hide.

The ending is simply devastating, for readers and the characters alike. Evans clearly remembers what it’s like to be as a teenager, as he absolutely nails his the depictions of Eric’s contradictory feelings in its wake, including the moment he realizes he has crossed the threshold into adulthood. I finished it at 1 AM, and had trouble sleeping the rest of the evening; even late Sunday night, I found myself in tears, as memories reimmersed me in thoughts of young love and Grace’s dreams of Hawaii. I thoroughly recommend this book, but please, oh please, keep a box of Kleenex handy.

As a Gaiman, Wolfe, and Tolkien fan, I’d always meant to try something by Terry Pratchett, but it wasn’t until Cory Doctorow’s glowing recommendation of his newest novel Nation that he finally made it onto my radar. And he’s going to stay there a while. If you’re a fan, you probably bought and happily devoured this book already; if not, know that this exciting, deeply thoughtful tale of shipwreck and derring-do is one of my favorite “young adult” novels of all time. And I’ve been through quite a few!

Fans of his Discworld novels may be surprised to learn that in this story, Pratchett has departed that whimsical world for a darker setting – the late 19th century. Mau, an young man from the south seas, is returning from a solitary journey when a huge tsunami nearly kills him, and wipes out his home island of Nation. But as someone tells him earlier on – “when much is taken, something is returned”; that same wave shipwrecks Ermintrude, a young English aristocrat, who later shortens that name to “Daphne”, for obvious reasons. After a near-fatal misunderstanding, the two join eventually forces, and try to carve out an existence for themselves (and later, others) on the island.

Sounds familiar? Shipwreck tales are a grand tradition in English literature, but from Robinson Crusoe to Lord of the Flies, each presents us a different vision of humanity. Pratchett’s is deeply humanistic – though a hemisphere apart, Mau and Daphne are both very sympathetic characters; their efforts to find food, water, and rebuild society they way they knew it lead to conflicts, many humorous moments, and several epiphanies about their disparate worlds. Though it’s marketed as a “young adult” novel, Pratchett doesn’t flinch at heading into substantially darker territory – the main characters also contend with suicidal thoughts, loneliness, and showdowns with some extremely vile antagonists. After all, what would a story like this be without the appearance or at least the mention of cannibals?

But it’s Pratchett’s critique of religion that may raise a few eyebrows. Through the course of the novel, Mau goes through an intense spiritual struggle, first railing at the island gods that failed to save his people, eventually questioning their existence altogether, even as heads a deeply religious society. Daphne is more scientifically-minded, but she too witnesses several things that eventually reshape her view of the world. Though I suspect most readers already have their minds made up one way or the other, it’s always great to be reminded to question everything, lest others become the masters of your inner life.

The ending is bittersweet, with several surprising revelations in its approach. Pratchett writes with such a warmth and wit that I could imagine him sharing this story with a group of children around the fireplace, hot cocoa close at hand. Or perhaps you’ll enjoy it as I did, lounging at the airport, waiting for a homeward-bound flight. Either way, I share Doctorow’s assessment – it’s a beautiful novel, and I hope many people both young and old get a chance to read it.

Broadway shows, fancy restaurants, ancient gods - all in a day's work!

If you’re a Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan and you haven’t heard of Gene Wolfe, all I can do is shake my head – from Book of the New Sun, to The Wizard, to his many short stories, you’ve been missing out on some of the best genre writing out there.

But perhaps even more intriguing than those classics is Wolfe’s uncanny ability to write across genres, and create stories with a totally unique appeal. His latest novel “An Evil Guest” takes this route, combining seemingly disparate elements – a pulp murder mystery, golden-age science fiction, and Lovecraftian horror. It’s a lot lighter than his usual fare, but it’s still a thrilling tale that, true to Wolfe’s style, is full of twists that will blindside you if you aren’t reading carefully.

The tale begins a century into our future, when the President of the United States hires a man named Gideon Chase to track down a “traitor” known as William Reis. Right away, it’s very clear that Chase is no ordinary private dick – the President calls him a “wizard”, and his philosophical ruminations on good and evil are deeper than anything Sam Spade or Philip Marlow wisecracked in their day. This is just as well – Reis too is no ordinary man. He has been to the planet Woldercan, and has learned some “strange things” there – telepathy and talking to ghosts are the simplest of the President’s guesses!

