The Deuce

Book No. 2: Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver

I looked forward to reading this book months before it came out, based upon how much I enjoyed his earlier book Cryptonomicon. Cryptonomicon was recommended to me by my former brother-in-law. He later turned out to be a douchebag. My brother-in-law. Not Neal Stephenson. Anyway, it ended up taking me over a year to get around to reading Quiksilver, but I’m glad that I did. (Full disclosure: I started this book just after Thanksgiving, but I am counting it as a book read this year, since most of it was read in 2005. It’s over 900 pages – cut a guy some slack.)

What Stephenson does really well is create adventure for science geeks. Cryptonomicon was a a cyber-geek thriller. While Quicksilver, which is Vol. 1 of the Baroque Cycle (don’t call it a trilogy), drops some science on you old school style. Real old school. Prominent figures in the story include Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, who this book set up for a future dust up over the invention of calculus. We also learn that Descartes wasn’t all that. There is an early cameo by a young Benjamin Franklin. Courtly intrigues and political upheavals feature James II; Louis XIV; and William and Mary. Just what was the deal with the Puritans anyway? And the Huegenots, too, for that matter? Find out here. The action starts in Boston and bounces around 17 Century Europe. Somewhere in there currency valuation comes into play and the birth of stock exchanges occurs. A lot happens is what I’m saying. Due to the three volume format, the book ends without much being resolved. So I guess I am making a three book commitment. The second book in the series is The Confusion. I think I’ll read something else in between though.