I found this book of the Baroque Cycle to be the most enjoyable so far. It feels like the story is finally coming all together.

Bonus points for working "I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition." into the dialogue.

Picks up more than a decade later as Daniel Waterhouse returns from America to a rapidly modernizing England.

I just love this series. Not a single volume has slowed or lagged - each one seems more entertaining than the last.

Another fine installment of the series, with political and financial machinations and adventure.

Each book in this series just gets better and better. That is saying something since I gave the first book four stars and the middle one five stars. Others have summarized the plot and sidewindings of the book better than I could, so I will limit this review to two things. 1) The narrator of the audio book, Simon Prebble, is the perfect match for the material, and I highly suspect listening is the BEST way to experience the Baroque Cycle. 2) Neal Stephenson’s writing is simply par excellence. Below is just one quote to exemplify why I say this. [sorry if I spelled the names wrong, remember I was listening, not reading the book]

"If you were strolling in the gardens of Versailles you might one day hear sudden noises and turn around to see, some distance away, one fellow, let’s call him Arnault, going after another, call him Blaise, with a drawn blade, from which, if you were a careless observer, you might think that Arno had just snapped without warning, like an ice-covered bough falling from the tree. But in truth, the Arnaults of the world were rarely so reckless. A careful observer watching Arnault for two or three minutes prior to the onset of violence would see some sort of exchange between him and Blaise, a calculated insult from Blaise, let us say, such as a refusal to let Arnault through a door ahead of him, or a witticism about Arnault’s wig which had been so very fashionable three months ago. If Blaise were a polished wit, he would then move on, blithe, humming an air, and giving every appearance of forgetting the event. But Arnault would become a living exhibit, symptoms would set in that were so obvious and dramatic as to furnish a topic of study for the Royal Society. Why, a whole jury of English savants could stand around poor Arnault with their magnifying lenses and their notebooks, observing the changes in his physiognomy, noting them down in Latin, and rendering them in labored woodcuts. Most of these symptoms had to do with the humor of passion. For a few moments, Arnault would stand fast, as the insult sank in. His face would turn red as the vessels in his skin went flaccid and consequently ballooned with blood from a heart that had begun to pound like a Turkish kettle drum signaling the onset of battle. But this was not when the attack came, because Arnault during this stage was physically unable to move. All of his activity was mental. Once he got over the first schock, Arnault’s first thought would be to convince himself that he had reigned in his emotions now, got himself under control, was ready to consider matters judiciously. The next few minutes, then, would be devoted to a rehearsal of the recent encounter with Blaise. Affecting a rational, methodical approach, Arnault would marshal whatever evidence he might need to convict Blaise of being a scoundrel, and sentence him to death. After that, the attack would not be long in following, but to one who had not been there with the fellows of the Royal Society to observe all that had led up to it, it would seem like the spontaneous explosion of an infernal device."

The EPIC journey continues. Nice to see the story threads coming together, though I will admit to some fatigue. I am now ~80 hours of audiobook into this series, and I still have 26 hours to go... Really love the world, the characters, the mechanics, the storytelling. It is just LONG....

It was OK, but the whole Baroque Cycle appears to be a tad too long at this point.

Somewhat loosing steam and getting lost in showing of the author's detailed understanding of the alleys of London and The Tower nano 1714; but still a merry romp.

While perhaps lacking the same level of swashbuckling adventure enjoyed in the previous installment, Solomon's Gold more than makes up for any decreased action by focusing on socio-economic intrigue of the era, as well as by providing key climatic moments to kickstart the final volume of Neal Stephenson's epic series.

*1st reading*
I have mixed feelings about this entry in the series. I enjoyed the first half of the book with Daniel Waterhouse as a sarcastic detective working for Newton, but I felt the dramatic shift in tone from picaresquish in previous novels to serious action in the last half of the book was incredibly jarring. Something about the heist story where you, the reader have no idea what's going on because you don't inhabit the head of the guy who planned it (that is the sections describing Jack taking over the Tower of London. Plus the abrupt ending was pretty irritating.

*2nd reading*
My opinion still stands. I still have no idea what was going on there at the end, even though this was my second readthrough.

After a tedious first volume, his series got better in Vol 2 and is pretty great at this point.

If you've read this far, you know what this series is like. This book continues on from the previous, without some of the strange convolutions required to move the plot on. All of your favourites are here, with a return to Daniel, and Dappa gets his own storyline. And that's all I really have say. Onward to the next volume.