I was informed by Valleywag (inside baseball quip: how often do you hear the words “informed” and “Valleywag” in the same sentence) earlier today that Neal Stephenson–NYT bestselling author of Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age, Snow Crash and the Baroque Cycle–has a new book coming out on September 9, 2008, entitled Anathem. You can pre-order it from Amazon right now (I already did). 

According to io9:

Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians—sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable "saecular" world that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides that only these cloistered scholars have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his cohorts are summoned forth without warning into the Unknown.

Sounds interesting, but then again I would probably buy a Harlequin romance novel if Stephenson wrote it.