Product Description

In which 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 book courses with Stephenson's scholarship but is rarely bogged down in its historical detail. Stephenson is especially impressive in his ability to represent dialogue over the evolving worldview of seventeenth-century scientists and enliven the most abstruse explanation of theory. Though replete with science, the novel is as much about the complex struggles for political ascendancy and the workings of financial markets. Further, the novel's literary ambitions match its physical size. Stephenson narrates through epistolary chapters, fragments of plays and poems, journal entries, maps, drawings, genealogic tables, and copious contemporary epigrams. But, caught in this richness, the prose is occasionally neglected and wants editing. Further, anticipating a cycle, the book does not provide a satisfying conclusion to its 900 pages. These are minor quibbles, though. Stephenson has matched ambition to execution, and his faithful, durable readers will be both entertained and richly rewarded with a practicum in Baroque science, cypher, culture, and politics. --Patrick O'Kelley ... Read more

Customer Reviews (343)

Digital robbery
I can't believe the nerve of publishers who think they can charge more for a kindle edition than the cost of a mass market paperback. What a rip off. I'll pick this up at a used book store on principle alone.

Book publishers: you're entering a brave new world of digital distribution. Learn from the mistakes of the music industry. Digital copies cost next to nothing to produce; share those savings with your customers and they'll remain loyal.

Kindle book costs more than paperback, won't buy
If the publisher ever drops the Kindle price so that it is the same as or less than the mass-market paperback price, I'll buy it and I will delete this review. I've never put in a one-star review because of Kindle price before and have found the practice obnoxious, so go ahead and give this rating some "unhelpful" marks. But I don't care any more. I am sick and tired of publishers charging ridiculous prices for e-books.

I can buy a used book for a couple of bucks and they get zero dollars from me. Why are they so resistant to charging a reasonable price for e-books? Then they could at least get some of my money. As it stands, they've lost the sale.

I have corresponded with the publisher but of course they did not respond. Eh. To heck with them.

Great trilogy, highly recommended. Well-rounded characters
I read this trilogy from hardback books and I am considering re-buying them for my kindle. The story line is intense, convoluted and requires patience, but it delivers a rich landscape of natural philosophy, piracy, romance and a host of other topics in an accessible and entertaining way.

Wish I could have read this one
I never received my book. Lost in shipment I am told. I did receive a refund but no other books were available to send to me. Had my heart set on getting this book to read with my husband. I was constantly having to call or write to find out the status of the book. Not ready to try again although when I signed up for the amazon prime I received my products when promised. Sad I have to pay extra to get services promised to me.

lot of fiber, nut so much fruit and nut
yeah, Stephenson can seriously turn a phrase, so many delights, but it's too much unjuicy between the fun bits. I wonder if there's some wink wink encryption in all the scene chewing, that someone could crack and then find the real sauce. Don't think I'll be going for the other two books. ... Read more

Product Description

In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold.

Customer Reviews (72)

a fun read, really good writing
This book was a great deal of fun to read. Lots of deep, interesting, well-developed characters to love and/or hate. Richly plotted, but not like any historical novel I ever read before. The familiar names were confusing to me as this was fiction, but felt like it might be history. Possibly needs at least more generous footnotes if not a historical concordance if based on or extrapolated from actual history as much that was included is not found in sources available to the average reader. A good candidate for the Annotated series (Annotated Alice, Annotated Mother Goose, etc.) First page to last, a really gripping read, whatever genre it is or isn't. The writing is brilliant and carries the reader forward sometimes in spite of the content. Am anticipating enjoying more good stories from this author.

gets even better!
I loved this book. It's intelligent and even more importantly it's lots of fun. Now, I'm a literary scholar, but I'm also a rabid consumer of fiction--everything from Stephen King's horror to Robert Jordan's fantasy. I don't know what drew me towards this cycle of books. Honestly, it looked sort of boring from the outside. I suppose I was drawn to the wacky contradiction between the author and the subject matter. Here's a guy who's best known for cyberpunk, and he's writing a quasi-historical novel. Well, I chose wisely, because this book really suited me. It's fast-paced with a screw-ball tone. It reminds me of Pirates of the Carribean without supernatural elements. Also, this guy's mind is just impressive. This is a really good book, but I'd add that it's also difficult to wade through. This is certainly for the more advanced reader who enjoys plunging into history. But don't get me wrong. This isn't for the stuffy old professor types either. It's audience is somewhere in between--the educated and the adventurous. If that's you then I say go for it and take the challenge! Also, this one is even more fun than the last. Can't wait to finish this cycle.

How does this book get the reviews it has?
The characters are pretty much the sames ones in the cyrptonomicon which was an excellent book.This book is not excellent or even good.Boring and offering little story to latch onto.I suggest skipping.

I am a Stephenson fan in general.I have read the Diamond Age twice, snow crash and cryptonomicon, and a few of his other titles.This one is a skip in my ranking though.

Too many cooks confuse the broth
In the context of the series, the term con-fusion applies to the addition of one substance to another. At any rate, there is no way to sum up this mixture of calculus and alchemy in less than ten pages without confusing the reader...

Even better on the second reading - Dense but worth the effort!
Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is one of the most ambitious series of historical fiction in recent years and he does an excellent job of bridging the distance between 17th century and today by focusing on putting the ideas and persons in the context of their time. Having read through the voluminous series when it came out, I was a little hesitant to re-read the three books (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) but my curiousity won out. I'm glad it did. There is so much information packed into the series that the second reading really made me appreciate the ideas and historical personalities invovlved.

I also noticed something that had slipped by me the first time. Daniel Waterhouse, rather than just being a neutral participant in the storyline, really came out as a catalyst for all the events in the book. Even more, his transformation from a person scared into inaction by the fear of others' disapproval into a man capable of exerting his will to make the world a better place is absolutely central to the storyline and I'm sad to say that I missed it the first time. This slow transformation permeates all three books and I think it must something very personal to Mr. Stephenson.

The other arguement for a second reading is that the events are so complex and the historical descriptions of warfare, economics and natural philosophy are often so detailed that catching everything after only one reading is difficult. I think of this as a strength of the book rather than a weakness, although some people probably do not appreciate the density of background material in the books.

The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon form an interwoven historical narrative and I think that they will stand as a great literary achievement. I do wish he'd intersperse more of his shorter novels Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)and The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book) alongside his large works (Baroque Cycle, Cryptonomicon, Anathem) but I'll happily read anything Neal Stephenson writes since he has a gift for conveying complex ideas in an exciting and compelling way. ... Read more

Product Description

For ten years Fraa Erasmas, a young avout, has lived in a cloistered sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside world. But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change—and Erasmas will become a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world, as he follows his destiny to the most inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

Customer Reviews (282)

read again
I read this book as soon as I received it and enjoyed it very much. It is a history of ideas, an adventure story and a coming of age story.Stephenson never disappoints and if you have enjoyed his baroque trilogy you will enjoy this. I have just started reading it again and I am geting a lot more out of it as the ideas come thick and fast. It is one of those books to read again and again and still get something new each time. GREAT!

I really wanted to love it
Instead I just liked it.

I love Neal Stephenson, and would put him as one of my top 5 favorite authors. But this just didn't seem to have the magic that it could have, that I loved so much in Cryptonomicon or his Baroque cycle novels. The premise seemed very awesome; as an engineer, I can appreciate the concept of math as a religion. This in itself was probably the most interesting thing about Anathem, however. It was at times boring, at other times it felt like it was limping along, and others it just seemed to be holding its breath.

I don't mean to sound like I'm completely knocking it, though. In all, it was terribly well written, as I've come to expect from Neal. And although it may have been boring at times, it was still INTERESTING, which is an important distinction. I was still drawn forward, wondering what was going on, and curious as to what the outcome would be. But in spite of how much I enjoyed it, with how much promise I thought this book could hold it just seemed to taste like ashes in my mouth.

ZZZzzz
Here's another author in need of an editor. Almost nothing happens for hundreds of pages. There are some clever ideas, all of which you could find in introductory philosophy books. Stephenson invents a lot of words, most of which are simply substitutes for existing English words, apparently to make the world seem foreign. It only makes the book more of a chore to read. I will say that the world building is good -- the place feels rich with history. But what a boring world! Two of my friends who enjoyed this book listened to it in audio book form. That's no coincidence. Listening to someone read takes less effort than real reading, and for this title especially, it would make it all the more easy to drift off into a light doze, wake 10 minutes later, and find you've missed nothing. If you'd enjoy reading about the daily rituals of a monastic order in all its tedium, by all means...

