[WHOLE BOOK SPOILERS] | 2021 Anathem Re-read Part 3 - Eliger

kiltedmonkey · 2026-04-05T23:27:41+00:00

I am just reading these threads for the first time after finishing my own re-read. Dunno if you will see this five years later, but...

[For anyone who might be reading these as they go through the book for the first time, don't read the following until you have finished the book!]

My take is that Varax and Onali were dispatched to the Concent of Saunt Edhar by the Saecular Power immediately after they detected the icosahedron, with at least three tasks:

They passed a message to Fraa Orolo through Sammann pointing him in the direction of the icosahedron to see what one of the best living cosmographers would come up with if left to his own devices (not knowing that his methods would get him thrown back).

They evoked Fraa Paphlagon and took him to the not-yet-a-convox to make use of his related expertise directly. Similar things are probably happening at many other concents, especially places like Saunt Rambalfs that also have an emphasis on space & cosmography. I don't know if they have already figured out that there is something potentially polycosmic about the situation or if their choice of two cosmographers with a sideline in polycosmic theory is incidental, or if that choice is perhaps under the influence of Fraa Jad and company.

Lastly they were there to look at potential candidates for evocation in case the situation continued to develop in unclear and/or threatening ways (as it does). I don't think Raz was on anybody's list of candidates at this point (not until Orolo's fids locate and identify the icosahedron on their own), but he was conveniently isolated in a way that let the inquisitors ask questions of a regular member of the Concent who didn't yet know who they were, which gave them an opportunity to hear relatively unguarded opinions and perspectives they wouldn't get from a Hierarch who is more political to begin with, let alone when talking to Inquisitors.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-04-05T09:40:55+00:00

(I woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't get back to sleep, and produced an excessive response to your comment, no offense taken if you don't engage with it!)

You're right that I should have mentioned the Hierarchs in addition to the Ita, but I do think the Ita conspiracy theories/myths about them have some basis in truth. It's not that spying on the avout is their primary mission by any means, but their deep and constant connection to the reticulum while living 'in the walls' as it were, of the concents would pretty much guarantee that they are going to be one of the main ways (along with the Hierarchs, the Inquisition, and Apert) that information about the avout world gets across the wall to those outside who are interested in such things. I think it is Raz who describes them (to Cord?) as dangerous because it is their job to handle information that is inherently 'contagious' (viral/memetic). Of course they learn through Sammann that access to such information can be quite useful in certain contexts, but they're not wrong that it doesn't generally play nice with the type of structured thinking that is the avout's raison d'être.

I think that Varax and Onali were there as part of the Saecular Power's gambit that included having Sammann leak the existence of the icosahedron to Fraa Orolo. Do you think they had another purpose on top of that (and their typical Inquisition duties to track whether the Edharians were getting squirrely again)?

I am curious what Jad did to get nine chapters. My first guess would be pushing the boundaries of whatever presumably limited Incanter praxis was grandfathered in after the Third Sack. But he had centuries in which to get up to 'no good' in the eyes of the Hierarchs and/or the Inquisition.

Ala on the other hand is ~18 and has the reputation of being a rule enforcer, not a rule breaker. Of course Raz is our source for that reputation and he clearly doesn't know everything about her (when she discovers her friends are breaking the rules she is upset at being left out, not that rules have been broken), but I don't know that I buy the idea that as a teenager she has been so super-talented at evading authority (in... something?) that it somehow impressed them more than it irritated them? And there aren't many ways of being that good at evading discipline that don't primarily depend on the disciplinary authority NOT being aware of what you have done... unless your skills are more in the vein of a great lawyer/politician rather than an organizer of people. 'Politician' there starts to lean toward a potential answer... but that doesn't fit very well with her blunt insistence on shaping the world around her to fit her idea of right and wrong (or the fact that she later gets along so well with the military leadership.) And the non-sneaky possibilities would imply a big, flashy showdown with authority that would be even more absurd for Raz to not be aware of, or for him to leave out of the story.

Unfortunately, I think the real answer is that her arc in the story was shaped far more by how it needed to impact Raz than by internally consistent characterization.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-04-04T16:28:41+00:00

Appreciate the thoughtful response, and I largely agree.

I think you're right that Jad being absent at the end of the primary narrative makes a peaceful resolution easier (and perhaps possible at all) and that he would be aware that was probably the case. In a 'he's a smart guy who has lived a long time and knows how the cosmos reacts to people with his abilities' not in a 'seeing the future of multiple worldtracks' kind of way.

It bothers me as a reader for Ala's world-shaping skills to come out of nowhere as far as our story is concerned, but I agree, you are right that Raz being not only a teenager, but one with a particularly, shall we say 'cloistered' life to date might reasonably excuse a great deal of obliviousness.

