Fiction Anathem by Neal Stephenson—Covers much of the history of philosophy while telling an engaging story that really shows off the power of rationalist thinking. Also touches on the many worlds interpretation and all kinds of other fun stuff.
Non-Fiction Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá - A great example of how to use mountains of evidence to justify controversial conclusions.
Anathem was fabulous—although, like his other works, it got kooky at the end (his worst offender: Diamond Age, which was beautifully begun and oddly ended).
I’m glad you liked it. On the whole, I also enjoyed the book. I only vaguely remember now (years after reading), but wasn’t there some sort of undersea modified-human group-mind entity at the end? I more enjoyed the first 2⁄3 of the book, before the disjointed action-movie climax (a similar proportion holds for my enjoyment of Anathem).
Stephenson is still one of my favorite authors (although for some reason I’ve still only read the first of his Baroque series).
Fiction
Anathem by Neal Stephenson—Covers much of the history of philosophy while telling an engaging story that really shows off the power of rationalist thinking. Also touches on the many worlds interpretation and all kinds of other fun stuff.
Non-Fiction
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá - A great example of how to use mountains of evidence to justify controversial conclusions.
Anathem was fabulous—although, like his other works, it got kooky at the end (his worst offender: Diamond Age, which was beautifully begun and oddly ended).
How so? I loved the ending, and thought the beginning (about Nell’s father) was sort of an annoying “take that” to Cyberpunk classics.
I’m glad you liked it. On the whole, I also enjoyed the book. I only vaguely remember now (years after reading), but wasn’t there some sort of undersea modified-human group-mind entity at the end? I more enjoyed the first 2⁄3 of the book, before the disjointed action-movie climax (a similar proportion holds for my enjoyment of Anathem).
Stephenson is still one of my favorite authors (although for some reason I’ve still only read the first of his Baroque series).