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Quicksilver

(The Baroque Cycle #1)

Neal Stephenson (Goodreads Author)

3.89 · Rating details · 39,424 ratings · 2,091 reviews

alternate cover for ISBN 0099410680/9780099410683

A novel of history, adventure, science, invention, sex, absurdity, piracy, madness, death and alchemy that sweeps across continents and decades, upending kings, armies, religious beliefs and all expectations. Bringing a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life – in an historical epic populated by Samuel Pepys, I ...more

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Paperback, 917 pages

Published September 21st 2004 by Arrow Books (first published September 23rd 2003)

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Nov 03, 2009 Bryan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical_fiction, favorites, sf

This book is just too vast to give justice to it in the few lines of this review that I might come up with now.

If you are ready to read this, here are some suggestions:

1) Start with Cryptonomicon first. You don't need to read this first, but it will help you get used to Stephenson's style, and you'll appreciate Quicksilver better having done so.

2) Before reading Quicksilver, spend some time brushing up on some basic English history. (Did you know that London burned? Do you know what the Monmouth ...more

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Jul 02, 2008 Kemper rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, sci-fi

(The following is an excerpt from the journal of Neal Stephenson.)

After the success of Cryptonomicon, I’m having some problems narrowing down my next project. The issue is that I have far too many ideas, and I can’t decide which plot to use for my next book.

I know that I want do something set during the late 17th century in Europe. It was an amazing time with huge changes in politics, culture, commerce and science, but there was just so much going on that I can’t seem to make up my mind and pic ...more

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Jan 13, 2009 WK rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

4.0/4.0

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 straightforward quest for revenge, is such thin gruel that you'd have to be on the lower end of the intellectual spectrum to fail to realize that the book's about something a little bit more than hunting a big fish.

Even so, the ...more

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Aug 01, 2008 Jamie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I think it's official: I hate Neil Stephenson's books. I hated his so called cyberpunk classic 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 historical fiction in that it's set in the 17th and 18th century and follows the rise of empiricism and science. It features real people from that period, like Isaac Newton, Gotfried Leibniz, Robert Boyle, Rob I think it's official: I hate Neil Stephenson's books. I hated his so called cyberpunk classic 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 historical fiction in that it's set in the 17th and 18th century and follows the rise of empiricism and science. It features real people from that period, like Isaac Newton, Gotfried Leibniz, Robert Boyle, Robert Hook, King Louis XIV, and others. But the "fiction" part of "historical fiction" comes into play because the main characters --an aspiring natural philosopher (read: scientist) named Daniel Waterhouse, a former concubine turned finance tycoon named Eliza, and a charming vagabond named Jack Shaftoe-- never really existed and were fabricated for the sake of the book, which traces the activities of these three main characters as they live through the era.

The main problem I have with Quicksilver was that it was largely plotless. I kept waiting for something to happen or some plot to coalesce out of the noise, but it didn't. The characters are really just there to give Stephenson an excuse to carry on about the development of science as a discipline, the ephemeral nature of money, and pirates --sometimes all three in the same passage. There's no narrative, just a seemingly endless burbling of scenes --the damn thing is nearly 1,000 pages long, and I READ the paper version of this one. I actually kind of liked the some of the parts with struggling scientist Daniel Waterhouse the best, because the history of science interests me, but even these moments of engagement were covered up by obscure details and diversions that were like overgrown plants in a sprawling garden.

In fact, the whole book is bloated with details about experiments, geneologies, dissertations on stock markets, battles, family histories, and other verbal flotsam that it made it downright hard to read the book and impossible to enjoy. I get the impression that Stephenson gorged himself on research for the book, and then decided to use it all --every last syllable-- no matter what hellacious effect it has on the narrative or the goal of actually telling an interesting story. Quicksilver may be more entertaining than a high school textbook on the same topics, but only marginally.