Very good, highly cerebrial, although a little short!
Anathem read very quickly; that the dead tree edition spans some 900 pages surprised me.I found the various philosophical discussions engrossing and occasionally tolerable at worst.I particularly enjoyed the book once physics came into play.

If you are one who bothers to ask the big questions, I think you will enjoy Anathem.Many reviews wail that, "nothing happens in Anathem!"Sure - in the same sense that a lot happened in Independence Day but not much in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Disappointing and boring
I have also read and liked Cryptonomicon even though it's not the easiest read. Anathem, I bought mostly on the strength of the #1 bestseller status and I have a hard time understanding how it got there. The book starts exceedingly slow with Stephenson using all sorts of strange words to describe things such as phones. I'm sure it's meant to add to the atmosphere but it just annoyed me. When the story finally does pick up some pace and things start happening, the story suddenly grinds to a halt and the main character becomes a waiter. Page after page is used to hear philosophy spewed out by new characters that we don't really care about with the main character serving them food. Talk about your story arc. The story does pick up after this, but the grand finale is not much of a finale at all. Don't buy this. ... Read more

Product Description
With this extraordinary first volume in what promises to be an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century.

In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy - is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detatchment 2702-commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe-is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code. It is a game, a cryptographic chess match between Waterhouse and his German counterpart, translated into action by the gung-ho Shaftoe and his forces.

Fast-forward to the present, where Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia - a place where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. As governments and multinationals attack the endeavor, Randy joins forces with Shaftoe's tough-as-nails grandaughter, Amy, to secretly salvage a sunken Nazi sumarine that holds the key to keeping the dream of a data haven afloat. But soon their scheme brings to light a massive conspiracy with its roots in Detachment 2702 linked to an unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. And it will represent the path to unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty...or to universal totalitarianism reborn.

A breathtaking tour de force, and Neal Stephenson's most accomplished and affecting work to date, CRYPTONOMICON is profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyper-driven, as it leaps forward and back between World War II and the World Wide Web, hinting all the while at a dark day-after-tomorrow. It is a work of great art, thought, and creative daring; the product of a truly iconAmazon.com Review
Neal Stephenson enjoys cult status among science fiction fansand techie types thanks to Snow Crash, which socompletely redefined conventional notions of the high-tech future thatit became a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if his cyberpunk classic wasbig, Cryptonomicon is huge... gargantuan... massive, not justin size (a hefty 918 pages including appendices) but in scope andappeal. It's the hip, readable heir to Gravity's Rainbow andthe Illuminatustrilogy. And it's only the first of a proposed series--for moreinformation, read ourinterview with Stephenson.

Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careeningconspiratorially back and forth between two time periods--World War IIand the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematicianLawrence Waterhouse, cryptanalyst extraordinaire, and gung ho,morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes whilesimultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codeshave been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer ofdeception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explainsthe unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink aconvoy, we send out an observation plane first.... Of course, toobserve is not its real duty--we already know exactly where theconvoy is. Its real duty is to be observed.... Then,when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find itsuspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in whichthe grandchildren of the WWII heroes--inimitable programming geekRandy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe--team up tohelp create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncoversome gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiactone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakableencryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990sprotagonists with conspiratorial ties.

Cryptonomicon is vintage Stephenson from start to finish: shorton plot, but long on detail so precise it's exhausting. Every page hasa math problem, a quotable in-joke, an amazing idea, or a bit of sharpprose. Cryptonomicon is also packed with truly weirdcharacters, funky tech, and crypto--all the crypto you'll ever need,in fact, not to mention all the computer jargon of the moment. A wordto the wise: if you read this book in one sitting, you may die ofinformation overload (and starvation). --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Customer Reviews (876)

Awesome!!
One of the best sci fi novels of all time! Thanks for suggesting it Tom!

A True Gem.
I have read Cryptonomicon twice. The first time was an enjoyable, sublime and yet difficult experience. (The math was tricky for me!) I loved the characters and the story line and could not put it down. And I was drawn back to it. I read it again about a year later, and for whatever reasons, the second reading was way better. (Yeah, I know, 1000+ pages!)

Even if you are not the type of person that has the patience to read a 1000+ page novel, the two chapters that will make it worthwhile are the 'Captain Crunch', and the 'Wisdom' chapters. As dire, brutal, and heart wrenching as some of this book is, these two chapters will make you want to laugh out loud. If you like Vonnegut or even Clavell, you will love this book!

As another reviewer said, you can skip over the math and still follow the story without losing anything. So don't get bogged down with the crypto-details. Skip over what you cannot comprehend, it's okay. You will be rewarded.

Bacon tastes good
Yikes.

I once almost posted an article concerning the coding techniques of Francis Bacon and a few of his chums. I thought that I was so very clever at the time. Thankfully I never did put that lame business out there.

During my first day in an actual College I learned something about coding and matrices and arrays, and some other stuff about dangling particaples, and spelling......

This book blew me away. One minute I am one with the China Marines duking it out with those Akkido using Nips just after being in a Jap bar eating raw fish.

Everybody in this book seems to understand Manilan, English, various Chinese dialects, and the Limits to a Function.

Bletchley Park? Well it ain't MacArthur Park for sure.

What a delightful piece of work it truly is. Oh say can you hear that star spangled banner ye'et KABOOM... and then we are off to the races.

I learned more about submarines and morphine in this book than I did in Chemistry 101 or in about 50 W.E.B. Griffin novels. I learned more about Jungles than I did by reading all 25 Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan books at least twice.

The Japs have an unbreakable cypher that was broken at just about the time that they created it. The Krauts have an unbreakable code that was also broken by our Allies who refused to use the asset. What the heck was wrong with those Brits anyhow? I kept wondering to myself...if there is a grain of truth to any of this then why oh why did 50 million folks have to die? Was it all about the money? Who is better at keeping secrets? Are the English people really as dumb as their Royal Highnesses come across as being?

I dunno which part was my favorite. There are so many good ones. The Cap'n Crunch stuff was bizarre, why not throw that stuff into the middle of a work about War, Cyberspace, the pursuit of purple bottles numbered and labeled by Nazi Doctors who were so intent on curtailing drug abuse?

Who got the gold? Ferdinand Marcos?

And that stuff about the exquisite nylons furniture store was in a word, hysterical.

What a terrific read.

Right up my alley leading to Golgotha.

Not bad, certain parts of the book didn't seem to fit
Long book.Ending was lame, don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't read it...but this random dude shows up at the end for no apparent reason (at least to me).

a few parts of the book didn't seem to fit, like when randy was trying to get dental surgery.

The best knock in the head ever...
Only 1152 pages in paperback, yet somehow I finished in less than three weeks, reading mainly at night prior to falling asleep with almost 2 pounds of book knocking me in the cranium.I slept, not from boredom, but from exhaustion, because I could not put Cryptonomicon down.Neal Stephenson is an amazing author.His characters are down-to-earth, human and real, yet his stories are so intelligent and complexly woven that I find myself acknowledging that I must be an idiot. However, like a sherpa guiding you up a death-defying peak, and safely down again, Stephenson manages to ensure that even those of us with inferior intellect are able to follow along, enjoy the trip and feel accomplished once it is through. ... Read more

Product Description

England, 1714. London has long been home to a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist, Isaac Newton, and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level as Half-Cocked Jack hatches a daring plan, aiming for the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (69)

It's called a cycle for a good reason
One can start just about anywhere in his writings and still be in a delicious daze of confusion (and the Con Fusion of books in System illustrates this point) for months on end. You really get your money's worth with a Stephenson work - for the second and third readings are almost as challenging and exciting as the first. He is a master of plot twists and intrigue, as well as the most inventive craftsman of character I've yet encountered. I'm besotted, to say the least.

Great service from the distributor - excellent book.
I was very happy with the purchase price, and speed of delivery.

The book itself is an excellent capstone to the Baroque Cycle.

Book delivered on time
It was the book I needed for an upcoming trip and was delivered in good condition and well before I needed it.Thanks much.

Even better on the second reading - Dense but worth the effort!
Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is one of the most ambitious series of historical fiction in recent years and he does an excellent job of bridging the distance between 17th century and today by focusing on putting the ideas and persons in the context of their time. Having read through the voluminous series when it came out, I was a little hesitant to re-read the three books (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) but my curiousity won out. I'm glad it did. There is so much information packed into the series that the second reading really made me appreciate the ideas and historical personalities invovlved.

