Just as Lawrence Waterhouse befriended Turing in Cryptonomicon, Daniel Waterhouse orbits Newton and Leibniz. He starts out as naive observer of London politics, but over a few decades, gravitates into the intrigues of both the Court and the European intelligentsia. At Cambridge, he befriends Isaac Newton later he becomes sort of a grad student and chief bottle-washer to the Royal Society. Either you sit back and enjoy the game, or you hurl the book (with effort) at the wall somewhere in the first few hundred pages.ĭaniel Waterhouse is a seventeenth-century geek his father's a prominent associate of Oliver Cromwell, but Daniel's more interested in Natural Philosophy than in decapitating kings and Catholics. Stephenson wanders down side tracks, stages elaborate adventures and morality plays, explores philosophical issues and geometric proofs, assembles obscure puns, and drags in all manner of famous people and events, purely for his own amusement. It's 900-plus pages, and it's not padded so much as it is fractal. This is also not a book that gets anywhere quickly. It has math, optics, and vivisection, but no computers, no code, and no high-speed pizza delivery. It's historical fiction, occasionally about science, for people who like science fiction, i.e. A bit of background reading about the English Civil War wouldn't hurt, though.įirst, let's make it clear that Quicksilver is not science fiction.

It's set in late-seventeenth-century Europe, and while it has a few links to Cryptonomicon, you don't need to read Cryptonomicon first.

Quicksilver, Volume One of the Baroque Cycle, is the new doorstop from Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon. Quicksilver: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson Neal Stephenson: Quicksilver: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle Epiphyte Book Review

Quicksilver neal stephenson review