Stephenson’s concluding three books in the Baroque cycle. The final volume finishes the long story arc that has been developed in the series and continues to be quirky and fun historical fiction (often heavy on the fiction). The final volume largely deals with money in early 1700’s England, and goes into more detail on the Newton / Liebniz rivalry.

If you liked the other two then you will continue to enjoy this volume. And if you didn’t and you’ve read this far, then you might as well finish.

The Confusion is the second volume in the Baroque Cycle consisting of two books: Bonanza and The Juncto. These two books are interwoven in the novel so that the timeline between them stays consistent.

I really don’t have much to say about this book that differs from my review of Quicksilver. Stephenson continues expanding on two main story lines and their corresponding characters, and at times the effects from one novel are seen in the other. The scope is now widened (mostly in Bonanza) to include the Middle East, India, Japan and Mexico / Central America. I do not want to go into too many details of the plot as the stories are long and convoluted and may spoil events in Quicksilver. The end of the novels set up well for the final volume of the series.

Again I greatly enjoyed the books and recommend them.

Quicksilver is a volume consisting of the first three Baroque Cycle books, Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds, and Odalisque.

The series is based in the mid 1600’s to early 1700’s and is based predominantly in Europe. It is a fictional work although it features many historical figures as characters and follows historical events.

I am greatly enjoying this latest series of books by Stephenson as they provide a rich complexity provided not only by a fascinating story over a backdrop largely based on actual events and the political, religious, and scientific intrigues and machinations of the characters, but by Stephenson’s abilities to play on words and situations that bring you out another layer of abstraction above the story.

Stephenson paints with a wide brush in this series, covering in detail everything from the early experiments of the Royal Society to the operations of Amsterdam’s economy and trade, to adventures in Vienna. (This makes for some hefty volumes, each of the three being 800-900 pages long). It is clear that Stephenson has done his research on the time period, although much is clearly fiction in the name of telling a good story. It has certainly piqued my interest in an era that I did not know much about, and has presented it in a way that has often sent me to Wikipedia to learn more about the actual historical figures and events (and also renewed a desire to learn various European languages). Highly recommended.

I understand Neal Stephenson has a bit of a reputation by now for writing books and, er, not stopping. The three volumes of the Baroque Cycle, for instance, have never been read by human eyes, but they have been used successfully in several recent late-night muggings, as blunt weapons.

Zodiac is from before he developed this habit. It’s snappy, fun, full of golden Neal Stephenson wit, and just the right amount of confusing and plot-twisty. Sangamon Taylor is a typical Stephenson hero, a super nerd who makes you wonder why your super-nerdy life isn’t nearly as exciting as his. In this case, it involves zipping hither and thither in Boston Harbor on a crazy custom boat that gives the novel its name, fighting ecological bad guys straight out of “Captain Planet”, having sex and angst with hot, assertive, ultra-granola chicks, and continuing to be surprised at how he almost gets killed like every other chapter.

I don’t know nearly enough about the scientific details to know whether he’s totally getting the chemistry wrong in several places, but hey, the story about Randy doing unix and X11 programming in jail in Cryptonomicon was spot on, so for all I know it’s probably right.