Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, #1)

Posted on 07 July 2018 by Neal Stephenson

Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of Half Cocked Jack Shaftoe London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox.And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance.A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.This P.S edition includes 16 pages of supplementary materials.Cover design by Richard L AquanCover illustration from the Mary Evans Picture Library painting of Great Fire of London on stepback Download Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, #1) – kino-fada.fr 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 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 Rebellion was, and the Bloody Assizes that followed Do you know about the interregnum Do you know that William III deposed James II in a coup It would be nice if a timeline could be provided that summar...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 The following is an excerpt from the journal of Neal Stephenson After the success of Cryptonomicon, I m having some problems narrowin...4.0 4.0It 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 bitthan hunting a big fish.Even so, the 4.0 4.0It 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 bitthan hunting a big fish.Even so, there s no guarantee that you re going to tolerate 20 pages about rope At the end of the digression, you re either going to respond in one of two ways You might be of the sort to go, Hmm, that was some fascinating rope discourse I had no idea that rope could be used in such multifaceted ways, and having read that, I am now a different and slightlyrounded person Then again, you could respond with a JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, enough with the stupid rope already For fuck s sake, where s that son...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 itthan 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 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 itthan 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 he said There was hardly a chapter where I didn t turn up Often I would speak for paragraphs at a time You have cast me in an overly flattering light, I protested I think you ll find that quotation actually comes from Oscar Wilde And this one is due to Winston Churchill Details, details, said Nosnehpets impatiently Only the worst kind of wikipede is going to object Try and see the big ...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 chara... 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 colon...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 whic...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.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 Q...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 twobooks 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 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 twobooks 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 of Qwghlm Cryptonomicon rea...

English
07 July 2018

Neal Stephenson