Quicksilver: The Baroque Cycle #1

So I guess I may be a Stephenson fanboy. I started out with his more traditional science fiction books and really enjoyed them. However, even with Diamond Age, you could see Stephenson's tendency towards long discourses that may or may not relate entirely to the story at hand.

I found this book to be overly long and full of various discourses that went meandering about, sometimes with only a tenuous connection to the main plot. For all that, I found the story to be incredibly intriguing, if not all that engaging. I admit it took me a very long time to finish this book because I had to set it down so many times and read another book.

I kept coming back to it though and I am glad I did as I feel like it was a challenging book to work through, but rewarding in the end. I really like the way that Stephenson applied the scientific lens to a lot of the events portrayed in the book. My only real issue is that I am often not sure how much of the detail is true and how much of it is made up. That of course is my problem and not his as he is writing a fictional story. The fact that he can blur the lines so well is a bonus to me.

So in the end, while I found the book to be very difficult to read, I also found it to be informative. I would find it hard to recommend to another reader without some disclaimers, but for all that I give it a 4. So like I said, I may be a bit of a fanboy.

I loved this book. It's intelligent and most of all fun. Now, I'm a literary scholar, but I'm also a rabid consumer of fiction--everything from Stephen King's horror to Robert Jordan's fantasy. I don't know what drew me towards this cycle of books. Honestly, it looked sort of boring from the outside. I suppose I was drawn to the wacky contradiction between the author and the subject matter. Here's a guy who's best known for cyberpunk, and he's writing a quasi-historical novel. Well, I chose wisely, because this book really suited me. It's fast-paced with a screw-ball tone. It reminds me of Pirates of the Carribean without supernatural elements. Also, this guy's mind is just impressive. This is a really good book, but I'd add that it's also difficult to wade through. This is certainly for the more advanced reader who enjoys plunging into history. But don't get me wrong. This isn't for the stuffy old professor types either. It's audience is somewhere in between--the educated and the adventurous. If that's you then I say go for it and take the challenge!

Quicksilver is a genuinely remarkable book in many respects. To wit, it explodes with humor, history, especially as they relate to the birth of science and mathematics from the minds of the Natural Philosophers in the 17th and 18th centuries.

But that's not why I'm writing this review. I want to share two things:

1. This is one of the heaviest books I've ever wrestled with. My sternum has a semi-permanent indentation in it from where Quicksilver's spine rested for my evening read.

2. I haven't been this excited about simply FINISHING a book since I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a teen. "I did it!" Frankly, this book could have been edited down a good 200 pages, but it's such an amazing and titanic work, perhaps it is one of those books which defies criticism.

Hint to Publisher: Expand the list of characters at the end to include those who are not noble.

Hint to Reader: I hope you paid attention in your history classes, because you need to bring an educated mind to this book for it to yield its treasures.

This is a great book. Stephenson gives us characters galore, some real persons who actually existed in the seventeenth century, and others fictional. He even includes a list of characters in the back of the book to help us keep them all straight.
In this book we see the Great Fire of London, the Siege of Vienna, the Glorious Revolution, and, behind it all, Isaac Newton was developing ideas surrounded by the other intellectual giants of his era who would lead to creating a new world system. This is the first of a trilogy. I can't wait for the others.
Stephenson does not explain much of the big historical facts but he does give us an idea of what it would have been like to live through these catastrophes. He makes history seem alive. A great book.

Stephenson is one writer who remembers what most other genre authors have forgotten: you used to actually learn something new from every book, every short story, every novella in the Science Fiction universe. This book is historical fiction, not science fiction, but it conveys the same sense of discovery and wonder that I used to get from Larry Niven novels or Clarke stories. That's not surprising; to many Americans, the past is now as foreign and strange a place as the future seemed in the 1950s, and any author who plumbs history's depths as thoroughly and honestly as Stephenson does here is bound to create an engaging yarn. This book is set in the late 1600's, and is a sort of prequel to his book Cryptonomicon. Sharply, wittily drawn characters and expansive explorations of European science and society make this a welcome summer read. Almost as welcome as its sequel...

In spite of knowing that sequels/prequels rarely match the initial book--especially when that book, in this case, Cryptonomicon, gave no hint of being "groomed" for expansion into a series--I began "Quicksilver" with high hopes. Cryptonomicon featured a cracking good story, excellent writing, considerable humor. Quicksilver began fairly well, but bogged down into a dreary plod, especially in its middle section. Stephenson's done massive research (and is eager to display all of it) but if there's a story line, I'm still searching for it, and there's very little of the quirky humor (Stephenson's fictional "Qwelghm" was a gem) I was looking forward to. Frankly, I doubt I'll even read the two books scheduled to follow "Quicksilver" until they're in "used paperback" format and therefore highly discounted.

Volume One in Stephenson's trilogy THE BAROQUE CYCLE. A monumental literary feat that combines history, adventure, science, truth, invention, sex, absurdity, piracy, madness, death, and alchemy. Combined with ANATHEM and CRYPTONOMICON, these books combine to give us every thought to ever cross one author's mind.

Somehow this book is wildly fascinating. After finishing the first book within the volume, I found myself amazed at how long it took so little to happen and how much I wanted to keep reading. As a scientist that is a fan of science fiction and some fantasy, it was fascinating to catch a glimpse into life of early scientists. I find myself wondering to this day when the facts faded and the fiction began. A long read but worth the effort. The story builds on itself so that the next two volumes are equally worthwhile.

Incredibly brilliant writer. Huge vocabulary--thank heavens for the highlight word/get definition functionality of my Kindle Paperwhite. I read his Cryptonomicon and Seveneves first, and Quicksilver just blew me away as it showed his tremendous range and grasp of material. I have toured the Tower of London, so I can vouch for the accuracy of some of his descriptions at least. Impressive work. Just impressive.

Against the vividly imagined historical backdrop of Europe in the 1600's, Stephenson unfolds a compelling story of politics and brings to life the birth of the scientific revolution. But this is no dry treatise on days past; no tedious textbook to drain all the interest from the dramatic events of history. Using multiple interwoven storylines, Stephenson creates a rich tapestry of the lives of historical figures such as Newton and Hooke, while adding his own perspective via characters Daniel Waterhouse, Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. The latter, as one of the few powerful women in the story, was particularly of interest to me, as I followed her evolution from rescued Turkish slave to devious spy and confidante of nobility.
The pace stumbles a handful of times in the latter half of the book. But, even so, there are few words wasted -- impressive in a book that weighs in at 916 pages. References to Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (which I enjoyed very much in the summer of 2002) appear throughout the book, giving it an added depth in terms of scope and the sense that it was only the first course in the ambitiously prepared feast of the works as a whole. With two more volumes to come, this is certainly not a story for those who aren't prepared to invest heavily in the pursuit of an exceptional reading experience. But I would certainly recommend it without reservation to those who are not easily intimidated. Waiting with anticipation for "The Confusion" in April 2004 and "The System of the World" in October 2004...

With a very interesting yet slow beginning, it wasn't until page 300 thatI was fully absorbed by this book as I was by Cryptonomicon. Snow Crash was a disappointment to me and I have always felt it was a young novel though in a genre I enjoy, but with Crypto, Stephenson showed me that he was quite brilliant and endlessly creative as well as adept at witty dialogue. Quicksilver is not meant to be taken literally as history, but is a wonderful trip through European scientific as well as political intrigues. The Shaftoe boys are priceless. I cannot wait for the next installment. I do feel quite strongly that the reviews have been written by the wrong people who seem to have read Snow Crash and skipped Crypto which is a more accurate barometer by which to judge this work.

I like long movies and long books. I was only bored at the beginning, and only for about 100 pages. Not too bored, though, and then the characters became very engaging.
Extremely subtle play of dialogue and nuance with the courtly types. wonderful adventure with the Vagabond types.
Bought the second before I had finished the first and began reading it the same day.
The level of detail and trivia is not (as some reviewer said) just for naught, but actually serves to place the reader in the book. It isn't there to improve your Jeopardy score.
The length is intimidating, but if you like subtlety, then it is NOT going to be boring for you.
Get it.
Read it.
scrue these snobs with poor reviews.

"Cryptonomicon" was an absolutely wonderful book. Hoping "Quicksilver" would be in a similar vein, I picked it up. At first, I loved it. Stephenson's presentation of the historical events of the time was extremely interesting and thought-provoking. It made me want to go back and pick up some actual history books to refresh my knowledge of the actual events. But, after a couple of hundred pages of this, I started to notice something important: there's no plot. None whatsoever. Instead, it's one historically important event after another with Daniel Waterhouse being right there, like Waldo, observing. The historical two-thirds of "Cryptonimicon" were wonderful because they were necessary to complete the plot in the present. In "Quicksilver," there's no plot in the "present" to complete. So, the book just rambles. Normally, in such a case, I'd give the book a rating of 1 star. But, since those historical anecdotes were so interesting (at least at the beginning), I'm upping my rating by one to a Not So Good 2 stars out of 5.

This book is really about the hackers of the 18th century. Though Neal Stephenson is probably best known for his science fiction work this is more of a work of historical fiction with a few sci-fi/fantasy elements (in the form of alchemy). If you have liked other books by Neal Stephenson, particularly Cryptonomicon and Anathem then you will love this book and the others in the series as well.

In his books, Stephenson often takes you down tangents that include technical details of the themes of the book (in this case 18th century finance, stock market, money, and alchemy among others). Some do not like this but I absolutely love it. I have seen this series compared to Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. That's a pretty good comparison but as far as I'm concerned, The Baroque Cycle is far more readable, entertaining and interesting.

In summary, this is probably my favorite series by my favorite living author.

"Quicksilver" is too long and its plot takes hundreds of pages to get going. My own crude measure of the latter is when I no longer have to push myself through a book, and instead remain riveted to it, happily neglecting the world around me. By this measure it took Stephenson more than 600 pages to get this baby up to speed, fully two of "Quicksilver's" three books.

He piles in too much detail. His efforts to recreate the picaresque style, particularly in the second book, are often strained. And he commits certain sins of style, to my taste.

Despite these flaws, this is ultimately a worthy book. His portrayal of science's birth in the late 1600s, the time of Newton, Leibniz, Hooke and Huygens is fascinating, fun and enjoyable. He also renders comprehensible the politics of the time, as byzantine as at any point in history, with the ever shifting battlelines and loyalties of religion and dynasty.

Stephenson's massive detail sometimes borders on genius but often weighs the book down. The line between these can be fine and indistinct. His writing seems most solid in the first book and those parts of the third book centered on protagonist Daniel Waterhouse, a young Puritan attracted to science. He is close to Isaac Newton and a protégé of John Wilkins, doyenne of the salon of England's greatest scientists and the one who steered them through the political battles of an era when Catholics and Protestants, Anglicans and Puritans still murdered each other. Waterhouse is believable and Stephenson has a feel for his character. Stephenson occasionally uses outlandish events to move his story but does so within the bounds of believability. His characters affect 20th century speech and viewpoints at times, and in the Waterhouse passages this style works, for educated, clever people introducing modernity to their own world. Using modern speech rather than the (to us) convoluted idiom of the day helps bring them closer to us, clarifying their thoughts and motives.

The same cannot be said of the interminable second book, where we are introduced to Half Cocked Jack Shaftoe the Vagabond King, and Eliza the escaped blue-eyed harem slave. Too much of what works for Stephenson in the first book, doesn't work here.

Jack and Eliza meet when, at the siege of Vienna in 1683, the mercenary Jack frees her from her Turkish captors. Jack is a former London street urchin kicked onto the streets at age 5 with his brothers to scavenge a living. An illiterate vagabond, Jack often talks like Noel Coward and displays an sophisticated knowledge of the world. I'm not convinced.

Eliza is kidnapped as a child by pirates and sold into harem slavery with her mother. Freed in her late teens, she emerges with an encyclopedic knowledge of the world, the wit and aplomb of a princess raised in Versailles. When she and Jack find their way into Amsterdam's commercial world, she wheels, deals and sounds like a 20th century Wall Street arbitrageur. I'm not convinced by this, nor by her easy melding into the arcane and international scientific world of Leibniz and friends.

Stephenson uses these characters, particularly Eliza, to inject some sex into the book, but I find this offputting. Eliza the harem slave knows too much for one still a virgin when liberated. (Her deflowering was being reserved as a treat for the Grand Vizier to celebrate a Turkish victory which never came to pass.) One scene involving fisting and a hot tub is just a little too cutesy San Francisco for me.

In another unconvincing modern wink-wink moment, two Venetian gondoliers arguing after colliding their boats are described as having "Canal Rage."

Jack and Eliza seem to take forever to find their way north into Germany. I never do understand the importance of quicksilver mines there, which occupy entirely too much of this book's plot, or why the book is named that. I'm sure Stephenson explains it at some point but it just gets buried in the blizzard of characters and activity. I got lost trying to follow Eliza's business and intrigue with Newton's rival Leibniz, as well as Jack's further adventures in France.

Stephenson seems more like a science fiction writer at heart, more absorbed in the details of the world he creates than in the characters who inhabit it. He departs from reality at times: Eliza hails from a fictional island with an unpronounceable name, and while Stephenson ultimately reveals a reason for his concocting this, it seems a bad fit for a book otherwise written with a great deal of historical accuracy and detail. Science fiction and fantasy writers get to make up lands; historical fiction writers don't. And the sci-fi writer in Stephenson gets so absorbed in explaining 17th century science he forgets to convincingly link it to the historical and political plot.

Stephenson leaves many things untied at the end. As Quicksilver is the first of a three-novel, nine-book series, I'll keep reading, assuming some of it may wrap up later.

The book's dragging and slow start might argue for three stars. Its huge scope argue for five. I'm splitting the difference and giving it four stars. If they allowed halves I might have knocked it down to three and a half, but I'll give it that last half star benefit of the doubt. There is so much science and history and lore here, it's fun even if the plot rambles.

Reading this book made me fall in love with 17th and 18th century Europe, a period in history which I previously had little interest in. This book is a fun and exciting way to walk along the streets of Renaissance Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Vienna. I found the descriptions of the Netherlands to be amusing and very clever--at one point a character stores thousands of pounds of lead in his house, and the neighbors begin to notice because his house starts sinking into the ground and bringing the neighborhood with it!

With that said, I think Stephenson has something against writing a male character who is not a bumbling, head-in-the-clouds caricature. I don't know if he has an inferiority complex himself around women or what, but I wouldn't mind seeing a male character who was both intelligent and socially competent. I've read his other books and this seems to be a common trend. Also, squeamish readers should be aware of the graphic violence both in this book and the second one in the series, in particular sexual maiming against some of the characters.

I also enjoyed seeing him give a reading in person in Seattle. He wrote the first draft with pen and paper!

Utterly mesmerizing. Some have criticized the thinness of this book's plot, but I never for a moment felt the lack, mainly because this book is so excessive in every other way. It is enormous, messy, appalling, exciting, self-indulgent, digressive, joyous, horrific, zany, pedantic, crude, sublime, and simply way too much fun. Stephenson's punning allusions to our own time repeatedly had me groaning, but it was more like suffering the zingers of a best friend. The Lloyd Bentsen paraphrase is shameless, but pure Stephenson. One of this book's best features is its characterizations. Historical figures like Newton, Hooke, Pepys, William III of Orange, Judge Jeffreys and others are given fleshy, breathing presence; Stephenson takes audacious liberties in his portrayals. But this is all part of the fun. There are many 'pointless' digressions which sometimes seem contrived to show off the author's research, but once I had a feel for the sprawling cadence of the writing, and its appropriately baroque excesses, I just relaxed and went along for the ride. However, with all its over-the-top flourishes, this book does focus on a central theme: how the role and significance of Intellectual Knowledge is shaped by the messy goings-on of human beings, the reprehensible and the transcendent, and the importance that Information has in being the locus of both Power and Thought. This book was over much too quickly for me, and I usually hate historical novels.

So, I'm lounging by the pool, cracking open this new book. It is huge, even by biblical standards and is going to be a pain in the a$$ to lug anywhere, but that didn't stop me from reading the Cryptonomicon (by the end that book was a battered mess) and loving it.

If you've read the Cryptonomicon and fell in love with the main characters, you will understand immediately. I am by no definition of the word a "quick" man, but upon reading the name Enoch a strange feeling came over me. Then, later in the chapter, the name Von Hoek popped into my sight. Anyone who has read Cryptonomicon will recognize these uncommon names post haste. At that point, I turn to the back of the book and gaze at the names in the synopsis. That was my moment of realization. I saw the name Waterhouse. How could I have not seen this before? I am struck by my utter obliqueness.

I feel now as if I'm reading of the ancestors of that previous book and it makes me feel, even though I know the characters are fictitious, like I've already lived with these people. If you've read the Crypto then you know how long I had to live with those superb characters.

Many reviewers have stated that they found the book agonizingly boring and I would agree if I had not read Crypt. Nevertheless, having done so I can say that I cannot wait to get back to reading it and find out how the great great great grandparents of Shaftoe and Waterhouse are doing.

Reading Crypto first is an excellent idea because the work Cryptonomicon is actually written in the 17th century, AND one of the characters (one Enoch Root) is a character in the 1670's (?!). Also, ancestors of other Crypto charcters are featured (Shaftoe and Randy eg).
I particularly liked his depiction of Samuel Pepys, of whom I know a bit. I also question some historical yet minor details (wasn't Cromwell's head NOT buried in the 17th century but was brought down from its pole in 1820 - but I digress).
All that being said, the description of Versailles during the reign of the Sun King (Louis XIV) fell far short of its potential. Also, having read much about the great fire of London 1666 and the plague a year before, I felt a better job could have been done - DeFoe's account of the Plague Year is much better.
Stevenson seems to have spent a great deal of energy un-reeling the minutia of the arcane religious factions in Restoration England, and frankly, who cares? What's cool in that time frame was The Fire, The Plague, The Restoration, The Wars and The Royal Society. Stevenson does cover the latter two well.
His accounts of Issac Newton and Leibnitz as geeks (whom one would recognize today) was brilliant.
On balance a weak shadow of Cryptonomicon, but from any other author would be brilliant, from Stevenson, it's a disappointment!

