In "Quicksilver", dem 1. Band der Trilogie, ging es um die Anfänge der Naturwissenschaften. "Confusion" erzählt vom Beginn des weltweiten Börsenhandels. Eindrucksvoll wird dargestellt, wie die Banken - die eigentlich Dienstleister der Politik sein sollten - selbst zur politischen Macht und schließlich zu Erpressern und Ausbeutern der Staatskassen, zu Kriegstreibern und Königsmachern/-mördern werden. Eine neue Form von Feudalismus: Willkürherrschaft der Geldhändler. Sie besteht bis heute.

Viele interessante Einsichten, doch das Lesen ist leider genauso beeinträchtigt wie bei "Quicksilver":

Eine verrückte Mischung aus Karl-May-Abenteuer und Angélique-Roman sollte eigentlich kurzweilig sein. Ist es auch. Manchmal. Dazwischen jedoch zieht es sich unerklärlich zäh. Neal Stephenson hat zwar Witz und Phantasie, kann aber nicht wirklich gut schreiben. Beschreibungen sind umständlich, anstrengend und nicht bildhaft. Charaktere sind eher Comic-Figuren, sie agieren und sprechen oft nicht zeitgemäß, sondern wie Teenager in einem Computerspiel. Naja, Stephenson bezeichnet seine Barock-Trilogie ja explizit als Fantasy und nicht als historisch. Trotzdem: In einer Parallelwelt, in der unpraktische gigantische Perücken und Reifröcke getragen werden, dürfte auch die Sprache entsprechend voller Schnörkel sein und kein lässiger Sitcom-Talk mit möglichst vielen Gags.

Der Titel "Confusion" ist buchstäblich die beste Beschreibung des Buches :D
Es ist gleichzeitig zu weitschweifig und zu oberflächlich. Der Shaftoe-Handlungsfaden hetzt uns wie Passagiere einer Neckermann-Kreuzfahrt von einem Ort zum nächsten, wir bekommen ein angeblich landestypisches Essen vorgesetzt, kaufen ein Andenken, und weiter gehts. Elizas Geschichte ist die - historisch - interessantere aber auch intellektuell anstrengendere. Leider verbringt man unangemessen viel Zeit damit, sich bei fast jedem neuen Kapitel mühsam in Erinnerung zu rufen, wer die angeblichen und tatsächlichen Väter welcher ihrer Kinder sind. Und warum das überhaupt eine Rolle spielt. Es spielt keine.

Mit realen historischen Personen wird recht freizügig faktenfern umgegangen. Aber, ok, wir befinden uns ja in einem Paralleluniversum, in dem es den Stein der Weisen wirklich gibt. (Allerdings genauso wenig Weisheit wie im allseits bekannten)

Und schließlich: ist es realistisch, dass jemand 15 bis 20 Jahre lang eine komplizierte Rache plant? Sein ganzes Leben danach ausrichtet? Wo und wie und mit wem er lebt? Mit dem Risiko, das Ende nicht zu erleben, sondern zu sterben (es wurde ziemlich viel ziemlich jung gestorben im 17. Jahrhundert!), bevor er die Rache verwirklichen kann, bevor er ein eigenes Leben gelebt hat? Na dann Gute Nacht, Menschheit!

Es wäre Folter für mich gewesen, dieses Buch in einem Zug zu lesen. Daher habe ich jeweils einen "Eliza"- bzw. einen "Jack"-Abschnitt gelesen... und dann zur Erholung ein anderes Buch.

I enjoyed this more than Vol 1, for the raucous and bawdy bits. Jack gets to indulge in swashbuckling, Eliza has problems, Newton and Leibniz fight like cats and dogs, and Waterhouse sets sail for Massachusetts. The Cycle is truly epic in scope, and this volume is more of a romp than the others.

See review of Quicksilver, the first book in this series for general comments. The same brilliance and distain for tight editing remain, and it usually continues to pay off. This books turns away from the focus on Natural Philosophy and is more focused on the emergence of the modern financial world. Or, to let the characters speak for themselves --

"Why do England’s greatest savants spend so much time arguing about coins?" Caroline asked.

