Odalisque: Book Three of The Baroque Cycle

I found the addition of Katherine Kellgren as Eliza in the third book a little jarring, after having gotten used to Simon Prebble doing Eliza's voice in the two previous books (and doing a seamless job of it, too.)

Kellgren's Eliza is a touch too arch, too insufferably prissy; not how I imagined Eliza to be. It makes the numerous readings of Eliza's correspondence in this book three of the cycle seem interminable. This stands out because, though this is a ridiculously long work, I rarely lose patience with its length - and I remember reading through the correspondence sections of the third book without any impatience or sense of 'slogging through'.

I think her voice is just a bit too much, like trying to make an entire meal of lemon bars. Makes you long for plain bread. I'm hoping this effect lessens as the books go on.

We continue to follow Jack and Eliza as they make their way in the world, both trying to save the other from a life of poverty, generally by lots of subterfuge, a little bit of theft, and some occasional bad decisions.

Highly detailed, and sometimes slow moving, the entire story will span over 50 years, the reign of many different kings and queens across europe, several trips to America and back, pirates, african queens, and the Philosopher's Stone. Well worth slogging through the slow points to find out what happens in the end.

This was an excellent installment in the series. The scope of the story is very wide and skillfully brings together a very wide swath of historical figures.

Very easy to distinguish the characters.

I'm a Stephenson fan, having thoroughly enjoyed Anathem, Crypotnomicon and Snow Crash (could not get through Diamond Age).

Starting the Baroque Cycle, I thought Quicksilver was great, with a lot of focus on math, science and some religion and politics in a historical storytelling style. The second book, King of the Vagabonds disappointed me somewhat because it was a complete departure from the first - but still entertaining on a different level as an adventure story. The Confusion and Odalisque sort of bored me and i couldn't get through Odalisque. I agree with another reviewer about the female narrator being a bit melodramatic with the voice acting to the point where I couldn't stand the sections she read.

I don't think i'll be continuing on the Baroque Cycle path unfortunately... it all got a bit too tedious for me.