I say that as a compliment, and probably the best compliment you can make about the book.
I've only read two other books by Stephenson, Crytonomicon twice and In the Beginning Was the Command Line. I really enjoyed both of those but I think more for their technological background than for anything else. There certainly was plot in Cryptonomicon and it added to my enjoyment but I'm not sure if it would have been anywhere near as interesting to me without the technological atmosphere that pervaded so many parts of the plot. I mention this because I'm trying to figure out if there's any similarity between the books. Is it the intellectual atmosphere that he creates that is actually the most interesting things about his books? I think that it is.
And it's in that sense that Quicksilver is most interesting and rewarding. I have to say that this book has brought the late 1600 in Europe to life in a way that is rare and that a reader should be thankful for. How often can someone make you get excited about an entire period of history that's 300 years old? BUT, if you don't like history to begin with, and if you're expecting the technological (esp. computer-related) millieu that was in Cryptonomicon you'll be sorely disappointed by this book. Additionally I can't imagine what reading it would be like to someone who doesn't have a pretty good background in European history. There are just too many references to historical and scientific figures and happenings that must seem like obstructions to reading. I can't say for sure since I do have some vague recollections of much of this (from reading not being there:-) ). But I'd have to guess that anyone with anything less than this would just find the book wholly unreadable and unrewarding.
So what's in it for someone who does have some familiarity? For me it brings to life an historical period in a way that makes me want to go back and read more about it. This is great! Any book that increases a reader's curiosity about something and makes them want to investigate it further is a worthwhile book. To do about history of 300 years ago I think is particularly difficult task and I really have to commend and thank Stephenson for doing so. Whether he's accurate in his portrayal of the times is another question and one I'm wholly unqualified to answer. But I think that's far less important than the fact that I'm now interested enough to go back and read more about it. Believe me it's been a long while since I've wanted to go back and read some history.
That said the plot can't begin to compare with Cryptonomicon. I think some other reviewers have mentioned waiting for the "good" part and never getting to it. That's more or less true. Though the plot picks up in part 3 it never really coalesces in the way that you hope that it will. But this is like wishing that a pitcher who's gone through 8 gruelling innings of no-hit baseball, with more than his share of near-hits, will finally pull off the no-hitter in the 9th. If it happened I missed it. But you only hope for it because you're expecting so much from the pitcher. He sets you up to expect only the best.
In the end, and it's a very long while getting there, I think most reviewers will ask themselves two questions: will I read it again to see if I missed something or just because I enjoyed it so much the first time around, and will I read the sequels. For me it's an unqualified yes.

I just finished reading Quicksilver for the second time, and it was no less interesting, absorbing, and amusing today than when I first read it five years ago.

This book - and the entire trilogy of the Baroque Cycle - won a place on my bookshelf because I enjoyed it so much the first time. It became part of my reading list again because at its core, this is a book about money, about markets, and about the role of both in politics and the foundation and destruction of governments. What could be more timely?

Underneath the funny situations in which Stephenson's eminently likable lead characters find themselves embroiled, the savvy reader will find a solid subtext regarding the manipulation of financial markets, the value of money, and the role of government in the soundness of a country's currency and credit. To me, this theme is even more pertinent and through provoking today (2009) than when the book was first published six years ago.

Like any work of art, Quicksilver can be enjoyed on many levels. For example, if you miss the lessons you could learn from the financial machinations of Eliza, you will nonetheless enjoy the brash outlook on life of Jack Shaftoe, all while painlessly absorbing more European history than you ever thought possible. If you choose to ignore the political theater through which Daniel Waterhouse stumbles apparently unawares, you will still marvel at the first-hand look he gives us at some of the world's preeminent scientists and natural philosophers.

The depth of detail astounds; the complexity of the story and its many subplots amazes; and the aplomb with which words flow from the author's pen is an enviable thing. Buy this book. Better yet, buy all three and save on shipping.

Give the man credit - I read this thing and took notes and looked up the historical references to check "accuracy".....My Lord, it took forever, so I stopped after the first section. How in the world could any human keep this much info straight? Fascinating. Look, the narrative breaks down, modern day slang and situations creep in, and clever tricks of memory explain narrow escapes. I still loved it. Eliza's "thingy" opened waaaay too many doors and Daniel's guilt solved too many puzzles, but I was still mesmerized. Neal is a developing writer with insane talents in need of an editor to understand what on earth he is trying to convey. Good luck editors! This is a wonderful read if you have the patience.

Stephenson has brought the 17th and early 18th centuries to life in a thought-provoking historical novel that is also hilarious at times. The characters are drawn in detail and become like old friends. Stephenson manages to portray the confusion and conflicts that arose as religion and superstition began to give way to empiricism and science. True, as some reviewers have pointed out, the characters don't seem to have an effect on this world and appear to be bystanders, but in fact that is the historical case. What could one do about an Isaac Newton, for example, other than try to understand him and marvel at his brilliance? It was not within the power of one character, or even a government or country, to control or manage the sweeping changes that Newton's ideas would bring - they were all bystanders to the forces unleashed by the new ideas of emerging science and economics. Stephenson gives a believable account of how those new ideas of science, government and finance were generated, perceived and disseminated, with a memorable cast of characters who must grapple with this changing world. His description of the attempts to understand anatomy and the functions of the various organs get down to the nitty-gritty, and make you appreciate that yes, someone actually had to do this stuff in order to establish our modern base of knowledge. I found the book fascinating, and anyone who enjoys history, science,and sexual proclivities of 17th century noblemen (and women)will have a great time reading this book.

Disclaimer: this reviewer is a historickal addict. My mourning of the abrupt loss of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin cycle was partly relieved by a fortuitous encounter with David McCullouch's commendable John Adams biography. Getting wind of Quicksilver, and scanning it in a bookstore, I was tantalized by the tie-ins to Cryptonomicon, from Waterhouse to Root, to Shaftoe and Qwghlm. Thus impelled to a Christmas indulgence, my evenings were enriched for more than a month, with "partum" arriving too soon. What other reviews have neglected to mention is the wonderful precision and wide-ranging richness of language and linguistic allusion Stephenson has given his readers, not to mention the devil-may-care interspersion of his own humourous, 21st century asides (easily accomodated). April 2004, the projected date of issue for Volume Two of the Baroque Cycle, "The Confusion", cannot come too soon. Will Daniel Waterhouse get his stone in a poke? What Persons of Quality will he encounter in Massachusetts? Will Jack resurface? (Some remarkable Deus ex machina for the pox will need be involved.) Will Eliza and her issue land safely in Qwghlm? And what more of "The Red"? All worth the wait, and damn all the quibblers for their stingy and specious elitism!

As a huge fan of nearly everything by Stephenson, and someone who enjoyed reading even those books of his I wouldn't recommend to others, I was shocked by how devoid of life this novel was. What I considered the "trademark" of Stephenson was his fast pacing and verve...no matter what the subject, in a Stephenson novel, things _move_. His writing was a bit like a white water raft trip--you might have been getting drowned in information, but you were having a great time doing it at breakneck pace. This novel has lost that style, so the flood of information is simply rising inexorably toward boredom. Even a move from Waterhouse to Shaftoe, while it helped, did not bring back that sense of spark that is Stephenson. This is a competent work from any other novelist, but it's a disappointment to find that one of our most talented writers spent so much effort on something dozens of other people could have written equally well.

"Too many notes!"

I truly wanted to love this book. I was not at all daunted by the size of the tome (although it was a bit of a lower-back strain to lug it around), nor the topic (I like big sprawling picaresque novels), but found myself steadily growing bogged down throughout my reading of it. I'm not sure I will be able to handle the second and third books in this trilogy.

Stephenson possesses an incredible talent for turning a phrase, and clearly has a ravenous apetite for 17th c. European history and intrigue (which I also love), but in Quicksilver he shows himself, sadly, to be a rather poor storyteller. It seems to me that he fell prey to his own pleasure in language, and forgot all about us, the gentle readers. I'm of the school that one should write to communicate, and wit and historical detail should stay a close second lest it be construed as a clever child showing off.

The issue isn't really with the multiple protagonists, overall. It's with the fact that the protagonists themselves aren't sufficiently highlighted in the foreground of the plot(s) for me to follow them around without getting dizzy. I found the sections that focused on Daniel somewhat dull, but perhaps his character merely was. Eliza is a delight, as is Jack; I've always loved Pepys, Newton, et al. I enjoyed the interweaving of fictional and historical characters immensely, and found many pages so quoteworthy I nearly spat out my coffee from laughing aloud, but ultimately found myself so distracted by the cast of thousands, multilayered plot lines, playing back/forth with time settings, that my interest flagged...

At bottom, Quicksilver has a whole lot of words and ultimately says little. It needs flowcharts, diagrams, and hyperlinks to remind us where we, and the characters, are at.

For some examples very well written historical fiction, set a bit later, read "The Sot-Weed Factor" by John Barth. Or, more frolick-y, "The Crimson Petal and the White" by Michel Faber. I ate 'em both up.

Neal Stephenson's previous novels often stumble their way into
a coherent plot, seemingly in a hit-or-miss fashion.
Unfortunately this last novel is a big miss. In the previous
novels, the cartoonish description of the characters and how
they behave and interact slowly weave their way into a bigger,
more coherent story line.
Quicksilver's inspiration is very interesting: it is inspired
by Newton, Leibniz, et.al.'s attempt to solidify the foundation
of modern science and the scientific method. Thus the characters
are made to speak in 17th century speech, and dressed
appropriately. However, there are several issues here.
The three main characters of Cryptonomicon (Stephenson's previous
novel) run into each other throughout the course of that novel's
history, and the build up to the larger picture kept me excited
and entertained. Shaftoe was modeled after the American GI
poster boy archetype with a yes-can-do-sir attitude, and
Waterhouse was modeled after the boy genius archetype. The
interactions are rich and our familiarity with the archetypes
actually help keep the traction in the novel.
However, Quicksilver has little traction, and the chosen setting
makes it hard to appreciate the depth of the developing plot or
the characters themselves. The breadth of characters is missing
and thus there is not much interesting in the interactions of
the characters themselves. The inherent satire in Cryptonomicon
holds the plot together, but in Quicksilver it is not effective.
As is typical of Stephenson's novels, the ending is hurried,
and the characters interact mostly in monologues divided up
between the characters. Overall, I'm disappointed in
Stephenson's latest writing and hope that the next one
(which it seems will be the second part of the Baroque cycle)
will be better. Considering his record, I am quite confident
it will be.

First was "Snow Crash". Set, at the time of publication, in the very near future. Next was "The Diamond Age", which jumped ahead a century or so. (How many others think YT, from "Snow Crash" has a cameo in the second book. Then came "Cryptonomicon" which told of two families and the intertwning of their lives during World War II and the present day. Cryptonomicon was fascinating, and ultimately told the story of how the world depicted in "Snow Crash" came into being.
Now we have "Quicksilver" which delves even further into the past to give some perspective on ancestors of the main families in "Cryptonomicon". It is a narrative of how we got to where we are today in the sense of technology. It is fun to read. No plot? Shame, shame on all of you who have written the phrase "no plot" for the plot is there, just fine. It is a narrative taking place over a long period of history in which the present day world was shaped. I am reminded of Heinlein's achievement of future history and how he brought his stories into line with each other.
What is breathtaking is the scope of the work. I decided not to read any reviews of this book until I had completed it. Now I have read all 50 reviews and feel compelled to add my own. Why so many negative reviews? Many reasons, most of those reviews, I imagine, are from people who want plot heavy, action oriented tales. But not all of them. Let's face it, no writer is going to please everyone, and that is the case here. If you don't like it fine. I loved it. The writing style is suited to the period depicted. The story is wonderful, especially Daniel Waterhouse's early attempt at setting up a college in America and his present past time as the story opens. Reminded me of "The Difference Engine". This is a long tale, which is only one third finished, but I cannot wait for the other volumes to appear.
One last thing, I have been critical of Stephenson's endings in the past, but recently read an interview where he explained his endings as being the way he likes them. Perhaps with that bit of knowledge in hand it is possible that Stephenson does not like denouements and a tidy wrapping up of all the character's lives at the end of a book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves long, engaging reads where you are immersed in the world created by the author.

This review will be much briefer than the actual book. If you are a fan of Neal Stephenson, then by all means pick up this book. If you are not yet acquainted with Neal Stephenson's work, then I suggest reading Snowcrash or especially Cryptonomicon as your first Stephenson books.

In a nutshell, Quicksilver and the subsequent books are sort of a family history of the Waterhouse and Shaftoe clans and their interrelation, and serves as a sort of prequel to Cryptonomicon. However, reading the Baroque Cycle is not necessary to enjoy Cryptonomicon.

Set during the late 17th and early 18th centuries the plot revolves around, among other things, the two Shaftoe brothers, Bob and Jack, a soldier and a vagabond; Daniel Waterhouse, friend to Isaac Newton, Natural Philosopher and member of the Royal Society; and Eliza, a former slave who rises to nobility while spying for William of Orange and brokering various financial transactions. All of this takes place during the period of European History plagued by, well, the Black Plague, Cromwell's conquering and losing of the English Crown, Louis XIV's reign in France and various other historical events.

It is an interesting story with sex, violence and intrigue, but it moves slowly at times and the lengthy sections of correspondence between Eliza and various other characters slows the pace down even further. But all in all, if historical fiction is something that interests you, then at the very least you should check it out of the library or borrow it from a friend and take it for a test drive before actually buying it.

Stephenson's other works were marvelous works of imagination, marked by his unique, odd sense of humor. He translated his ideas into strangely compelling fictional universes. Even Cryptonomicon, which used a measured dose of history as its base, felt like an epic survey of cryptography. So I purchased Quicksilver without reservation. Now, after wading through about 300 pages of ponderous prose, I've given up.
Stephenson was never what I'd consider a great composer of prose, but he overcame that with his ability to merge an understanding of technologies with a vivid imagination. Quicksilver is historical fiction, always a tricky category. If the history being covered is compelling in and of itself, and in this case it is, the fiction needs to be particularly strong to avoid distracting the reader. It is not.
Stephenson uses characters dialogue to explain a lot of the history and background to the reader, rendering the dialogue dull and awkward, and the characters feel not like human beings but mannequins on which various ideas and exposition can be draped. If I had read 300 pages of pure non-fiction from a gifted historian on Leibniz and Newton and their struggle to claim credit for the invention of calculus, or 300 pages of non-fiction about 17th century England, I would expect to have learned quite a bit. Stephenson's introduction of Daniel Waterhouse failed to enhance my appreciation for that piece of history one bit.
I do believe that Stephenson knows much more about this era than I do, and I firmly believe he wants to convey to us an appreciation for the birth of some of our age's most momentous ideas. His planned 3000 page 3-part Baroque Cycle of historical fiction sounds like much too painful a means of sharing it, though. I'll pass.

I fully intended to finish this book, but by page 200 I gave up (I have too many books that I would rather read). I read and really enjoyed _Cryptonomicon_ so I am used to Stephenson's overblown narratives that switch from character to place to time really quickly. Unlike _Cryptonomicon_ which actually had a plot this book says a lot and does nothing. It's so densely packed with just about any historical person alive at the time and any European event that occurred that I can't follow or remember who is who or what whoever is doing. It's a case of "can't see the forest for the trees".

Maybe I will pick it up later when I have a lot of time to kill and not much else I want to get done.

An amazing book and trilogy. I was impressed by Stephenson's ability to build an argument (about the inevitability of Enlightenment-driven historical changes in social thought and socio-economic systems) over three massive books. I will never revel in the Stephenson's world of numeracy (see, especially, Cryptomicon), but I love his maximalist style. Sometimes baudy and often very funny. BTW, the audible performances for the audible.com version of all three books is well done.

Like many others out there, I got this book hoping for something along the lines of Cryptonomicon. If this is what you are hoping for, prepare to have your hopes dashed. It is about as different from that novel as can be. This is really a straight historical fiction tale set in the 1600-1700's.
Stephenson chooses to write this by adopting some of the cadence and terminology of the time period. This is a bit stilted and streched at first, but with a little patience and time, you start to get used to it. On occasion, the wit, humor, and fascinating digressions that Stephenson displayed in Cryptonomicon peak through, but it was not often enough for my taste.
The first 'book' in this novel is really quite slow and dry, which is an unfortunate first impression. On several occasions, I was on the verge of putting it down altogether. Patience is rewarded in the second book, which offers more of an active story line and lively characters. If you are in the throes of the first book and reading reviews to see what others thought, stick with it.
On the whole, this was a solid Stephenson book. Though written in a slightly off-putting style, the book is a worth-while read.

I too was greatly anticipating Stephenson's newest work, only to find myself disappointed. I didn't find the book a difficult read, per se (admittedly, I'm on of those who love Umberto Eco), but simply found the prose overly dry, the characters not compelling, and the plot nonexistant. While admittedly a plot isn't necessary to a great book, it would help with the pacing of what looks to be a 3000 page work--particularly from an author who has a gift for complex plotting.
In general I love reading history, although mostly nonfiction, but somehow the highly detailed and microscopically rendered descriptive text fell flat for me. I forced myself to finish it, only to wish I was one of those who can so easily toss aside a book they've invested hours in already. It seems to be an either/or proposition--love it or hate it--so I suggest a quick perusal of the text before you invest $30 in a book you may be less than thrilled with.

An enjoyable romp through an exciting time in European history. I wish my highschool history teacher could have presented it as sexed up and gritty as stephenson's vision. Engaging male characters, sparse but interesting female characters. Great story arcs, but then again it is the late 17th-18th centuries, so much going on. Similar writing style to his previous books but more mature, less gagget stuff and more character developement, but still long descriptives (you can skim at your discretion). Looking forward to the next two comming out in paper back, the suckers are heavy!

I think if I was reading this book instead of listening to it on CD I would never have finished it. However, the voice talent on the CD takes the meandering aimless plot (can you even say it has a plot?) and makes it a very entertaining experience. The voice talent, able to nail almost all the British and European accents along with their perfect timing for the dusty dry humor that Neal writes, has made this book on CD a very worthwhile experience. And I have always been a sucker for books that include the history of science. Every chapter has an interesting science history fact or two along with the author bringing out many unusual details of life in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

It was nice to read something that wasn't all plot. The last book I read before this one was The Last Jihad - need I say more...
I knew that when Quicksilver arrived in the mail that it would not be an easy read - but I was anxiously awaiting the chance and I was not disappointed. I had been exposed to most of those scientists during my school years, but what really interested me was the detail in which he described London and its inhabitants. I was laughing out loud as he described some of the outlandish outfits some of the 'fops' wore to walk around the streets. I could picture it perfectly as Neal has a great way of describing things when he puts his mind to it.
Like other reviewers mentioned, there is lots of stuff here and no coherent plot, but I found myself looking up some of the names mentioned in the book to find out more. How many works of fiction actually make you want to expand your knowledge like that?
In today's world where most of us hunger for instant gratification and neat plotlines, it was refreshing to read something that took you back to a pretty much forgotten era. It made me realize how many important things were discovered. I can't wait until the 2 volumes come out.

I wanted to like this book. I read Cryptonomicon ten years ago and liked it. I thought that Stephenson was a good writer but I've pretty much had it now with him. I tried Anathem and got about as far as I did with The Baroque Cycle which was about 200 pages.

The problem with this book is that it is just too dense, nonlinear and difficult to follow. It seems that Stephenson gets off with overly complex side stories and creations that make the main story nearly impossible to follow for me. I can't keep the main characters straight nor the points of their actions when there is so much needless needless filler. Yes, it is really great that he can come up with some of the obtuse story diversions. But just because you can does not mean you should.

I bought this book fully knowing that it was going to be dense and probably difficult. I was prepared to sit down and enjoy it through the winter as a fulfilling and challenging read. But it is just too much. I still think that Stephenson is a talented writer but someone needs to speak up about how overly taxing his work can be. Sadly, it's just not for me.

