Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) by Neal Stephenson
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Book Reviews of Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)
Book Review: Boy do I feel dumb.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Fabulous Indulgence
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Book Review: A rattling good history book.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is scarcely a novel, more a history book, but a history book one cannot put down even when late for work and with an urgent deadline looming. A history of the birth of science, the birth of capitalism, the Glorous Revolution, the birth of human rights and freedom. It is primarily a history of science, economics, and politics. It is also a really great read.The viewpoint characters wander around the seventeenth century, always by some improbable coincidence winding up with a front row view of key events and battles, and present while key figures of science and politics hold long conversations, in which they lecture each other on the events of the time.
Thus for example a viewpoint character finds himself with a bunch of the great and famous inside a house surrounded by a hostile mob. It rapidly becomes apparent that the guards of the great and famous have fled, and the mob intends to burn down the house with the occupants inside. As the smoke thickens the great and famous then have a witty, intelligent, and lengthy conversation explaining who the mob is, and why they are angry, and the economics and politics that led to this situation.
The book is largely a collection of interesting lectures, delivered in the course of an exciting story. Starts off a bit slow, but keep at it, one soon gets sucked into the seventeenth century, with its rat excrement, fleas, sharp daggers, and primitive contraceptives.
Book Review: It stays on my mind like no other
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Quicksilver several months ago, not long after finishing Cryptonomicon. As my wife can attest, it was not an easy read -- I complained repeatedly about how very long it took to finish.That said, I never contemplated putting it aside. The characters are too compelling, the history too interesting and the unrolling of the vast plot (or series of plots) too absorbing.
Since then, I find myself thinking about it frequently and wishing the next volume was out. And I keep encountering things in the popular/science press that remind me of it -- a piece about slavery in the 16th and 17th centuries, involving barbary corsairs capturing people off of the beaches of europe, a piece about Newton's fascination with the book of Timothy, a newspaper piece about Hooke's contributions . . . all things I already knew about because of this book.
As Stephenson has said, brevity is an overvalued thing. I like short stories, I like short novels, I like brief and factual magazine articles. But sometimes the satisfaction of a full and complete treatment is just the ticket -- a Stephenson novel, perhaps, or one of those never-ending Atlantic pieces.
If you've a short attention span, or have a frequent need to abandon solitary pursuits for the real world, don't try this book unless you want to practice focusing. For the rest of us, go out and get it now.
Book Review: A work of genius
Summary: 5 Stars
Let Neal Stephenson take you for a romp around 17th Century Europe, and you'll never view fiction in the same way again. The cast of characters includes famous scientists (Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke), royalty (Charles II of England, Louis XIV), spies, vagabonds, soldiers, whores and moneylenders. Roughly divided into three sections, the book covers the science, finance and politics of the time through a complex array of events. There is a plot yes, but Quicksilver is not so much a novel as a series of vignettes or scenes, which are used to drive the author's ideas. The characters get wrapped up in the Fire of London, Catholic Kings vs Protestant England, the French invasion of the Dutch, and the intrigue of Versailles. And like in real life, it truly is a small world. Actions by one character have ripple effects for the others.
This is truly intelligent fiction, not Dan Brown. You will learn, ponder and laugh. Both the writing and the extensive and accurate knowledge base behind it show shades of genius. Admittedly, it helps to have a working knowledge of physics and European history. But all the facts and ideas interlink and can be easily worked through.
Quicksilver defies description. It isn't science fiction or historical fiction. It is unique. A work of genius is the only way I can classify it.