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)

Well done

3rd time on paper and audio. Better each time. Volume 2 next or maybe another listen

Exceptional

These books are exceptional; these are literary novels for anyone interested in history and science.

Be aware of what you're getting into

It's unfortunate that "Quicksilver" will turn so many listeners off the Baroque Cycle, because the other volumes are much more fun. "Quicksilver" is hard work, and is best thought of as an extended atmosphere-builder rather than a story. It is very rewarding though, if you know what you're getting into.

To enjoy "Quicksilver", you need three things:

* You need to be content with the fact that there's no plot. At all. All that happens is that a guy called Daniel wanders around London in the 1660s and 70s and chats with the leading scientific figures of the age. That's it. Oh, and there's some stuff about piracy in Massachusetts. Don't get me wrong,it's amazing writing and you will learn so much. You will get an amazing sense of the texture and atmosphere of the era. But there's barely a shred of story. Some people won't be able to deal with that. I didn't mind.

* You need a basic familiarity with the history of the 1660s and 70s and with the aforementioned scientific figures. Complete newbies will be baffled. Get prepared to do a lot of Wikipedia-ing.

* You need to want to listen to insanely detailed explanations of baroque science and the birth of economics. It's fascinating stuff ... if you like that kind of thing.

I enjoyed the listen, on the whole, although the wordiness and lack of forward progression does make it a struggle at times. And it undoubtedly is of extremely limited appeal. You might be better advised to start with Volume 2 if you'd like a story rather than a scene-setter.

The reader is brilliant.

"Math" Fiction for Geeks

A review on Amazon calls this "math" fiction (as opposed to science fiction), which ought to give you a good idea of the sort of book it is. That said, it IS good, rip roaring geek fun with the math and science "heroes" of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. There's the English Civil War, Wars of the Spanish Succession, Malburian Wars, pirates, members of the Royal Society of Philosophers, Issac Newton, Gottfried Liebnitz, and more.

Sometimes too much more. This book is certainly not an audio book you can play while doing something else which takes too much brain power; you will quickly lose the thread and find yourself rewinding. This problem is especially acute as the author jumps back and forth between the 1660s and the 1710s following one character.

The narrator is excellent, with a range of voices, allowing you to distinguish between the characters in the book. He does a great British Lord "harumph!" voice. :) There is a second narrator, but he simply reads period quotes at the beginning of each chapter. It would have been nice if he had read the lead-ins that announced the change of time and locale, as it would give you an audible cue that the story is leaping forward and back in time, helping your mind shift gears again.

If you do not like long books (i.e. value for your Audible credit), you should probably move on, because this is only the first audio book of three that used to be what was book one in hardback.

History of science made human.

This reading breathes life into each and every character in this monumental novel. The amazing texture and wit of Stephenson's writing is fully done justice to by this great adaptation. Thank you audible.com for completing this huge but wonderful project!

I liked it???

Learned some interesting things but, WOW, hard to get through. Still working on it, actually. I keep this one around when I want to engage my inner brainy nerd self.

Good read but how accurate of personalities

What did you like best about Quicksilver? What did you like least?

Dialogue on the history of science. Were these guys really this jacked up?

What did you like best about this story?

Review of British history. This book is for those interested in the past.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

Waterhouse

Did Quicksilver inspire you to do anything?

Perhaps to check on its historical accuracy

Any additional comments?

Sometimes the tone was a bit too irreverent. Not to knock Stephenson's style, but his toe slips over the line at times.

Smart and witty, pure joy

Left-brain right-brain badminton... a good bit of history, a chunk of anecdotal science and a nice mix of socio- anthropological realizm, fiction and a nice shot R-rated griddyness glue it all together, making for a real multilayer time travel experience

Good first novel

This is a pretty catching novel of what is a series about a pretty fascinating time in history. While I am not always sure what the point of the book is, the tale is great. The characters kind of flow through life, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The time period is fascinating and you meet a lot of characters you will see through the rest of the series.

Great reading.

Swashbuckling Science Historical Fiction

Where does Quicksilver rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Staggering voice performances. Parallel plots with time jumps enlivened by incredible circumstances and fascinating scientific/political and historic insights. Best audiobook I ever 'read'.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Halfcock Jack, because he is so entertainingly perverse

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

don't think so

Who was the most memorable character of Quicksilver and why?

Jack again, because I'm perverse.