About 15 years ago I read though everything Neal Stephenson had written. It started with snow crash, then the cryptonomicon, then less popular works like zodiac and the diamond age. In general I loved them all. I stopped reading his books right before anathem came out...

But on a vacation last year I picked up a copy on my e-reader and started it. I enjoyed the concept, I loved the mat-as-philosophy, despite the difficulty getting into it. Anyway, vacation came to an end, I was about 40% through it, and I just stopped, picked up a couple other books, and moved on. No real reason, but a combination of how slow it moved, the extraneous details that seem like they could have been left out, etc.

Well, vacation this year hit so I picked it back up. After about the 50 percent point the book totally changed, as if I was reading an entirely different story. I'm trying to leave out spoilers, but now I am about 80% through and I'm having trouble with what the characters are doing in the book based on the history provided in the beginning.

Don't get me wrong... I follow the story and the plot tracks well, but there was so much character development in the beginning and suddenly what they are doing doesn't track with any of that development.

The best summery I read by someone on reddit said "what do you think about Anathem? I think it is about 200 pages too long". I'm going to push through and finish it. My e-reader says I have about 7 hours to go and I think I am enjoying it. I just was wondering how others feel about it.