From there, the spotlight switches to Cassie Casey, a twice-married stage actress facing unemployment and an uncertain future. Chase enlists her aid in his mission, promising her riches and fame in return. The plan works – Casey soon finds herself the most popular actress in the world, as well object of Reis’ attention – but not without far reaching consequences for all three of them.

Scene for scene, Wolfe succeeds at conjuring a decadent noirish atmosphere, as he whisks us from the backstage of Broadway, to fancy restaurants, posh hotels, and even a South Pacific island. For the most part, the story is very cohesive, though there are a few plot threads (oh Norma!) that had a questionable resolution, and moments I had to reread a page or two to grasp the ever-thickening plot. My only serious issue is with the somewhat anticlimactic ending, which failed to induce the primal dread and awe that was probably intended.

He also has some genuinely entertaining characters – from the the suave Gideon Chase, the swaggeringly irresistible William Reis, the adorably flighty Cassie and her colorful co-stars, he succeeds in giving each of them a unique voice, but occasionally there are moments when they all seem smarter than they should – at times they break out into a random analysis of themselves or their current situation, making parts of this book not entirely unlike watching an episode of “House”.

Still, this book is proof that Gene Wolfe can write whatever kind of story he wants and make it work. If you’ve never read any of his work, give it a shot – this tricky adventure novel is quite enjoyable on its own, and will prepare you for Wolfe’s more ponderous work, such as the New Sun series. And if you’re a devoted fan like myself – well, you’ve probably read it already! Either way, it’s hard to go wrong with this book.

Two years ago, I finally got to reading a book everyone told me I ought to read – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the bestselling Brazillian author. It was a short, but deeply moving tale with hard-hitting truths that belied its simplicity.

It was just as well that I read it then; as a soon-to-be college graduate, its lessons on following your dreams and Personal Legend especially resonated with me. Imagine my delight, then, to learn that Coelho wrote a companion to The Alchemist, called “Warrior of the Light“. From the title, I was expecting something of a Cervantean romance, with a life-affirming quest, intriguing characters, and a rock-solid hero unfazed by even the largest of obstacles.

This past week, I read it – not what I was expecting!

Though the book begins with an intriguing fable about a boy searching for a temple under the sea, this frame story is quickly concluded, as the book soon reveals its raison d’être – teaching, instead of storytelling. Instead of another novel, Coelho has written a very personal treatise, summarizing his ideas on how how live a rich, fulfilling life. In the tradition of books such as The Art of War, Warrior of the Light is filled with page after page of thoughtful aphorisms meant to guide us through life’s tough moments.

For example, Coelho has some encouraging thoughts on the importance of establishing a work/life balance:

“If the strings of an instrument are always taught, they go out of tune……that is why, even if he is not in the mood, the Warrior of the Light tries to enjoy the small everyday things of life”.

For men and women of great responsibility, sometimes working in the shadow of our predecessors can be too much to bear. Or perhaps others take it upon themselves to consistently remind you just how much rides on your words and actions. Coelho reminds us that we don’t need to have all the answers today:

“A responsible Warrior is not someone who takes the weight of the world on his shoulders, but someone who has learned to deal with the challenges of the present.”

Some of the book’s passages are especially relevant to today’s climate. Having just gone through a rough election cycle, during which members from both parties attempted to paint each other as out-of-touch, incompetent, and sometimes just plain wicked, this reminder especially rings true:

“In order to have faith in his own path, he does not need to prove that someone else’s path is wrong”.

Occasionally, Coelho puts his own words aside and directly quotes other well-known thinkers, such as Chico Xavier and Lao Tzu. Just who are these Warriors of the Light? A character at the end of the frame story remarks that he is “someone capable of understanding the miracle of life, of fighting to the last for something he believes in.” In other words, any of us who are willing to accept life’s uncertainty and to struggle for what we believe in, whether we be artists, politicians, activists – or even ordinary people. This is the core of Coelho’s philosophy – pursuing our dreams, holding true to our principles while doing so, and doing so while humbly accepting guidance from this world and above.

