The book is set on the planet Arbre, quite similar to our own, but divided in the present time (and for the past several thousand years) into the Saecular and Mathic worlds. Inside the "maths", or cloisters, live the Avout, non-religious men (fraas) and women (suurs) who have devoted their lives to intense scholarship and medieval asceticism, almost wholly without advanced praxis (technology). They live secluded from the outside world, except for a 10-day holiday called Apert during which the gates are opened, when the "extras" are free to come into the math, and the Avout are free to leave and explore extramuros. Depending on whether an Avout is a Unitarian, Tenner, Hundreder, or Thousander, his or her order will have the chance to celebrate Apert only once a year, decade, century, or millenium. In the mean time, all knowledge of the Saecular world is strictly avoided.The book opens as Fraa Erasmas, a Tenner, is about to celebrate his first Apert since joining his math, the Concent of Saunt Edhar, as a young boy. Over the course of this holiday, however, he and his fraas and suurs discover that something very serious and shocking has been happening extramuros. Dun dun dun!
Of course I won't give away more, but suffice to say, this book is pure Stephenson genius. A beautifully rich world filled with highly likable characters (especially Fraa Jad!) engaged in a gripping and meaningful quest.
Recommended if you enjoyed: The Name of the Rose, Reamde
Stephenson's Novels
- The Big U (1984)
- Zodiac (1988)
- Snow Crash (1992)
- Interface (1994)
- The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995)
- The Cobweb (1996)
- Cryptonomicon (1999)
- The Baroque Cycle
- Quicksilver (2003), volume I
- The Confusion (2004), volume II
- The System of the World (2004), volume III
- Anathem (2008)
- The Mongoliad (2010–2012)
- Reamde + Colin's review (2011)
