Quicksilver

Book One of The Baroque Cycle

By: Neal Stephenson

Narrated by: Neal Stephenson (introduction), Kevin Pariseau, Simon Prebble

Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

In this first volume of Neal Stephenson’s genre-defying epic, Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous Puritan, pursues knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.

The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson’s award-winning series, spans the late 17th and early 18th centuries, combining history, adventure, science, invention, piracy, and alchemy into one sweeping tale. It is a gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive historical epic populated by the likes of Isaac Newton, William of Orange, Benjamin Franklin, and King Louis XIV, along with some of the most inventive literary characters in modern fiction.

Audible’s complete and unabridged presentation of The Baroque Cycle was produced in cooperation with Neal Stephenson. Each volume includes an exclusive introduction read by the author.

Listen to more titles in the Baroque Cycle.

©2003 Neal Stephenson (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“[The “Baroque Cycle”] will defy any category, genre, precedent, or label – except genius….Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.” ( Time)

“A book of immense ambition, learning, and scope, Quicksilver is often brilliant and occasionally astonishing in its evocation of a remarkable time and place.” ( Washington Post Book World)

Excellent, especially for technical readers

This book can be a bit slow at times, but the huge number of well informed jokes and wry humor make it well worth it.

Couldn't make it through this in print

I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook. Great performances all around.

one two three four five six

I hate that you have to buy each book separately.

this series will cost you 7 credits. I think it should be slightly more combined, like 3 credits for the whole series.

Eloquent and compelling

One of my all time favorite authors and voice actors. This isn't how it happened, but maybe how it should have happened.

Daniel Waterhouse Does Nothing

If you could sum up Quicksilver in three words, what would they be?

Passive Historical Protagonist

What other book might you compare Quicksilver to and why?

I am not sure: I don't read a lot of historical fiction. But I think I would compare it to other historical fiction, particularly any historical fiction put out by anyone who does significant research on the time periods they then go on to write. It is abundantly clear that Stephenson studied as much as he possibly could about 17th century London and the time period, and worked to make the entire novel work very well historically. But, perhaps as a consequence of this Daniel Waterhouse doesn't really do a single thing in this entire novel. He is a vessel by which we get to witness interesting (depending on your taste) conversations, and experience the results of Stephenson's copious research. But he also has more character than, say, Utterson in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I WANTED him to do something, but he couldn't. I daresay he couldn't because he had to be frozen in time; if he did too much it might break the historicity of the book. And that's the problem. I got this book as part of a sale for the first two in a series, so I may read King of Vagabonds, but, I don't know...

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

I liked Prebble. He did a good job of reading when he should read and acting when he should act, and he is a good narrator. The recording is OLD and could stand to be re-mastered. If it is unsalvageable, maybe even re-recorded.

Who was the most memorable character of Quicksilver and why?

Enoch Root, who I found mysterious and intriguing. Newton himself was also interesting.

Any additional comments?

If you enjoy immersing yourself in other historical periods, you could do little better than this book. If what you want is the flavor of the time period, but to otherwise have a conventional story set in it, you may want to venture elsewhere.

Good story heavy on the "history"

What made the experience of listening to Quicksilver the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed this however i enjoy history and biographies, this isnt like his other books

If you’ve listened to books by Neal Stephenson before, how does this one compare?

see aboev

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

yep

If you could take any character from Quicksilver out to dinner, who would it be and why?

you get to say hi to Enoch Root again, id pick him.

History, Fiction, Science all rolled into fun!

I enjoy a good science fiction novel more than most things that I read, but this was better than any science and fiction I've read in a long time because it makes in a fun bit of History both real and imagined. When people do something this creative, I am in awe. the writing is also exceptional, poetry in my opinion.

Don't believe the negative reviews!

Yes, it's long, it's wordy, it's dense - it's Neal! The math and science aspect is lovely and well researched, and I imagine will be a good primer for the journey to come.

Less of a Story, More of a Series Starter

Think of this book as a stage-setter: you're being given a good look, an interesting stroll, through the world in which the full story is about to happen. The sequel, King of the Vagabonds, is instantly engaging in a way that it wouldn't be without Quicksilver to set it up; the subsequent Baroque titles are also fun in a way that this book is not. I only docked one star from this rating because five-star titles should probably stand well on their own which, again, this title doesn't do - but don't fault it for that!

Start here, but don't stop till you've continued on to the really good stuff in Vagabonds. Otherwise you risk leaving this title with an impression that it's a badly developed novel, which it really isn't. Just don't read this when you're in need of sensationalism. It's definitely a slow burn, but it's a worthwhile one.

Enormous, immersive historical fiction

First, Neal Stephenson's writing is consistently fabulous. The worlds he imagines are exhaustively detailed, be they in sci fi (loved Seveneves), cyber punk, baroque fiction, or...

Unlike more proliferous authors, who crank out moneymakers often, Stephenson crafts a story for a year or more, packing nearly a thousand pages and sometimes more with countless perfect sentences and above all ideas.

My only problem with his work, including Anathanem and this one, is the intellectual commitment it takes. Some parts demand sustained focus, make less sense out of the deep, complex context.

In many scenes I recall protagonist Daniel's encounters with his brilliant but ridiculously obsessive old college roommate Isaac Newton. The meetings are all memorable, not just for the personalities but also for glimpses of the environment and growth in the late 16th century of "natural philosophy" - a precursor to what we call science.

The progress made then was remarkable, despite wars, fires, popes and puritans, charlatans and pirates, plague, storms at sea, political intrigue, personal entanglements, fortunes and debts, common ignorance, and foppish yet deadly affairs of state.

It's hard to convey, with my paltry scrivening, everything he packs into his work.

If seeking a quick read by the beach, avoid this author. If you want his ideas swimming in your head for weeks, and can endure sometimes Byzantine but relevant detours, this should be on your list.

My interest in and commitment to any one book or line of thought come and go. But when I stick around long enough with Stephenson I appreciate, again, how he plants, waters, feeds, and harvests so many ideas. He isn't big on conveying emotion, but offsets that with such vivid detail I don't miss the melodrama of other authors or media