And the thing is that it's only the first THIRD of a trilogy, plus a tie-in to Stpehnons's book Cryptonomicon. What's worse is that I went ahead and picked up the other books in hardback, though I did so at a thrift store and only set myself back a total of like three bucks. I think I'm just gonna eat that cost and not even think about picking them up, given how much I disliked Quicksilver. Life is too short. ...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Manny rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: parody-homage, mentions-twilight, story-review, the-goodreads-experience, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

I received an unexpected visit yesterday evening from a Mr. Nosnehpets, who told me he was a time-traveller and writer from the early 25th century. He had just published a historical novel, and wondered if I would do him the service of reviewing it.

"Why me?" I asked, bemused.

"Well," replied my visitor with an insinuating smile, "You appear in it more than once. You don't know it yet, but you're one of your period's major authors."

I snatched the book, Mercury, from his hands, and it was even as h ...more

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Nov 26, 2013 Mark Hebwood rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Well. Where to start with this... Ok. Let us first pretend that there are only two criteria to use when analysing works of fiction, (1) number of characters and (2) richness of plot. Now let us say we are drawing a chart, with quality 1 on the horizontal axis, and quality 2 on the vertical axis. Now we have a space into which we can slot a few books lying around the house. A Dickens novel goes into the upper right quadrant of the grid - many characters and rich plot to bind them together. A Samu ...more

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Feb 20, 2017 Markus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2017

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson is in some ways the strangest book I’ve read this year.

The most surprising aspect of the book is the fact that there is no plot. I’ve read books that have started really slowly, and even books where the author largely ignores plot to focus on building the setting. This book, however, has no plot.

For all intents and purposes, Quicksilver is The 17th Century: The Novel. In many ways it feels like the literary equivalent of an open world video game. You just go around Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson is in some ways the strangest book I’ve read this year.

The most surprising aspect of the book is the fact that there is no plot. I’ve read books that have started really slowly, and even books where the author largely ignores plot to focus on building the setting. This book, however, has no plot.

For all intents and purposes, Quicksilver is The 17th Century: The Novel. In many ways it feels like the literary equivalent of an open world video game. You just go around exploring with the characters, with no context or coherence whatsoever. Historical value is incredible. Certain individuals, like Isaac Newton, John Churchill and William of Orange, figure heavily. Tons of others make shorter appearances. As for location, the book takes you everywhere from the port of colonial Boston to the 1683 siege of Vienna.

And almost surprisingly, it’s charming. Almost a thousand pages of exploring a historical setting occasionally becomes an arduous task, but occasionally also becomes an exciting adventure filled with interesting details.

The book is divided into three parts. Considering the ridiculous size of the whole volume, you might define the three as books in themselves. I definitely had to take a break and read other things between each of them.

The first book focuses on Daniel Waterhouse, Puritan thinker and scientist and one-time member of the Royal Society. His part is split in two between a “present day” (1713) account of his leaving Massachusetts on a ship bound for England. This acts as a frame story for the second, which is a tale about his life and exploits with the Royal Society decades earlier. I strangely enjoyed the former more than the latter, even though it is moving so slowly that although the book starts out in Boston, the ship ends the part by sailing out of Massachusetts Bay.

The second book focuses on Jack Shaftoe, vagabond turned mercenary, and Eliza, slave in the harem of the Ottoman sultan. From their meeting during the siege of Vienna, the book follows them on a journey together through the various principalities and kingdoms of Europe, filled with strange details and interesting histories.

The third book pulls the first two together in something of a conclusion, leading up to the year 1688. The (historical) ending of the book was rather obvious if you are familiar with these times.