Neal Stephenson's understanding and creativity are simply mind-blowing and in Quicksilver he has crafted another masterpiece. This book rocks! Like Umberto Eco's famous book (and movie) about a medieval monestary "The Name of the Rose," Quicksilver attempts to get inside of the history of ideas, as well as the history of religions, empires, culture and people, with a multi-genre story highlighting the major events and trends, as well as the tiny, every-day details of the historical period in which it is set. This is all accomplished within the framework of a compelling story/drama/adventure. (Actually, Eco's book the "Island of the Day Before" is probably a better comparison since the period in which it is set, the early 17th Century is closer to Quicksilver which is set in the late 17th and early 18th Century.)
Stephenson's literary pretentions are fairly minimal, and as a result, his work may lack some of the stylistic richness of Eco, or some of the other famous writers of historical fiction. But he makes up for this and more with the awe-inspiring historical breadth and conceptual scope, the complexity of the plot, the action, the humor and, most of all, the insight. He possesses the rare skill to create an adventure tale tying together the ideological and religious schisms of the age, the ambitions of the leading persons, the politics and court intrigues, the geneology of European royalty and their struggles for succession and power, the economics, the trade, the industry, the social relations, the architecture, the infrastructure, the travel, the transportation, the geography, the warfare, the legal systems, the culture, the theater, the literature, the agriculture, the hygene, the sanitation (the smell), the medical practices, the social mores, sexual practices and of course, since this is Neal Stephenson, the SCIENCE, ENGINEERING and TECHNOLOGY of the era.
While most prominent writers are competent stylists and many can claim historical knowledge, few can boast an ability to really understand the mathematical and scientific content and the significance of such important figures as Newton, Leibniz, Descartes, Huygens, Hooke, and many others. Among the few writers that share Stepheson's ability to grasp such eclectic but important matters as the mathematics of navigation, the mechanics of sailing ships, the chemistry of early gun-powder, the basic principles of cryptography, 17th Century optics, etc., Stephenson is unique in his ability to make these ideas accessible and interesting to laymen readers and alone in his talent to weave it all into a kick-a$# roller coaster of a story.
Quicksilver explores the people, ideas and advances that paved the way for our modern age of information and globalization; the beginnings of our financial, banking and currency systems, capital markets like the Amsterdam and London Stock Exchanges; the first national libraries, the first multinational corporations like the Dutch East India Company and Lloyd's of London; the sprouts of such ideas as freedom of religion, speech, commerce and consciousness. The continued colonization of the Americas and the exploration of the world's oceans. Amidst all of these (mostly) positive developments that we think of as "progress," Stephenson is keen to remind us of the hard reality of the wide-spread slave trade, the forced labor, the constant brutality of religious and political oppression, witch-hunts, hangings, burnings, inquisitions, pirates, banditry, the ever present scourge of disease - bubonic plague, smallpox, syphilis and a ghastly array of other medical conditions and the equally horrific primitive medicine; as well as the warfare, pillage and famine.
The cast of characters, real and fictional, is a rainbow of the most prominent scientists and philosophers of the age, the most powerful Kings, Queens, Dukes, Courtiers, as well as simple tradesmen, actresses, students, farmers, sailors, pirates, landless-peasants (vagabonds), slaves, British, Dutch, French, Germans, Swiss, Italians, Russians, Turks, Africans, Jews, Armenians, Gypsies and more. Delightful cameos from real historical persons such as Newton, Ben Franklin, Blackbeard, Louis the 14th, Jan Sobieski, William of Orange, Oliver Cromwell's decapitated head, Samuel Pepys, Spinoza, John Churchill - Duke of Marlborough, ancestor of Winston, and countless more. The story sails and gallops around the globe from colonial Boston to London to Paris to Amsterdam to Vienna to Venice to Morrocco to Algieria from palace to castle to salon to saloon to inn to village to church to market to fair to ship to canal to river to ocean to city to mountain to mine. There are battles, sword fights, conspiracies, chases (on horse, on ship) as well as long discourses on the origins of calculus and cryptography as well as the era's revolutionary advances in physics, astronomy, biology, etc. It's just plain cool.
If I have one complaint, it is that this book is too big and heavy to carry around so I have no chance to read on the train to work or during lunch or coffee breaks (the origins of the global coffee trade and the start of cafe society are duly - and humorously recorded in Quicksilver). Many other reviewers found it long-winded but even the slowest parts and longest descriptions are full of little nuggets of humor and historical insight. Judging from earlier reviews, many of Stephenson's computer geek devotees are mad that Neal wrote a book with no passages on coding or futuristic techie concepts. They don't seem to share Stephenson's fascination with this period of history. Pay no attention to their fan-boy belly-aching. They sound like Trekkies outraged about some minor plot inconsistency. To switch metaphors and fan-bases, Stephenson is no George Lucas and Quicksilver is no prequel disappointment. He is on top of his game, picking up where Cryptonomicon left off. Those who appreciated his talent and brilliance in his earlier books should love Quicksilver and look forward with baited breath to the release of the next two books in the series. I encourage first timers to ignore the loud complaints of self-proclaimed Neal Stephenson purists (or, more aptly, Puritans denouncing this cyber-punk heresy) and go give it a read.

Much of the book is a slog, because it contains long lists of etymological classifications, details of scientific experiments, and recitations of of Biblical or theological arguments. Interesting details are, well, interesting. But long lists of data are, well, boring. The book does take off when pirates attack and when Daniel's father burns up in the Great London Fire. I'll leave it at that so the reader has something to look forward to, if one's commitment survives a half-book slog to get there.

It was worth it, because in illuminating the work of Royal Society scientists "Quicksilver" tells a science story through a humanistic media, i.e., a well-written novel. Science is difficult, so I suppose it's appropriate that the reader must suffer through the tedium of excessive detail to attain the satisfaction of an enlightening tale (as another reviewer writes: "In describing the failed experiments, fires, smells, persecutions, and other dramas of their quest for knowledge he gives a human face to the development of science.") Stick it out for the pay off.
MONSTERS OF THE MIDWAY The Death, Resurrection, and Redemption of Chicago Football

My view could be skewed by the fact that I read this book while stuck in the hospital for 5 days and had nothing better to do, but after slogging through the first 300 pages, the plot materialized and I finished page 913 looking forward to book two.
If you are not into history or science, you will not enjoy this book. And if you do, but lack any knowledge of 17th century royalty, then it takes some effort to keep the characters (and their significance) straight.
Also beware that if you get to the end, the story ends almost in midstream. So to keep going you will have to read Mr. Stephenson's second tome.

Having read Stephenson's "Zodiac" a couple years ago, I stumbled upon QS by chance one day and decided to give it a try. I ended up finishing the book, but it was rather like wading through an interminably long and thick swamp. I must admit, there were a couple pages I considered clever, but for the most part, I found this to be a hugely disappointing concoction of disconnected trivia and cliches. One of the reasons I actually decided to give the book a try was the fact that I assumed it to contain some historical fiction. While dealing with many historical personages and venues, Stephenson has put in just enough tomfoolery and character invention to take the story into the realm of alternative history, but in a way I personally found to be annoying. Even forgiving that aspect, I'd have to echo some of the other commentators herein in saying that both plot and narrative focus are entirely missing. The panoply of characters is also broad and difficult to keep straight most of the time (helpfully, though, Stephenson provides a full list of characters and dropped names at the end... a virtual necessity), and because Stephenson is fond of injecting various strange traits into them, don't really have time for development, and become utterly forgettable. Even the protagonist, Mr. Waterhouse, seems to be a limpid sounding board shuffling around aimlessly while being instructed in the scientific and arcane by assorted luminaries.
The story became so utterly uncompelling and tedious, that I was actually skipping entire passages and pages midway through, with the hope that some semblance of purpose would pop up near the end. That didn't happen though, and it certainly didn't whet my appetite to crack open the next book in this series.

I loved this book to bits.
One of the reasons is that it deals with a lot of subjects I am interested in : history, physics and the relationship between religion, politics and science. The chosen time period is dead on for illustrating the latter : during the late 17th century the fight between Catholics and Protestants (of all feathers)for supremacy on British soil went into its final and decisive round, while some of the greatest minds ever set about discovering the underlying physics of the universe. Stephenson does a great job bringing historical figures such as Newton, Hooke and Leibniz to life and mingling them with fictitious characters that are central to the plot.
Another reason is Stephenson's style of writing. I understand that some find it longwinded, bloated and tedious. One advice to those readers : stick to 200 page max action packed novellas and stay away from the bigger work. To me, this novel is an actual pageturner : not because so many things are happening - though they certainly do - but because the writing is so well crafted and packed with ideas. Stephenson succeeds in showing us how 17th century people struggled to understand the world they were living in and often he does this by juxtaposing solid scientific efforts with experiments that we know are bound to fail and thus to be laughable. E.g. on the one hand he shows Hooke experimenting with pebbles in a bottle, trying to find out whether pebbles actually grow, Wilkins trying to develop an universal scientific language where every word can have only one meaning and Newton dabbling in alchemy, but on the other hand also Hooke making the first chronometer measuring seconds and Newton turning out his Principia Mathematica.
The Baroque Cycle is wide in scope, well written and has some great characters - both historical and fictitious - whom you are bound to become attached to. I did not think this book one page too long and am already well into the next volume that shows equal promise. Don't be deterred by moanings like "needs editing badly" or "cut out 200 pages" and let yourself be swept off your feet by this whale of a novel.

I really liked this book. It was absolutely fascinating. I would have gone out, purchased Volume 2 and started it the same night I finished Volume 1. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait for Volume 2. (Anyone know the timing on that?)
Nevertheless, I can see why some people are put off by this book. However, some of the negative reviews are off base. Just because it is not your cup of tea doesn't mean it is a bad book. The writing is excellent, the research impeccable and the character development superb.
My advice would be that if you weren't hooked by page 100, put it down and move on to something else.

I enjoyed this book. My complaint is that Harper Collins, led by Rupert Murdoch, charges more for ebook than for paperback. This is dishonest.

Update: Immunity to persuasion is a vice. I must confess that I agree with those who replied that it is unfair to condemn the book for factors outside the control of its author and extraneous to its content. I changed my rating.

To those who complain that the book is too wordy, I share that view... to a point.

Mr. Stephenson paints a picture so well that you feel you are there. If you can be there, in the moment, and not be worrying about checking off a list of things that happened in the story, you will enjoy this book a lot more. This is not to say that I did not feel the need to read fast at times.

I have purchased other Baroque historical novels on the store. The difference is dramatic. Maybe there is too much painstakenly researched detail. I felt the lack of it in the other author's "work".

If you've been meaning to check out that cyberpunk guy Neal Stephenson, start with his books "Diamond Age" or "Snow Crash". If you're curious about the 17th century and like your historical fiction to come spiced with plenty of irony and hubris, you might want to give "Quicksilver" a try. If you're a long-time Stephenson fan, be prepared for some ambivalent feelings.
Stephenson's latest is the first in a three book cycle. It takes place during the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment. Stephenson has declared "Quicksilver" to be a sort of prequel to "Cryptonomicon": the books share ideas, family trees and symbolic motifs, providing ample material for geek fans to ferret out occult meanings and connections. The most prominent connection is the mystery of Enoch Root - Angel? Alien? Time Traveler? - who may be Stephenson's last link to the traditionally fantasy-based sci-fi genre.
It's tempting to compare "Quicksilver" to the works of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut or Joseph Heller. Its frequent comical anachronisms - Leibnitz writing that Venetian gondoliers worry about "canal rage", not road rage - notify you that rather than a faithful historical piece, the book may be more like the present dressed up in fancy costumes. But Stephenson does not have the same political commitments as these novelists: the intrepid scientists, cocky entrepreneurs or self-reliant warriors - collectively the libertarian X-Men that populate all of Stephenson's novels - ultimately make him a different kind of monkey than novelists who like to point out that objective history is a sham benefiting only power.
So what is Stephenson trying to say about history? His point is more basic and more abstractly formal than political, even if two-thirds of "Quicksilver" is full of intricate court plots and intrigue: Stephenson causes us to recognize the technologies and ideas of the present in the past. On the other hand, he includes enough clumsy surgery and revolting hygiene to make the past seem like an alien barbarism Europe is lucky to have survived.
"Quicksilver" swings between these two poles: continuity and change. Cryptography and the mathematics of Newton and Leibnitz represent a continuity, an essential ancestral likeness that produces the present. But such continuity is not just the inevitable outcome of a long process of gradual human evolution: it begins with rapid, obvious change - revolution - as fast as elemental quicksilver. Stephenson's characters ponder historical sameness and epochal difference; they try to lead readers into these same contemplations.
This review was originally published by NadaMucho.com.

(Spoiler warning!)

I read and absolutely loved The Cryptonomicon. I had high hopes for Quicksilver but alas I was disappointed. While written in the same style as the Cryptonomicon the threads are too nebulous and fluid.

An example is that there's a lengthly section about silver mining and how a Natural Philosopher (scientist) and the enigmatic Enoch Root discover a way to economically coax silver from silver mine dregs. So the group travels to Amsterdam (or someplace, I forget) to get mercury, a necessary ingredient for the silver reclamation process. We never hear about it again, except for a single one-line reference 100 pages later.

The book is full of threads like this that go nowhere or are too subtle for my limited intellect.

Quicksilver just didn't gel for me.

I am torn writing a review for this book. I discovered N.S. early with `The Big U' and have been excited with where he has taken me with each new novel. However, reading `Quicksilver' has shown me that N.S. seems to be stalling in his abilities as an innovative author. Reading the 944 pages provided me a lot of time to wonder if this is my stop and should I get off the Stephenson train. Especially when the next in the Baroque Cycle is weighing in at 814 pages. If you are like me, time is precious, and sitting with a trilogy that will likely span beyond 2000 pages may not be the right choice when I could pick up something from Barth, Pynchon, or David Foster Wallace. I will say there was enough of N.S. unique voice to keep me around for the duration. Here are my complaints:
1) Plot, where was it? Fictionalizing a few encyclopedia entries doesn't count. The main characters witnessed and even participated in historical events, but a deeper connection and subsequent personal growth was never present. If you can't nail down the plot in 944 pages, you need to get an editor.
2) Motivation? What is the saying...'show it, don't tell it' Except for the occasional bit of background information conveyed by the disappointingly modern voice of narration these characters were largely underdeveloped and shallow. This lead me to question why characters were really doing what they were doing. I frequently found myself wanting to through the book across the room from disbelief, case in point: Eliza and Jacks light conversation filled with sexual implications in the midst of a cave full of ladies of the harem, a couple of Turkish fighters, and an ostrich (all dead and/or beheaded).
3) Original characterization? How boring and gimmicky to name a few of the characters identically as those in `Crypto.' Even more so when nothing is has changed with these people from the two scenarios. Even more irritating is when I look back on all of N.S. work I realize that when you strip the names away he only has a handful of characters. The main character is always a bad ass in what he does, but never the best (those are always his friends and colleagues). He writes women very two-dimensionally, and are only recognizable as female by their names.
D. Waterhouse = D. Waterhouse = Hiro Protagonist = Hackworth = Sangamon Taylor.
As a work of historical fiction of that era, you'd be better off reading John Barth's "The Sotweed Factor", which covers issues of commerce, piracy, politics, etc... It wouldn't surprise me is N.S. had a copy of Sotweed on his desk while he was penning his `Cycle' with his fountain pen. I did stick around for the entire 944, which communicates that `Quicksilver' keeps the pages turning. Whether the pages turned for entertainment or for a desperate need to put an end to it depend on where you are in reading Stephenson's works. This will likely be my last stop.

In Quicksilver, Stephenson provides an extremely well-researched and compelling account of the development of the modern world, as a biproduct of the philosophical, religious, and social changes which took place in the post-Rennaissance world.

For those of you who only read books in order to discover interesting bits of trivia, I pose the question: Why would you read a thousand page book just for trivia? Nevertheless, QS weaves in all kind of interesting facts about London before it burnt down, the development of natural philosophy (now lovingly referred to as science), and the interplay of commerce as a driving force, both politically and intellectually.

What I found particularly compelling about QS and the entire Cycle in general, is that it provided a very interesting perspective on the world as it exists in 2006, as a result of the changes made in, before, and in the years after 1666. The changes which took place then, like it or not, are what made the world what it is today. Although it is probably possible to say that about many other epochs, if stated indirectly enough, the development of the new "system of the world" which began in QS provided a large amount of fodder for my contemplations on the state of the world, in which we live, today.

What is it with authors who disdain the use of straightforward unambiguous language and story lines in deference to obscure pedantic meanderings which are calculated to display their quirky intelligence? I loved Cryptonomicon and couldn't wait for Stephenson's new tomb, but I have been sorely disappointed. I love history when it is told in an engaging and enlightening style. This author however loves to throw out endless historical references without any explanation or context leaving this reader to scratch his head in confusion and to continually reference the Encyclopedia Britannica. This was difficult heavy going made purposely so by the author. All of the gratuitously meretricious meanderings might have been somewhat more tolerable had Stephenson managed to create characters who one cares about. But he failed in this regard as well. This book is a far cry from Cryptonomicon. Beware.

This epic story is an amazing blend of ideas from the history of science and adventure. The tempo of the writing is more like an adventure story. "Quicksilver" is probably most appealing to geeks and those who enjoy historical fiction. When you really like something it's natural to think everyone else will love it too, but they won't. Quicksilver and the rest of the trilogy make for a longgggg read, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Long and enjoyable like Lord of the Rings on film, sweeping in scope, a real epic. Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors. If you've never read one of his books I'd reccommend "Cryptonomicon" or "Snow Crash" to read first.

Quicksilver is not easy to read. It is slow and precise in its detail, but with effort this allows the book and its themes and characters to come alive. Stephenson is building on his epic and free-slowing style from Cryptonimicon- if you did not enjoy that book you will have a tough time with this. If you can absorb an abundance of colorful characters and their motiviations in a vivid historical context, then you will be rewarded for your effort.

I had read all of NS's books written before this. I liked them all better than this. In particular I liked Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon. While he obviously put a lot of effort into researching and writing this book and the succeeding two volumes, this does not compare with the 3 I mentioned above. It has some funny moments, but drags on without any real meat to keep you interested in what is going to happen to the characters. Yes, some ancestors of characters in Cryptonomicon appear, but without much point except to share a common name.
Unfortunately after anxiously awaiting this book's release, it was a big let-down. I will be waiting to see the reviews on #2 before I buy it.
What I am looking forward to is what comes *AFTER* this three volume saga comes to its conclusion.

