For ten years Fraa Erasmas, a young avout, has lived in a cloistered sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside world. But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change and Erasmas will become a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world, as he follows his destiny to the most inhospitable corners of the planet... and beyond. Anathem is the latest miraculous invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle a work of astonishing scope, intelligence, and imagination.

Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that have shaped the past century. Weaving together the cracking of the Axis codes during WWII and the quest to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present, Cryptonomicon explores themes of power, information, secrecy and war in the twentieth century in a gripping and page-turning thriller.

Here is another brilliantly original novel from the cult author of Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon. Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians. There, he and his cohorts are sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable saecular world, an endless landscape of casinos and megastores that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, dark ages and renaissances, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides it is only these cloistered scholars who have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his friends, mentors, and teachers are summoned forth without warning into the unknown.

The Gulf War is imminent and there’s something mighty strange going on in the Agriculture Department of East Iowa University. When an Arab student turns up drunk – and dead – in the lake, redneck Deputy County Sheriff Clyde Banks gets a feeling he’s on to something big. It’s a suspicion shared by low-ranking CIA agent Betsy Vandeventer. But before two great minds yell conspiracy theory, in steps top US policy-maker James Millikan. Here’s a man well used to dictating the Middle East’s future – from a comfortable seat at a top Paris restaurant. While shenanigans in the Midwest might not be exactly his style, there’s a technique that serves America well in all matters of national security. It’s called the ‘Cobweb’, and it backfires every time...

A remarkable epic adventure of soldiers and secrets, spies and code breakers, cryptography and high-tech finance. When the adult grandchildren of two men once involved in code-breaking espionage in World War II find a sunken Nazi submarine, they're led to a massive conspiracy, the effects of which can either enhance freedom — or subjugate the world.