Daniel considered it. "In the old world, the Tory world, when coin was nothing more than an expedient for moving rents from the country to London, they would never have paid it so much notice. But Antwerp suggested, and Amsterdam confirmed, and London has now proved, that there is in Commerce at least as much wealth as in Land; and still no one knows what to make of it. But money makes it all work somehow, or when it is managed wrong, makes it collapse. And so coins are as worthy of the attention of savants as cells, conic sections, and comets."

This alteration of the sources of wealth and power are illustrated both through wordy conversation between amazingly smart characters and intricate plots regarding revenge schemes to cause financial ruin, the origin of international trade, and piracy. There is even a brief note that Tories and the Whigs printed competing money in London from the Land Bank and the Bank of England respectively – one of 100 other fascinating details that make the history come alive.

Another theme is the interconnectedness of affairs even in a time that we would consider "pre-global". During one battle, Bob Shaftoe notes that "… French Protestants fighting for the King of England crossed blades with English Catholics fighting for the King of France."

There are also great observational moments like the following..

For his part van Hoek, once he had sloshed ashore, stomped past the cannons without breaking stride, and did not even pause to light his pipe until he had encountered his three masts lying side-by-side in the middle of the town, out back of the Temple of Kali. He stood at their narrow ends and peered down them to check for undue curvature, and ambled up and down pounding on them with a pistol-butt and listening to the wood’s reververations with a hand cupped to his ear. He frowned at the cracks, as if he could weld these imperfections shut with his furious gaze, and rested his hand contemplatively on palces that had been scarred by the sawing friction of hawsers, collisions with spars, and impacts of pistol balls. At first van Hoek was in the grip of something that approached panic, such was his anxiety that the masts would be found wanting. Gradually this eased into the quotidian fretting and continual state of low-level annoyance that Jack knew to be the perpetual lot of all competent sea-captains.

As from my review of Quicksilver, the first book of the series, the theme remains the same and it is worth repeating here.

There are periods of time where the fundamental understanding of the world changed, but rarely did it happen for so many people and in so many fields as this time in Europe. The greatest feat Stephenson achieves is that he takes us there and lets us see it in all its disgusting, messy glory.

Et voila! Finished! The second tomb in this so far fascinating trilogy that has begun with the first volume in the year 1670 and has so far concluded in 1702 with this, The Confusion. What incredible research these two books have encompassed. I have been absolutely enthralled with Mr. Stephenson's story telling and writing. I do admit that I usually have another lighter reading novel on the go in combination with these novels and that is merrily so I can savor all passages of these bricks. If you are remotely interested in this time period in history, The Baroque Period, then I do not think there is a more in depth volume of novels that captivates the feel of this time frame without boring you to tears. Now for a breath and on to the next and last of this series.

This, the second book of Neal Stephenon’s Baroque Cycle, is a big step up from the first.

‘The Confusion’ is a big, sprawling novel with many characters and storylines, two of them not intersecting until the very last page. Set during the Enlightenment, it follows a Barbary galley slave and his mates; Newton and Leibniz and their scholarly peers; and one Eliza, a cunning former slave with a heart set on revenge. It’s a long novel, coming in at just under a thousand pages in paperback, and it has so many threads that I strongly recommend reading it aggressively. This is not a novel to dabble in, but to dedicate one’s self to. I approached it through doubling: I listened to it on Audible and read it on my Kindle. Audible and Kindle seamlessly hand off. Whether I was in the back of a crew van listening while traveling to or from an airport or ensconced in my living room with a cup of coffee and my Kindle, the technology consistently picked up where I left off. This allowed me to keep the novel top of mind, which helped me keep track of all its moving parts.

What did this investment of time and energy grant me? It allowed me to live in the early eighteenth century world of not just Europe, but Arabia and Hindustan and Japan and Mexico and more. It offered me food for thought, as I considered what it may have been like when things like the scientific method were bold ideas, not accepted wisdom. It provided a thrilling adventure, as the galley slaves went from slaves to pirates to kings and back again. All this, plus it gave me insights into the imperial politics of its day.