I have been a big fan of Mr Stephenson's writing. Snow Crash and Cryptonomicom are two of my favorite books. I really liked the historical fiction content in Cryptonomicom and was very much looking forward to this book coming out. Mr Stephenson's previous success must have given him power over the editors because this book is way too long and way too fat with tedious detail. While the level of research he did is incredible and impressive, I wish he had some restraint in what he put in the book. He also leaned way too hard on techniques like chapter after chapter of journal entries or letters back and forth between the characters. Ok once in a while, but to me, it gets incredibly boring and kills the flow of the story. The book starts to get interesting in the second "book" - unfortunately 340 pages in. It picks up for a while but gets off track the last couple of hundred pages. Since it is the first of three books in a series, you don't get anything close to a satisfying conclusion. Naturally, the key plot elements are left in the air. After 900+ pages, this was a real let down. All in all, I recommend just avoiding this whole series. It is a shame that such an entertaining author is now out of circulation until we are done with this three book series. I understand that the second book is out in the spring. I wish they would do some major editing and get it down to an entertaining 500 page book instead of a hideously boring 800-900 page mess. Otherwise, I am going to cut my losses and skip it.

This book is like a Frederick Church painted vista. It is a quality overview of life in the late 1600s, mostly focused in Europe, but with a touch of American (Cape Cod) storyline. Though a long work of historically informed fiction, it has enough content to easily avoid seeming padded. For those wishing to read a good story, and along the journey encounter poignant explanations for how we got to where we are, I recommend this book.

I really liked Cryptonomicon, as the other reviewers of this book likely did. One of the "cool" factors of Cryptonomicon was how Stephenson used asides to talk about interesting trivia that us geeks find interesting; unfortunately, he goes way overboard with this in Quicksilver. His countless tidbits and asides regarding people and places of the 16th and 17th century simply don't work. None of us readers lived during that time, and I can say with assuredness that few of his readers are full blown Renaissance-age scholars. The result: Neal's "clever" trivia is a meaningless and boring tedium for the average reader of this book.
I see what he's trying to accomplish here, but he could have probably accomplished it with 400 less pages of distracting statistics and biographical sketches. He obviously did a lot of research on his time period, and that shows in this book -- but his delivery could use some work.

I was expecting the worst when I read the reviews here. But I was captured from page 1 until I finished the book, and now I'm eagerly awaiting the next two volumes.
Whether you like the book or not depends upon what interests you, and that explains the mixed reviews. It helps if you are interested in much of: history of science, astronomy, computation, AI, crypto, gruesome experiments, sailing ships and economics. I liked all but the last two. I hated history at school, but this made it (almost) fun.
Stephenson makes the past even stranger than the future. Despite the anachronisms and the surreal characters, this book smells real. It is as different as Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon are from each other, and better than either of them.

I usually like to wait until I complete a book before writing a review but, with some of the comments on here about Quicksilver, I didn't want to wait. This is totally fascinating book about a time and place and epoch in history. The level of detail is spellbinding in regard to the history, science, fashion, politics, intrigue, and morals of the later 17th and early 18th century.
And I do feel like I "know" many of the characters -- Daniel Waterhouse, Watkins, Newton, etc. -- even though the main characters of this book are Natural Philosophy, the Scientific Revolution, the Laws of Physics, Cromwell and then the Restoration, and the like.
And the plot is much more riveting than a Grisham thriller since it has to do with real events -- what will the results be of the experiments of the Royal Society? How will Anglicans, Catholics, and Puritans co-exist in England, America? Is Newton a genius or a madman?
Overall, if you give this book the time and attention it deserves (use the maps, royal history charts, and cast list in the back liberally) you will be well-rewarded.

It took me three failed attempts at reading Stephenson's Quicksilver before I finally finished it on the fourth attempt. By the end of the book I was smacking myself for not having read it earlier and chomping at the bit to start reading the next two books.

Although I detest using the hackneyed phrase, 'an epic saga', Stephenson's Baroque Cycle really deserves, if only for the word count. Featuring not one but 3 main characters, countless plot lines, thousands of little nuggets of knowledge, less dry humor then any of his book before and of course the inimitatable Enoch Root, this series is not for the faint hearted. The story presented here is not one that you read for the conclusion but for the sheer joy of the story in itself.

If you have never read Stephenson before then run, scram, shoo! Go read Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon both of which are far more accessible (and possibly better written) books. But if you are already acquainted with Stephenson and/or are not afraid of a little (or a lot) bit of extra reading then you might want to consider giving this excellent series a try.

***NOTE:- If you are a purveyor of useless facts, at least slightly geeks and can understand why the joke "2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2" is funny, then you definitely want to read this series.

Fantastic Book! My fave of the 3 long novels in the Baroque Cycle.
When considering this book, at least in paperback, realize this book is only the 1st 1/3 of a more than 900 page original Quicksilver novel in hardback.
Although the store is making it hard to discover this fact until after you've bought it, dig deeper to find out how to get the entire novel of Quicksilver, as well as the other2 in the cycle. They also are broken into smaller "books".
Shamer, the store.

I saved this book for several months because (a) it appeared to be dauntingly long and knowing Stephenson's capacity for complexity I knew that I'd to concentrate on the plot, and (b) because Stephenson's language has a scrumptious desert-like quality that is a pleasure to read for the sake of the words themselves. I was not disappointed (and can't entirely fathom why others were) on either score. I am looking forward to the next 1,800 pages.

I enjoyed having a peek (albeit it fictional one) into the minds of the men who shaped the people we are today. I enoyed the historical context of the novel. I enjoyed Stephenson's way with words (and were this a high-school essay, I would support that with appropriate excerpts).

I am enjoying the wonderment of what the finished piece will look like when all of the threads are woven together. I am curious to know how they will connect with our Waterhouses and Shaftoes of today (e.g. Crytonomicon). (But perhaps I am putting on Stephenson some predictability that I ought not-- oh, I hope so because I do love a surprise.)

Now, it's not Snow Crash which was loaded with action-- so if you're expecting gun-toting pizza delivery people-- forget it. This book takes place in the 17th century when it was not practical to tote a musket or a flintlock around while delivering cheese-laden dough circles. But if you enjoy the intelligence and wit of a (obviously warped) mind that can conceive of gun-toting pizza delivery people on suped up skate boards, and appreciate that self-same mind applied to the brave new world that Newton, Hooke and Liebniz brought forth, then you will enjoy this work.

I'm a huge Neal Stephenson fan, so I was looking forward to a trilogy of books. Unfortunately, about the only thing this book has in common with his other (mostly brilliant) works is a large page count. Plenty of character development, but very little plot.

After a two week marathon session, during which I shunned food, family and Christmas alike, I finished Stephenson's Quicksilver. Once again, I was blown away by his style, vocabulary, character development and his astounding ability to weave a multitude of seemingly-unconnected events into a coherent, even beautiful, whole.
The characters seemed to jump off the page and far from being carbon copies of one another; each brought a unique force to bear on this shaky, intrigue-plagued, action-packed era of world history.
Those that criticize the work do so, I imagine, out of a disappointment that this book is not a hard-core science fiction work, a la "Snow Crash" or "Diamond Age". However, anyone who read "Cryptonomicon" and enjoyed the characters of Enoch Root, America Shaftoe or Randy Waterhouse, will no doubt enjoy glimpsing a few generations back in their family history.
At just over 900 pages, it's not for everybody. If you are looking for a book that is intelligent, witty, fun, exciting and does NOT cater to the lowest common denominator, then Quicksilver is for you. I can't wait for the sequel.

My first Srehenson read was Crypronomicon and at first I thought I might not be smart enough for the book but I quickly got engaged with the story, characters and history. So, I thought I would try another. This is the most boring story I have ever listened to and I listen all the time. It just rambles on and on and on like a bad text book. I'm bailing out at the 2/3 level. He's like a person that just loves to listen to themselves ramble on if you know what I mean. I'll try another but I'm done with this one!

In Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson tells the true story of King John Sobieski, the "Unvanquished Northern Lion," King of Poland and Ukraine, who in 1683 liberated Vienna from Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, aka "The Turk."

Quicksilver also tells the stories of of "Half-Cocked" Jack Shaftoe; soldier, miserable slave trader, intrepid adventurer, and swashbuckling King of the Vagabonds. While a soldier deserting Sobieski's army, Shaftoe stole a horse from Sobieski himself, and then, a year or two later stole a horse from King Louis IV, the Sun King, in Paris. Shaftoe, who earned his fame as Vagabond King, got away with the horse and his life on both occasions. Hunted by the royal army in France and on the run from witches in Germany, Shaftoe, the intrepid adventurer, sets sail for Africa and the Caribean.

Quicksilver also tells the stories of some of Shaftoe's friends: his brother Bob, various English Noblemen, philosophers, scientists, Puritans and Enlightened men, French Refugees like the Doomed Hugenot Monsieur Arlanc and St. George, The Exterminator, "Le Mort Aux Rats." And Eliza, the woman Shaftoe couldn't love.

Eliza: Duchess, Spy, madly in love with Shaftoe, stock trader in Amsterdam, confidante of Liebnitz, Slave-Girl in the Harem of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa and Nanny, Teacher, and Courtier of the Sun King, which, at least according to Stephenson, is not unlike being a slave-girl in the Harem of the Grand Vizier.

Throwing in politics, Quicksilver discusses the religious persecutions of the 17th Century. In England of the persecutions of "Papists" and the Puritans, in France against the Huguenots, in Germany and America of the Witches, and in passing of the Jews, shuffled like playing cards from one country to the next. These are persecutions of men and women who would be different, who would think, who were born without power, or without the blessings of the so-called "Nobles."

Like the alchemists he writes about, Stephenson mixes in the history of science, the evolution from alchemy to chemistry and classical physics in an attempt to create gold. Quicksilver tells the story of Isaac Newton and Leibnitz and how they both invented the Calculus independently of each other but at about the same time - Newton first then Liebnitz, but with Liebnitz publishing first after waiting a reasonable time for Newton. And Hooke, Locke and others who with Newton and Liebnitz built the foundation of modern mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine out of Plato, Aristotle, Galileo, and the pre-modern alchemists.

Quicksilver is historical fiction, but like Stephenson's earlier work, Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, and the other books in "The Baroque Trilogy" are also "economic fiction." In Quicksilver Stephenson tells the story of the development of money - from "cockle shells" in Africa to coins to cheques, or what my economics professor called "Demand Deposits," of the first stock market in Amsterdam, and of International Trade of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Quicksilver is a vault full of information; from the Plague in London to the invention of the Calculus. But the pages are a melted amalgam of gold, silver and base metals. It is full of details not often mentioned in high school or undergrad college. While the details are facinating, even exciting in places, in 900 pages, Quicksilver tells to many stories. The book doesn't flow like quicksilver, rather, it sits like lead. Stephenson's a good writer, and probably a meticulous researcher, but he needs an editor who can say "This is good but not necessary." I don't have time to read 900 pages of the first book in a 2700 page trilogy. This is a great book to take if you're going to be marooned on an island, or perhaps if you're flying back and forth between coasts or continents. Writers should challenge the readers, but the challenge should be to think, not to finish the book. This could have been a great book. But in 900 pages, it's simply too long to be that good.

In his books, Neal Stephenson usually has some fantastical/scifi elements that make the stories very interesting. Quicksilver is a break from his style. He delivers an amazingly well written historical novel, but it wasn't what I was expecting based on his other works. The sectioning of the book into basically 3 different storylines also causes your interest to reset during the book, making it very much NOT a page-turner. At 900ish pages, this is very bad. I would tear through his other books in days, this one took months as I got distracted by more interesting books.

This is personally my favorite of all Stephenson's works -- I'm 3/4s of the way through Confusion now -- and it is just as good. So why the complaints? Because it's not the kind of quick read many enjoy, I suppose. If you thought Cryptonomicon was dense, this is not the book(s) for you. If you don't mind reading a chapter or two, setting the book down, doing a bit of research and then some thinking, it's a treasure. The author's writing style has been refined -- much better literary quality than say Snow Crash or Diamond Age -- Although, again, it is NOT the same style of book. Both of those are gems, if you haven't read them, but Quicksilver puts you in the weeds - and for those who enjoy being in the weeds, there are few books as good.

Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver is certainly a wild ride-- there's lots of bawdy, witty fun to be had in reading this novel. There is so much going on in this novel that a quick summary of the plot would be pointless (and darn near impossible). the store has summed it up nicely on these pages. Suffice it to say that Quicksilver is a great, big read, one which will take you a while to get through. But you'll enjoy every minute, every word. Stephenson is a master. Pick this one up when you have some time.

To begin with I must confess that I'm only about half way through this book, which is presently resting on my bedside table in all it's huge reproachfulness! Like many here I loved Cryptonomicon, and in consequence went back to read other Stephenson books. When I heard about Quicksilver it sounded very exciting and I immediately placed an order for a copy in advance.
Unfortunately, the result is that I've ambled through half of the book and am not sure if I'll continue. Reusing characters made famous in former novels is a tricky game, as Irvine welsh's "Trainspotting" to "Porno" progression illustrates. Reusing characters as they may have looked and sounded if they'd been born centuries before is even trickier, and apt to weary the reader. This is what has happened in this case. You know what the characters are like, and what their motivations generally are. As such you don't develop the same interest and affection for them as you did in Cryptonomicon. Also, Cryptonomicon had a plot, a damn good one. uicksilver has research, lots of it, and a wearyign amount of anachronisms, cameo "appearances" and wearying in-jokes.
Does this mean it's a badly-written book. Absolutely not. Stephenson is a very good writer. I jut feel that he let himself get weighed down by the background reading he obviously did. You can write historical novels that are of the era and yet heavy with life and perenially engaging characters. Rose Tremain is a great example. But there's a real nudge-nudge-wink-wink tone to Quicksilver that makes you feel as if the characters are only masquerading as seventeeth century folk. Maybe this stems from having come to know the central characters so well in the twentieth century in Cryptonomicon. Alan Turing was necessary to Cryptonomicon. Stephenson wore his learning lightly there and gave us a fine portrait of a very interesting man, and beautifully co-opted him to his tale. Leibniz comes out like a buffoon in Quicksilver. Interestingly, it's Stephenson's portrait of the enigmatic Newton that really enlivens the portion of the book I've read thusfar. As it stands I'm beginning to wish that Neal had decided to write a fictional life of Newton. On the evidence of this book I feel he could have done a wonderful job, and it would have been a far more interesting work. Perhaps John Banville will add to his Kepler and Copernicus work by doing so.
I'm hoping this book comes together, but numerous reviews here admit to dashed hopes in that respect. I'll be selling this hardcover, buying a hardcover of Cryptonomicon, and borrowing the rest of this series from friends.
A pity, but this publishing event has turned out to be rather damp squib!

Well, what can I tell ya. Stephenson's knowledge of naval and scientific arcana is boundless. That much is true. I just think he has a tendency to blather on about things that are of little consequence, which makes this a tedious read. However! You can't read "Confusion" -- the 2nd part, without reading this and Confusion is much, MUCH better, so you must read this as a prelude. Read it as a stepping stone to the sequel. You won't regret it.

Several of the reviewers have pointed out the supposed departure of Mr. Stephenson from his previously published genre. Having invested the time to burn through all of his increasingly heavier tomes, I would have to say - "Depends on your intepretation". David Brin advocates renaming true science fiction (as opposed to the science fantasy portion of the genre) as speculative history, into which this work falls squarely as sort of speculative science history. Only Snow Crash is neither baroque-feeling and futurist (in fact, it is more nearly a work of absurdist humour). The Diamond Age - which I name among my all-time favourites is a work of alternate future history - with a heavy 19th century influence. Cryptonomicon & Zodiac have very little futurist about them, the former exploring the work of prominent historical contributors to the field of cryptography. So I say to those reviewers, this is the same sort of work - wherein I unexpectedly learned about the emergence of science in our culture. So I guess it is obvious that I am still a fan of Mr. Stephenson.
I say all this with the confession that nearly my entire collection is the work of futurists, and maybe my advancing years have softened my opinion on creations that exist outside of this narrow genre.
John Bucknell, Age 32

This book is self indulgence on a grand scale, Neal Stephenson building on the success of _Cryptonomicon_ (a vast, sprawling, doorstop of a book that was astoundingly good) in order to create a self-indulgent mess of a book that sprawls everywhere and goes nowhere. To say that I was, and am, disappointed is an understatement. The Neal Stephenson of _The Diamond Age_ or _Snow Crash_ appears to have disappeared. This book has the worst of _Cryptonomicon_ (the sprawling doorstop of a book nature) without that thing that Crytonomicon had in spades, actual PLOT.

Buy only if you're a Stephenson completist. There's lots of better ways to spend your time. This book is better than the bodice rippers out there (thus I give it 2 stars), but otherwise is not worth going out of your way to read, even if you like historical fiction.

...and he wants his novel back.
/Quicksilver/ is an entertaining reinvention of /Gravity's Rainbow/. Its deep theme appears to be the social upheaval surrounding a major shift in scientific and economic paradigms following a disastrous pan-European war. With, natch, the occasional comic musical interlude. Note also that the recycling of characters' names (I do like the suggestion that Enoch Root is the very *same* Enoch Root, and has indeed found the Philosopher's Stone (by the way, note the ever-so-cute pun there with regard to what resides in Waterhouse's bladder)) is Pynchonian, as witnessed by Pig/Seaman/Fender-Belly Bodine.
Stephenson picked the Forty Years' War (and English Revolution) as his core conflict, rather than Pynchon's World War Two, but this book might as well be /Gravity's Rainbow/. It's often excessively clever, doing cute little postmodern tricks designed to play the reader's awareness of history against the period knowledge of the characters. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it's just jarring. I was, for instance, particularly taken with the /frisson/ of horror I felt when the plague-ridden fleas were clattering off Daniel's boots, because I, unlike the Londoners of 1666, know that it's the fleas that are the disease vector. It also does a nice job of incorporating the historical sources; I giggled when I saw the boy Newton beating the crap out of his playmate, because I knew from /Never At Rest/ that that was one of the very few things Newton regretted in his old age. On the other hand, "canal rage" left me flat.
Now, this book, like /Cryptonomicon/, was apparently written with me, personally, as the target audience. I have an MA in the History of Science, specifically the History of Computing, I've done quite a bit of cryptographic work, I've actually read Wilkin's work on the Universal Character, and I've chewed my way through B.J.T. Dobbs' work on Newton's alchemical research (and have done my time with the Invisible College, read /De Re Metallica/, and know my Paracelsan medicine). All this is simply by way of saying, there's no one else who's more predisposed to like the book than I am, because Stephenson clearly loves to write about the very stuff I spent several years studying.
(Another aside: there is no /Cryptonomicon/; Wilkins *did* write an early work on cryptography, which is the first such work in English. Its title? /Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger/. What's quicksilver again?)
I'm still only giving it four stars, for a book written specifically for *me*. That's simply because I feel like the book itself was done already, and better, by Pynchon. /Gravity's Rainbow/ is my favorite book of the Twentieth Century, period, full stop, end of transmission. Still, even I can only reread /GR/ so many times, and this book is the next best thing.
If you like Pynchon, or if you like the late 17th Century and the London scientific scene around the time of the formation of the Royal Society, or if you liked Eco's /Search for the Perfect Language/, you'll like this book. If not, you're going to find it very long, very slow, and pretty pointless. Myself, I'm eagerly awaiting the next two books, but I can understand how and why other people are not.
Adam

I am puzzled by some of the previous reviewers' comments about this book, in particular the ongoing complaints about the lack of interesting or believable characters and the lack of plot and action. What can I say but that I found the characters fascinating and that the action was everything that the reader who is *not* looking for a Mickey Spillane shoot-em-up could want. Perhaps the problem is that the scope of the book is too broad, in that it encompasses history, genealogy, the beginnings of the scientific method, cryptology, mystery, science fiction, the beginnings of banking and stock exchanges and more, and the elements that appeal to one group of readers don't necessarily appeal to others.
This book demands (and repays) slow reading and thinking, and it is by no means amenable to quick skimming. The vocabulary is well beyond that found in most novels, with some terms ('sizar', for example) requiring a quick trip to the dictionary but is not beyond the grasp of most adults. The plot includes battles with pirates, the battle at the siege of Vienna, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, slavery, witch burnings and burning by witches, espionage, secret ciphers and myriad other plot elements. But these elements are used to show the characters and the changes they undergo
The background, the early eighteenth- and late seventeenth century, is well explained and the details about the participants in the formation of the Royal Society puts flesh and blood on the bones of history. The dialogue is (thankfully) a modern rendering of seventeenth century speech and is closer to Jane Austen than to Shakespeare. The portrayal of the attitudes and actions of the nobility may be distressing to those readers who still believe in Sir Walter Scott's romance novels of the days of chivalry but is no surprise to any who have read even a modicum of non-fiction about the middle ages and early modern times.
And where is the science fiction? Enoch Root, a major character in Cryptonomicon, appears again at the beginning of Quicksilver in 1713 and at various times other times in the latter stages of the book (though earlier in time). Unlike the other characters who appear to be ancestors of the characters in Cryptonomicon, Enoch Root appears to be the same enigmatic man in the seventeenth and twentieth century. I eagerly await finding out more in the next volumes about Root and the Societas Eruditorum.

