Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8720 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 926 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Quicksilver is a massive, exuberant and wildly ambitious historical novel that's also Neal Stephenson's eagerly awaited prequel to Cryptonomicon--his pyrotechnic reworking of the 20th century, from World War II codebreaking and disinformation to the latest issues of Internet data privacy.

Quicksilver, "Volume One of the Baroque Cycle", backtracks to another time of high intellectual ferment: the late 17th century, with the natural philosophers of England's newly formed Royal Society questioning the universe and dissecting everything that moves. One founding member, the Rev John Wilkins, really did write science fiction and a book on cryptography--but this isn't history as we know it, for here his code book is called not Mercury but Cryptonomicon. And although the key political schemers of Charles II's government still have initials spelling the word CABAL, their names are all different...

While towering geniuses like Newton and Leibniz decode nature itself, bizarre adventures (merely beginning with the Great Plague and Great Fire) happen to the fictional Royal Society member Daniel Waterhouse, who knows everyone but isn't quite bright enough for cutting-edge science. Two generations of Daniel's family appear in Cryptonomicon, as does a descendant of the Shaftoes who here are soldiers and vagabonds. Other links include the island realm of Qwghlm with its impossible language and the mysterious, seemingly ageless alchemist Enoch Root.

As the reign of Charles II gives way to that of James II and then William of Orange, Stephenson traces the complex lines of finance and power that form the 17th-century Internet. Gold and silver, lead and (repeatedly) mercury or quicksilver flow in glittering patterns between centres of marketing and intrigue in England, Germany, France and Holland. Paper flows as well: stocks, shares, scams and letters holding layers of concealed code messages. Binary code? Yes, even that had already been invented and described by Francis Bacon.

Quicksilver is crammed with unexpected incidents, fascinating digressions and deep-laid plots. Who'd believe that Eliza, a Qwghlmian slave girl liberated from a Turkish harem by mad Jack Shaftoe (King of the Vagabonds) could become a major player in European finance and politics? Still less believable, but all too historically authentic, are the appalling medical procedures of the time--about which we learn a lot. There are frequent passages of high comedy, like the lengthy description of a foppish earl's costume which memorably explains that someone seemed to have been painted in glue before "shaking and rolling him in a bin containing thousands of black silk doilies".

This is a huge, exhausting read, full of rewards and quirky insights that no other author could have created. Fantastic or farcical episodes sometimes clash strangely with the deep cruelty and suffering of 17th-century realism. Recommended, though not to the faint-hearted. --David Langford

Independent
‘Dense, witty, erudite, packed with fascinating characters... No novel has been this much fun since The Name of The Rose.’

Telegraph
‘A great, heaving countryside of a book...consistently funny...fluent and elusive, while retaining just the right hint of poison.’

Customer Reviews

A stupendous achievement, but not without longeurs
The 17th Century. The birth of the modern age. The monarchies of Europe are being overthrown, starting in England. A new nation is being born across the Atlantic. The old order is beginning its slow, two-hundred-year-long death. Science is revolutionising the world every bit as dramatically as war. In Europe the scientific war is being fought between the two inventors of calculus, Newton and Leibniz, a battle which will end with one being hailed the father of modern physics, the other reduced to a historical footnote. Taking place from 1655 to 1713, Quicksilver is the story of individuals scattered across Europe and the Thirteen Colonies, all being hurled by science, progress and history into the brave new world is dawning, the information age.

Quicksilver is the first in a monumental trilogy and is in itself a dense, multi-layered work featuring hundreds of characters divided into three plot strands, roughly summarised as 1) the friendship of (fictional) Daniel Waterhouse and Isaac Newton, also incorporating the Restoration and the Great Fire of London; 2) the adventures of the Shaftoe brothers and various others in Vienna, Paris, Versailles and the Dutch Republic; and 3) the Glorious Revolution and the continuing adventures of Waterhouse and co. in England. The second plot is action-packed with battles, fights and political intrigue. The other two are more restrained with lots of scene-setting and historical information. The book cannot be described as a fast-paced page-turner by any means, but what it is is a tremendously deep and vivid exploration of an interesting (but underrated) period of history. Stephenson's writing skills are vivid and impressive, with an amusing sense of humour if perhaps a bit too vivid ability to describe the more dubious practices of 17th Century science (dog-lovers may find one chapter in particular to be nearly unreadable).

Quicksilver is an astonishing accomplishment, although perhaps a bit long-winded at times. The only major criticism is that the Shaftoe storyline ends on a major cliffhanger but I supposed that inevitably is to lead into the next book. Highly recommended.

Great book from an excellent literary cycle - but make sure you get what you pay for!
Quicksilver is the first part of The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, a magnificent historical romp that explores the Age of Enlightenment with a humerous, intelligent and well-researched mix of fact and fiction. When originally published it was as 3 volume hardback set; however, each hardback book contains 2 or 3 sub-books and these have been published separately by some paperback publishers such as Harper Torch, so the paperback version of the complete cycle can consist of 7 separate books! My advice would be to check what you are getting before parting with your cash as some of the paperbacks on sale aren't the bargains they seem to be.
For example, the first hardback volume of Quicksilver consists of Quicksilver, The King of the Vagabonds, and Odalisque, and runs to nearly 1000 pages; the paperback that just contains Quicksilver is only 456 pages. Buyer beware!

Better than we deserve
I must confess up front that I love this book, I love the next one (The Confusion), and I love everything else (in greater or lesser amounts) that Neal Stephenson has written. Cryptonomicon was fantastic, an effortless weaving of multiple strands. The Baroque Cycle (of which Quicksilver is the first) is more ambitious but just as successful.

I cannot understand those who complain that there's no plot. Apart from the vast, overarching plot of the development of the modern world, Stephenson chucks out a multitude of plots, schemes, machinations and ideas, any of which would have served as the basis of an entire book for his lesser contemporaries. It's true there is no simple dramatic thread, but that's like complaining that there's no disco beat in Mozart (though a more resonant comparison would be Bach). Anyone with any interest in this period of history would appreciate that allusion and discursion are part of the mechanics of telling a story, their initial irrelevence merely a way of determining the most critical distinction of that time: who understands what is really going on and who does not. If you like Tom Stoppard, you'll like this.

Similarly, there seems to be a moan from those who want it to be more like Snow Crash - you know, proper SF. Grow up - Stephenson has. This has all the intellectual thrills of Snow Crash, but made far more resonant by being embedded in a time of true intellectual discovery. Yes, there are contrivances galore, but they are so charmingly lobbed in that they produce something that does not fit an any pigeonhole I would care to define.

Like Stoppard's plays, this book makes you feel cleverer than you are. However, Stephenson's huge range, his wit and clarity of vision make this one of the most humbling books I have ever read. In this dumbed-down world we do not deserve this man.