I also noticed something that had slipped by me the first time. Daniel Waterhouse, rather than just being a neutral participant in the storyline, really came out as a catalyst for all the events in the book. Even more, his transformation from a person scared into inaction by the fear of others' disapproval into a man capable of exerting his will to make the world a better place is absolutely central to the storyline and I'm sad to say that I missed it the first time. This slow transformation permeates all three books and I think it must something very personal to Mr. Stephenson.

The other arguement for a second reading is that the events are so complex and the historical descriptions of warfare, economics and natural philosophy are often so detailed that catching everything after only one reading is difficult. I think of this as a strength of the book rather than a weakness, although some people probably do not appreciate the density of background material in the books.

The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon form an interwoven historical narrative and I think that they will stand as a great literary achievement. I do wish he'd intersperse more of his shorter novels Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book) and The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book) alongside his large works (Baroque Cycle, Cryptonomicon, Anathem) but I'll happily read anything Neal Stephenson writes since he has a gift for conveying complex ideas in an exciting and compelling way.

I read it on the Kindle2
Enough people have commented on the substance of the book that I can't add anything new, so my 5-star rating will have to suffice. I do have a couple of observations, however, related to the Kindle2. I read all three novels of the trilogy on my brand-new one, and was delighted with it.

1. Stephenson loves words, and the trilogy is loaded with obscure (to me!) and archaic ones. Fortunately, the Kindle2 comes with a dictionary, and it's a simple matter to point and click, to look up a word in mid-read. It's certainly a lot easier than carrying around a thousand-page dictionary with a thousand page novel. The dictionary is quite good, and contained most of the words I fed it, along with their sources.

2. Where the Kindle2 suffers is in its poor display of graphics; I think this is part of a larger problem that also leads to poor rendition of pdf files. The maps provided in the trilogy are fuzzy and pretty much useless. That's annoying, given the geographical scope of the books. In particular, System of the World focuses on early 18th century London, and I found myself wanting a good map to orient myself. I finally settled on this one, and printed out a copy to keep with the Kindle2 as I read the book:

http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/dickens_london_map.html

Granted, it's of a London more than a century later than the period of the novel, but it did contain most of the buildings and streets mentioned, plus very brief descriptions and histories of key locations.

A better solution would be for the Kindle to have a comprehensive atlas to complement its dictionary. But that will require a major upgrade to the graphic display capabilities, and probably a faster processor. Maybe we can look forward to it in the Kindle4.
... Read more

Product Description
From his triumphant debut with Snow Crash to the stunning success of his latest novel, Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson has quickly become the voice of a generation. In this now-classic political thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a savagely witty, chillingly topical tale set in the tense moments of the Gulf War.

When a foreign exchange student is found murdered at an Iowa University, Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks finds that his investigation extends far beyond the small college town—all the way to the Middle East. Shady events at the school reveal that a powerful department is using federal grant money for highly dubious research. And what it’s producing is a very nasty bug.

Navigating a plot that leads from his own backyard to Washington, D.C., to the Gulf, where his Army Reservist wife has been called to duty, Banks realizes he may be the only person who can stop the wholesale slaughtering of thousands of Americans. It’s a lesson in foreign policy he’ll never forget. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Takes too long to start
This is a "ok" book, but it takes too long to start the "real business". It seems that authors were playing charactersaround and them suddenly realized "well, we need a history", and then compete to find something of interest. As a light reading is ok, but is completely below the stuff Neal Stephenson writes. Actually, I usually don't like much collaborative writings and this is no exception to the rule.
Also, there are some side histories that really add nothing to the book and add too much text to it.
I don't recommend buying it, or also not buying it. I am sure that it could lead to a good film, although the Bush government setting is too old now. Probably it needed a better editor, not better writers.

Great thriller and one of the best treatises on bureaucrazies I have ever read
It is the eve of the first US war with Iraq. Tensions are mounting, but the US still supports Saddam Hussein.

In a sleepy Midwestern town, a foreign student is murdered.Something about the case bothers Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks, whose best weapon is not his nightstick Excalibur, but his brain and the fact that too few people realize that he really does know how to use it.

In Washington, Betsey, a 5 year veteran of the CIA discovers that Saddam is not using the money the US sent him to buy food to purchase food.She suspects Iraq is massing weapons.Unfortunately, she's working outside of her scope and manages to anger a NSC advisor with a stake in keeping the status quo.

The plot moves on with smart paced efficiency, spinning webs of deceit on the part of the Iraqis as the US government tries to 'cobweb' those trying to expose their plots.

"The Cobweb" is a very well done thriller, but the deeper message is the treatise on how governments operate.Stephenson's Orwellian descriptions of re-writing history and cobwebbing are spot on from my personal experience.

The characters are engaging and real.Multiple points of view don't confuse the issues here, but round out the descriptions of the players involved.

The plot is strong enough to stick you to your chair til the book's done.There's very little waste in this 415 page book.

Descriptions take you there.I could almost smell the fireworks on the very ironic July 4 that was celebrated in this book.

Another Stephenson masterpiece
Stephenson's current day story is very thought provoking under current global circumstances.I enjoyed every page and delighted in every irony and found myself glued to the book for hours at a time.

Good mystery
The book is good as a lightweight mystery novel, shows much of Stephenson's excellent writing style, but I wouldn't put it in the same class as the Baroque Trilogy or Cryptonomicon

A Neal Stepehson primer
Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (2002) propelled him to fame with a fast-paced techno-thriller.Cobweb, written jointly with J. Frederick George is set before that book and also written before and now published.However, Cobweb is a fine work, a real page-turner which segues between scenes in a much smoother and more purposeful way than Cryptonomicon.The main characters are credible, the plot redolent of conspiracy, cover-ups and as usual with Stephenson, a healthy contempt for bureaucracy.Cobweb is a precursor to Interface, another fine work, both best described as being in the techno-thriller genre but they can stand alone without detriment, one to the other.I highly recommend Cobweb and suggest readers cut their teeth on this book before proceeding to Stephenson's later works. ... Read more

Product Description

Stephenson/S. T.'sirreverent, facetious, esprit-filled voice make this near-future talea joy to read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (96)

Half and half
The first 100 pages were very enjoyable reading with a lot of creativity, original characters, humor, and fast-moving action.After that, the writer gets bogged down in finishing his storyline--with only flashes of his original self occasionally coming up.He plods to the end.I was glad the book was over.His writing style is to string thoughts together--a reader needs to pay close attention.Unfortunatley, for me, some of his thoughts come out of leftfield.The house getting blown up with a grenade comes out of nowhere.And the barge being divided up into rooms was a stretch of the imagination. Nevertheless, If you can tolerate these, there's a lot of creativity to be enjoyed in this book.I gave this book 3 stars.Brilliant at the beginning but dry in the end.This author is worth a second read--probably Snow Crash for me.

Great Low-Tech Fun
Zodiac is different from Stephenson's other books - it's short (only 300 pages), low tech (although there is a little chem discussion), and focuses primarily on one character.A quick, fun read and an interesting commentary on environmentalism and terrorism, considering that it was written in '88.I love its tribute to Boston, but, frankly, if I didn't know the area so well I might not have enjoyed the book as much.It's not Snow Crash or Crypto, but it is definitely worth the read.

2 stars for some humor
I listed to the audio version of the book thru [...].Narration was very good.I really didn't like the main character. After a while, I felt like the author was trying to create a Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas for the younger generation.This time without an attorney and with Nitros Oxide. But the scenes weren't nearly as funny as Hunter S. Thompson. Instead of Rolling Stone Mag paying all the bills, it's a "environmental" organization.There is some cool science explained for the non-major. After a while I got tired of the "Corporate Imperialism with guns is the ultimate evil" meme.I didn't really didn't recognize much of a plot.

Worth reading if you want some laughable insight into the thinking of a hypothetical enviromental true believer with a chemistry degree.

Impressively accurate, timely, and good
Overview:

Marketed as an "Eco-Thriller", this book notably precedes (both temporally and in quality) Michael Crichton's State of Fear, although the books have some surface similarities. Perhaps the most significant difference is that this book is fun, while the latter is not so much.

Clear similarities exist, as well, between this work and the author's first work, the classic "Big U" and his, perhaps, most famous one, "Snow Crash". Those who enjoyed these two books will probably enjoy this one as well, and vice versa.

A. Plot

The plot of the book needs to be especially strong, since this book is marketed as a thriller. So a main question is whether the plot is strong enough. In this book, it is.