Okay book but I feel like it needed some editing. The storyline and characters didn't really grab me, but the historical information was interesting and the writing was smooth. The story moved very slowly and there wasn't much to the plot. I'll probably read the rest of the series, but I don't think I'll rush out to get them.

I have just finished part 2 and am plowing into part 3 of this massive tome. I loved Cryptonomicon, and have been entertained enough by this book to keep going. The set pieces (particularly the doings of the Royal Society in London) are informative and occasionally hilarious. But there is way too much exposition about the doings of various armies, royals, etc., across Europe, and there's no sense of the plot driving towards anything. I remain hopeful that things will tie together and start to mean something in the third part...

... though a long one, with many digressions that might not be for everyone. I absolutely loved this book, and being fascinated by the time period and the scientific questions on hand, never felt bored or confused. This series is one of my favorites, and I would give this first book 5 stars, if it weren't for the fact that part two: The Confusion was (shockingly) even better.

I just finished reading Quicksilver and I must say that it met every one of my excpectations and then some. I've read alot of reviews here claiming that the book has no plot, but I thought the story was amazing and here's why. I knew absolutely nothing about European history. The backdrop for the plot is the events that transpired in Europe during the mid to late 1600's, if you don't know anything about that time period, then the history provides it's own plot. However, because many people are quite familiar with the history in the book, I gave it four stars, since you pretty much already know whats going to happen.
Now I have read every other Stephenson novel to date. He is my favorite author, so whatever he writes, I'm going to love, but one thing I want people to keep in mind is that Neal Stephenson has been know for some rather ambitious stories that tend to cover alot of ground before they end. This is but the first of three, so I feel there is a distinct possibility that some may be judging the story of THIS book without viewing it in the context of a TRILOGY. I can only hope that the nay-sayers eat their words when all is said and done. You know what, screw four stars, I give it five.

The book promises to span 'decades and continents' and it does -- with the reader feeling that much older for having read through this brick-like tome. There is much labouring over minute and tedious events as we are forced to look ponderously into the thought process and the non-fictional and fictional events that led the great minds of the late 17th and 18th century.
I'm almost embarrassed of Stephenson and his childish delight in revealing the inventions of Hooke, Newton et. al. as if discovering them for the first time. Those that may be even somewhat familiar with the leaders in the age of invention or may already have picked up sophomoric bits of trivia like the etymology of the word 'dollar' will find little enjoyment here.
The prose is strangely static and often terse with abbreviations instead of full sentences. It's as if the author just wants to get the point across and move on to other things giving the feeling that the chapters were originally written as a collection of e-mails on a Blackberry handheld device. Metaphors are blunt tools for Stephenson here and always heralded by 'like' and 'as'.
After the first four hundred pages things start to improve when the focus switches to Jack, a vagabond of increasing status. The pace picks up and the reader starts to get a small bit of that sense of enjoyment that made 'Snow Crash' and 'The Diamond Age' such delights. Unfortunately, this portion of the book is developed hurriedly and the characters are thin gruel and only appear more hearty because of the switch in pace. On reflection, I felt little connection to the far-to-clever Jack and scarcely believed Eliza's intelligence let alone her motivation for staying with Jack beyond it 'being a man's world' (or whatever the precise cliché trundled out). Why this man? Jack is meant to be far from lovable. Why stay when other opportunities presented themselves?
Finally, I didn't really care what happened and neither will most. Stephenson's ideas are a little dry and the clever bits of the story can be credited to the real life personalities whom these events circle (Newton's clash with Hooke and Leibniz etc.). This book suffers from having a weak editor that didn't quite have the gonads to remove five hundred pages and distil this beast into something worthwhile. And we can expect two more editions.
Only poor book sales will reign an increasingly self-important author and allow Neal Stephenson to fulfil the promise he's exhibited in earlier works. I recommend you wait for his next oeuvre and skip the Baroque Cycle altogether. Read 'War and Peace' if you want a comparatively light read. Life's too short for bad literature.

Judging from the reviews I've read so far, readers either love this book (myself included) or hate it. The latter seem to be either hardcore science fiction fans who are disappointed that Quicksilver is not "Snow Crash II" or some such,and English lit majors and historians who have a problem with Stephenson's literary style or historical accuracy.
I fall into neither category. I simply love good writing and my definition of "good" is not so narrow as to only encompass action filled plots or effete literary pyrotechnics. "Quicksilver" is one of the finest historical novels that I have ever read; a list including Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, Dorothy Dunnet's works, and Colleen McCullough. The novel is well researched and covers the politics, religion, science, and philosophy of the time. This is a novel of ideas. This is a great novel. I can't wait for the next in the series.

It is interesting to read about the famous scientists-Newton and Hooke, and to read about what interesting characters they are. I am only about one-half way through the book and find the reading slow because I have to go back are reread some sections because I get confused with the back and forth jumps the author makes between time periods. This technique is not one I enjoy since I am more of a linear person. The author does some nice writing in describing the instruments and experimental methods used in 15th and 16th centuries. Hopefully things will pick up and I will be able to follow better as the book goes on.

For a certain kind of reader, this book is wonderful. If you have some prior knowledge of the history of physics and mathematics, particularly of the calculus, then this book is hilarious. If you know nothing of these subjects, then this book will largely go right over your head. If you haven't read "Snow Crash" or "Zodiac", I recommend them as they are much more accessible.

Neal Stephenson is a writer with a deep interest in scientific discoveries and in British history. In this novel he gives us a view of Europe in the seventeenth century. We are introduced to the world of Restoration London during the reign of Charles II.

The chief character is Daniel Waterhouse who is raised a Puritan but becomes fascinated with science. Waterhouse later immigrates to Massaschussets and his path leads him to interact with several leading men of the age: Isaac Newton; Robert Hooke and

the continental scientist Leibnitz all play a role in these pages. We go on a London ride with diarist Samuel Pepys; are present at the Fire of London in 166 and dine at the Stuart court.

All of this material is interesting but Stephenson's story plods along like the old grey mare! The plot is as thin as Twiggy as the characters never really come alive for the reader.

Many perusers unfamiliar with British baroque history will be lost to say nothing of English majors who have trouble with the complicated scientific theories of the day.

I found the book to be long, boring and dull. I suppose I did learn new facts which is always good but Stephenson needs to work on character development, improving the plot and reducing

the characters so we don't have to have a scorecard to keep up with who is who.

A disappointing reading experience!

My first introduction to Neal Stephenson's writing was 'Quicksilver', loaned to me by a friend. Although wary about any new book or author, I was determined to finish it for him. Soon, I was hooked. What started out as a slow, nearly tedious description of Daniel, Newton, Hooke, etc, the pace suddenly quickened, exploding into war, Plague, fires, and more. Moving on to the tale of Eliza and 'Half-Cocked Jack' only added to the fun. The story is amazing - meeting up with philosophers and scientists such as Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke, detailing arts such as alchemy, the medicinal practices of the period, politics (of all sorts) and more than I can even describe. I would suggest this book for anyone with a lot of time on their hands, and a large appetite for reading material.

This product is only the first section of the first full book of The Baroque Cycle, and seems to have been introduced to the market just to double-sell parts of this series.

Look instead for the version of Quicksilver that's listed as 'the first Volume of The Baroque Cycle', unless you want to spend more time and money hunting down the other books, The King of the Vagabonds, and Odalisque just to finish off the full first Volume.

"Quicksilver", the first of Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" trilogy, is a rewarding and challenging book. Written in a style reminiscent of the 17th or 18th century, this book both educates and entertains.

There is a tremendous amount of historical information intertwined with Stephenson's fictitious characters through this novel. It is, in fact, difficult at times to discern fact from fiction through this excellent book.

Armed with the knowledge that this is the first of three books, "Quicksilver" lays a good foundation for "The Confusion" and "The System of the World" (books two and three in the "Baroque Cycle"). I highly recommend this book.

The true genius of this book and its sequels is in the dialogue. Meticulously researched historical settings and intricately plotted swashbuckling set pieces are all there, to be sure, but when a character opens his or her mouth, wit, subtlety, and poetic cadence issue forth in pure delight. If you love words, and especially words cleverly put together, reaching the end of this trilogy will be like losing an old friend. Some of the other reviews criticize the author for his wordiness; for those who take pleasure in reading, Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is a rich, hilarious feast.

This is a great book. Even though it is very slow and with no concrete plot, I feel this is a great book. The historical depictions and events are true with fictional characters. Its a tough read initially. This is really a very ambitious project by Neal. I hope that book 2,3 connects everything together. Suggestion - this book is not meant to be read in one go. U can read other good books and come to this later one. Believe me I have read worst books than this if u call it as a bad book.
I think it is a good book with great concept of studying scientific historical events. I am enjoying this very much and I fully appreciate Neal's ambition here. This is a true artist at work. Love it or hate it choice is yours. All I can say its not bad at all. Hope to hear more soon about book 2 and 3. I love the characters Daniel, Leibniz ,Newton and Roger.

I've read "Cryptonomicon," "Snow Crash," and "The Diamond Age" by Stephenson. All were fun, stimulating reads, with healthy doses of action and ideas, as well as vivid, fascinating portrayals of the present and near-future.
Be warned-- NOT SO HERE! I got to page 200 of this verbose tome before giving up. The main reason for this is that the ideas, which are usually the cornerstone in Stephenson's works, are sparse, not fleshed out, and anachronistic. Rather than revelling in cutting-edge near-future ideas like virtual reality, cryptography, and memes, Stephenson is rewinding to hundreds of years ago, when most people's understanding of science was next to nil.
That would be okay, but the beginning of the book is primarily concerned with the Royal Society and Isaac Newton's first scientific experiments. In hindsight, the experiments seem deeply retarded, cruel, and almost evil (see the parts where they dismember dogs and try to get a severed head to speak). And there's no insight or analysis of just how horrific these experiments are.
Stephenson is the master of "geek chic" and when he lets his imagination free, it roars. Here, we just have the geeks stuck in the ancient times of yore, conducting deeply stupid experiments. Not stupid for their time, of course, and yet I really don't love science enough to spark the slightest flicker of interest in their blind gropings.
If you want a gripping, historical read, check out Clavell's Shogun. This book tries to do the same thing, and fails... miserably.

It seems people who have read 'Quicksilver' have either loved it or hated it. I'm sorry to say, I belong to the second group.
Neal Stephenson originally became one of my favorite all-time authors for 'Snow Crash', for I felt his prose was quick, sharp, precise and very enjoyable. I remained a fan throughout 'Cryptonomicon', because although he was no longer quick, his drawn-out discussions on Things Geek remained fascinating.
I was looking forward to 'Quicksilver', but I'm afraid this book has seriously damaged the affection I had for Mr. Stephenson's work. Quicksilver is no longer witty, nor particularly fascinating. It sounds a lot like somebody who's spent a long time doing historical research setting out to prove the depth of his knowledge... which I guess is exactly what it is.
Stephenson spends the better part of this novel throwing out random historical facts of no importance whatsoever in the hopes of sounding as historically knowledgeable as, say, Umberto Eco. It seems in the middle of his research, Stephenson actually forgot about such things as 'plot', because all we're left with is a very, very, very long mess of discussions of things related to historical events and trying to cleverly tie in with historical characters such as Newton or Franklin.
To cap it off, this book is only one of three in a series (if you exclude Cryptonomicon as 'Volume 0'.) My god, how can one write so many pages on such a lack of plot? I cannot imagine plodding through another such book, let alone two 1000 pages bricks.
If you're thinking of picking this book up because you enjoyed 'Cryptonomicon', try and read a few pages in the library before shelling out the dough. Perhaps you will like it, but I certainly know I did not. I miss the days when Stephenson remembered how to get to the point and pack his novels with action and revelance, instead of being so infatuated with the names Waterhouse, Shaftoe and Root that he felt necessary to write 4000 pages about them.

This book is not only long, but dense and full of great information. You really get your money's worth here. Stephenson does an excellent job of introducing the origins of modern science and finance, and paints some of the original members of the Royal Society in an interesting light. The author certainly did his homework for this book and shows that off, too, but you'll still find some of the classic Stephenson irreverence embedded in a few of the characters and situations in the novel (e.g. Jack Shaftoe).

Quicksilver is a tribute to Stephenson's love for the history of science. In Cryptonomicon, he ingeniously wove these historical elements into an engaging story about people: their quirks, their character, and their relationships. What he handled so deftly in Cryptonomicon he bungles in Quicksilver.

Quicksilver is primarily a work of historical detail. Much of the dialog between characters concerns historical persons and events. The problem is that these conversations aren't entertaining in any way, and they sound contrived; as if Stephenson is using this opportunity to enlighten his readers regarding his favorite subject. While Mr. Stephenson may find such historical minutiae fascinating, I'm afraid that I am not as enthralled.

I couldn't bring myself to continue past the first 46 pages. From what I've read in some other reviews, it just gets worse as you go on.

You may like this book if you love learning about history and are not turned off by lengthy historical exposition. However, if you are looking for a clever and entertaining read in the tradition of Cryptonomicon or Diamond Age, pass this one up. It's for the hardcore only.

I just finished Quicksilver about 30 mins ago. At times it was quite confusing in places where things might happen one way but it turns out to be another. I'm being vague on purpose for those that read a review prior to reading the book. If you pay close attention to the dialogue you'll understand what I mean. I found the conversations between some of the characters as sarcastically funny. Overall, I'd say this book is really 4 1/2 stars maybe even better but there are a few situations that are obviously not 17th century possiblilities. For an example try to remember the last 70 pages or so. You'll see what I am saying. Well good luck in reading this book. I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you take the material for what it's supposed to stand for.

I realize that there are 252 reviews already and, in addition, I normally don't write a review at all, so you may be sure that I was truly impressed with the Baroque Cycle (starting with Quicksilver). The writing was excellent, the characterization memorable, and the plot intriguing. But, beyond that, and what makes these books a masterpiece, is that Stephenson affects a profound change in the way we preceive the tasks and organization of esoteric philosophers. No longer are they isolated in academia or secret societies but active in the earthy, substantial world of human endeavor: government, finance, and engineering. A friend of mine, also an author, posed an interesting question to me several months ago: What is the function of occultism in the world? To what ends should the knowledge gained by occult methods be applied? I think that if the word "occult" includes such ideas as alchemy, experimentation, metaphysical philosophy, kabbalah, hermeticism, etc, and if, as some say, the Royal Society was a profound influence on Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, then this trilogy provides a strong hypothesis of the true privilege, duty and potential of the modern occultist to take his or her proper place as midwife to the rebirth and expansion of the human spirit.

O.K., so I waded through 919 pages of character development waiting for Stephenson to hit D Major vis-a-vis plot. No plot (well, not much), other than to provide a framework for us to get to know the characters...sort of. The interesting thing (teaser, I guess) is that the most mysterious and intriguing character, Enoch Root, is nearly absent. I hope that this is intentional, and that Root will grow to dominate the future story line. After all, we already know what happens to Newton, Leibniz, William of Orange, Louis XIV, and the rest of the crew.
What we *don't* know is "has Enoch the Red actually discovered the Philosopher's Stone, and become immortal? Could he possibly have founded (or be a member of) an occult society that moves behind the scenes of power throughout history? Is Enoch 'the Adept'? Who might the other player's be? And most important: What is behind the final veil of the Cryptonomicon?"
Could be quite a story here after all.
One can only hope, and wait for April.

Stephenson's strength is his ability to capture the ideas of a world. All else in his novels -- characterization, plot -- is subordinate. His plots are multiple, intertwining, never quite complete, but he captures the essence of a world.
Quicksilver is set in the seventeenth century. Its main characters are Daniel Waterhouse, college roommate of Isaac Newton and later Secretary of the Royal Society and revolutionary, and Eliza, a Celt-turned-Turkish slave-turned Natural Philosopher and spy. Its true main characters, however, are the Royal Society, the Church, and the Free Churches. Quicksilver is a fiction that captures the spirit of the world at a time when the Enlightenment was taking over from the Reformation, and it does so in an enjoyable though demanding fashion.

2 stars for the audio book production only (4.25 for the hardcopy)

I'm a huge Stephenson Fan and thoroughly enjoyed the entire Baroque Cycle when I first read it (though certain parts were work to get through), but the abridged Quicksilver audio book was a huge let down.

First, there are just too many characters for one narrator. Preble does many of the accents well, but within each individually, it's tough to tell who's who. Every French character sounds the same, as well as English (Eliza, Jeffries, and Newton could of been the same person), pirate, etc...

Second, characters have incorrect accents for what their background is. Dappa, the escaped African slave turned writer/slave activist is done in Preble's best Blackbeard impersonation. Leibniz at 20something sounds as he should, a German, and then later in the narrative when he first meets Eliza and Jack, he speaks like every other Englishman in the story???

Lastly, whomever did the editing for the abridged version was a hack. Some of the most enjoyable scenes are cut or summarized, same with some important character introductions. How can you have an integral character appear halfway through the story without the chapter that properly introduces him or her? I own over 40 audio books and this one ranks very low on the list ... the production just seemed rushed.

