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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.

DH is going to be so happy

Ooh! I hope I'll be able to lift this one with one hand!

Cool! And what Jessica said.

One can dream.

(but I liked The Baroque Cycle quite a lot.)

Huh. Coincidentally, I'm re-reading Cryptonomicon for the, like, seventy billionth time.

Then I'm moving on to Quicksilver, during which reading I will likely purchase the rest of the Baroque Cycle 'cause I don't have it and haven't read it. Which makes me unhappy.

So. Rock on, Neal!

Sweet!

I don't mind the Baroque Cycle's heft. Helps stabilize the rest of my books.

I was looking through my friend Erik's website (Techgnosis) and found an interview he did in 1994 with Neil Gaiman and Rachel Pollack (creator of the Sacred Woman Tarot and author of Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom). It's pretty interesting if you like Neil Gaiman and tarot or esoteric knoweldge.

Nice article, David, thanks for the link.

I liked Cryptonomicon quite a lot, but Stephenson just took off during the Baroque Cycle.