Thoroughly smart and exciting, Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle just gets better and better. I enjoyed this one perhaps more than the others, though they are all hard acts to follow. The continued wild ride of Jack continues to keep me enthralled and smiling.

If you haven’t read any of the Baroque series, do it now.

Woody Hayday

“On the contrary, my lord...there is nothing quite so civilized as to be recognized in public places as the author of books no one has read.”
- Neal Stephenson, The Baroque Cycle, Vol 3, Book 1



I can feel the end of this series closing in. The sixth book of this series, nested, like a Russian doll inside of Volume 3 (The System of the World) centers primarily on Daniel Waterhouse. Daniel has been summoned back to England to act as a middle-man (or a narrative bridge?) between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz concerning the invention of Calculus. Someone tries to kill him with an infernal device (mechanical bomb). The book ends with Jack Shaftoe (aka Jack the Coiner) attempting a heist of the Tower of London where Netwon is the "Warden" and later "Master" of the Royal Mint. Newton has been using this role at the Royal Mint to standardize the guinea, but also to to search for Solomon's lost gold.

The book tends to bend easily between swashbuckling adventure and nerdy historical/light scifi fiction. It is dense in parts, but it is hard to not respect Stephenson's ability to weave the real with the almost supernatural and the outrageous. I'm constantly entertained by The Baroque Cycle but the charm is starting to tarnish a bit and I'm ready for this almost literary adventure/ride to end.

If the author would please keep the looooooong descriptions to a minimum, I'd be grateful.

oh god, it burns. Some day i'll learn who he's writing for....

I am committed to finishing this very long series, but my commitment becomes less, um, committed, every time Stephenson describes something as "baroque." Yes, I know it is the "Baroque Cycle," but surely there are other adjectives out there. Plus, it is a little jarring to have someone one describe something as "baroque" *during* the Baroque Period.

I've been listening to Simon Prebble for nearly 87 hours and his performance is Baroque Cycle has been fantastic. I'm really glad that Audible got a top notch narrator and maybe that's why I'm enjoying this series so much. In the sixth installment, "Solomon’s Gold" is something that I was looking forward to because it explained more about the monetary system, but the story fell short for my liking.

Remind you, I just finished and wrote the review for "The Confusion" just a few days ago and maybe my mind is still on pirates, but for some reason, I thought that "Solomon’s Gold" is the weaker of the set so far. The tale was very erratic on most parts of the book. I need to remember that this is the first part of the last volume and there are two more books to go. My expectation was very high after coming off from "Bonanza" and "The Juncto."

I don't think that I'm loosing steam in the Baroque Cycle and cannot wait to complete the entire series. Maybe Simon Prebble is starting to annoy me. His Scottish accent for one of the characters is not so great. Probably downright awful from his overall performance.

"Solomon’s Gold" should had been the strongest chapters, but it fell short. I just wanted to know more about Quicksilver and how banking got started, but the story was all over the map and didn't hit the target, unlike the other books.

The book is still very good with a few exclusions.

I love Stephenson's style. However, this book just didn't get going for me. This whole series is too crass and tedious for my tastes. I will probably finish the last two books (listening). Like I said, I love his prose.

Eloquent, hilarious and sometimes too brilliant for me.

My least fave on the series by a lot. Except for Dappa sub-plot which was very moving..

These books keep getting better.

I was initially disappointed that this book switched focus back to Daniel Waterhouse, because the Royal Society arc (primarily Quicksilver) has been the slowest in the series. I always liked Daniel, but didn't connect as easily with him early in the series as I did with Jack and Eliza. I REALLY enjoy old Waterhouse - the humble, quiet, easily overlooked elderly scientist who seems to be mixed up in all the most exciting intrigues. He's very dryly funny!

This book has it's slow meandering parts, but they are never dull and can be laugh out loud funny. This review it based entirely on the Audible version of this book. Simon Prebble does an expert job at bringing out the characters' personalities. He's a prefect Daniel, but he's also perfect Jack and a perfect Bob. He uses distinct accents and voices and they are all perfect! He even does a great job with the female characters.

This is book 6 of 8 in the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. I'm slowly working my way through the series while reading some other material to keep up with my book groups. Since this is part of an eight book series, writing a review for each book is a little like writing a review following long chapters of a long book.

This book picks up from the very beginning of Quicksilver, book one of the series, with Daniel Waterhouse returning to Europe from Massachusetts in 1713 at the request of Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach for the purpose of resolving an explosive scientific battle of preeminence between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the development of calculus. Therefore, Books 1 through 5 have served as a flashback into the earlier life of Daniel and various other characters, both historical and fictional.

The following are some snippets from what I remember from the book:

1. Daniel Waterhouse witnesses a demonstration of an early prototype steam powered pump designed for the purpose of dewatering nickel mines in Cornwall.

2. I learned what a money-scrivener is, and the reason why his services are needed.

3. The book provides a description of early 18th Century economics in England.

4. The geography of the London in 1714, and the Tower of London complex in particular, is described in great detail in the book.

5. The relationship of religion and politics was explored by the book.

6. There are various conversations by these 18th Century characters indicating the need for an "automatic knowledge storage machine." There is some historical basis for this. However it may also be a Twenty-First Century author portending the development of the digital computer.

7. The book provides a description of Frederick Peter (the great) of Russia wanting to develop a center for the study of natural philosophy (i.e. science). [see Message 3 below]

8. The book has an interesting description of Bear baiting.

9. The book contains a humorous conversation between two individuals who are trying to insult each other but are disguising it within traditional Quaker style "thee and thou" speech.

10. The book contains a mystery involving a time bomb which is a very innovative device for the time.

11. The conflicted politics of the time are described. The death of Queen Anne on England is anticipated, and the Catholic's want her half-brother James Francis Edward Stuart to be the next king, and the Protestants want George Augustus, the electoral prince of Hanover, to be king.

12. Toward the end of the book there's an incredible scene of George "The Coiner" attacking the Tower of London via a zip-line. The scene of course is fictional and as a practical matter probably impossible. But it's a heck of a story.

13. The mystery continues on into the next book because once the Tower is invaded, they're not interested in the crown jewels. They're interested in doing something else, and the readers of this book will need to read the next book in the series to find out what and why.


LINK TO Wikipedia article about the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.
LINK TO my review of Quick Silver (Bk. 1) by Neal Stephenson.
LINK TO my review of King of the Vagabonds (Bk. 2) by Neal Stephenson.
LINK TO my review of Odalisque (Bk. 3) by Neal Stephenson.
LINK TO my review of The Confusion (Bks. 4 & 5) by Neal Stephenson.
LINK TO my review of Currency (Bk. 7) by Neal Stephenson.
LINK TO my review of System of the World (Bk. 8) by Neal Stephenson.