Crispy Read.

If you have not read Neal Stephenson yet then you are missing out.

If Book One: Quicksilver, was primarily about Daniel, and Book Two: King of the Vagabonds was primarily about Jack, Book Three finds the spotlight turned on Eliza. Indeed, she has gone from nearly being executed in a Turkish harem, to a financial impressario who plays European finance like a board game, uses Kings like pawns, and obtains title and position with astonishing political and social alacrity.

The pace gets a little weird in this book. The style changes drastically from book to book and this one didn't really hold up as well as the first two. I'd like to see where it's going, but I'm beginning to doubt that it's "going" anywhere in particular. Also, the audiobook version, for some ungodly reason, switches to second reader for sections written as letters by Eliza. She's not good. Not only is her voicing of the character different from Prebble's (which I love, and he still narrates her in the main, third-person stretches), but it really doesn't match the character. It's just... wrong. And these letters are not an insignificant part of the book. If it weren't for Prebble, I'd say give the audio a miss and read it, but... Prebble...

I'm not enjoying this as much because it goes on and on about some scientific formulas. But I still enjoy the history of the times and the characters.

This book 3 of the Baroque Cycle follows the paths of the two fictional characters, Dr. Daniel Waterhouse and Eliza. Readers of the Baroque Cycle were previously introduced to Waterhouse in book 1 and Eliza in book 2. In this story they manage to encounter most of the leading historical figures of the day.

The story begins in 1685 with Dr. Waterhouse present at the death of King Charles II. Tension in England then rises because the new King, James II, has Catholic preferences and the core of English sentiments are Protestant.

Meanwhile on the Continent, Eliza is deep in the world of spies, counter spies and finance. She is a confidante of William of Orange (Holland) and Louie IV (France). Her adventures included witnessing the attempted kidnapping of William of Orange. Her travels also witnessed the beginning of French preparations for the invasion of Lorraine that signaled reduced pressure on the Netherlands. This allowed William of Orange to make his move on England that resulted in the so called Glorious Revolution of England.

The story includes descriptions of the advances in natural philosophy. Included are descriptions of the tensions between Leibnetz and Newton, development of calculus, development of the laws of gravity, and the development of the field of dynamics in physics.

The following quotation is an example of colorful and descriptive writing that caught my eye:
...he was one of those blokes who used peripheral vision for everything. Give him a spyglass, he'd raise it to his ear, and see as much as Galileo. His nose had been broken at least twice and he'd endured a blowout fracture of the left eye-socket, which made it seem as if his face were a clay effigy squirting out between the fingers of a clenching fist.


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 The Confusion (Bks. 4 & 5) by Neal Stephenson.
LINK TO my review of Solomon's Gold (Bk. 6) 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.

the epic continues. just as good as the preceding two volumes

Absolutne arcydzieło... co jak co, ale jednak Neal Stephenson potrafi stworzyć książki kompletne, bohaterów idealnych i historie tak prawdziwe jak tylko potrafi być prawdziwa fikcja literacka. W postaci cyklu barokowego (w tym przypadku pierwszego tomu [lub pierwszych trzech ksiąg)) dostajemy powieść historyczną w której znajdziemy oblężenie Wwiednia, piratów (z port royale i Turcji) rozważania filozoficzno-naukowe, rozwój nowoczesnej fizyki, biologii, astronomii, zegarmistrzów, chirurgów (nie mylić z lekarzami którzy w tamtych czasach zajmowali się głównie upuszczaniem humorów z ciał pacjentów. Poznajemy zasady rządzące gospodarką i handlem, dworami królewskimi, genealogią i dziedziczeniem. Mamy także bardzo obrazowy opis porodu oraz usuwania kamieni moczowych... książkę czyta mi się o tyle ciekawiej, że wcześniej przeczytałem "okalające książki Stephenopsna - czyli wcześniejszy Cryptonomicon i późniejszą Peanatemę. Od razy widzimy tu jasne nawiązania do Cryptonomiconu oraz wątki które zostały rozinięte w Peanatemie. Takie podejście do literatury możemy znaleźć chyba tylko u Stephensona...

Read as part of my goal to read all the winners of the locus award for best science fiction.
Still interesting. The intrigues of what happens with Daniel, Eliza, the changing kings… it’s interesting to have this portion of history written about in this manner.

Interesting how this, the 3rd volume is starting to tie story lines together. I'm determined to read, AKA, listen to all of these and I am beginning to see how it is that Stephenson has come up with so many books in the series. This is a larger canvas than I had suspected.

Loved it - a masterpiece!

Well, the history is good, but it's not much of a novel or narrative really, is it? There are short passages where the author becomes a bit more excited though in general its quantity over quality.

I will read the remainng 5 books ... over the hopefully 40 remaining years of my life; I think I'm done with The Baroque Cycle for this decade, anyway.

Plodded along a bit until the final 150 or so pages. Still brilliantly written, but at times hard to separate fact from fiction. Much more exploration of Daniel and Eliza's characters, which was welcome. These books really require a keen historical perspective to follow easily, and are not quick reads by any means.