Quicksilver : Volume One of the Baroque Cycle

from jmvilches

Daniel Waterhouse is summoned to return to Europe from Massachusetts to resolve a dispute between prominent mathematicians Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. During his voyage, which is interrupted by pirates, he works on a chronicle of his past, which is set against a rich tapestry of r...

from 5hrdrive

Lots of interesting stuff here from natural philosophy to the Restoration to the Glorious Revolution, but the tedious bits are almost overwhelming. The letters of the third book are the most tedious of all - but I'm glad I made it through to the end, it feels like quite an accomplishment to say t...

from readafew

This was a BIG book. It is the 1st book in the Baroque Cycle and it was itself split into 3 parts. The first part I found to be slow and a little tedious, though very interesting, it bounces back and forth between the early 1700's on a ship being chased by pirates and 50 years earlier when the ma...

from orangemonkey

Stephenson's previous work, Cryptonomicon, was easily the best book I've read in the past several years, so it was with great excitement that I approached this book. Overall it was a very good year, although I think that it was definitely not in the same league as the Crypto. The book is divided ...

from davidabrams

Earnest readers approach new books like a relationship. They size up the heft of the tome, the thickness of spine, the cosmetics of the cover, and they think to themselves, "Should I get involved? Do I really want to commit?" After all, for three days or three weeks, they will be wedded to these ...