It's really good, although sometimes it goes on and on. This one features Eliza (and because we listened to the audio book they had a woman reading her letters, which was a really good choice) and Daniel. Half-cocked jack is off doing other things and I'm looking forward to reading the next book to catch up with him too.

Ah, Eliza. A character who can make the foundations of modern currency exciting. What a woman.

The founders of The Royal Society in book1 meet the vagabonds of book2 and we learn about the circumstances that lead to The Glorious Revolution (William and Mary. Awesome.

Like the others in this series, the plot and characters, don't really grab my attention, but the writing style is so entertaining, I read it anyway!

If you like history, and particularly the kind of history that explores fictional (but possible) ways all sorts of people cross paths, then this is the series for you. Third book of the first volume, and I think it was my favorite of the three, probably because the focus was on Eliza, and I find her duplicitous character (a mix of economics and politics as shaped through eroticism) very fun.

I absolutely loved this book. It was my favorite in the series so far. I found it hilarious and loved the dry wit. The author used letters, narrative, and drama to tell the story and it worked. Having lived in Germany and visited many of the places in the book made it a lot of fun. Eliza and Waterhouse are my favorite characters. The ending was jaw dropping.

The final third of Quicksilver is every bit as good as the first two parts. It takes ahead the plotlines concerning Eliza, moving between Versailles, London and The Hague culminating in a long winded letter to Leibniz. Daniel's story is still a cliffhanger.

See my review in Quicksilver for a more detailed review.

The story continues with the perils of Eliza. The English monarchy is shaky. Who is William of Orange?

It's hard to praise the Baroque Cycle to high, maybe just as hard as it is to categorise, it's historic fiction, a little fantasy, adventure like Dumas and philosophical discussions about the nature of everything.

The marvel of it all is that Stephenson manages to hold it all together and even make it interesting, somehow the most outrageous plot developments seems reasonable.

The unabridged audible version is wonderful narrated, a joy to listen to.

On to "The Confusion" volume 4 and 5.

REREAD:

If you ever want to read a book where all the plot points happen off screen, this is your book.

Why do I keep reading these?
If I could just have a few hundred pages of Neal Stephenson talking about the history of science and currency without these characters I would be thrilled. Likewise if he could tell me a story about these characters in which I actually believe they have some agency, rather than just being pulled along by historical events that already happened.

This series is still interesting but still plotless.