Overall, it’s a much more interesting book to read in than a book to read. While there is little sign of a story, and the fictional protagonists are not particularly outstanding, the setting is uniquely interesting and very well described. Despite being a work of historical fiction, the reader will inevitably learn a lot about 17th century history, in very enjoyable ways.
...more

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Dec 09, 2017 Darwin8u rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american, 2018, historical-fiction

The gold that paid for a pound of Malabar pepper was melted and fused with the gold that paid for a boatload of North Sea herring, and all of it was simply gold, bearing no trace or smell of the fish or the spice that had fetched it. In the case of Cœlestial Dynamics, the gold—the universal medium of exchange, to which everything was reduced—was force.
- Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver

description

Book 1: Quicksilver

That one man sickens and dies, while another flourishes, are characters in the cryptic message t ...more

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Mar 03, 2009 Dan Schwent rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

This was the book that knocked Neal Stephenson off of my "buy on sight" list. Too long, nothing happening, the first of three dauntingly large volumes. That about sums it up. ...more

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Nov 03, 2020 Rob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2020-reads

Book 1 in the Baroque Cycle published 2003.
A recommended 4 star read.
First thing that needs to be said is this is not a quick read, at 927 pages it’s huge by any standard.
The next thing to say is that there is no discernible plot; well none discernible to me that is.
So how does one read a 927 page plot less tome?
The answer to that, strange at it may seem, is with ease.
It reads more like a diary, a diary that records some of the most monumental scientific discoveries of all times.
The narrator, ...more

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Oct 23, 2017 Sud666 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction-novel

Neal Stephenson books are not for everybody. Actually, they are but not everybody will like them. This will certainly be the case for Quicksilver. It's a "love it" or "WTF did I just read?" kind of reaction. A NS book is often dense and erratic in the linear story. Mr. Stephenson has a myriad of interests and a sizeable intellect backing him up. His stories tend to delve in a variety of side topics (all of which are very informative but outside the normal story arc) and that can be off putting t Neal Stephenson books are not for everybody. Actually, they are but not everybody will like them. This will certainly be the case for Quicksilver. It's a "love it" or "WTF did I just read?" kind of reaction. A NS book is often dense and erratic in the linear story. Mr. Stephenson has a myriad of interests and a sizeable intellect backing him up. His stories tend to delve in a variety of side topics (all of which are very informative but outside the normal story arc) and that can be off putting to many who dislike tangential topics to the main plot. Well..you have been warned. For the rest of you that like NS, let me tell you about Quicksilver.

It is a book broken up into three parts. The first part, Quicksilver, is flashback of the early life of Daniel Waterhouse during the early 1700s. The second part, King of the Vagabonds, focuses on James "half-Cocked" Shaftoe and the vast majority takes place circa 1683. The final part, Odalisque, goes back to D. Waterhouse and details his exploits during his time as a courtier for Charles II of England.

Set during the Baroque era NS shows the monumental changes taking place. As an aside, the Baroque era was one where the Catholic Church, under the guidance of the Council of Trent (1545-1563 in Trento, Italy), decided to perform a Counter-Reformation to act against the growing Protestant outbreak. What the Council espoused, ironically contrary to past Church policy, was that the Church ought to encourage arts that explored religious themes with a direct and emotional involvement. Thus the exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail of the Baroque style found a receptive audience among the Church and the Aristocracy who felt that the the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture was a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, and control. Thus the Baroque style originates in Italy, specifically Rome, and began to spread throughout Europe during the 1600s.

The story is a grand adventure. The setting is Europe and the cast includes many famous people from Newton to William of Orange. Along the way you will learn about the conflict between Gottfried Leibniz and Issac Newton about the math behind Newton's ideas was interesting (well..to me). It shows the basis for the creation of calculus and how it differed from geometric and trigonometric expressions. Truly amazing. It also hints at the fact that what Leibniz is referencing as a "math language" is the basis for the binaric calculations done by modern computers! Very cool.