Sangamon Taylor, known as S.T. is the narrator and protagonist, who collects money from an environmental group in order to maintain his daily activities, which consist of terrorizing (in a soft way) the employees of said companies for the actions of their corporate boards.

The plot is developed well, if a bit slow for many people's tastes. The ending is satisfying and conclusive, and the beginning has what many thrillers need. A quick burst of action that get you committed to the story and the characters quickly so that the background information doesn't come too soon.

SPOILER WARNING:

In the middle of the book, the plans of the ecologically negligent company are revealed. The one piece of scientific inaccuracy of which I am aware in this book is that the company could have accidentally released the second strain of bacteria, which make the PCB's, instead of consuming them. In reality, this almost could not have happened. But, charmingly, it wouldn't HAVE to. The fact is, as S.T. explains, thermodynamics will often determine the direction of a chemical reaction. If there is enough inorganic chloride around, and the bacteria have appropriate enzymes, they could easily synthesize some PCB's, even if they are the bioremediation strain. It is only unfortunate that Neal Stephenson got this part wrong, because about ten pages early, bells started going off in my head, and I thought, "Uh oh..."

END SPOILER

B. Characters

Most of the characters in the book have been called stereotypes by many reviewers here on Amazon. There is a little truth to this. I wouldn't say, however, that they are so much stereotypes as they are undeveloped. S.T. is a loner, and he spends most of the novel in his own company. The other people in the book are something of a mystery to S.T. He doesn't really seem to enjoy the company of other people, and is willing to avoid them when possible, for the most part. Since the book is told from his perspective, it is unsurprising that there are few details about them. This is clearly not a result of a lack of talent on Mr. Stephenson's part, as his earlier (and even more so, his later) book(s) demonstrate. This has to be seen as a willful choice on his part.

Therefore, the characters (and the characterization) are strong, coherent, and consistent with the protagonist's point of view, and are well done.

C. Setting

The novel is set in Boston, irredeemably so. This could have been otherwise set in Seattle, San Francisco, or maybe Antwerp. But that's about it. You need a combination of biotech, industry, hippies, and harbors. The setting directly and compellingly adds to the book, which is a nice touch.

D. Theme

The theme of the book is that the ruthlessness of negligent companies can only be countered by ruthlessness of individuals who are committed to preserving the environment. A second theme, that accusations of terrorism are not the same as actually BEING a terrorist, is quite timely, despite the fact that it was written some twenty years ago.

E. Point of View

The point of view is first-person, centering on S.T. For a careful and insightful analysis of this, find "Unnecessary" Quotes "'s review. He or she points out the pitfalls in this narrative style, particularly for Neal Stephenson. Acknowledgement of this can be seen in Stephenson's later avoidance of this perspective.

F. Aesthetics

The aesthetics require some work. This is perhaps the biggest difference between Neal Stephenson's early work and his more contemporary books. In this book, he hasn't yet developed his ability to describe the settings that will be so key to later works like the Baroque Cycle and Anathem.

Conclusion:

The book is well-written, well-characterized, and entertaining. The plot is developed with skill and artistry. Aside from a single technological inaccuracy (which was actually not only unnecessary, but counterproductive - see the spoiler region for details), the story is quite accurate as far as technology goes.

The story moves a bit slower than many thrillers, but it has other strengths, such as S.T. who is an amusing character, and insight into popularly unavailable knowledge about how ecological guerillas think, that more than make up for it.

Grade: B

Harkius

Great Read
Became a fan of Stephenson's when I picked up Cryponomicon on a whim about 8 years ago.I thought the cover looked cool. I've enjoyed everything he's written since that time.This was my first foray into his earlier work having just finsihed off Anathem.I was pleasantly surprised that his depth, wit, mind, and knack for making data and fact intetesting is present in his earlier work.I think anybody who enjoys Stephenson will like Zodiac.I wouldn't consider myself even a mild environmentalist, but am still quite enthralled with this novel. ... Read more

Product Description
In Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson took science fiction to dazzling new levels. Now, in The Diamond Age, he delivers another stunning tale. Set in twenty-first century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life-and the entire future of humanity-is about to be decoded and reprogrammed....Amazon.com Review
John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the risewhen he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for hisdaughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built withnanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw'sdaughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stiflingneo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he cangive it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands ofyoung Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (361)

Hard to beat
I can't think of many sci-fi novels that even rival this story. It is gripping, fascinating and utterly inspiring. Without a doubt one of the best books I've had the pleasure to read, purely because of the thought and imagination within it.

I simply cannot understand the reviews of people here who didn't find it utterly mind-blowing. Maybe it was too subtle for some to grasp the subtext, which is every bit as provoking as the plot. Our society is tribal with a thin veneer of civility and no amount of technological advancement can change our grubby nature.

Yes, the ending leaves you wanting more, but I sympathize with Stephenson... I'm not sure how you could end such a tale that left people feeling satisfied that didn't seem obvious and trite.

Highly, highly, recommended.

weak ending
The crazy nanotech stuff was very cool, but I hate books with weak endings.A weak ending makes me wonder why I wasted all of that time reading this book instead of something else. I loved Snow Crash, I was disappointed with The Diamond Age.

Intriguing setting and characters, weak plotting
This is probably Stephenson's weakest novel easily, which really isn't saying much when this suffers from the same problems as his other books(clunky writing,story meanders too frequently to be engaging) but still worth a read for the person who enjoys all aspects of Stephenson's style equally. Don't expect Snow Crash or his more straightforward early novel style either(haven't read Cryptomonicon yet)

We have this strong female character(Nell) that we all want to root for because of the terrible situation she's born into, in addition to the fairy-tale side-plot most of us who have nostalgic memories of childhood stories will most likely either relate to. We also have this engineer character Hackworth that people will care less about who nevertheless has some interesting stories involving the nanotech subplot (which took a backseat to the main characters' exploits I might add)

This is where we come to a weak spot. There are places like the Source Victoria chapter where it becomes difficult to picture fully just what Stephenson is describing, tech-wise, for the non tech-adept like myself who nevertheless find such details interesting. Again, he's got a tendency toward this, but it wasless evident in Snow Crash. You think that writing such long sentences would allow him to find room for perspective, but no such luck.

Also, Stephenson'sintroduces Judge Fang as an important character early on, then writes as if he's passed out of existence. The same kind of thing happens with Harv. It seems at first like he might be in a rehab of sorts, but the book explicitly states he has asthma. Clarify?

Overall, I think this novel would have benefited from faster pacing, with perhaps a detailed reason how events in China affect events abroad. It's not impossible to do while throwing in techno-babble at the same time, IMO.

Good condition, shipping faster than expected
The price was very competitive without excessive shipping costs. Porduct arrived sooner than expected in excellent condition.

Fantastic First Half, and then quickly runs out of steam...
Where am I coming from?I'm a 55 year old male geek who thinks operating systems and math are fascinating, and both adult daughters are math majors (They've moved out.I miss the evening discussions of encryption theory.I digress).I loved Stephenson's Snow Crash.

The first half of Diamond Age was full of awesome concepts and technology, good guys, bad guys, drama, and seamless switching between fantasy and real worlds.I couldn't put it down; I went to work exhausted for a week because of Diamond Age...and then I got to "part 2."

The last chapter of part 1 was a warning that the story was in trouble: in a few short pages, the book changed from gripping to ridiculous.I put it down and let it collect dust for a couple weeks.I lost interest in all characters except possibly Princess Nell.I had a hard time keeping the fantasy and reality sections apart, and I didn't care.I not even sure why I finished it; probably the blind hope it would attain its previous level.

I highly recommend the first half: it's positively brilliant, and one of the best reads I've had in a long time.

... Read more

Product Description
From his triumphant debut with Snow Crash to the stunning success of his latest novel, Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson has quickly become the voice of a generation. In this now-classic thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a shocking tale with an all-too plausible premise.

There's no way William A. Cozzano can lose the upcoming presidential election. He's a likable midwestern governor with one insidious advantage—an advantage provided by a shadowy group of backers. A biochip implanted in his head hardwires him to a computerized polling system. The mood of the electorate is channeled directly into his brain. Forget issues. Forget policy. Cozzano is more than the perfect candidate. He's a special effect.

“Complex, entertaining, frequently funny."—Publishers Weekly

“Qualifies as the sleeper of the year, the rare kind of science-fiction thriller that evokes genuine laughter while simultaneously keeping the level of suspense cranked to the max."— San Diego Union-Tribune
“A Manchurian Candidate for the computer age.” —Seattle Weekly




... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Good book, a bit long
I enjoyed this title, and it really had a few insights on what could happen.Didn't fully agree with the metering and the real time changes as you would need a bunch of extra people than they had behind the scenes to make one group happy while not offending another set of people.

