false<![CDATA[Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle, #1)]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157396686m/823.jpg82313In <I>Quicksilver</I>, the first volume of the "Baroque Cycle," Neal Stephenson launches his most ambitious work to date. The novel, divided into three books, opens in 1713 with the ageless Enoch Root seeking Daniel Waterhouse on the campus of what passes for MIT in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Daniel, Enoch's message conveys, is key to resolving an explosive scientific battle of preeminence between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the development of calculus. As Daniel returns to London aboard the <I>Minerva</I>, readers are catapulted back half a century to recall his years at Cambridge with young Isaac. Daniel is a perfect historical witness. Privy to Robert Hooke's early drawings of microscope images and with associates among the English nobility, religious radicals, and the Royal Society, he also befriends Samuel Pepys, risks a cup of coffee, and enjoys a lecture on Belgian waffles and cleavage-—all before the year 1700. <p> In the second book, Stephenson introduces Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. "Half-Cocked" Jack (also know as the "King of the Vagabonds") recovers the English Eliza from a Turkish harem. Fleeing the siege of Vienna, the two journey across Europe driven by Eliza's lust for fame, fortune, and nobility. Gradually, their circle intertwines with that of Daniel in the third book of the novel. <p> The book courses with Stephenson's scholarship but is rarely bogged down in its historical detail. Stephenson is especially impressive in his ability to represent dialogue over the evolving worldview of seventeenth-century scientists and enliven the most abstruse explanation of theory. Though replete with science, the novel is as much about the complex struggles for political ascendancy and the workings of financial markets. Further, the novel's literary ambitions match its physical size. Stephenson narrates through epistolary chapters, fragments of plays and poems, journal entries, maps, drawings, genealogic tables, and copious contemporary epigrams. But, caught in this richness, the prose is occasionally neglected and wants editing. Further, anticipating a cycle, the book does not provide a satisfying conclusion to its 900 pages. These are minor quibbles, though. Stephenson has matched ambition to execution, and his faithful, durable readers will be both entertained and richly rewarded with a practicum in Baroque science, cypher, culture, and politics. <I>--Patrick O'Kelley</I>1610031book2003Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle, #1)total:4783|5:1481|4:1729|3:979|2:403|1:191|478318255717052144falsefalseSun Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009Mon May 25 12:24:45 -0700 2009Mon Jul 27 15:47:51 -0700 2009 It is clear that this book is rea...more...]]>
18falsefalseMon Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2008Fri Aug 01 11:39:27 -0700 2008Wed Feb 25 01:53:47 -0800 2009
Snow Crash --a fact that sets me apart from most of the nerdegalian-- and I really hated Quicksilver.
Quicksilver is kind of hard to classify, if you in fact insist on classifying it. It's kind of histo...more...]]>
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56falsefalseTue Jan 13 01:18:26 -0800 2009Fri Jan 23 05:52:51 -0800 2009 It's the Moby-Dick question.
The plot's about an angry guy chasing a whale. There's not a lot of variation on this theme: he catches it, or he doesn't. Maybe he catches it and wishes that he didn't, maybe he doesn't and regrets that he failed. But this basic plot, a str...more...]]>
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41falsefalseWed Sep 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008Tue May 20 08:38:40 -0700 2008Thu Sep 25 12:52:20 -0700 2008
Cryptonomicon but still a very good read, during which I covered my bookmark with notes of things to go look up later.
This volume is split into three books, each the size of a decent 300-page novel. The characters appear to be the ancestors of those in Cryptonomicon; i...more...]]>
51falsefalseSun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006Tue Oct 02 13:41:47 -0700 2007Wed Feb 25 01:53:39 -0800 2009 QUICKSILVER
I finished reading Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson about a month ago. This book took me almost two months to finish reading because it is so freaking long and epic. I really love Neal Stephenson. I've also read Crypton...more...]]>
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Baroque Cycle (I: Quicksilver, II: The Confusion, and III:The System of the World, all of which are set in the same universe as Cryptonomicon), the extra acclaim for the thundering huge scope of the work, miraculously spun with one of the great love stories, Eliza and Jack ...more...]]>
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