I think it’s worth a read. Some may consider Coelho’s thoughts to be “new-agey”, but I think they’re surprisingly very pragmatic, even if they err on the side of idealism. You may have heard some of these ideas before, from other philosophers and writers, but Coelho has a talent for making these teachings so warm and accessible, that you’ll likely find yourself returning to them again and again, even if you’re not into spirituality or philosophy.

Warrior of the Light – A Manual

Yes, the book is as heavy as the cover art implies! (image from Wikipedia and Amazon)

Even casual fans of speculative fiction need little introduction to Neal Stephenson, whose delightfully original imagination, combined with his instinct for technology and human nature, have helped him produce several genre-defining classics, in areas such as cyberpunk (Snow Crash), post-cyberpunk (The Diamond Age), and historical fiction (Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle). His latest work, Anathem, finds him returning to the world of science fiction, telling the tale of Erasmas, a young man whose world is about to go through some very major changes.

Unlike all of his other works, which have explored the past, present, and future of our planet Earth, Anathem takes place on Arbre, a world entirely of Stephenson’s making, but similar enough to ours to keep you guessing for the first couple of chapters. Soon enough, we learn the major difference between that world and ours – the scientific/philosophical/mathematical community has been cloistered away into “maths”, where their knowledge and discoveries can survive the cataclysmic rise and fall of the outside world (the “Saecular Power”). Every ten years, however, Erasmas’ math celebrates a festival called Apert, where the gates of the math are opened, allowing outsiders (”extras”) and the cloistered (”Avout”) to mingle for ten days; this is where the story begins. To reveal any more would spoil one of the chief pleasures of a Stephenson novel – watching the plot develop organically, spontaneously – from a few interesting ideas to a dazzling chain of events you won’t forget anytime soon.

Anathem starts slowly, deliberately, almost as if Stephenson wants you to notice every detail of the world he carefully constructs on the page. As part of this effort, Stephenson channels sci-fi greats like Frank Herbert and Gene Wolfe, inventing two languages and a whole vocabulary for the inhabitants of Arbre. Though his syntax is nowhere near as challenging as, say, Book of the New Sun, you’ll be thankful for the glossary in the back. Erasmas narrates the tale in the first person, so as you might expect of a young, disciplined, monk-like character, the prose tends to be very dry (a sharp departure from Snow Crash), and thrives on the power of understatement, even in the tensest of situations.

As the story progresses, it reveals itself to be several novels braided into one – an academic Bildungsroman (as the avout start to question their Powers That Be), a Golden Age Sci-Fi yarn (Stephenson is particularly meticulous in detailing the available technology and scientific methods), an exciting adventure story (there are some stunning fights and scenes reminiscent of The Diamond Age), and philosophical treatise -  as they examine their world without help of computers or the internet, the intellectually scrupulous avout dissect each of their thoughts and hypotheses in exhaustive, sometimes wearying detail.

There’s a reason this book is more than 900 pages – many topics, from physics, the nature of consciousness, history, and even religion (to which Stephenson is surprisingly open-minded) are discussed at length, the book even referring the reader to several appendices of proofs and theory in the back! Just like Cryptonomicon, and that book’s pedagogical discussion of cryptanalysis, readers will find it all either incredibly fascinating or irredeemably dull. As an engineer, I ate it all up, but if you think you may fall into the latter category, you might think twice about picking up this book; the climax will not make any sense unless you have at least a basic understanding of the discourse. If you’re able to keep up, you’ll experience the pleasure of many “eureka!” moments, as you piece together the logical conclusion along with Erasmas. And I do mean logical conclusion – Stephenson has blessedly given this story a proper ending! Obviously I won’t spoil it, but it neatly sows the seeds for a follow-up with Erasmas and his friends.

But even if Stephenson never takes us to Arbre again, this would easily be the most satisfying novel I’ve read this year. Finishing it comes with a sense of accomplishment. Not because the book is dense or difficult to comprehend, but because in presenting Arbre, Stephenson really is showing us our world in a different light. Ultimately, the novel is about the beauty that is human thought – how it shapes our perception of the world, how our world shapes it, and how it can serve as a singular beacon in the most unfamiliar of situations. If Descartes were around, Anathem might be among his favorites, for in the world Stephenson presents, we exist to think, and discover the secrets of the universe. And that is something to be proud of.