Giving up (Neal Stephenson's Anathem)
Aug. 7th, 2009 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arkessianI loved Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, back when it was new. I somehow missed out on his later work -- too much to read, too little time. And I was hoping to love Anathem... but in the end I found I simply couldn't.
To be honest, not even in the end, but only(!) at page 547. The world-building is meticulously detailed. The games with language are entertaining -- for a while. But the characters are so un-engaging, and the plot so overwhelmed by infodump, that all the attention to detail and linguistic gymnastics can't make me care what happens. I've given up. It's going back on the "pending" shelves. Only time will tell whether I ever re-open it or send it off to a charity shop.
This was more fun. And shorter.
To be honest, not even in the end, but only(!) at page 547. The world-building is meticulously detailed. The games with language are entertaining -- for a while. But the characters are so un-engaging, and the plot so overwhelmed by infodump, that all the attention to detail and linguistic gymnastics can't make me care what happens. I've given up. It's going back on the "pending" shelves. Only time will tell whether I ever re-open it or send it off to a charity shop.
This was more fun. And shorter.