While it is not really up to "Cryptonomicon" standards, "Quicksilver" is a fine piece of work and a very interesting and stimulating novel. Mr. Stephenson has evidently done a huge amount of research and is not shy of including virtually everything he has found in his book; in that sense, the historical background sometimes overwhelms the plot, but at other times, like a chapter written as the Proceedings of the Royal Society, it greatly enhances it and leads to some fine writing. This book likely holds more interest for Stephenson fans than for others, since many characters and plot situation are analogous to those of "Cryptonomicon", but the sheer scope and imagination present in the writing make it worth reading. Also, the characteristic humor and the funny locutions from certain vaguely dodgy characters make for good entertainment. On the whole, with rounding, a four.

Neil Stephenson is a great writer. Probably the most well researched and illuminating work out there today that still reads like a page turner. I was very pleased to finally see his new work on the shelve (Mr. Stephenson, the faster you write the more we enjoy it). This book is part of an ambitious opus to total over 2,500 pages, as I understand it. It is well worth the read so far.

This book started out a little slow and, actually, all the Waterhouse portions were a little slower (but full of interesting and well researched historical data). The book was much faster after introducing the Shaftoe character and filled with the wit and creativity that has been my greatest joy in reading Stephenson's work. From there things get onto the fast track and the finish is very interesting save for the fact that we don't get a very satisfying resolution to some of the major elements of the book's plot (what is happeing on the slave ship?).
If you are like me and enjoy books that have creative twists with a brain behind them, then this is for you. Stephenson is truly one the the modern greats, especially the Cryptonomicon just before this book. The dialogue from that one is tremendous and it is one of the few books I own that I come back to regularly (Shaftoe on the German submarine ...some of the most complex plot twisting you'll find, and it hangs together logically).
Please keep 'em coming Mr. Stephenson and, for my part, Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon are great works that will last for a long time.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, y'all.

I truly enjoyed reading this It's a rarity these days to find an author capable of such good storytelling. The story is well written and very engaging, and despite the fact that it lost some momentum in the middle, I found myself eagerly turning pages to find out what would happen next. All in all, though this is not quite a perfect novel, it comes close.

I'd wager that most people familiar with Mr. Stephenson's work are expecting something along the lines of Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon, something that is certainly not delivered here. In contrast to the breakneck pace of the two books mentioned, Quicksilver seems positively glacial. However, it possesses a deep and intruiging storyline with well-developed characters for those patient enough to keep reading through the slower portions of the book.
Most obvious is the setting: while most of Stephenson's previous work is set in the fairly near future, Quicksilver is set around the turn of the century - the 18th century. Still, the themes remain the same: his heroes are working to develop new technologies and sciences that have the potential to revolutionize the world. Here we meet historic characters like Issac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, who mix with Stephenson's quirky, inventive characters and work to develop the budding field of Natural Philosophy (you probably know it as science).
While there are certainly similarities between this and Stephenson's earlier work, the differences are major and may turn off fans of said earlier work. Aside from the glacial pacing mentioned earlier, the cast of supporting characters is large and can become very confusing - the various political stances of the characters can become important to the plot, but tend to be difficult to keep in your mind. Taking notes while you read might not be a bad idea; a "Dramatis Personae" in the back of the book is helpful to jog your memory, but is sparse on details and contains some spoilers.
All in all, I reccommend this book, but not without some reservations. It may not be the book for those who lack patience and would rather read a good page-turner, but for those with the willingness to stick it out and read through almost a thousand slow pages will find an historical epic worthy of the time invested. Personally, I am eagerly awaiting the sequel, but many readers will certainly find the book too slow for their tastes. If you enjoyed Stephenson's previous work, don't just buy this and expect it to be more of the same; instead, consider if historical epics are your cup of tea.

This is a wonderful book. My favorite scene is where a protagonist comes in, and finds Robert Hooke, the man we know

today for Hooke's law among other famous discoveries, with a quill in his ear. Then he notices, there is a fly on the end of the quill, and he goes "shoo". Hooke says "do that again, it makes the fly flap his wings faster". Hooke has glued the fly to the quill, and is tuning a string to bring it to the same frequency as the flies wings. He has recently figured out how strings generate music, and realized that in this way he could measure how fast the fly beats his wings. He, and the other enlightenment figures, have just discovered the possibilities of science, and they rush from one experiment to another with such gusto, trying to figure out everything about the world.

This is only one minor episode in the book, which goes on from there with amazing energy to give a huge sweeping picture of the world and how it is organized.

Neal Stephenson rates as one of my favorite all time authors (I've read all his books) but this one lets me down a bit. Stephenson makes every attempt to enlighten the reader with the customs of late 17th century Europe, but at times it's as if he's trying too hard. I've actually had to put the book down on 3 occassions to give my brain a rest and read another book. However, the book picks up the pace towards the middle (gets bogged down again at the 3/4 mark) and finishes strong. And though I have yet to read the next book in the Baroque Cycle (The Confusion), I've heard all the detail in Quicksilver pays off quite handsomely.

I read this trilogy from hardback books and I am considering re-buying them for my kindle. The story line is intense, convoluted and requires patience, but it delivers a rich landscape of natural philosophy, piracy, romance and a host of other topics in an accessible and entertaining way.

This book is a disaster. There is no coherent plot. The characters are unsympathetic and one dimensional. I labored to read this book because of my affection for what Stephenson has done before. However, this book is a diaster of unimaginable proportions. Three years to write this.
William Martin does a better job describing the emotional impact of the plague in 20 pages in Harvard Yard than Stephenson does in over 100. A total waste of words and wood pulp. Is it possible for me to convey my anger at having sacrificed far too many days with this worthless book published solely on the merits of the authors previous works which are high?
The thought of two more volumes before something of value is again published has put me off Stephenson.

I have just finished Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, and to be honest, I am shocked to see how highly other reviews have rated this book. Among my friends, four of us started Quicksilver, and I was the only one to finish that book, or the rest of the series. Looking back - I wouldn't recommend this book (or the other two) to any of them. Sure, there are short passages that are very well done, but to me, The Baroque Cycle smells more like a vanity project than anything else.

The series reads like a history of the time period instead of an actual novel, although to its discredit most history books I've read are much more interesting. Stephenson has the habit of beginning sections by referring to the character by pronouns only, until five pages in when he uses their name. I realize that this is supposed to immerse the reader in the description, but instead it only served to con-fuse the characters in my mind.

Quicksilver is clearly the weakest out of the three books, which in other series might mean (and as I had hoped for since I'm a fan of Stephenson's other novels) you would have a lot to look forward to in the following two books. But, sorry, they only get marginally better.

I feel the major point is this - Stephenson has fallen in love with the subtlety of his writing style, and these three books, Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World, are subtle to the point of being unreadable. They have minor redeeming moments, but when considering all the painfully boring writing that surrounds them, this book is not worth reading.

The name may be Quicksilver but the read is hardly that. And I'm happy about it. This is a book that I simply could not put down. History, politics, science, philosophy and quite a bit of humour all find their way into Neal's current opus. He has chosen a time and place (actually several times & places) that today can be looked back on as watershed years for all the subjects he has chosen to cover.
Does he ramble on? Yes. Does he provide too much detail on some aspects and not enough on others? Yes. But at no point are you not entertained and enlightened. And that to me is the key. Not only did I learn more about Newton, Hooke, Leibniz, Huygens and Pepys from Mr. Stephenson, I actually spent many hours researching these and other historical figures and historical events during and after my read.
This book is not for everyone but there is something in it for NEARLY everyone. Neal's previous works such as Snow Crash, Zodiac and most obviously Cryptonomicon were mere lead off hitters for this grand slam.
I truly cannot wait for the 2 follow ups that Neal has promised in 2004. I may just book a few days off immediately after their release so I can devote my full time to losing myself in their pages as I did with Quicksilver.

How could any editor allow this book to leave his desk? 800+ pages--and two move volumes to go! I am usually a great reader of historical fiction, especially the kind packed with tid-bits of interesting information. Early reviews convinced me that "Quicksilver" would be just right for me. Pundits predicted a mega-hit. Wow, were they ever wrong! Words fail to express just how bad this book is. It's all setting, all background, overfull of detail. There is NO, repeat NO, plot, merely incident. And worst of all are the characters, which are as flat as the pages (and pages and pages) they're described on. Rare for me, I got about half way through and quit. I had been forcing myself to get on, hoping the book would somehow improve. It never did. I gave my copy to the public library. I'm sure you'll find several of them, similarly bestowed, in your town. In the meantime, save your money. I predict that the publisher will lose a mint on this unfortunate, three-thousand page, foolish enterprise.

Some facts you should know: 1) I LOVE Neal Stephenson's books "The Cryptonomicon" & "The Diamond Age" so I've never had trouble with his work before 2) British and European history has been the primary focus of my studies and readings for 30 years.
3) I am far from stupid.
Those helpful nuggets about me will (I hope) keep you from muttering insults about my qualifications to review "Quicksilver", Neal Stephenson's (sort of) sequel to "The Cryptonomicon" & the 1st of his "Baroque Cycle" books. The simple & unvarnished truth of the matter is: This book is unreadable.
It is unreadable because, firstly, it has no real discernible plot. It is unreadable, secondly, because nothing really happens in it. It is unreadable, thirdly, because the protagonists (whether fictional or historical) engage in lengthy conversations with each other that simply do not read as believable conversations. Stephenson uses these discussions as a means to fill the reader in on historical background & sketch in the "backstory" of each character. It simply doesn't work.
"The Cryptonomicon" was also a book that combined fictional & historical characters moving through actual historical events. Unlike "Quicksilver" however, "The Cryptonomicon" used action & interior thoughts to allow the reader to become familiar with each character. I'm not sure why he didn't trust his readers this time around, but whatever his thinking, it makes "Quicksilver" into a ponderously slow, uninvolving book.
I'm not giving up on Stephenson however; he's too immensely talented a writer to ignore his future offerings. I sincerely hope the next 2 books of the Baroque Cycle will return to his former writing style & be as intellectually exciting as his books prior to "Quicksilver". Everyone stumbles now & again, this must be Stephenson's.

After reading Cryptonomicon I wanted to read the Baroque Cycle. I thought I would be engaged from the start, so I waited until the three books were published before getting Quicksilver.

It is not doing it for me. I am on page 635 and it is like reading Don Quixote.

I won't read the rest of the Baroque Cycle after (or if) I finish this one.

Man this is long book. Stephenson employs lots of literary tricks to make it interesting but it ends up being confusing at times. I stil have to say it is an amazing book. I learned more about physics and calculus than most teachers could explain, and more history (even though fictional the surrounding history is mostly true) than you can shake a stick at. A very enjoyable read. On the second album now.

Neal Stephenson is amazing I think. not the early stuff, but the entire Baroque Cycle has been some of the best stuff I have ever read, including upon re-reading. it is intellectual, but not so heady you are dazed. it is creative but not so much it is fantasy. it is interesting, but not too complex or wordy. it is fun, but not frivolous. and it is historical fiction, which I love. Great writer.

I had finished the first half of Gene Wolfe's Shadow and Claw, which is actually the first book of his series, and while visiting the bookstore I was captivated by a new book from Neal Stephenson, so I picked up a copy and while waiting for a movie to start I got captivated and jumped ship. However I am stopping. I hit 200 pages and my interest and frankly desire to read further have ground to a halt. Strange given that the story grabbed me enough to make me jump books. What started off interesting wore me down eventually with the tedium. Part of what sparked my interest was the fact that Stephenson set's the story is set in 1600's during the birth of Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Revolution, at least initially following the life of Isaac Newton. However from there the store began to mire in detail that while I am sure his historically valid or imaginatively created by Stepphenson, did not hold my interest. The point and plot began to get lost in the verbosity of the story. I don't want to live the life of Isaac Newton day by day. I felt bad, because I really wanted to like it, and in general I never stop a book but will slog through them. And since this is a three part series I wonder what Stephenson's plans are? Has he already finished the other two? Will he even bother? Looking at the store 12 of the 14 reviews were negative. :( Too bad, but too true.
[...]

I recently bought Quicksilver, lured by the reviews on the back of the book, the awards and plaudits, and the possibility of getting stuck into a good epic across a number of novels.

Not to be, however. This is a sprawling novel that does not want to go anywhere quickly (if at all!). A complex morass of characters, some interesting, others boring (and the central character falling onto the latter category...) make this the defining part of the novel. However, while the characters are well developed and described, surely the objective here is to tell a story?! After about 600 pages you are asking yourself why? Where is this going? What is it trying to achieve? Whats the plot? (And conclude that the author and editor have lost the plot, pun intended). Some of the storylines are quite interesting (e.g. Shaftoe and Eliza), but just when a sense of momentum is achieved, the author jumps to a different time/place (thinks Pulp Fiction) and leaves you feeling let down....

I suspect that enjoyment of this requires a large amount of time, determination and general enthusaism for the history of the early sciences and/or 17th century.

Unless you satisfy these criteria, I would suggest avoiding.

I have long been a fan of Stephenson's work. Although I still hold Cryptonomicon to be his magnum opus, this tome is something spectacular in its own right. It is challenging to the reader, something that I appreciate. This is not a book I could turn off my brain to read on autopilot. Instead, I had to pay attention and reread passages. That's a good thing; the more I re-read, the better it got. A strong, gutsy historical novel from one of America's finest writers--this is not to be missed if you have the IQ to handle it.

I find that I am not alone. Anyone that has liked previous Neal Stephenson books will find this one slow and pointless. There is NO story to follow so don?t worry about getting lost. I give Quicksilver two stars for good cover art, great maps in front and back of the book and usability as a doorstop.
Cryptonomicon was a page-turner in comparison, though also semi slow to start,there was a great cantputitdown story. My belief is that Mr. Stephenson has trouble with his endings (none of his books have good endings IMHO even Zodiac) so he has found a way to avoid an ending for thousands of pages. I would forgive him this if we had a story or some characters of any interest whatsoever. His work in the fantastic future (Snow Crash & The Diamond Age) was so brilliant it is too bad he has decided to now bore us with history (I have read some great history and enjoy *good* non-fiction).
There are bits of quick wit and humor from time to time.. almost Terry Pratchett like but instead of working these stick out like small lost gems in a huge mire of detail. I was only able to read on in this tome because I already know many of the players and have a significant knowledge of scientific history.
I would also caution fans not to go to a book reading. He can be a great writer and seems very private. His voice does not add anything to his work. I had to wait months to get his voice out of my head before I read Cryptonomicon.

I have patiently watched Stephenson progress to be one of the best writers of our time. Cryptonomicon, I thought, was his arrival and we would be blessed with brilliant novels for years to come. I waited for his next book, bought it the first time I saw it (in hardcover which I never do), and took it home to relish the pages.
I really tried. And then I realized I was getting lost in description. The characters all seemed of the same mind. Things wandered, got lost, got described, got lost.
I am tragically dissapointed in Neal Stephenson. What a waste of our good time and his. To have expended this much effort and end up with the sloppy hodgepodge of a novel is a great loss.
Where the heck is his editor? Why did he/she allow him to do this? He'll never live it down and it will take a real turn around to bring me back into the Stephenson Clan.

You may be tempted to give up after 200 pages, but hold out... The Waterhouse's are always a a bit dull... Once you get to the origins of the Shaftoes you be rolling around.
Since this is the 1st book of a three part series, I'm willing to give Neal a break. I'll assume that this 1st book is just a set-up for the next two.

I must say, when I first heard about this book I was certain that it would be right up my alley. After all, I've always been a big fan of Newton and have taken all of the calculus sequence. I find the origins of calculus to be fascinating. This book, though, was not.

The characters, if we can call them that, have absolutely no personality. The plot...oh, wait there really isn't one. So I can't really comment.

When I was younger, and had lots of time, I would finish every book I started. Now my reading time is scarce and precious. I just couldn't keep reading this book after about 300 pages of sleep inducing tedium.

I won't take much of your time. Stephenson has become a falling star. I believe he is regurgitating each and every fact he read at the library, thinking that to personalize them will make them interesting. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This book could have been half its size and the little he actually said would still have come across. Frankly, I'd rather read a treatise on economics than another one of these. And Mr. Stephenson, I used to look forward to your books with the thirst of an addict; now I don't think I will be paying any more attention.

Neal Stephenson seems to have escaped the bonds of courtesy to his readers with "Quicksilver", which is a sprawling, thoroughly uninteresting and undisciplined waste of paper.
The book is simply four or five times too long for what happens in it. Alas, if it were compressed to a quarter of its size, the fact that nothing interesting actually happens would be all too clear. Although Stephenson has always put plot in second place to amusing and exciting set pieces, the set pieces are staggeringly long-winded in "Quicksilver", and there's no plot to speak of, beyond "wow, a lot of stuff happened during the Enlightenment".
This book is awful beyond words. It deserves to be a failure, and with any luck, Stephenson will accept the advice of an editor next time out.

Add me to the list of fans disappointed with this effort from Neal Stephenson. I've been a huge fan of his - Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Diamond Age were all amazing novels. Quicksilver, while it has it's moments, isn't in the same league as these previous works. For this reader, it's been a hard-to-follow rambling story without any discernible plot, which with a novel of this length has made for a very difficult read.

It's difficult to rate this book. Neal Stephenson really know how to write and make long stories interesiting. Enjoyed selveral of his other books, but this time the story changed from mostly fun with some boring parts to being mostly boring with some great sections.
Quicksilver reminds me a lot about Cryptonomicon, even if the setting is 300 years earlier. The characters are similar, not necessarily bad, but it contribute to the overall "too boring" impression. Also, long extremely detailed descriptions make parts of the book tip the overall impression from great to OK.
So, what worked really well in Cryptonomicon barely work here, hope the next one is better. Maybe he'll let an editor look at it before publising next time.

Despite a slow start, and a lack of any sort of closure whatsoever at the end of 916 pages, it was still a good book. The fact that I want closure says at least something about the book and is probably what Neal Stephenson was attempting considering that this is only Volume 1 of the Baroque Cycle. This book will eventually earn its true reputation once the series is complete and we know what role it plays. So my recommendation is to wait for paperback, or wait until the series is complete to determine if Quicksilver is worth reading.

I highly recommend this story. Primarily for the joy of the writing. It is carefully and compellingly crafted, averaging about one memorable gem of a sentence per page. The history and science are well developed and fascinating, without detracting from the story and character development. It is a long book, sure, but there is a wide range of settings and type of drama (including, in small measure, some of the best written sea adventure) so it never dragged for me. If anything, at times, I wished there was more detail, never less. All in all, a superb mixture of adventure, drama, character and, most of all, ideas.

I've read and loved all of Neal Stephenson's prior novels, appreciating his storytelling, his ability to visualize the future and craft fascinating extrapolations of where technology might take us. Even Zodiac, although not SF, was excellent.
So be warned that Quicksilver is NOT the same sort of book. I found it to be a lame attempt to weave historical scientific figures into a fictional story. After 200 pages of trying to slog my way through, I'm giving up and moving on to other books by other authors. The story was too slow, too boring and just not worth my time. Go read William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" or Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" instead.