Granted, ‘The Confusion’ suffers from Neal Stephenson’s compulsive desire to show his work. I mean, I get it, Neal. You did your research. A+. You don’t have to share *all* of it with me.

I found the first book in this cycle, ‘Quicksilver,’ to be too much of a muchness. However, I’m glad a friend pressed this volume upon me. ‘The Confusion’ is thought provoking, educational, and entertaining. Sign me up for the next book in the series.

I was hoping to be able to dispense with The Baroque Cycle in one go—to be honest I can't remember greatly liking one book in the trilogy over another, and I really want to put some distance between myself and those 2700+ pages.

It's not that the story's not entertaining—it is. It's amusingly written, too, with an omniscient narrator who breaks the authorial third wall with snarky commentary on fashion choices in the 1600s. And as always, you'll learn a great deal with Stephenson. The birth of modern science, banking and monetary systems are a few of the cloisters within which his characters wander in this sprawling trilogy. But sprawl it does.

Stephenson has said many times, in response to reader suggestions about using an editor, that he doesn't need one. He's wrong. He needs someone to cut words, paragraphs, pages, whole books—and at times to spank him, too. The books go on far, far too long in too many places, scurrying down narrative and didactic rabbit holes with nothing to show or it.

One doesn't have the sense that Stephenson, fun as he can be to read—the entertainment and sheer breadth of the thing meriting three stars—is enough the master of his craft to have undertaken this cycle. Neither its plot nor its structure, nor its many adjoining themes, really amount to anything conclusive in the end.

Not nearly as good as Quicksilver. I guess this book falls into the middle-part-of-a-trilogy syndrome, where everything is dragged out incessantly so that a third book is possible. I'd say a good 1/3 at least could have been trimmed to make it move more quickly and make it more interesting. But I'm beginning to realize that's part of Stephenson's style. He drags on with lots of exposition and lots of local color that could/should be sacrificed for pace.

Still, by the end of the book the pace picked up significantly, and after a healthy time away I might consider returning for the third book of the trilogy.

Even more captivating than QuickSilver, largely because of the increased focus on Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. I could read about Jack's adventures in perpetuity, which Stephenson apparently anticipated as that's practically how much of them he provides. The only disappointment in the book, other than perhaps the realistic but upsetting bad luck that befalls beloved characters, is the plot-advancing ending, which feels slapped on. Nonetheless, this is the kind of book that both entertains and, though dint of exposure to Stephenson's superb command of language, makes the reader feel somehow smarter.

Bunu okumayı düşünen arkadaşlar zaten ilk tuğlayı geçip gelmişlerdir. Yani ortada ilkini alıp daha da üstüne koyan bir eser var. Bu sefer iki kitabı sırayla anlatan bir yol gütmüş. Şimdi hızlıca bahsedeyim.

Cunta, basitçe kelime anlamı olarak devrimden sonra yönetime el koyan bir grup insana deniyor. Eliza'nın bununla ne alakası var derseniz? Devrim de savaş gibi parayla yapılır ve kadın, paradan ve nerede olacağından anlıyor. Yine modern ticaret sisteminin ve global ekonominin kuruluşunu ve şekillenmesini Osmanlı hareminden, kölelikten gelip tarihin gördüğü en zeki akıllarla mektup arkadaşlığı yapan Eliza'dan daha iyi kimin üzerinden anlatabilirsiniz ki. Stephenson bu kitapta bir tercih yapmış ve Daniel Waterhouse'u hikayenin biraz daha dışına çıkarıp Eliza ve onun Fransız Düşesliği ve muhteşem karakterini oluştururken ki etkileşimlerini bol bol yazmış. Bu beğendiğim bir tercih oldu. Bir önceki kitapta Eliza'nın henüz ne kadar genç olduğunu unutmuştum. Hikayesinin ve karakterinin gideceği yeri sabırsızlıkla bekliyorum.

