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Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)

Neal Stephenson

William Morrow

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Enlightening

I'd intended to give it 4 1/2 stars rather than five for only one reason: This book sat on my shelf for two years or more before I read enough of it to get hooked on the story, this during the usual dearth of new reading material. It is difficult in that manner. However, once entranced, I enjoyed Quicksilver immeasurably. The adventures of Half Cocked Jack and Eliza, the political and religious intrigue, the birth of what we call today the scientific method, the brutality of life most experienced in those times except for a priviledged few ~ all educational in the way of a first rate historical novel.
Rather than growing daunted by a thousand page novel, as someone who devours books very quickly, I was delighted at it's length, unlike with some tomes.
On to "The Confusion!"
BTW, the original motivation for my purchase of this particular book had been that I'd found "Snow Crash" incredibly entertaining punk sci fi and decided to try more of Stephenson. Imagine my suprise and dismay upon first attempting "Quicksilver."

Hold on to your hat

The first book of "The Baroque Cycle", a three volume set of novels serving as a prequel to Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon", "Quicksilver" is a wild romp through the 17th and 18th centuries, an historical fantasy involving ancestors of characters in "Cryptonomicon" (and one mysterious, never explained, character who appears in both "Cryptonomicon" and "The Baroque Cycle"), plus real personages such as Isaac Newton, Leibnitz, and Louis XIV, to name just a very few.

It's hard to say what this story is about, because it is about so much. A great deal is given over to Isaac Newton, his conflict with Leibnitz over who created the calculus, Newton's strange character and his obsession with alchemy (indeed everyone's obsession with alchemy), the rise of modern science, mathematics, and new economic systems that transformed European cultures in ways that baffled some of the most intelligent people of the times.

At the center of it all, also never really explained, is the stuff Quicksilver, which seems to be something more than the element mercury by another name, and seems to have something essential not in mercury, perhaps some rare heavier isotope of mercury, perhaps something else entirely, with near mystical, even death-defying, power. Its presence in these stories seems to point to something transcendent and not explained by science, though Stephenson appears to otherwise believe in the importance of science and the scientific method for the transformation of humanity's lot from overall rotten to what Kim Stanley Robinson calls simply "enough", because "enough", for most of humanity, might as well be a feast.

There still remains something magical in Stephenson's system of the world. He shows great sympathy towards Leibnitz's insistence (foreshadowing the rise of the almost magical quantum physics of our time) that Newton's mechanics, though brilliant, were incomplete (as in fact they were), merely describing very well how the universe behaves but not explaining why it works as it does--again, Stephenson trying to get to a deeper truth--and without knowing this "why" Newton's mechanics must eventually produce wrong results.

The main continuing fictional characters are Daniel Waterhouse and Jack Shaftoe, whose descendants star in "Cryptonomicon". These two are the Forrest Gumps of their age, apparently involved in some way or another in an incredible number of the major events of the times. Waterhouse is a member of the Royal Society, in touch with most of the great minds of the era, perhaps not their equal intellectually, but close enough to the fire to feel the heat without being consumed, merely singed, and ultimately extremely influential, more than he ever dreamed or desired. (To me, his character demands Derek Jacobi to portray him.) Shaftoe is the king of the Vagabonds, and a king of other sorts and places as well, a literally half-cocked adventurer even Rafael Sabatini could not have invented.

Like "Cryptonomicon", this is a large volume, nearly 1,000 pages, as are the following volumes "The Confusion" and "The System Of The World". I blew through these nearly 4,000 at a pace that amazes even me, just as I did with Tim Power's "The Anubis Gates" (which is not a bad companion piece). The first thing I wanted to do after finishing them was to reread them.

Stephenson seems to have hit his stride with these and "The Diamond Age", though "Anethem" was disappointing to me. But I'm still eagerly looking forward to more from him. Along with Charles Stross, he's one of the genre's most inventive writers. Like Tim Powers as well, I don't find all his work equally compelling, but when he's on track it's great fun to hang on for the ride. He has set himself up for deeper kinds of stories in the future, besides romps like these, and "Anethem" seems a somewhat failed attempt to deepen his work. (Though even in failure he carries my interest--he fails at a level the rest of us can only aspire to.)

Only for some readers

I couldn't finish this book. I forced myself to finish the first third of the book about Waterhouse and Newton. The second third, about Half-cocked Jack and Elisa, was significantly better. But when it deviated back to complicated politics, I had to put it down for good.

I admit I might not have exemplary reading comprehension skills, but this book is very hard to read. You must know a lot about math and science, a lot about European history and politics and must be able read deeply into nuanced dialog to be able to understand this novel. I understood about 40% of the Waterhouse book and 60% of the Jack book. Stephenson's writing is good and witty, but also pretty difficult and long-winded at times.

This book is not for everyone. Anyway, read the diversity of reviews on this book and you'll be able to tell if this book is for you.

Even better on the second reading - It is dense but worth the effort!

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is one of the most ambitious series of historical fiction in recent years and he does an excellent job of bridging the distance between 17th century and today by focusing on putting the ideas and persons in the context of their time. Having read through the voluminous series when it came out, I was a little hesitant to re-read the three books (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) but my curiousity won out. I'm glad it did. There is so much information packed into the series that the second reading really made me appreciate the ideas and historical personalities invovlved.

I also noticed something that had slipped by me the first time. Daniel Waterhouse, rather than just being a neutral participant in the storyline, really came out as a catalyst for all the events in the book. Even more, his transformation from a person scared into inaction by the fear of others' disapproval into a man capable of exerting his will to make the world a better place is absolutely central to the storyline and I'm sad to say that I missed it the first time. This slow transformation permeates all three books and I think it must something very personal to Mr. Stephenson.

The other arguement for a second reading is that the events are so complex and the historical descriptions of warfare, economics and natural philosophy are often so detailed that catching everything after only one reading is difficult. I think of this as a strength of the book rather than a weakness, although some people probably do not appreciate the density of background material in the books.

The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon form an interwoven historical narrative and I think that they will stand as a great literary achievement. I do wish he'd intersperse more of his shorter novels (Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book) and The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book)) alongside his large works (Baroque Cycle,Cryptonomicon, Anathem) but I'll happily read anything Neal Stephenson writes since he has a gift for conveying complex ideas in an exciting and compelling way.

Disappointing

I was SO disappointed by this book. I love Stephenson's science fiction (The Diamond Age blew me away) but I just could not get through this random assembly of historic nuggets masked as a novel. Impossible to finish.