Otherwise great book with a decent story.Not as good as Snow Crash, the Diamond Age or Cyrptonomicon.I recommend reading those titles first for anyone not familiar with Niel Stephenson.

Current events give this novel new relevance
Earlier reviewers are correct to observe that this is not Neal Stephenson at his finest; the book needed an editor's eye (especially in the last third) to pick up repetition at the sentence level--still, the events in the US 2008 presidential campaign have made this book amazingly apt, and much funnier than it was even a year ago: an election taking place during a U.S. financial crisis that renders families homeless and feeling hopeless and has an incumbent president offering silly solutions, combined with professional media analysts who understand that content matters less than camera angles, a pseudo-populist politico who tries to manipulate prejudices with coded language, and other things that look all too familiar. If you want something readable that will make you laugh and wince at how much a satire published fourteen years ago got 2008 right, this is it. The plot gets out of a hand in the last pages as Stephenson gives into his recurring temptation to write "action" scenes, but it remains fun throughout.

Good enough
Interface is not what I expected of a Stephenson book. I equate him with darker hard-SF and expect him to expand my mind about future-tech like he did with Diamond Age and Crytonomicon. Instead, this book is less about technology and more about the characters and an interesting premise. Stephenson seems to be consistently good at character development in his books, and Interface is no exception. I really felt like I knew all of the characters by the end.A worthy read for Stephenson fans, but not one of my favorite.

Implausable
I must say that I love Neal Stephenson, and I have read every single one of his major novels, including the Baroque Trilogy, however this novel was decidedly sub-bar for a writer of his caliber.Ultimately, it is a decent airplane read but formulaic and predictable throughout.If you are new to the author, start out with Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon.

The primary failure of this book, for me, was the inescapable improbability of the basic premises.Prime Example:I almost stopped reading when the President vowed to forgive the national debt within the first few pages.This is a major plot point but it simply presented as something a rational president might do.This just comes out of nowhere and is so mind-boggling implausible that it is just silly.And the whole "Network" concept of shadowy corporations who control most of the world's money has been done to death, and done much, much better.For some unfathomable reason, the all-powerful, omnipresent "Network" lets the management of said funds be handled by some random old guy holed up in an Arkansas bunker.It really is ludicrous.

There are some bright spots in the handling of the technology involved, interesting musings on consciousness and neural science, and the middle of the book is handled quite well.The beginning and the end are where it all just falls apart, which is unfortunate.

A blast from the past
If you're like me, once you read Snow Crash in the mid-late 90s you ran right out and found EVERYTHING Stephenson ever wrote, which at the time was Zodiac and The Big U.(BTW, if you're from Cornell, _The_Big_U_ is a must read.)Maybe you did a little more research, which at the time was a bit harder to do, and found that Stephenson had written under another name - "Stephen Bury" - and tried to find those books too.But that was before eBay and Amazon, so they were difficult to find.Maybe you had a friend with them, or they were in the library, and you read borrowed copies.

Interface is one of those.When I got an Amazon mail about a couple of "new" Neal Stephenson books, I ordered them.I start reading _Interface_ and I vaguely knew I had read it before.

As some have already said, it's not one of Stephenson's best.But it's a plenty good read, even the second time around. ... Read more

Product Description
Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison--a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about Infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous...you'll recognize it immediately.
Amazon.com Review
From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novelSnow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into anot-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizzadelivery, the United States exists as a patchwork ofcorporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet--incarnate as theMetaverse--looks something like last year's hype would lead you tobelieve it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman,and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on anew designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainyex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that todo? He rushes to the rescue. A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel,Snow Crash interweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visionsof a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than thespeed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crash is theportrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (600)

Mediocre at Best
The Title says it all. Lots of others have summarized the plot so I wont bother, but I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with this book.

Stephenson starts the whole thing off with an awkward bang, and the first couple chapters hum along at a great pace. But the cliches are just a bit too abundant to really get into this story. Hiro is written as a character a 14 year old computer nerd would think is cool, Y.T. is an overly witty skateboarder kid, and the villain is so forgettable I cant honestly remember his name while writing this review. The only character that I found interesting is Uncle Enzo, and he shows up for about 10 pages all together.

It's kind of a shame how this story doesn't live up, because the concept is pretty interesting. While I didn't hate the Sumerian research stuff like a lot of other reviewers it was fairly unnecessary padding. The MetaVerse is a pretty cool idea, but again it's painted amateurly at best. The ending was way too rushed to be enjoyable, and readers will likely have more questions than answers when it's all said and done.

Snow Crash isn't terrible, it just isn't very good. If you're desperate for a new story to read, go ahead and pick it up. Otherwise I would recommend skipping this one.

Snow Crash
America's Galactic Foreign Legion: Book 1: Feeling Lucky (Volume 1)

Humor and science fiction together should be encouraged."Snow Crash" is a must read.

An excellent read.
It's not often that I read a book more than once, but this is one that merited the reexamination. It really is a fantastic book.

What a Ride!
I read this as part of my ongoing (yes very slow) reading of the Science Fiction Book Club's 50th anniversary collection, a truly outstanding although far from comprehensive survey of that period. This book (number 33 of 40) was an outstanding ride with lots of insights. Its 1992 initial publication date will have you nodding in reflection about how on-target Stephenson was. The mix of young and older characters, virtual and real world, financial titans, religious demagogues, Mafia types, and people living in storage rental spaces make this a great ride. It was my first exposure to his work. I'm looking forward to reading more and I'm not worried about getting a pizza delivered in 30 minutes anymore.

good book
No, great book. Enough said. Remember, this was written before the internet was in every home and school. It's a bit ahead of it's time. ... Read more

Product Description

The New York Times Book Review called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious".  but if you want to know Stephenson was doing twenty years before he wrote the epic Cryptonomicon, it's back-to-school time. Back to The Big U, that is, a hilarious send-up of American college life starring after years our of print, The Big U is required reading for anyone interested in the early work of this singular writer.

Customer Reviews (80)

Animal House meets Armageddon
This diamond in the rough has been well-covered in other
reviews.Just a few more comments I'd like to add...

I'm an author myself who, by some unexplained error of entropy,
has managed to get a few things published.Along the way, I've had
plenty of interaction with ornery discussion group members and merciless
editors, resulting in numerous literary burnings-at-the-stake
and slam-dunk rejections.So I can say with some small
authority that just about any editor would've deep-sixed "The Big U"
for the awkward POV changes alone.

Ask me if I care...

Here we get to watch a preposterously talented author flex his writing
muscles while learning his chops.That alone makes this wildly
irreverent, hilariously scathing, over-the-top send-up of college life
worthwhile for me.Even an incredible talent like Stephenson had to
walk before he could fly. Seeing that has has given me a whole
new source of motivation.Authors are quizzed incessantly about
how they learned to write, advice on learning to write, advice on
ADVICE on learning to write... you get the picture.Here we can watch
the process happen.Nothing could be more instructive.

I knew I was in the presence of a budding master when I reached an
awkward point, got confused, but rather than giving up found myself
WANTING to backtrack and figure it out.It takes some seriously good
stuff to convince a reader to take that effort.The clincher: after
going back and unraveling the goofed-up POV, or whatever it was, I found
that everything made sense again, fit together, and I was on my way.
THAT'S how close "The Big U" comes to working 100%.

Pretty much anyone with half a brain can learn the mechanics of
writing: show don't tell, consistent POV, don't jar your reader, writing
dialogue, blahblahblah.But coming up with killer IDEAS... now that's
something else entirely. Let us assume the idea factory in Stephenson's
mind is powered by the 1000 BHP engine out of a Bugatti Veyron.(What he
might've installed himself, given the opportunity).That baby's wound to
red line, ALL THE TIME.

The ideas are all there in "The Big U".All it needed was a little
tweaking, a little polishing, a scope expansion and WHAMMO! - "Cryptonomicon".

~*~

As for "The Big U" itself, what else do you need?Nerds, tough guys,
Crotobaltislavonians, sewer monsters, a mass driver, and .44 magnum toting
Lesbians.Not to mention a surreal insanity-producing maze-like college
campus housing 40,000 dazed and confused students, built straight up.