Bonanza, basitçe karı göz kamaştıran iş demek. Burada ise ilk kitabın didaktikliğinin dışına çıktığında sarıldığı yılan olan Jack'in kölelikten, krallığa oradan suikastçiye dönüşünü aksiyonun nadir düşdüğü bir tempo ile okutuyor. Yani hangi hikayede lazımlığının içindekilerin dışkı ve sidik olarak ayrılıp ayrılmamalarının neden önemli olduğunu tahmin etmeniz gerekebilir ki? Jack'in hikayesi işte bu tarz garip anlara sahipken çeşit çeşit farklı karakterlerde insanların bir araya geldiği bir grubun -Kabal- bilinen dünyayı okyanuslarında ve denizlerinde gezerken başına gelenlerlede çeşitlendiriyor. Jack'in hikayesini okumak zevkli ve bu iki hikayeyi birleştirirken oluşturulan örgüleri de yeterli buldum.

Gerçi hikayenin pek anlaşılmayan kararlarla şekillenen major bir karar anı olsa da tolere edilebilir bir zayıflıktı diyebilirim. Özellikle karakterlerin anlayıp benim çıkaramadığım durumlara sinirlenirim. Çünkü bu okumayı hakkını vermeden yaptığımı düşündürür, bazen bu duruma özellikle sonlarda düştüm diyebilirim. Ermeninin yaptığı göz göre göre gelirken karakterlerin bunu kavrayamamasını da anlamadım. Okuma yazmanın önemini vurgulamak için güzide bir örnek olmuş. Ayrıca en az 50 sayfa fazladan yapılmış açıklama, tekrarlanmaya yakın betimlemeler ve anılar vardı.

Buna rağmen Minerva'nın hikayesini okumak, Jack'le egzotik diyarların ziyaret edip, deneyimlemek, savaşın yaratıcılığı ve gündelik atıklardan yapılabileceklerin sınırsız olduğunu görmek, timsahlarla dolu bir denizde yüzüp, Hindustan'ı boydan boya geçip, Güney Amerika, Kahire, Japonya dolaşırken sürekli bonanza bir ticaret aramak heyecanlıydı.

Eliza ile aristokrasi ve paranın entrikalarını, soylu sınıfının acınası karaktersizliğini ve ahlaksızlığını okurken aynı zamanda modern matematiğin babası olan Leibniz'in ilk bilgisayar denemesini, kambiyo senedinin ve para olmayan ama değerleri milyonlar olan kağıt parçalarının savaşta ama en çokta barışta ne kadar korkutucu silahlar olabileceğini görmek ise kafa çalıştıran bir okumaydı.

Sonunda okuyarak ayrıcalık hissettiğim eserlerden birisi oluyor. Şimdi son kitapta çıkmışken tavsiyemdir.

Loved it! Everything I like in a good adventure book with humor to boot! Neal Stephenson's sense of storytelling in the Baroque Cycle is top notch!

Holy crap I would give this more than 5 stars if I could. Better than Quicksilver, this book just takes off from page one, describing Jack Shaftoe as being detonated into waking up, and ending with Shaftoe looking at Isaac Newton and planning something destructive. It jumps back and forth between the best action scenes ever in literature and intricate plotting, intrigue, back-stabbing, black mail, code-breaking, etc., in Europe. With topics raning from crazy ass Indian religions to Leibniz's monads to the birth of world-finance, with a huge cast of characters, some good and and some bad but all ridiculously entertaining, this book of over 800 pages was only put aside for bowel movements, eating, and sleeping, and even that with the utmost reluctance. I've got a huge boner now that can't be dealt with until I track down the last book of the trilogy in this god-forsaken literary desert I live in.

Quicksilver was difficult for me to get into. The Confusion was a lot easier to get into, to the point that I spent my day off reading for 5 hours straight and ignored a bunch of incoming calls on my mobile phone. I'm going to try to hold off on Vol. 3 until after the semester ends.