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From Publishers Weekly
The title of Stephenson's vast, splendid and absorbing sequel to Quicksilver (2003) suggests the state of mind that even devoted fans may face on occasion as they follow the glorious and exceedingly complex parallel stories of Jack Shaftoe, amiable criminal mastermind, and Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, courageous secret agent and former prisoner in a Turkish harem. In 1689, Jack recovers his memory in Algiers, evades galley slavery and joins a quest for the lost treasure of a Spanish pirate named Carlos Olancho Macho y Macho. This leads to adventures at sea worthy of Patrick O'Brian, and hairbreadth escapes from the jaws of the Inquisition. Meanwhile, Eliza is captured by the historical (and distinguished) French privateer Jean Bart while trying to escape to England with her baby. She must then navigate the intrigues of the court of Louis XIV, which are less lethal than those of the Inquisition by a small margin, but still make for uneasy sleep for a friendless female spy. Her correspondence with such scientific minds as Wilhelm Leibniz helps propel the saga's chronicling of the roots of modern science at a respectable clip. Of course, one can't call anything about the Baroque Cycle "brisk," but the richness of detail and language lending verisimilitude t? the setting and depth to the characters should be reward enough for most readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* This guy really likes to write long books. Cyptonomicon, his 1999 epic, was roughly the same length as the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. Quicksilver (2003), the first volume of his Baroque Cycle, was well over 900 pages, and this second installment is in the same ballpark. It picks up the story in 1689. Jack Shaftoe, self-proclaimed king of the vagabonds, is a galley slave, but that's soon going to change: he and nine of his fellow slaves engineer an escape. Their plan, to steal a cache of Spanish silver, turns out better (and also worse) than they could have imagined. Meanwhile, Eliza, a notorious spy whom Jack once rescued from a Turkish harem, is trying to get to London with her newborn baby. Set during one of history's most exciting times, from 1600 to 1750, this series brilliantly captures the intellectual excitement and cultural revolution of the era. With real-life supporting characters such as Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibnitz, the series blends fact and fiction so cleverly that it is virtually impossible to separate one from the other. Stephenson is a graceful writer, never getting bogged down in detail, keeping the story moving, dazzling us with his technique. The concluding volume of the trilogy is scheduled to appear in October 2004, and it's fair to say anyone who reads this one will spend the intervening months waiting with breathless anticipation. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
HE WAS NOT MERELY AWAKENED, but detonated out of an uncommonly long and repetitive dream. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
HE WAS NOT MERELY AWAKENED, but detonated out of an uncommonly long and repetitive dream. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
erudite fiction,
By I ain't no porn writer (author, "Crippled Dreams") - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Confusion: Volume Two Of The Baroque Cycle (Hardcover)
This is a slow-paced narrative, without a clear straightforward plot, which requires more reading patience that your average historical novel. But the style is rich and the characters are engaging and very well-developed. The reader will be swept away by an adventurous tale of slavery, freedom, and fortune-hunting, among other storylines interwoven in this ambitious work. Indeed, this literary tale might not satisfy readers of more lightweight commercial fiction, but Neal Stephenson is a great stylist whose writing will appeal to the scholar in you.David Rehak
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The Two Towers" of The Baroque Cycle,
By
This review is from: The Confusion: Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle (Paperback)
Stephenson follows up his marvelously detailed and entertaining "Quicksilver" with a continuation worthy of its predecessor. Jack Shaftoe, one of the three protagonists, drives his portion of the plot forward with swashbuckling abandon, travelling from his enslavement in Africa, to his daring heist of Solomonic Gold from a Spanish ship at Bonanza, to the markets in Egypt to try to sell this gold, to India where he begins as a near untouchable, working as a "feeder" of bloodsucking insects and ends up with a minor peerage. Finally, on to Japan to trade and then to the Americas, where he is double-crossed and imprisoned because of the treachorous Jesuit, Edouard de Gex. Scores are settled, new ones are tallied, and Jack takes it all with his deadpan humour, aplomb, and fatalism. Will he ever see England or his fair Eliza again?Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse attempts to save Isaac Newton from the influence of Fatio, a Swiss sycophant and minor savant, who has encouraged Newton's descent into madness and continued obsession with Alchemy, to the detriment of Natural Philosophy. Waterhouse, torn between the doctrine his father left him with and the chance to change the course of history through politics (yikes!), economics (say it ain't so!), and science (egad!), hopes to reconcile his life of intrigue with his Puritanical upbringing. Eliza continues to dabble in matters financial, using her oeconomic skills to gain favour in various courts. She befriends Caroline, a German princess, and Caroline's mother--not knowing that they will be in line for the crown of England. Stephenson's detail, wit, and ability to craft a captivating story (albeit a long one!) shine once again in this novel, which adequately sets up Volume 3 ("The System of the World") and makes for a promising conclusion indeed.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Briliant,
By Jotham Kinder (Boston. Because this will be the year the Red Sox win the Series.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Confusion: Volume Two Of The Baroque Cycle (Hardcover)
This is a beast of a book, wild, ferocious and full of mystery. One of those mysteries is the origin of the modern world. Using the medium of fiction, Stephanson strips away layer after layer of recieved wisdom and shows us how a few extrodinary people, and a great deal of ordinary ones, invented the modern notions of finance, banking, credit, trade, stock markets, globalization and the little matter of science. Yes, these people invented science as we know it. And Stephanson will show you the world they inhabited, page after page, untill you feel that you are amongst the greatest minds Europe ever produced.Which is not to say that The Confusion is all about dry academic discourse. The first page of the book finds Jack Shafto miraculusly cured of syphilis, wandering confusedly on a beach while a fifteen hundred gun salute is fired in the honor of the Caliph. From there, we are engaged in one of the best travelouges, adventure stories and general assembiledges of all out mayhem ever collected in one volume. In the spirit of equal oppertunities, this is not strictly a lads book. Equal time is given to Eliza, a former Harem virgin,and by her own wits and courage created a duchess in two nations. Also, by the end of the book, a mother of three. Now, this is a long book, and jam packed with details. Like the art which insipred it's name, the book contains ever increasing levels of ornimentation and detail, built on mathimatically and geometricly pure lines. Well, curves actually. Quite often, the reader can become lost in the welth of images and imagry. Not to worry. Stephanson provides both Newton and Liebinitz to explain the nature of those curves and ornimentation. Even if the titans occasionally disagree.
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