I graduated from a mid-sized college about half a decade or so
before NTS escaped from BU.To those who would take issue with the
events in "The Big U" I agree, yep, many are over the top.But not THAT FAR
over.Examples:

1)Students losing their marbles: I distinctly remember classmates who were
*this close* to going clean over the edge, who simply disappeared at the end
of a semester (or halfway through), never to be heard from again, and the
whispered rumors. Some of which turned out to be absolutely true.

2)Weapons on campus: NTS is right on here.All campuses ban weapons;
if you think that means there aren't any, you're hopelessly naive.If you'd
spent about thirty minutes asking around at my school, you would've
come up with a very serviceable assortment of clubs, knives, swords,
nunchaku, pipe bombs, and firearms.(None of which I possessed or knew about
of course).The .50 cals would've been tougher.For those you'd need at
least an hour.

3)Nutsoid projects:My buddy and I were working on a weapons-grade ruby
laser.We'd even bought the gummint surplus capacitor bank.[OooOops: He
just reminded me it was an organic-dye laser.I didn't know lasers
from lactose -- HE was the bio-med dude who grokked the chemistry part.My
job was the power supply end.Why make such a thing?This sucker was gonna
burn holes through stuff!What other motivation IS there?]

4)Subterranean adventures:My particular college had a system of tunnels
beneath the campus containing steam, water, and you-know-what pipes.It was
rumored from time to time that enterprising undergrads explored these tunnels
after gaining access with a legendary master key, the GDM, or "Granddaddy
Master".Classmates related tales in hushed tones of strange fauna sightings
reported during forays into these dark depths.Of course, I didn't have any
personal experience with any of that either.

Conclusion: Many of the set pieces in "The Big U" are archetypical.ANYONE
who went to a medium-to-large sized university will "get it".If you
studied engineering or were a nerd, or were (ARGH!) an engineering nerd
(like me), look out -- you'll laff yer ass off so hard you may end up calling
911.

HIGHLY recommended for NTS fans and budding authors.Someone absolutely,
positively HAS to make a movie out of this.Ivan Reitman can produce, and
Ridley Scott can direct.Scott brought us the Colosseum; he can sure as hell
bring us the Plex!

Now excuse me while I go slap some UV-sensitive paint on my window fan.

Oh my gosh That is my Life
That's what I kept thinking when I read The Big U in 2001 about half way through my undergraduate college experience. I connected so much with the setting (a giant university with bureaucracy and paperwork and 20 story dorms and little subcultures that become resident's realities) and the characters. This could be about any giant university now.

The story follows the lives of 3 students at Megauniversity: Casimir Radon, the 30 year old junior who saved up for college imagining something very different than he finds, Sarah, a Senior student, and Ephraim Klein, a philosophy major. The story is narrated sometimes in the third person and sometimes first person by an assistant professor who lives in the dorms in a sort of RA position and has a better understanding of the way the Big U works than most. The Big U follows these characters month by month through one school year in college - September to May. The story is really about the University but the characters give it context.

In September each encounters problems with bureaucracy. Sarah has been assigned to live in the foreign non-English speaking maintenance staff's lounge and can't be reassigned to another dorm room without signatures of professors for classes that she can't yet register for due to a holdup with that paperwork. Ephraim has a jock roommate who he hates and has other problems in that he is a philosophy major. Cassimir has finished his first two years of physics at a community college, but can't transfer the credits because he didn't take physics with an emphasis on socioeconomics.

After experiencing college this is so realistic. (I spent my senior year taking sociology classes as part of a general graduation requirement and took my first 1000 level class my last semester.)

As the story progresses to March things fall apart within the student body as well. The frats can't distinguish fantasy from reality. The Dungeons and Dragons crowd have the same problem. Pranks get bigger and bigger until the campus is a war zone literally. The plot sounds bad and this is probably why people gave the book bad reviews, but getting there is fun and it comes across as plausible.

For Stephenson fans The Big U may be disappointing. It lacks the digressions into technology that he is so fond of. Instead the book can be viewed as a series of short daydreams in the form of pranks played by the students: a golf cart is retooled by engineering majors into a miniature tank - all the toilets in an umpteen story dorm building are flushed at once - things people plan and speculate on but no one ever gets around to doing.

So maybe from this review the book sounds bad. It sounds that way, but it is not. This is one of the best books ever. I bought it and loaned it to fellow students whenever possible.

If you are currently attending a Big University or have graduated, then buy or borrow this book as soon as possible. If you went to a sane college, or didn't go at all then don't bother. This book parallels life so well its scary.

Oh my gosh That is my Life
That's what I kept thinking when I read The Big U in 2001 about half way through my undergraduate college experience. I connected so much with the setting (a giant university with bureaucracy and paperwork and 20 story dorms and little subcultures that become resident's realities) and the characters. This could be about any giant university now.

The story follows the lives of 3 students at Megauniversity: Casimir Radon, the 30 year old junior who saved up for college imagining something very different than he finds, Sarah, a Senior student, and Ephraim Klein, a philosophy major. The story is narrated sometimes in the third person and sometimes first person by an assistant professor who lives in the dorms in a sort of RA position and has a better understanding of the way the Big U works than most. The Big U follows these characters month by month through one school year in college - September to May. The story is really about the University but the characters give it context.

In September each encounters problems with bureaucracy. Sarah has been assigned to live in the foreign non-English speaking maintenance staff's lounge and can't be reassigned to another dorm room without signatures of professors for classes that she can't yet register for due to a holdup with that paperwork. Ephraim has a jock roommate who he hates and has other problems in that he is a philosophy major. Cassimir has finished his first two years of physics at a community college, but can't transfer the credits because he didn't take physics with an emphasis on socioeconomics.

After experiencing college this is so realistic. (I spent my senior year taking sociology classes as part of a general graduation requirement and took my first 1000 level class my last semester.)

As the story progresses to March things fall apart within the student body as well. The frats can't distinguish fantasy from reality. The Dungeons and Dragons crowd have the same problem. Pranks get bigger and bigger until the campus is a war zone literally. The plot sounds bad and this is probably why people gave the book bad reviews, but getting there is fun and it comes across as plausible.

For Stephenson fans The Big U may be disappointing. It lacks the digressions into technology that he is so fond of. Instead the book can be viewed as a series of short daydreams in the form of pranks played by the students: a golf cart is retooled by engineering majors into a miniature tank - all the toilets in an umpteen story dorm building are flushed at once - things people plan and speculate on but no one ever gets around to doing.

So maybe from this review the book sounds bad. It sounds that way, but it is not. This is one of the best books ever. I bought it and loaned it to fellow students whenever possible.

If you are currently attending a Big University or have graduated, then buy or borrow this book as soon as possible. If you went to a sane college, or didn't go at all then don't bother. This book parallels life so well its scary.

Oh my gosh That is my Life
That's what I kept thinking when I read The Big U in 2001 about half way through my undergraduate college experience. I connected so much with the setting (a giant university with bureaucracy and paperwork and 20 story dorms and little subcultures that become resident's realities) and the characters. This could be about any giant university now.

The story follows the lives of 3 students at Megauniversity: Casimir Radon, the 30 year old junior who saved up for college imagining something very different than he finds, Sarah, a Senior student, and Ephraim Klein, a philosophy major. The story is narrated sometimes in the third person and sometimes first person by an assistant professor who lives in the dorms in a sort of RA position and has a better understanding of the way the Big U works than most. The Big U follows these characters month by month through one school year in college - September to May. The story is really about the University but the characters give it context.

In September each encounters problems with bureaucracy. Sarah has been assigned to live in the foreign non-English speaking maintenance staff's lounge and can't be reassigned to another dorm room without signatures of professors for classes that she can't yet register for due to a holdup with that paperwork. Ephraim has a jock roommate who he hates and has other problems in that he is a philosophy major. Cassimir has finished his first two years of physics at a community college, but can't transfer the credits because he didn't take physics with an emphasis on socioeconomics.

After experiencing college this is so realistic. (I spent my senior year taking sociology classes as part of a general graduation requirement and took my first 1000 level class my last semester.)

As the story progresses to March things fall apart within the student body as well. The frats can't distinguish fantasy from reality. The Dungeons and Dragons crowd have the same problem. Pranks get bigger and bigger until the campus is a war zone literally. The plot sounds bad and this is probably why people gave the book bad reviews, but getting there is fun and it comes across as plausible.

For Stephenson fans The Big U may be disappointing. It lacks the digressions into technology that he is so fond of. Instead the book can be viewed as a series of short daydreams in the form of pranks played by the students: a golf cart is retooled by engineering majors into a miniature tank - all the toilets in an umpteen story dorm building are flushed at once - things people plan and speculate on but no one ever gets around to doing.

