In lieu of a more formal book review, here is my capsule summary:
“In response to the sudden appearance of extraterrestrial visitors, philo-math monks gather together to discuss multi-state causal consciousness models as a outflow of quantum mechanics.”
Sound interesting? Anathem is a great book and I highly recommend it if you like mathematics, philosophy, Neal Stephenson, alt world literature, monks and/or just a good adventure story. There is plenty of typically dense Stephenson writing where math intersects with philosophy, but the narrative keeps the story moving forward in an unforced manner.
I read this on the Kindle and really appreciated the convenience of the eBook format – I have the hardbacks of Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle trilogy and those were a pain to haul around.