I will not spoil the plot nor delve too much into the details since NS does it far better than I. if you're interested in the scientific, political and economic forces that drove the baroque period then this is the book for you. Vast in scope, dark in humor, dense in knowledge, lacking in a strict, linear plot-this is textbook NS. Coming in at the size of a textbook-I reiterate- this is not for everyone, but if you show the patience to get through it, I think, you will find it to be worth it. I did. ...more

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Feb 22, 2008 Stephen Dranger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: scientists, armchair philosophers, and people who like reading for the sake of reading

Reading a huge 900+ page hardcover book with a seemingly open plot filled with pages of 17th century philosophical exposition and the requirement of reading two more books just like it may seem like a chore, but for me at least, Stephenson makes it fascinating. He reveals (or invents, at the very least) the inner workings of Isaac Newton, early Dutch stock market fraud, the invention of the calculus, and Turkish harems. This all serves as a backdrop for Daniel Waterhouse, Jack Shaftoe, and Eliza ...more

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Jun 19, 2007 mark monday rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mnemonic-devices, into-the-past

it took me about a year to get through this one. somewhat worth it, and i will get around to the second and third books of this gargantuan trilogy eventually. i learned a lot about the philosopher-scientists and byzantine politics and what it actually was like to live in the tumultuous times depicted...and didn't learn a whole lot about the inner life of a couple of the central characters. but there are dozens and dozens of truly fascinating and wonderfully written passages depicting all sorts o ...more

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Nov 05, 2019 SAM rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction-etc, 2019

Upon finishing the last page of Quicksilver i really was expecting a gold star; the book is physically massive and ridiculously dense with plot so anyone who finishes deserves an award.

As it was split into three separate parts or books, as the author has labelled them, i decided to treat it the same; after each part i took a few days break and read something else. I believe this aided in enjoying Quicksilver. Reading it all in one go would’ve been overkill and possibly sent me insane.

Book 1 – Upon finishing the last page of Quicksilver i really was expecting a gold star; the book is physically massive and ridiculously dense with plot so anyone who finishes deserves an award.

As it was split into three separate parts or books, as the author has labelled them, i decided to treat it the same; after each part i took a few days break and read something else. I believe this aided in enjoying Quicksilver. Reading it all in one go would’ve been overkill and possibly sent me insane.

Book 1 – Quicksilver
Daniel Waterhouse is our main protagonist as he lives a life of a Natural Philosopher. There isn’t a plot as such but Daniel is lucky enough to be alive during the time of Isaac Newton and several other famous eccentrics the majority of which i’d never heard of. They spend most of their time carrying out bizarre and grotesque experiments all in the name of science whilst also reacting to the plague, the great fire of London and the reign of Charles II. There’s so much going on i reckon you’d have to read this three or four times to truly appreciate it’s genius.

Book 2 – King of the Vagabonds
We leave Daniel behind for part 2 and follow the story of the syphilis infected Jack Shaftoe who, whilst fighting against the Turks in the Battle of Vienna, sets free a lady of the Sultans Harem called Eliza. Both escape the camp and commence a sightseeing tour of Amsterdam, Paris and Marseilles, interacting with William of Orange, Gottfried Leibniz and the Duke of Monmouth who is planning his coup of the English crown. As with part 1 there’s too much going on for a proper synopsis. Needless to say there’s no let up of events/action and i was never bored.

Book 3 – Odalisque
Part 3 rejoins Daniel and also concentrates on Eliza who is now a financial adviser and the 17th century female version of James Bond as she aligns herself with William of Orange. We also witness the downfall of James II and the Glorious Revolution.

I read the above and my description of Quicksilver seems sparse compared to the mammoth tome that i read. On paper i shouldn’t have liked this book; there’s no definitive plot and it’s focus is the 17th Century, which wouldn’t be my first choice if i was to geek out on history. It’s also full of historical events and people i wasn’t clued up on and there’s little explanation as to what’s going on; Neal Stephenson writes as if you should know about this period of history and if you don’t then tough! Thankfully Wikipedia is a great aid for research if you’re in need. Despite all of this i loved it. It was interesting, packed full of philosophy and there’s an array of crazy characters, none more than Isaac Newton who is an insane genius! ...more

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May 08, 2012 Clouds rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, pub-2000s, science-fiction, science-fiction-series, read-in-2012, reviewed-mini

Reading this book was kind of like... spending an afternoon on a long walk through the countryside, with a kindly but eccentric uncle, who happens to be a brilliant historian. I could listen to his rambling anecdotes for hours... except at some point I realised that we'd been walking for so long... hypnotised by his voice... that I had grown several inches of beard...