I never thought I'd see the day when I thought Neal Stephenson's latest selection was boring. Now most hardcore fans will dismiss me as a dilettante, intimidated by the length or intellectual breadth of his novel. Not so. I'm the nerd who pushes Neal on all my friends and family. But with the random chuckle occurring on every, say, 20th page, and fabulous idea each, oh, 30th page, THIS IS NOT your classic Stephenson. Remember Diamond Age, folks? When you couldn't believe how each page held a cool new idea? Forget about it. If I can't do this, and I've pulled allnighters for Neal in the past, then I certainly would recommend newcomers stay far away from this. I know, I know, you old time fans will read it regardless of this review. But maybe I can save you a shred of money and dignity by suggesting you check it out at the library. Don't worry, you're not missing anything by having to wait another 2 months.

As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is not for everyone. I picked it up because I like complicated, brainy novels with historical settings, and it has not disappointed. I would compare it to other novels set in the 17th century, such as Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost and David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper. I enjoyed both of those very much, but Quicksilver is very different -- not as carefully plotted and more rambling.

My biggest quibble is with the author's lapses in historically accurate dialog. Terms like "okay" did not enter the language until the 19th century. Other than that, he does a great job setting the tone and bringing the period to life.

For this whole trilogy, I really appreciated a technologist's approach to history. It is often kind of difficult to read historians and some literature masters delve into science, so I found it refreshing to read a science-focused author dive into the history of science, economics, market economy, etc. Would recommend for anyone who wants a better grasp of the root of our current world.

This is an amazing read. Some previous reviewers have stated that parts are dull, and I couldn't disagree more. Detail sets the tone and mood of a novel, two elements which are critical in a work of historical fiction. Especially on this epic of a scale. (You can't get jiggy with it minus the candles and Marvin Gaye, right?) The narration is unique--flipping time periods, perspective and mode. This is a complicated book with a complicated plot and compelling characters. Reading it requires some dedication, no doubt, but the book is masterpiece.

Someone once said that the reason there are so few good books is that not many of those who write well, know anything. This is a good book; Stephenson knows his subjects, and his skill as a writer is unmatched. Granted, if you know him only from Cryptonomicon, or maybe Snow Crash, you will expect Quicksilver to set the hook early and then pull hard on it, the way those did. It doesn't. This is a much more massive work, and to get all of its parts moving takes a while. But by the end of the third book, you will find yourself reading it slowly, because you don't want it to be over.

The "Paperback" listed here is the trade paperback of Quicksilver: VOLUME 1 of The Baroque Cycle.
It is about 900 pp. and contains Books 1-3: "Quicksilver," "King of the Vagabonds," and "Odalisque."

The "Mass-Market Paperback" is a different book.
It is only the first 340 pp. (Book 1) of the trade paperback.

I was so excited when this book came out. I've always been fascinated by the Restoration/Enlightenment period, and I was so psyched to love the book...

Then I tried reading it! I made it through about 100 pages and threw my hands up in frustration (and the book down).

It is way too crammed with detours, unnecessary and uninteresting digressions, trivia, and miscellany. Newton, Hooke, etc., and the historical Englightenment; or Jack, Eliza, etc., and the broad, sweeping fictional pageant--Stephenson should have picked one or the other and stuck with it. I resorted to leafing past the fake stuff and trying to pick out the real. And that is a shame, because if Stephenson had left out the fake junk, he'd have had a dandy of a takeoff on the Enlightenment and its major players (who, by the way, need no fictionalizing to make them interesting).

My best hope is that Stephenson will authorize a Readers Digest version with the dumb stuff chopped out. Not only would the book then be a manageable size, it'd be a whole lot more readable.

You SURE ? First before I rant. I thought this was a WONDERFUL book and I enjoyed it a LOT. All the more becaue I know 2 more just like it are on the way. NO PLOT ? Well OK if you say so I thought it had SEVERAL plots. I am A Gynormous NS fan and I have loved everything he has written and while this is no Snow Crash it's pretty darn good. I think that once a Author gets IMPORTANT he is above EDITORS and this is NOT allways a good thing. Maybe that's why his earlyer books are skinnyer ? I think that with Neil the more words the better now. Write ON dude.

I agree with Mr. Green's review completely. "Quicksilver" starts out decently but soon becomes a bleeding oinking pig of a book. A few hundred pages in, I found myself skipping twenty-page-long rambling kitchen-sink descriptions.

I was a huge fan of Snowcrash, enjoyed Cryptonomicon and Diamond Age (which sometimes veers into the territory that Quicksilver wallows in). But in this case, more is not better. I suggest Stel Pavlou's book instead.

well, I've read quicksilver and have found it to be, um, interesting. I fell in another love trance (i've read crytonomicon, obviously!) due to the historological background that Mr. Neal uses (apparently some historological profs may disagree on the accuracy, but I can easily disregard scholars when i read my books on my free time!).
Overall, I found the book to remind me of the first time i tasted coffee, the first time i had a beer. Basically I wasn't too sure what to think on the first read, but now that i am into the first 200 pages of his next book, the confusion, all i can say is that i am thirsty for more. an aquired taste if you will...

Unfortunately this book confirms NS's declining ability to produce new and interesting stories. This book is an incredibly longwinded journey to nowhere which is very disappointing as NS has written some truly brilliant books in the past.
"Zodiac" was very good. "Snowcrash" was truly brilliant with a wealth of new ideas. "Diamond Age" wasnt as good as Snowcrash but still had some excellent new ideas. "Cryptonomicon" was mildly interesting, especially with its descriptions of crypto history (although Simon Singh was better in The Code Book).
Then we get to Quicksilver. The plot takes ages to get anywhere and the characters are developed in excrutiating detail. I found the time jumps a bit confusing and at times couldnt see the relevance of parts of the story.
In short, if you enjoyed his early books then you are unlikely to enjoy Quicksilver. However, if you enjoy highly detailed historicals then this is probably for you.

Like many others who have reviewed this book, I am a long time Neal Stephenson fan and eagerly placed a prepublication order as soon as I heard about it, in spite of the mixed reviews it was receiving. Well, that turned out to be a mistake. The book is amazingly devoid of plot, the historical context is overdone (a certain amount is expected and fun, but this was ridiculous), and the characters are not engaging. I only stayed with it through the end because I was hoping something would happen to entice me to at least sample the next volume. Alas, nothing did. So I will wait on the sidelines while the life cycle of The Baroque Cycle plays out, and then hope that Neal can redeem himself in a future effort.
On the positive side, my wife commented that I looked very studious walking around with this massive tome tucked under my arm. That hasn't happened since my graduate school days.

Not a review...I just bought this paperback that is "only" about 400 pages. Is this an abridged edition, or simply the original further subdivided?

I love Neil Stephenson but I can understand the complaints of many reviewers here that find these latest works brilliant but tedious. If you are going to publish works of a thousand pages, you had really better have an exciting story to tell.

After picking up this book on a whim, I was lost to the world -- and my wife -- for the next three days as I read through it with a few short breaks to eat, sleep, and walk the dog. I literally couldn't put it down, and I'm baffled by the amount of research that must have went into its writing. I quickly read the next two in the cycle, and they were equally engrossing.

I'm partway through this book and am already so disappointed and frustrated that I decided to check the reviews online to see if it was worth persevering. There are a lot of bad reviews so I'm guessing it's not just me. I'm a big fan of all Stephensons other books but this is very tedious. You know the feeling when you are watching a great movie when you are engrossed in the story as opposed to when you very aware of the acting and are dissecting it rather than been fully engaged...this book feels like a bad movie.
You keep hoping it will improve but the author tries too hard to be clever and the references to Cryptonomicon all the time are like having pop-up ads appear every few minutes. Put down the keyboard, take up a backpack and try to get back down to earth Neal. I think fame has taken it's toll.

I read most of the book, but only because i was hoping that it would get better. No such luck. The couple of chapters dealing with the development of natural philosophy (which i liked) just aren't able to save this book from being, well... boring. After about 700 pages of dead wood, the book just crawls to a stop. If you like long-winded, pointless dialogues, disconnected plot twists and repetitive pseudo-philosophical rants, you may like this book. Otherwise, save your time and money and stay away.

What a disappointment! After several weeks of intermittent reading (ploddingly slow), I have decided to abandon this eagerly-purchased novel. The truly original and creative ideas that Stephenson introduced in his earlier cyber-novels (Snow Crash and A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer) are totally missing, along with any compelling story line (at least up to page 200). What is the point of this book?
I am an occasional Stephenson reader and fan, and have read enough of his work to recognize and enjoy flashes of his brilliant ideas. Past novels have tended to wander somewhat aimlessly and I had visions (hopes) of a coherent plot that would thread through three fat, juicy novels.
It's not to be, at least not yet.

First off, people should realize that this is not Cryptonomicon. It is much more epic than that, and quicksilver serves as a mere introduction to the other two volumes. Taking that into consideration this novel does its job admirably. It might be a bit slow moving at times, but this came as a relieve to me because I am not a history professor nor do I aspire to become one. The details dispelled within this novel are needed because otherwise the plot would become incomprehensible. It is a fun read though, neal stephenson tries to give us laymen a better idea of the scientific and political development of that era. While doing that he is able to mingle the affairs of the 3 main characters effortlessly with the lives of the real life personaes from that time period.
Quicksilver is an excellent novel, its a novel about ideas and how our contemporary world has come to be thanks in part to the great minds from the baroque era.

Like many, I have enjoyed Neal Stephenson's previous works. Quicksilver was a letdown because it just goes over historical events that have been written about numerous times and from every conceivable angle. No new ground is broken here. Sure, there are some trademark Stephenson smart-ass paragraphs thrown in but they come across as attempts to liven up fallow ground.
I don't begrudge Mr. Stephenson's trip into historical fiction but I really hope he chooses not to dwell here for the rest of his career.

Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors. I have read every one of his books (some twice). However, his latest series of books that starts with this book is one that I have not been able to get into. I have started the book 3 different times and have not been able to get into it enough to finish. Someday I will, but for some reason its not grabbing my attention like his other books have done.

This is the case of rock solid research ruining an interesting story.

Stephenson's setting and characters are vivid within their world. But too much so. It's as if every detail he's uncovered needs to be included. Every historical fact needs to be stated. Seemingly minor characters are encountered haphazardly, only to coincidentally emerge as important historical figures: an adolescent Ben Franklin? A young Newton?

It's too much. I wanted a story that dropped me into that era. I ended up with a comical Who's Who date book. I had to stop reading after about 50 pages.

I'm 245 pages into the book, and I'm still not sure what the point of the book is. Also, there are various parts in the book that I'm not sure why they even need to be in the book, kind of like babble. Parts of it are ok, but then other parts make me want to fall asleep.

Please. I loved Cryptonomicon, but I can't go on with this. A writer who doesn't know the difference between "immigration" and "emigration," and a publisher who lets that kind of mistake into print? I could try to get past the droning, clunky exposition, but the insults keep piling up.

I tried to read it-- even forced myself for awhile, hoping some kind of plot would eventually develop, but finally I gave up a little less than halfway through. The description of the book made it sound fascinating-- it wasn't. Nothing happened and the characters were flat.
I give the author props for his research into the history of modern science, and that's the only reason I gave it two stars instead of one.

I quit. 774 pages read, 150 to go. This has been a great waste of time. I love historical fiction but this story takes a lot of work with no payoff. For example; the female protagonist saves William of Orange from French dragoons in Holland by riding bareback across the country side, rowing a longboat out to sea, drowning a dragoon who tries to board the boat and he skips the thanks but tells her to go seduce a lesbian friend, so that she can, no doubt, send him more encrypted letters that talk about Court life. That is tne big action and occurs 700 pages in. Before that there is no action at all. Take a pass on this.

yeah, Stephenson can seriously turn a phrase, so many delights, but it's too much unjuicy between the fun bits. I wonder if there's some wink wink encryption in all the scene chewing, that someone could crack and then find the real sauce. Don't think I'll be going for the other two books.

I had great expectations for this book, having read all of Neal Stephenson's previous books, but was disappointed by this. Although he has obviously invested immense hours in research, the book comes across as stiff and overly ornate - much like baroque design.
In particular, Stephenson's smart-alecky dialogue, that worked to great effect in Snow Crash, is merely grating here, as are the anachronisms that the characters utter from time to time.
As for the characters themselves, I found it very difficult to care about any of them, which made it very difficult to involve myself in the story.
I really had to wonder what the benefit was of creating a gargantuan work that appeared to say so little; as if mere volume could substitute for depth.

I hadn't planned on reviewing this since who needs another bad review? I changed my mind after reading a few of the other reviews. While I can respect those who enjoyed this book, I think many of the positive reviews are a bit smug, self-righteous, and self-congratulatory in their dismissal of the bad reviews. Describing those who didn't care for Quicksilver as people looking for a car chase or a Grisham thriller or who prefer television to "stretching their minds" or who would rather read the newest "pap" etc. are far too dismissive, as well as insulting and arrogant in their assumption that disliking this book is somehow due a a want of intelligence or literacy. Please. The length of the book did not daunt me--I reread the entire Wheel of Time series every other book as they come out and before you dismiss me as just a fantasy reader as some have in the reviews, I've also read all of Proust's long work and Bleak House is one of my all-time favorite novels. The slow pace did not bother me in principle--Proust has never been accused of being a roller-coaster thrill ride. The language did not bother me--I've read and enjoyed Chaucer in the original Middle English. The historical details did not bother me. In the past year I've read (lengthy) bios of Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson and several analyses of the origins of the Constitution--for pleasure not for an assignment. The science did not bother me--I'm a regular reader of non-fiction science books and essays and Andrea Barret who regularly mixes science in with her work is one of my favorites. The character choices did not bother me--I've recently read two bios of Newton. So if I tell you that I gave this book over three hundred pages and simpy could not justify putting in the two or three days to finish it, and then another week or two over the next two years to complete the entire work, perhaps you should consider that it is not my inability as a reader but weaknesses in the text that led me to that decision. I found neither the plot nor the characters at all compelling. In fact, I found them, quite simply, to be dull which came as quite the surprise since I am quite interested in the time period and have never found this author dull. I found the introduction of historical facts all too often clumsily handled and at times simply gratuitous. I found the dialogue uneven both in terms of historical accuracy and in simply relating normal speech. I have enjoyed almost all of his other works, as I've said I find the time period and subject matter interesting, and I gave this book more than the benefit of the doubt. Some of you may have found the plot (which I found thin) or the characters (also thin) more interesting. Obviously some of you did. But please don't pat yourself on the back because you were just better able to "handle" the slow pace or "difficult" vocabulary than the more dim-witted of us who simply didn't like the book. I would tell anyone interested in this book to try and take it out of the library or sit down in a bookstore for an hour or so and see if they find themselves pulled along before dropping some twenty dollars on it. And I say that sadly. With that, I'm now off to continue my latest Danielle Steele book while I finish watching my tape of "Best of Jerry Springer."

The first installment takes a while to take off, but then you're in for a very long ride filled with wonders, laughter, amazement and great characters. At the end of the c. 3000 pages trilogy, I wanted even more!

The book is impressive but, the Author tries too hard to cover in detail all the subjects of the book. Well done but, might be considered too 'Academic' for some people's taste. Takes a long time to develop. Toward the end however, you're looking for the next book. This is not a light 2 night read. You'll think more than usual.

I've read every Stephenson novel and enjoyed them all, but the mans ego has finally exceeded his talent with this work.
Thousands of pages of trivia kitch with no coherent plot or compelling characters. Plenty of Stephensons signature style laid over material and characters that are so thin and uncompelling, you will hate yourself for having stuck with it.
Unlike Cyptonomicon and a few of his other books, this one never 'gets good' after a long introduction. It just goes on and on and on without ever going anywhere interesting.

Incredibly disappointing. After the first hundred pages I was getting nervous; after the second hundred I was frantic; after the third hundred I said, "To hell with it", and tossed it in my donation pile.

This is what you get when you have a talented author ( see previous works mentioned in previous reviews ) who knows a whole lot of interesting things involving some of history's greatest people and wants to make a novel out of all that great material...but can't find a story. Perhaps a story does appear deeper in the novel than I managed to penetrate, but I'm only willing to drill so far before I declare a "dry hole" and move on to more productive ground.

Mr. Stephenson should have written a non-fiction tome dedicated to his scientific mentors, since this novel has all the riveting story telling of a how-to book on plumbing.

First off, the anachronistic language is intentional you dolts. Alright, he likes learning stuff and telling you about it. The way he does that is interesting to me but not to everyone.

His Roy. Soc. Lon. reminds me of the Thomas Dolby video.

The recurring (eponymous) quicksilver theme is pretty cool.

I've been a fan of Neal Stephenson since Zodiac. I enjoyed Cryptonomicon and I was really looking forward to digging in to Quicksilver.

Unfortunately, I had to put the book down.

In general, Stephenson has continued to evolve as an author. Early on his books were somewhat psychedelic and transient... which could make them inaccessible and hard to follow. While Quicksilver has lots of tangents, lots of jumping around in the time-line and anemic character development, Stephenson is a better story teller these days. The style here is like Cryptonomicon, but with an even greater historical bent. A pleasant, meandering plot, rife with trivia, acts to build a thick atmosphere which leaves the reader to contemplate life in the 1600s. Stephenson also mixes in a certain rye humor, which seems modern, but not out of place.

The deal breaker for me was a grizzly little scene Stephenson paints about the grotesque torture / death of a dog. I tried to soldier through, but it became a pivotal "plot" point and was mentioned many times. I'm not sure if it was the details of the torture, or the author's seeming indifference toward the proceedings that turned me off more (later in the book, the same scene is mentioned in the tone of, 'well at least it wasn't a _human_').

After reading some of the reviews on here about this book, I was quite hopeful. As it happens, I'm actually a scientist who loves trivia and has a special place in the heart for the 17th century - it boded well! But 350+ pages later, I just couldn't force myself to keep going. So, in all fairness, I shouldn't even be writing this review. Except here's the thing: this book is so poorly written that I just HAD to. It's not the length, and it's not the content, it's just the writing style which makes this feel like a Herculean labor rather than anything enjoyable or even "educational." As far as I'm concerned, the only thing this book is good for is for throwing it at people you hate.

I previously considered myself a HUGE Stephenson fan but after reading Quicksilver I'm not even sure I will read the next 2 installments. The length didn't bother me, because I kept expecting it to get better (it didn't). I simply could not get past the recycling of major Cryptonomicon characters in a slightly different setting. Why use the exact same character in the exact same way, all the way down to the exact SAME NAME? Everytime the Shaftoe character came up I was re-disapointed. I am starting to feel Snowcrash was a fluke.

I have loved all of Neal Stephenson's other works, including his most recent Anathem, but prior to Anatham I attempted three, I repeat THREE TIMES to engage in Quicksilver & I just can't stay focused past the first handful of chapters. Every time I hope that I may 'cause there's soooooo much to look forward to in terms of sheer quantity of material, but nonetheless, unsuccessful.

