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)

Listening makes easy work of this long novel

There are a lot of reasons one might be tempted to skip this book (too long, not interested in old English history, no female characters, no plot), but one very good reason to pick it up: amazing writing. Although the themes of this novel and Snow Crash (still my favorite Stephenson novel) couldn’t be more different, the same brilliant writing is present in each. In Quicksilver, Stephenson fascinates with an account of the beginnings of modern science in the 1600s in England, throwing in a good bit of English history to boot. Want to know why coins have little markings on their sides? How sundials work? When the burning of London happened? What kinds of experiments the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge did in the first years after its founding? It’s all here, along with pirates, religion, politics, wars and blunderbusses. There’s barely a plot to hold it all together, but still I couldn’t put it down. I am definitely going to be reading the next book in the series.

[I listened to this as an audio book performed by Simon Prebble and Kevin Pariseau. They did a marvelous job. I decided to listen at 1.25 speed, which was great, really made the book fly by. I finished in about a week! I would highly recommend this as a truly enjoyable listen.]

Always good

I've read the Baroque Cycle trilogy twice since publication - it is extraordinary fiction. The very things that make it enjoyable to me - finely-grained, dense story telling - also seem to be the very things that many of the reviewers here don't like about it.

The plot is rich, particularly if you know your history - Stephenson's story telling and characters come through with developments that are pure kick, intriguing, complex, humane, and understandable.

Simon Prebble's narration is perfectly fitting and well done - masterful acting, really. The many characters are all distinct to the ear and the imagination. If you liked the read, you shouldn't be dissappointed.

Thrills for the introvert, stunning performance

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

Step into Baroque

What was one of the most memorable moments of Quicksilver?

Fighting off Pirates outside of Boston Harbor

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Never dominated the story, underscores dialogue with varied natural sounding voices

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I had to concentrate to listen - I could not do other brain work while listening.

Any additional comments?

This is the start of a wonderful series of books.

Very well written and performed. The start of a very intricate tale

I'm slowly working my way through Neal Stephenson's stories and his writing continually gets better. This is an extremely well crafted world which introduces you to the forebears of the Cryptonomican characters as well a view on a fascinating period of history I knew little about.
The narration is excellent. Only minor point is that the story is very much an introduction with I expect stronger storylines coming up in subsequent books

A long list of facts

As the author mentions in the foreword of the book, he gathered lots and lots of information about the time of enlightenment to provide a good scientific and historical background to his story. Unfortunately what follows is a lame story so covered in tedious historical facts and teeming with historical figures, that it is actually pretty hard to find.
In addition to that, the performance of the reader makes it as enjoyable as listening to an encyclopedia. I've expected something better from Mr. Stephenson.

The Scientific Revolution in a novel

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

Quicksilver appeals to me because of its subject matter: the history of the Scientific Revolution in Britain, Europe and the American colonies around 1650 to 1750. Stephenson writes a "good yarn" with interesting characters that are well developed, but he is not a literary author. I would rate Quicksilver much better than some mediocre mysteries that I have listened to, but it is not up to the level of audiobooks of Charles Dickens or Tolstoy, or Samuel Pepys diary.

What other book might you compare Quicksilver to and why?

Neal Stephenson's books are great to both read and listen to. Quicksilver is not as entertaining as Reamde or Cryptomonicon, but it is a "must" for any Stephenson fan. There are characters and themes that repeat in Cryptomonicon. Quicksilver is for readers who are interested in mathematics and science, the history of both, and generally have inquisitive minds

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

I like a narrator to not intrude on the story. If I notice the narrator, then there is a problem. I did not notice in this case, so do not know if I have heard other books by him - that is a good thing!

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

Isaac Newton is very well realized here. Stephenson creates an amusing, complex and often infuriating character and does a good job of answering the question: "What is genius and how is it manifested?"

Any additional comments?

I am listening to Quicksilver for a second time before I go on with the second book in the Baroque Cycle. There is so much to take it, that I need to repeat to make sure that I get it all. And it is definitely worth listening to again, as are all of Stephenson's books - which makes them good value.

I loved this book! I love learning!

I loved this book because I love learning!
My broad knowledge of the history of the scientists and adventures throughout history is very limited, and I love learning about people like Isaac Newton, and so many others . I also, enjoyed hearing what it was like and Britain and Massachusetts during the 1600 and 1700s.

A heaving seething gallimaufry ....

This book is the first of the Baroque Cycle series ... which seems to go on forever and ever and ever. That is actually a Good Thing because Stephenson draws the reader into the convoluted secret world of the 17th century (with, admittedly, a few lapses and boring bits en route) in such a way that s/he will never quite see it the same way again. The research that must have gone into the writing of this series is nothing short of colossal but Stephenson never quite parades it in our faces -- although coming close from time to time -- but puts it to the service of a rip-roaring tale that seems to gather speed as it moves along. Cabals, codes, cyphers, the adulteration of the money supply, pirates, the Turkish siege of Vienna, Newton, Leibnitz, Louis XIV, the political manoeuvring behind the Hanoverian succession to the British throne (their descendants still occupy the position)... it's all there, with much more besides. This book comprises the overture to a heaving seething gallimaufry of a work which can be totally exhilarating or totally exhausting depending upon the reader's response to the ideas, themes and speculations which it introduces.

One Book in Print = Three Audiobooks?

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Quicksilver was published as a single volume, including "books" 1-3. The "books" were broken into three audiobooks, which is a) three times the price and b) breaks syncing with the Kindle book as the syncing does not continue with "King of the Vagabonds" and "Odalisque".

The story and performance are great, but this is too annoying to ignore.

Unique Book

This was interesting I stopped and listened to some parts twice. Something I rarely do.