It's a big book, but it's utterly fascinating and I loved it.

I have 40+ books sitting on my 'review-soon' shelf that I just don't ...more

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Jul 16, 2007 meg Olson rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone with infinite patience

The first third of the book was generally plodding and lacking in any interesting protagonists (and no, I don't care that the oh-so-clever-writer added in as many famous characters as he could think of, they were still generally annoying). The second third showed much more promise, and was actually really fun, until the very end when everything got awful. Not like The-Empire-Strikes-Back-second-act-as-many-bad-things-happen-as-possible awful, though I think that's what the author was aiming for. ...more

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Jun 10, 2008 Liviu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-sf, read_2015, t_n_bks_2007_earlier, read_2009

complete reread of the novel (and of course continuing with the sequels) - while I greatly enjoyed it the first time I read the series (in 2008), this time I have appreciated it even more; epic, memorable characters, adventures, intrigue and the birth of the modern world set on the twin pillars of formalized rational inquiry - what we call now science and was once called natural philosophy - and capitalism which forces innovation - which for most history was strongly resisted by societies - by c ...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Charlie Huenemann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

(This is a review of the whole Baroque Cycle.)

The saga ranges over the years 1640-1714 (roughly), following three principal characters: Daniel Waterhouse, a British natural philosopher and non-conformist; Eliza, a woman kidnapped from a remote British isle and abducted into the seraglio, who is later rescued and who subsequently makes her way into the court of Versailles and the world of high finance; and Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds, adventurer, galley slave, pirate, and symp ...more

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Jul 29, 2008 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: scientists, fans of historical fiction

Shelves: speculative-fiction

So many people have already reviewed this book--so instead of a comprehensive review, I will only mention one of many truly memorable scenes. In a meeting of the Royal Society in London, various natural philosophers report on their recent findings, inventions and discoveries. The juxtaposition of banal reports with momentous discoveries is absolutely hilarious. I won't try to paraphrase it--the scene is lengthy--but this section is worth reading by any modern-day scientist. The point is that at ...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Jonfaith rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: speculativelyspeaking

You can say any sort of nonsense in Latin, and our feeble university men will be stunned, or at least profoundly confused. That’s how the popes have gotten away with peddling bad religion for so long, they simply say it in Latin.

It is assuring to see Stephenson working and waxing so Pynchonian. The author is putting in the work, sketching the details, plumbing for the argot, inserting the puns.

I've read it twice. the Waterhouse sections are divine, the others not so lofty.
...more

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Nov 23, 2013 Lightreads rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, fiction

A long, meandering, Europe-trotting historical which alternates stretches of ponderous natural philosophy with stretches of hilarious piratical shenanigans, to somewhat dubious effect. I enjoyed this, the way you enjoy a book that you read in 100 page chunks over the span of a year, and it's worth noting that I could do that since there's very little throughline. But the thing is.

The thing is, Stephenson made a conscious choice to mix his oodles of historical research with a modern prose sensibi ...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Scott rated it liked it · review of another edition

Stephenson deserves an editor that will tell him to write less. The man prodigiously describes "cool" "fun" "interesting" events with such detail and precision that it usually loses its narrative flow. The guy has a command of the english language and is certainly fascinated by late 17th century and early 18th century goings-on that this feels like a historical narrative rather than historical fiction, yet the whole book feels like it was written in computer code; it is an odd stylistic quirk of ...more

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Mar 30, 2017 Toby rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, lit

I've owned this "cycle" of books for something like seven years. I don't read massive books but I did love Stephenson's cyberpunk books and this sounded interesting, but no way was I ever planning on reading it, size matters after all.