This book has be announced as a "publishing event." And that is exactly what it is: an event. It's neither a good novel nor an interesting one. 900 pages sounds like a lot and it even sounds like a lot more when reading "Quicksilver." There is nothing to keep you going, no storyline that is even just a little engaging, no character you care for. It reads like "Ulysses" or "Gravity's Rainbow" without their respective revolutionary narrative innovations. It drags on and on and on. I would compare it to bad Pynchon: encyclopedic, monumental, and booooring. "Quicksilver" is a postmodern deconstruction of narration gone bad: it offers no plot, flat characters and is more concerned with language than with content. Yet the novel is not some artistic trick to emphasize the artificiality of texts, or some post-structural narrative experiment, but a complete failure on part of the author. I would be surprised if only one third of the readers were actually willing to pick up the upcoming two parts. Why should you, if you could stop anywhere in this text without actually missing anything.

Read slowly and patiently, gentle reader. Experience the Glorius Revolution in parallel, on one side as the patient of chirurgeons relieving us of kidney stones of feudalism, while on the other side through immersion in the amniotic fluids of the womb for the modern age. This alchemical book needs to have the density of mercury to float the gold of history.

I am 260 pages into this book at the moment and bored to death... (not to mention my straining biceps)...Is there anyone out there who can tell me why I should go on reading this? I LOVE Stephenson... Read all his stuff... What is this anyway, a course in 17th century history ? I'm too lazy to put this much effort into something that should relax and entertain me. And I was so looking forward to reading his baroque cycle... Bought all three, in fact. What a waste of time and money. I do think I'll move on to something else. Je n'en peux plus. je suis epuise !

I have been a fan of Neal's for sometime. I have enjoyed a number of his works. Quicksilver is one that I did not enjoy. The only delight was in the first couple of chapters. These first few chapters were interesting and engaging. After that it goes down hill fast. While I have an interest in science, philosophy, and history I found the articulation of these wonderful subjects very much lacking in Quicksilver. The premise is wonderful, but written badly and the characters becom wooden and puppet like. It hurts to say this, because I truly enjoyed Neal's other works. Clearly, I would not recommend this book.

After having read and loved the Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age, Snow Crash and Interface, I bought Quicksilver in preparation for an airplane trip around the world.
It was only after I started reading the book and suffering through it that I noticed that all the glowing reviews on its jacket were actually "Praise for Cryptonomicon". I guess the editors couldn't find anyone to praise the book itself.
I ended up ditching the book in a trash-can in the Brisbane airport. I had finished it, but didn't feel it was worth carrying all the way home and didn't feel cruel enough to try to pawn the book off on anyone else. There seemed to be no build to the novel -- no climax and unravelling.
Every good author has the right to a failure or two...

After thoroughly enjoying Cryptonomicon, I was eager to read Neal's new trilogy. But after 350 pages, I've just given up. So far, there's only about 50 pages of real plot and story and 300 pages of mind numbing (mostly) scientific trivia dating from the 17th century.

Cryptonomicon had a rocking story, also filled with trivia, but that trivia was an interesting diversion from main story and blessedly concise. If you enjoyed Cryptonomicon, be very wary about buying Quicksilver.

Here's the complete list to help people avoid buying something they already have:

Quicksilver, Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle
Book 1 - Quicksilver
Book 2 - The King of the Vagabonds
Book 3 - Odalisque

The Confusion, Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle
Book 4 - Bonanza
Book 5 - The Juncto

The System of the World, Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle
Book 6 - Solomon's Gold
Book 7 - Currency
Book 8 - The System of the World

After reading the reviews here, maybe I would like Cryptonomicon better? I am having a hard time finishing this book. I have no idea where it is going at this point, and worse - I don't care. I'm reading other books while Quicksilver sits face down, open and spine-bent in place in the optimistic hope that I will return to it when I finish all my other unread books. But it will have to wait for now.

Actually I did but I had to constantly ask myself this the entire time. I have read and loved every other Stephenson book which is the only reason I forced myself to finish this one. And this is just the 1st of three?? It is going to be tough waiting out two more of these things to read more of my favorite author!!

When Neal Stephenson finished Cryptonomicon, he was so in love with some of the characters he created he decided to indulge his "phant'sies" by allowing them to live again in a work of heavily researched historical fiction. Thus the Baroque Cycle was born.

All in all, I found the book to be excruciatingly hard to read. I did not finish it.

1) The parade of Famous Important Personages was mildly interesting at first; then the list grew so long I quit caring.

2) The sprinkling of "ye olde authentik Engishisms" in non-narrative descriptive text just made feel like I was swimming through treacle.

This is the only work of Stephenson's I have not enjoyed.

[Edited down with 62% less hyperbole!]

pretty disapointing. after cryptonomicon i expected something that would really hold my interest. i hope the following two books are better because up until now neal stephenson has impressed me with his incredible imagination, wit, and style. quicksilver just doesnt grab me like his earlier works.

This had all the makings of a book I should have loved. The time period was interesting and the author is talented. I love reading about historical figures. But after falling asleep again and again while reading this enormous tome, I had to admit that it had failed.

And as I would like to feel as witty, superior, and knowledgeable as the author, my need for a book to have a point eclipsed my vanity. I can't pretend to be in on the joke.

Reading this book is like wading through cement. Each character is more boring than the next, and it's bogged down with long uninterrupted paragraphs of stilted dialog and narrated trivia. Show, don't tell, has no meaning in this book.

I wish it were otherwise, but it's truly horrid.

What the heck was this all about? Uggh. I just finished it and I am at a loss as to why I continued past page 100. As much as I love Stephenson's other books, I was just bored with this one.
Book 1 and Book 3 were both incredibly boring but Book 2 was interesting.
I am very disappointed with Quicksilver and have no intention of reading volumes 2 and 3 of "The Baroque Cycle."

I gave this book one star not because it is a poor book, but because Neal can do a lot better than this rather boring story. Asking the Muse for help at the beginning of the novel was a tip off. In reading his plea I could feel that he was already on uncertain ground, whereas in all his previous absolutely brilliant novels Neal was balls to the wall full on in creativity and excitement. Is it success? Pressure to continue the winning streak? Please come back to us, Neal. Please don't write these dreaded 2 additional promised books along these same lines.

Princess Caroline commands Enoch Root to go to Boston to persuade computational systems developer Daniel Waterhouse to come to Europe. The royal wants Daniel to mediate a geometrically growing mathematical squabble. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz claim the invention of calculus. The two geniuses are locked in a feud that could destroy the enlightened foundations of empirical data as the basis to support scientific claims. Daniel, a friend of both scientists, sails to Europe as he muses over the scientific revolution that took root in the previous century.
Urchin Jack Shaftoe treks across Europe doing odd jobs like pretending to be a Musketeer until he meets Eliza in Austria. She is an English woman who escaped a Turkish harem that was her home as a teen. She wants vengeance on the merchant that sold her into slavery and feels Jack can help her achieve her objective. Ultimately she works her way up from the former muddy street rascal to English and French royalty.
QUICKSILVER is a delightful complex telling of the birth and impact of the scientific revolution. The story line recreates some of the greats like Newton, Leibniz, and Hooke as they interact with key fictional figures. The novel contains three "books" that focus on the Age of Reason so that the audience feels they are traveling with Daniel, Jack, and Eliza. Neal Stephenson makes the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century seem vividly alive at a critical junction in when reason and technology changed the world as few eras did before or since.
Harriet Klausner

I was SO disappointed by this book. I love Stephenson's science fiction (The Diamond Age blew me away) but I just could not get through this random assembly of historic nuggets masked as a novel. Impossible to finish.

This book is an exercise in excess. The book rambles endlessly, never really going anywhere. Those fans who expected the Neal Stephenson of Diamond Age or Snow Crash will be severely dissapointed. I have a theory: the real Neal Stephenson was abducted by aliens and is held in some distant galaxy. Meanwhile, they left an alien standin impersonating our author, but this alien doesnt really understand the dynamics of fiction.

While reading certain passages did give me a laugh, I have to say that it is largley Anglo-centric and Stephenson introduces numerous historical inaccuracies in an attempt to seem humorous and well-educated. He often does this at the expense of other countries in a "subtle" way. While one may argue that this is a work of fiction, this is certainly not a worthy excuse since the author's intent is clearly to place fictional characters in a factual historical context. While someone strongly knowledgable of history may leave with a good laugh at the inaccuracies, most readers will leave with a poor substitute for real knowledge, possible reinforcing previously held erroneous beliefs. This is not to say that the book is not often entertaining.

This was one boring, ponderous read. The historical figures could hvae added up to something interesting but in the end I wound up caring less and less about each and every one of them. Was there a point to this book?

I can't read this book. I've tried. Out of the hundreds (or thousands) of books I've read, this falls into a very select group of those which I didn't finish. Perhaps 5-10 books... I love Neal Stephenson. I like long books. But I agree with the wealth of other reviewers who had the time to write in depth about why they did not like it. It was a giant disappointment for me.

If the publisher ever drops the Kindle price so that it is the same as or less than the mass-market paperback price, I'll buy it and I will delete this review. I've never put in a one-star review because of Kindle price before and have found the practice obnoxious, so go ahead and give this rating some "unhelpful" marks. But I don't care any more. I am sick and tired of publishers charging ridiculous prices for e-books.

I can buy a used book for a couple of bucks and they get zero dollars from me. Why are they so resistant to charging a reasonable price for e-books? Then they could at least get some of my money. As it stands, they've lost the sale.

I have corresponded with the publisher but of course they did not respond. Eh. To heck with them.

I read this book not knowing at all what to expect. After a few pages I gave up. Why? At the beginning, the protagonist meets à 8-year old kid and starts chatting. What do they talk about? You would think it would go somewhere along those lines :
"hey kid, what's to see in this town?"
"depends, what are you looking for?"
"Any good place to eat/sleep/whatever"
"I'm not sure but people usually go to the market, this way"

Right? Wrong. Here they start talking about history. And the kid (who doesn't go to school) speak like a 40-year old history-buff! Darn! It could be ok if the discussion was interesting. But to me it was boring as hell. So I closed the book, and next! Maybe that was a mistake, maybe the remaining would have been better. But why drudge when one as som many right-from-the-start enjoyable books?

By the way, I did read Anathem from the same author (which is a book that was difficult to read but really enjoyable). So I'm not totally stupid. But this book felt like eating wood chips.

The story limps along with uninteresting characters which is a shame given that one of them is Sir Isaac Newton. I was looking for a fun, historical adventure and thought the trilogy would give me some good reading this winter. If you are looking for something more fast paced with interesting characters then I'd recommend Bruce Alexander's sir john fielding series.

I can't believe the nerve of publishers who think they can charge more for a kindle edition than the cost of a mass market paperback. What a rip off. I'll pick this up at a used book store on principle alone.

Book publishers: you're entering a brave new world of digital distribution. Learn from the mistakes of the music industry. Digital copies cost next to nothing to produce; share those savings with your customers and they'll remain loyal.

Mr. Mark L. Francis says:

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I apologise but I have not read this book. However there is a reason.
1. It has no timeline & starts in the 18th century & then back to the 17th & I do not know I want to sit down to 900 pages of being mucked about with
2. I do not know which is history & which is fiction or whether iit supposed to be counterfactual. Such as - The CABAL Government of Charles II consisted of Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley-Cooper & Leverndale, (Hence CABAL)but Stephenson replaces them with "Comstock, Anglesey Blah Blah & Lewis. Lewis's personal history indicates that he is based on General Monck. WHY? were the originals not interesting enough for you?
3. There are number of plain simple mistakes. Oliver Cromwell was succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell. NOT "RODGHER" fer Chrissakes! Judge Jeffreys did NOT "keep an appointment with Jack Ketch" (the hangman) in 1688 He died of kidney stones. Ketch was already dead in 1686. Hugh Peters was not executed by Jack Ketch who was not hangman until 20 years later - it was Edward Dun, his predecessor..
I am sure it is well written & imagined (as I am sure it is) & maybe its my fault for knowing more about the period than is perhaps good for me, but I find this sort of egregious mistakery profoundly stressful.

I can't pick it up. I try and I try, but I cannot finish this book. I keep getting drawn away from it and have read three other titles while that one sits there taunting me. I just do not find it interesting at all.

I used to think that a New York times bestseller would have to be at least remotely interesting. I was wrong. This book is filled with bad metaphors, fourteen letter words that can only be found in a thesaurus, and some words that are just made up, but supposed to sound like archaic english. Most of the narration is present tense, which is very distracting, and there is essentially no characterization aside from the portrayal of several of the characters as sadomasochists. If they were alive today they would sue Stephenson for liable. I threw the book in a LAX trash bin at about the half-way point. Don't waste your time.

Well I won't go into great length because I have yet to finish the book but so far it is great! I have been waiting for this since the moment I finished Crytonomicon and so far the wait has been justified. His approach to history is as thourough as ever leaving you with a definate feel for England of the 1600's. Newtons character is especially enjoyable as it gives a bit of humanity to a historical entity that previously seemed too exaulted to be really human.
Enjoy!

Stephenson has written a wonderful emulation of the 17th Century "Rogue's Novel", along the lines of Simplicissimus or other early examples of the novels which spawned the later Romanesque. Unfortunately, these novels are plotless, devoid of conflict, and the characters in them have the unfortunate tendency to be ill-developed and passive, simple observers to the events around them rather than active participants in them. As such, Stephenson has written a wonderful Rogue's Novel - unfortunately, these novels died 300 years ago for good reason.
They suck.
His characters, from the well-educated to the illiterate, the aged male to the child female, the king to the rat-catcher, all speak with the same voice. Many of Stephenson's metaphors are so cludgy they hearken back to The Diamond Age. The characters in the book drift through the events he details without really having an effect upon them - despite the fact that he tries to make them into key players. There is no conflict. The characters drift through such an amazing set of events with a kind of passivity that would make Tom Pynchon blush and Albert Camus worship.
I am hopeful the next books in the series will actually have something to bite into, for if this book was no simply "setting the stage", as it were, then Stephenson has taken a mighty plunge since Crypto.

This is just a warning that the book is written in the present tense. Personally I couldn't read it, I just wanted to correct everything I read.

It's a shame, I guess Stephenson was trying to be creative but that's not the way to do it.

I never received my book. Lost in shipment I am told. I did receive a refund but no other books were available to send to me. Had my heart set on getting this book to read with my husband. I was constantly having to call or write to find out the status of the book. Not ready to try again although when I signed up for the the store prime I received my products when promised. Sad I have to pay extra to get services promised to me.

The ironically named _Quicksilver_ is the most disappointingly leaden
book it has been my displeasure to read in recent years.
After _Cryptonomicon_ my expectations were high. Early on in
_Quicksilver_ I realized that there was no way this book could be as
good as the earlier one, so I adjusted my hopes downward
accordingly...and even then, I was disappointed.
The flaws are numerous.
The one thing that everyone knows about the book is that it contains a
frantic pile of trivia. I was actually looking forward to this aspect
of the book, given that I enjoy random learning opportunities as much
as the next geek, and given that this is one part of _Cryptonomicon_
that I was enthused about. _QS_ disappoints in this regard. To my
mind there are two main bins that trivia are sorted in to: (1) those
random items that are capable of clicking in an interesting way into
the knowledge structure I already have; and (2) utterly random
tidbits. NS delivered a few of the former, and a few truck-loads of
the latter. In so far as the trivia was interesting, I already knew
it (Germanic witch trials, etymology of the word "dollar", the broad
outlines and purposes of the various 16th century political
structures), and in so far as the trivia was not something I already
knew, I found it dreadfully boring (hail-storms of random names of
royalty, many of them playing minimal roles in the plot, etc.).
Ah. I used the word "plot", so I've segued onto the next region of
disappointment. _QS_ does not have a plot, in the conventional sense.
Sure, in a 900 page novel (or a 2,700 page novel, really), one
wouldn't expect the broad sweep of the action to be clear by page 50,
or 100...but by page 500 or so, one would hope to have an idea of
where things might be going. The book has Theme aplenty.
The Theme, however ("Things Really Changed a Whole Lot, Religiously,
Economically, Politically, and Scientifically"), is big, but too
insubstantial and too vague to construct a huge novel like this on.
_A Winter's Tale_ managed to work very well with out a real plot - it
could hang off of the Theme that "New York changes a lot, and is
magical through the ages". Then again, _A Winter's Tale_ was about
1/9th the length of Stephenson's Inflated Series.
Speaking of inflation, this book needed an editor, badly. Dialogue
and exposition are clunky in many many places. For that matter,
dialogue and exposition are poorly differentiated. There's a joke about
1950's science fiction that 3/4 of the plot and background information
are revealed in "As you know, Bob" asides. The same is true of _QS_.
There's some minor variation on a theme: there's "As you know", there
is "I need not mention the fact that X ...<1,000 words
elided>...because you already know that", and there is "as everyone in
the town knew...".
There's a persistent and pernicious meme in the art world that to
truly convey some situations you need to recreate those situations for
the audience. Thus, the only way to convey tedium is through a four
hour movie, etc. NS seemed to be held by this meme: to convey the
intellectual ferment and vast scope of the 17th century he felt the
need write a book that was adrift in a ferment and vast in scope.
Certainly he could not have conveyed these things in a novella, but
that does not mean that he could not have pruned perhaps a third of
what he wrote.
The book is large enough that there's a Dramatis Personae at the end,
which was somewhat useful...but it didn't work wonderfully well for
me, because the entries were fairly short and defined the characters
(well, historical figures) mostly in terms of descriptors and events
that did not take place inside the book. If I come across a character
who I know was present 500 pages earlier, but I'm trying to remember
whether that character was a alchemist or a merchant, it helps little
to learn that the character was a friend of the Duke of Wessex (or
what have you). This is not a huge departure from how Dramatis
Personae are usually implemented, so this is not a failing unique to
NS, but in a long, meandering, and yawn-inducing book the author
should be at particular pains to provide aids to the reader.
Finally, I found it difficult to read the book at points because of
several incidents of barbarous cruelty to animals. I understand that
the moral code of the time was different, and that these actions are
historically accurate, and even that some reference should be made in
the book, so as not to commit the sin of omission, and thus render the
book less of its time...but NS went further than that and introduced
the cruelty repeatedly. If it was required to advance the plot, he'd
have an out. I would wince (and more) at a book that had explicit
scenes of child rape or brutality, but would accept it if the book was
about the pursuit and capture of a child abuser...but I would find it
hard to read a novel that threw in a random scene of a child being
scalded as punishment just, because, you know...these things happen.
Yeah.
Yay verisimilitude.
The book was not with out wondrous scenes. Jack Shaftoe steps onto
center stage in an audacious scene at the siege of Vienna, which
matched the very best action scenes of _Cryptonomicon_. Daniel
Waterhouse meets up with danger at sea, and the intellectual faint and
bluff of the ensuing engagement is wonderful, as is the nonchalance of
the captain of the ship that Daniel is on. However, the scenes are
all too rare and far between, and concentrated disproportionately in
the first half of the novel.
I suppose I'll end up reading the remaining two volumes to see if NS
manages to pull a rabbit out of a very battered and pathetic looking
hat...but I've got to say, I'm not particularly looking forward to
another 1,800 pages of lying back and thinking of Enlightenment
England.