Hah...yea, kinda/sorta related to those things.Zarathustra wrote: Does Stephenson invent implausible reasons to keep characters in the dark merely for dramatic effect (e.g. the end of Fatal Revenant)? Does he have too much filler (e.g. 2nd half of AATE)? A climactic finale to a 10-book saga that disappoints?
I suspect you'll see contrivance, filler, and IMO it would be pretty hard to make the case that Anathem [or most of his work] is character driven, which is something you comment on often.
But don't get me wrong---I do think you'll like it. [probably].
A significant [or even large] number of posts from you address issues that the book addresses.