But I've had a hankering for something approaching the content of Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies since finishing the second book and despite being set over a hundred years later - taking place after the other Cromwell was beheaded - Quicksilver is similarly furnishe ...more

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Feb 09, 2011 William rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: hardcover, his-fiction

I loved Stephenson's "Snow Crash". Really liked "Cryptonomicon". But, this novel was terribly boring. It is divided into three books. Book 1 follows the scientist Dan Waterhouse. Book 2 followed Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Book 3 sees Eliza, a former slave girl, caught up in a spy ring between the French, English & Dutch governments. Sounds good, but it isn't. The writing is too long, and too detailed to remain focused on what should be important to the story...the story. I found myself ...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Terry rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, fantasy

Neal Stephenson needs an editor.

Also, it may be cute and even kind of interesting to write an historical fantasy novel using idioms and vernacular from the 20th century on purpose, but it just doesn't work for me.

And yeah, ok we get it Neal, you're really clever and know a bunch of stuff...that doesn't mean you need to reference every bit of it you can stuff into the books you write.

It's kind of dissapointing because the ideas and possibilities of where this book could have been going were reall ...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Stephanie Swint rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Quicksilver is an interesting book-especially since you can be discussing two different books. Quicksilver is the first installment of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque cycle. It is a political and scientific monster delving into the 17th and 18th century. The first thing you need to know is that Quicksilver:Volume One is a combination of Quicksilver:Book 1, King of the Vagabonds: Book 2, and Odalesque: Book 3. If you purchase Quicksilver Volume 1 do not purchase the Books that are available in a solita ...more

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May 26, 2020 Alan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Natural philosophers and their ilk

Recommended to Alan by: Enoch the Red

This is how Neal Stephenson begins Quicksilver, the first published volume of his sweeping multi-volume series, The Baroque Cycle:

Boston Common
October 12, 1713, 10:33:52 A.M.
—p.3

That time—down to the second, in a year when watches didn't even have minute hands!

Stephenson dispenses with such impossible precision for the rest of Quicksilver—the rest of its chapter headings consist of dates alone. Even so, what a wealth of information remains! Frankly, the Baroque Cycle is incredible, not just for ...more

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Oct 10, 2009 Robert rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

What a mess! This volume commits several heinous sins; the Sin of Protagonist Switching occurs twice. The Sin of Rambling Aimlessly occurs through out. The Sin of Being Pointless might possibly be redeemed in the remaining volumes...but can I be bothered to read them?

There are fun and exciting passages that account for the two star rating but they are islands floating on the structural swamp.

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Sep 02, 2010 Kat Hooper rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

I’m a scientist by profession and I love history. Thus, I’m fascinated by the history of science, especially the era of Isaac Newton et al. So, Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver should be just my thing and I was fully expecting to love this book (it’s been on my list for years), but I’m sad to say that I was disappointed in this first installment of The Baroque Cycle, though I still have high hopes for the remaining books.

Quicksilver is well-researched and well-written and chock full of plenty of st ...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Sandi marked it as couldn-t-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, cross-genre

I admit it. I have absolutely no desire to finish this book. I'm so very close to the end, but I stopped caring somewhere along the way. I really don't know what it is that keeps me from finishing it. Maybe it's because I only have about 120 pages left and I know that nothing's going to be resolved. Maybe it's because I've read 781 pages and have no idea what the heck is going on. Is there even a plot? Is this book about anything other than history? I can see why people do like it. In fact, I li ...more

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The Baroque Cycle	20	229	Jun 18, 2019 05:16AM
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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Historical Fiction, Main Character Jack, Possibly A Saga, Involved British and French History. [s]	3	18	Oct 13, 2017 01:21PM
Joseph Beth Sci-F...: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, to be discussed February 27th, 7-8 pm in the Bronte Bistro	1	6	Dec 06, 2016 07:41AM
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About Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson

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Neal Stephenson is the author of Reamde, Anathem, and the three-volume historical epic the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World), as well as Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

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The Baroque Cycle (3 books)

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Neal Stephenson Discusses His New 'Paradise Lost'-Influenced Book

Neal Stephenson is the bestselling author of the novels Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of...

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“Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window.” — 107 likes

“Talent was not rare; the ability to survive having it was.” — 60 likes

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Preview — Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

Quicksilver

(The Baroque Cycle #1)

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