So maybe from this review the book sounds bad. It sounds that way, but it is not. This is one of the best books ever. I bought it and loaned it to fellow students whenever possible.

If you are currently attending a Big University or have graduated, then buy or borrow this book as soon as possible. If you went to a sane college, or didn't go at all then don't bother. This book parallels life so well its scary.

Oh my gosh That is my Life
That's what I kept thinking when I read The Big U in 2001 about half way through my undergraduate college experience. I connected so much with the setting (a giant university with bureaucracy and paperwork and 20 story dorms and little subcultures that become resident's realities) and the characters. This could be about any giant university now.

The story follows the lives of 3 students at Megauniversity: Casimir Radon, the 30 year old junior who saved up for college imagining something very different than he finds, Sarah, a Senior student, and Ephraim Klein, a philosophy major. The story is narrated sometimes in the third person and sometimes first person by an assistant professor who lives in the dorms in a sort of RA position and has a better understanding of the way the Big U works than most. The Big U follows these characters month by month through one school year in college - September to May. The story is really about the University but the characters give it context.

In September each encounters problems with bureaucracy. Sarah has been assigned to live in the foreign non-English speaking maintenance staff's lounge and can't be reassigned to another dorm room without signatures of professors for classes that she can't yet register for due to a holdup with that paperwork. Ephraim has a jock roommate who he hates and has other problems in that he is a philosophy major. Cassimir has finished his first two years of physics at a community college, but can't transfer the credits because he didn't take physics with an emphasis on socioeconomics.

After experiencing college this is so realistic. (I spent my senior year taking sociology classes as part of a general graduation requirement and took my first 1000 level class my last semester.)

As the story progresses to March things fall apart within the student body as well. The frats can't distinguish fantasy from reality. The Dungeons and Dragons crowd have the same problem. Pranks get bigger and bigger until the campus is a war zone literally. The plot sounds bad and this is probably why people gave the book bad reviews, but getting there is fun and it comes across as plausible.

For Stephenson fans The Big U may be disappointing. It lacks the digressions into technology that he is so fond of. Instead the book can be viewed as a series of short daydreams in the form of pranks played by the students: a golf cart is retooled by engineering majors into a miniature tank - all the toilets in an umpteen story dorm building are flushed at once - things people plan and speculate on but no one ever gets around to doing.

So maybe from this review the book sounds bad. It sounds that way, but it is not. This is one of the best books ever. I bought it and loaned it to fellow students whenever possible.

If you are currently attending a Big University or have graduated, then buy or borrow this book as soon as possible. If you went to a sane college, or didn't go at all then don't bother. This book parallels life so well its scary. ... Read more

Product Description

The trials of Dr. Daniel Waterhouse and the Natural Philosophers increase one hundredfold in an England plagued by the impending war and royal insecurities -- as the beautiful and ambitious Eliza plays a most dangerous game as double agent and confidante of enemy kings.

Customer Reviews (8)

Odalisque = O' the Chore
I started Odalisque, the third installment of the paperback serial edition by Neal Stephenson.Quick Silver was the first of the trio and the King of the Vagabonds the sequel were excellent.Starting Odalisque was fun. The historical fiction mixed with real history is always exciting when you look at the socio poltical angles and intrigues, especially with a bawdy twist! These books were inspired by his firt novel, Cryptonomicon and are way way better than that initial effort.Unfortunately Cryptonomicon became too disjointed a mess.Same goes for Odalisque which started great but then became a muddling play half-way through the book and the story lost it's thread and my attention (maybe I'll pick it up again later).Mr. Stephenson though very talented and erudite, the editors seemed to have given him carte-blanche in these stories where Odalisque justed ended up being a hodgepodge of chaotic "enlightened" musings by the author.Because of the ambition of this work and thought provoking ideas contained, I give it 3 stars but normally would have given less. That being said, Mr. Stephenson is like the Robert Anton Wilson of this generation and I would love to see his take on the Illuminatti ala The Earth Will Shake and the Widow's Son.

Not a marketing trick
Contrary to the conspiracy-minded people below, this wasn't released this way as a cheap marketing trick. Mass market paperbacks are always more pages than their hardcover versions. Unfortunately, the hardcover version of the Baroque Cycle is already 1000 pages long. That would have made the mass market paperback version too thick to usefully sell - probably in the 1500 page range. That wouldn't be a convenient sized book, and so they had to break the series into smaller volumes.

Notably, it doesn't seem to have been that big a success, since they haven't released anything past Odalisque in this format.

Regardless, the Baroque Cycle is a great series of books, and I highly recommend it to anybody who likes historical fiction and/or sci-fi. And this edition is much more beach-reading sized, if, you know, you're into that kind of thing.

This is a paperback of the last 3rd ofVolume 1:Quicksilver
Here's the complete list to help people avoid buying something they already have:

Quicksilver, Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle
Book 1 - Quicksilver
Book 2 - The King of the Vagabonds
Book 3 - Odalisque

The Confusion, Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle
Book 4 - Bonanza
Book 5 - The Juncto

The System of the World, Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle
Book 6 - Solomon's Gold
Book 7 - Currency
Book 8 - The System of the World

The third volume of quicksilver.
I never owned the hardcover of Quicksilver and thus did not share the same outrage as all of the other reveiwers of this book.I thouroghly enjoyed all three "sub" books of the Quiksilver saga independantly.If you read the inside cover of the book it lists not three novels of te Boroque cycle, but eight or nine independant novels.So for those of you with any of the big three, be warned, there are many more releases of this cycle coming, apparrenlty none of which are actually new.I think I will have to jump ahead and buy the Confusion and the System of the World.

Think of this as the version for those with shorter attention spans
Like many of the other reviewers out there, I saw this on the shelves and wondered if it was something new.But it only took a minute to realize it was one of the parts of the previously published first volume: if you look at the table of contents of the first volume, "Odalisque" is the name of the third book in that volume; I could understand some of the complaints of the other reviewers if they had actually changed the titles, but "Odalisque" really is the third part of the Baroque Cycle (and Stephenson wrote in an interview that he deliberately did not call this the Baroque Trilogy).

Rather than consider this a cheap marketing gimmick, one might consider that this is the way it would have been published first time around for most books and most publishers.The Baroque Cycle really was written as 9 separate but linked novels.Stephenson said in an interview attached to the paperback version of "System of the World" volume that it could have been published as 9 separate books or as one huge book and they opted to originally publish it as three roughly 1000 page volumes, each containing three distinct books (with the difference that in the "Confusion" volume, these books are not separated but entwined, since they take place along the same timeline but with different characters in different places).But some readers who would be intimidated by a 1000 page volume would have no problem picking up a shorter novel and then reading the next one if they liked the first.If you happen to enjoy bulky novels, that is no reason to be offended by the fact that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Note that this is not a paid advertisement or apology.I just happen to really like the cycle as a whole and I'm happy to have Stephenson's publishers market it any way they can to be sure he gets compensated well and can continue writing.It only keeps getting better (and bigger!) with each new work -- but at the same time there is no denying that his works have gotten more intimidating as well.My impression is that there is a relatively smaller crowd of people who were able to make the commitment to finish the third volume of this series, than those who read his previous novels like Snowcrash or Cryptonomicon.If breaking it down increases its readership, I'm all for it. ... Read more

Product Description
The trials of Dr. Daniel Waterhouse and the Natural Philosophers increase one hundredfold in an England plagued by the impending war and royal insecurities, as the beautiful and ambitious Eliza plays a most dangerous game as double agent and confidante of enemy kings.
In 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.
This 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. ... Read more

Product Description
En un futuro Shanghai, un acaudalado neovictoriano manda fabricar un manual informatizado para la educacion de su nieta, Elizabeth. Se trata de un ingenio interactivo que se adapta automaticamente a las necesidades del lector. El ingeniero que lo fabrica, Hackworth, decide sacar una copia pirata de ese prodigio de la nanotecnologia para la educacion de su hija, Fiona. Recurre entonces al Dr. X, un hacker chino con otras ideas respecto al empleo del manual. Poco despues, Hackworth es atacado por unos ""tetes"" desaparrados y el manual original acabara educando a Nell, una nina china pobre. Una fabula casi subversiva acerca de la educacion de una nina y una obra -finalista del premio Nebula 1996, y ganadora de los premios Hugo y Locus 1996- que trasciende la exitosa corriente ciberpunk del genero. ... Read more

Product Description
As extraordinary an achievement as Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson's new novel is set in the 17th century, in another world of secrets, codes and conflict. Having challenged Robert Harris in his previous book, Stephenson now sets his sights on Patrick O'Brien...Neal Stephenson follows his international bestseller, the WWII thriller Cryptonomicon, with a novel set in the 16th and 17th centuries, as he tells the stories of Daniel Waterhouse and Enoch Root, the ancestors of his central characters in the previous book, following them from their childhoods in London, to education at Cambridge amidst the political and religious fervour and tensions of the Reformation, through the English Civil War, and travels as far as afield as Poland and the American colonies. With a cast of characters that includes Newton, Leibniz, Christopher Wren, Charles II, Cromwell and the young Benjamin Franklin, Stephenson again shows his extraordinary ability to get inside a place and time; as he did for the futures of his science fiction (Snowcrash, The Diamond Age) and for WWII (Cryptonomicon), here he does for the England of the Civil War and the Europe of the Wars of Religion and the Scientific Revolution.Quicksilver is yet another tour-de-force from a writer who is simply unique. ... Read more

Product Description

A chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe -- London street urchin-turned-legendary swashbuckling adventurer -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox. . . and Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent a contentious continent through the newborn power of finance.