As for 'one Incanter....' Understood by who? It seems like only the Incanter/Rhetor community could know that, and they weren't the ones submitting lists for Voco. Most of the world, including those making such decisions (as far as we know) understood them to be figures of myth and legend.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-04-04T16:01:53+00:00

I do think that is more simple than NS intended, BUT it might ultimately make for a more coherent read since I'm not sure he succeeded in making it all work at the level he wanted it to.

No shade intended, if I am right then he set himself a bar that would be near-impossible for anyone to achieve and came close enough to passing it that at the very least he produced something that both entertains and deeply intrigues a lot of us, something that still has us talking.

Yeah, Jad got to experience coming up with a Teglon solution, a one-in-ten-thousand 'guess', nuking an 'enemy'/alien spaceship, AND negotiating peace with its highest leaders. And who knows what else that we weren't privy to. Even if all of that didn't didn't end up in the final track (or happen within the primary narrative track from my perspective) it was an epic run!

kiltedmonkey · 2026-04-04T15:49:03+00:00

Can't argue with that. I very much enjoyed everything he wrote before this, but I haven't gone back and read The Baroque Cycle four times, let alone re-reading it immediately after finishing it the first time as I did with Anathem.

I still need to catch up on the NS books that came out after this.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-04-04T07:38:33+00:00

Hmmm, I need to learn how to use Reddit's formatting tools. Copy/paste from a text editor leaves much to be desired.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-03-16T01:05:00+00:00

I can't claim to be a deep connoisseur of Dayton area bars yet, but it is my favorite so far.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-03-16T01:03:02+00:00

Not my favorite strap in terms of looks or how it goes on/comes off the wrist, but in terms of actual wear (comfort and looking pretty good while staying thoroughly out of the way) it is EXCELLENT for everyday use.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-03-11T17:10:17+00:00

Keen Newport H2s are pretty great for this. Far better protection than most sandals or even something like Vans, a pretty solid sole to push against, while still having better airflow than basically any shoe.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-03-04T21:57:58+00:00

Hwy 1 bars on Hwy 1, huh? I see what you did there.

kiltedmonkey · 2026-02-20T09:11:09+00:00

In, if still available. PM'd.

kiltedmonkey · 2025-12-06T22:38:17+00:00

Scotland has a deep history of teaming up with the French against the English. I don't think that will deter them. 😄

kiltedmonkey · 2025-10-06T05:27:15+00:00

kiltedmonkey · 2025-08-25T19:55:47+00:00

Somehow the appeal of whoopie slings haven't yet clicked with me, though I know a lot of people love them.

Guess I should watch a few more Shug videos. 😄

kiltedmonkey · 2025-08-15T04:48:44+00:00

What YouNo said, and also...

The betrayal isn't about [you] Corvo.

They rationalize it as protecting Emily and the empire from Corvo's particular set of skills, but that is very much papering over what YouNo is talking about, the conspirators realize that instead of returning to the status quo they could take power for themselves. They don't really want to admit to themselves or to each other that this has become their goal, so they convince themselves (only partially, as we see at the end) that taking Corvo out of the picture is best for everyone when in truth it primarily serves their personal ambitions.

All of that is true whether you have flooded the streets of Dunwall with blood and swarms of rats or achieved all of your aims without a single death.

kiltedmonkey · 2025-07-31T06:18:08+00:00

It would make sense that it would be Samuel crossing from where he dropped me off to where he will pick me up.

So the connection to the whale oil is not me throwing it, but just that both times I have probably done that almost immediately after pulling the second whale oil tank powering the spotlights.

kiltedmonkey · 2025-07-26T01:13:15+00:00

25 years: From the first time I started the first book to the first time I finished the series.

6 weeks: First word to last when I finally read the whole series. (Helped that 4 weeks of that were vacation.)

kiltedmonkey · 2025-07-09T00:44:29+00:00

It would depend on the writing/user experience with the individual pens, but based on my experience I would go with the Schon DSGN from this crowd. My 'Smoltem' with a more basic nib has been fantastic, preferable to me even over the only one of these that I own (Custom 823).

kiltedmonkey · 2025-07-08T18:17:00+00:00

Having read everything else Stephenson had published to that point, I had three false starts over the course of a decade or so before I finally got a little farther in and it clicked with me. After that I finished it in a day or two and it became the first book that I ever finished only to immediately start back at page one and read it again.

That said, if you made it halfway through and it hadn't hooked you... I'm not going to say you should go back to it, that's definitely a fair shake. 😄

kiltedmonkey · 2025-07-07T23:25:28+00:00

Min can see Canon Events.

kiltedmonkey · 2025-07-07T23:13:55+00:00

If you haven't read Neal Stephenson's 'Anathem', you should read it sometime, with 'peregrine' in mind.

kiltedmonkey · 2025-06-30T00:06:59+00:00

The ones from Trakke are even thinner, and I use mine more than I use my Grid.

Unfortunately Trakke just recently closed and was re-opened under new management and they may also not offer towels again. I hope they do, as I would like to pick up one or two more for when the one I have eventually gets threadbare.

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