Customer Reviews (8)

Half-cocked Jack Finally Explained
It's apt that one of the titles in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is The Confusion, because that's what the numbers in the set produce.I read Quicksilver first, then The Confusion, which is subtitled Baroque Cycle #2--but actually this book (King of the Vagabonds) should be next, as it gives the backstory for Jack and Eliza.Regardless, Stephenson's mastery ofpolitics and intrigue in the turbulent 18th century makes this an exciting and thought-provoking read.

This is a paperback of the middle 3rd of Volume 1: Quicksilver
Here's the complete list to help people avoid buying something they already have:

Quicksilver, Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle
Book 1 - Quicksilver
Book 2 - The King of the Vagabonds
Book 3 - Odalisque

The Confusion, Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle
Book 4 - Bonanza
Book 5 - The Juncto

The System of the World, Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle
Book 6 - Solomon's Gold
Book 7 - Currency
Book 8 - The System of the World

Get Past It
Should the publisher have printed King of the Vagabonds separately?Sure, why not?Where they missed was in not clearly labelling it for those of us who bought Quicksilver, in which this book is contained as the second part.Readers felt ripped-off when they purchased a book they'd already read, and that's understandable.But the blame goes to the marketing department of the publisher, not to Neal Stephenson, who wrote an incredibly fascinating and diverse portrait of the world at the time when knowledge was first beinging to replace belief; when science emerged out of religion; when the world as we know it now was first being born.And it is an amazing accomplishment--for a second, just say out loud that someone could make a best-seller out of an eight volume series about the acrimony between Newton and Leibnitz over the discovery of the calculus, about the necessity of a stable currency, about the birth of 'natural philosophy', about the beginnings of cryptography; and that they'd be able to put in a grand showdown between alchemists and pirates--it sounds absurd, doesn't it?But Stephenson carrys it off magnificently.

This particular volume (yes, it IS the second book of the large volume Quicksilver--if your Quicksilver is divided into three books, you've read it; if your Quicksliver ends with Watterson escaping from pirates, you haven't and it's safe to buy) is a complete and shocking contrast to the first book in the series.That book was about the birth of science, it was very intellectual with little action and focussed mainly on the characters of Daniel Waterhouse and Issac Newton.King of the Vagabonds could not be more different--none of the characters in the first book appear (and I kept waiting for them to do so), none of the action overlaps, and the themes are completely different.Where Quicksilver (the book, not the volume) was about ideas, King of the Vagabonds is about action.It's pirates and gypsies and fighting and cavorting mostly through continental Europe.Not until the next volume (Odalesque) will any of the characters from the first two books meet, and then only incidentally.The big confrontations come much later, so don't expect it now.

I throughly loved The Baroque Cycle, as did my 20 year old son.It's definitely not for everyone, but if you are interested in ideas, if you enjoy the detailed portrayal of times and places other than our own, you might love it as much as we did.I was only sorry it was only 8 volumes.

Repackaging Can Be a Good Thing
First off, this book and all the books in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, however packaged and numbered, make for excellent reading. My stars are based on the excellence of the books themselves.

As for the reviewers who feel that repackaging is evil or greedy, well, okay. But if I were the author, I would be delighted that the publisher is investing the money and effort to repackage the books in a way that will bring them to a wider audience.

The new titles on the cover are racier and more true to the content; "King of the Vagabonds" and "Odalisque" will pull more readers to pick up a copy than "The Confusion" ever could. "Quicksilver", however, holds its own as a title in this company, so keep it.

Breaking up the enormous page counts into more tractable sizes will pull in many of my friends, who simply refuse to pick up fat books. They don't have the time, they're afraid the book will be hard reading -- whatever. So the publisher is accommodating that potential readership, and at the same time returning to the days of skinny book classics. (Ever read The Great Gatsby? That's a novella or novellette, not a novel! Ditto most of Hemingway's stuff. Ditto C.S. Forester -- novels, sure, but SKINNY novels.)

The fact of the matter is, it's cheaper to print one fat book than three skinny ones. In choosing to repackage the Baroque Series books in a more extended manner, the publisher is taking a calculated risk; they're boosting their costs, but also expanding their potential market to more first-time readers, who will then buy the complete inventory of Stephenson books once they get hooked.

So, good for Harper. And go, Neal Stephenson!

Baroque Cycle
The Baroque Cycle is not a trilogy, trilogy meaning "a group of three novels which together form a related series, although each is complete in itself."It is eight novels published in three hardcover volumes.Thus "cycle."In an interview in 2004, Stephenson said that one reason why he named it a "cycle" was that some people would call it a trilogy when it obviously wasn't and he wanted to, as best he could, prevent that anoyance.

Stephenson and Harper Collins could have published this series in eight hardcover volumes from the beginning.After all it is EIGHT novels.They would have sold almost three times the volumes and made a lot more money.They didn't.Instead, they published the entire series in THREE volumes and as quickly as possible.It takes a long time to proofread, edit and typeset four hundred thousand words.Also they would have sold almost three times the amount of trade paperbacks.Now they are publishing each volume seperately in mass market.I think it comes down to two reasons.First, that it is, as above stated, eight novels.Second, some people find a nine hundred page volume intimidating but would be willing to read a four hundred page novel.This is who these editions are for.

It's striking how eager some people are to point fingers and claim someone else is greedy.They are ignorant concerning how difficult it is to write a book and their reviews end up revealing how ignorant they are concern writing and the publishing industry.I've read reviews of people claiming it was half the book, that the volumes were renamed.I questioned whether they have even read it.All I have to do is grab my trade paperback volume of Quicksilver and flip through it to find that the first novel (like the name of the volume) is Quicksilver, the second is King of Vagabonds and the third is Odalisque.How can a person read something so obvious and not remember?It isn't difficult.

A little education concerning payment rates for popular books.Agents commission is fifteen percent of the top of the author's commission.Author's commission for a hardcover is fifteen percent.For a trade paperback, seven and a half.For mass market, ten percent.This means that Stephenson earnes approximately three and a half dollars off every hardcover (85% of 15% of the cover price).He makes sixty-eight cents (7.99x10%x85%) from each paperback.

It's not difficult to do a little research concerning the contents of a book before it is released.The information was revealed on amazon months before the book came out in bookstores.The simple answer is, research before you buy.

If you haven't read the books, start with the Baroque Cycle start with #1.If you have, shut up. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A Future Classic
I read the entire Baroque Cycle at one time and in the correct order.I would have paid $1,000 for the entire cycle had I known the quality beforehand.This is simply a masterful work that everyone should read.In fact, I recommend all of his books to date.

A worthwhile read
I am never really sure how to describe Neal Stephenson and his novel's to other people.His novels cover a vast breadth of human and technological interests.They also require a good attention span and an attention to detail.
This, the second book of the Baroque trilogy, further expands on the scenarios covered in Quicksilver and in that process adds a large amount of detail about the era and the people of the time that has certainly whetted my appetite to go and do further investigation of the people and time.I guess in some ways there is no higher compliment.It is a generally well paced book and covers most of the "discovered" continent of the time, in Mr Stephenson's own inimitable way of course.
If you have not read any of Neal Stephenson's books, obviously, this is not the place for you to start, I would either recommend the book Quiksilver, or one of this standalone novels rather than dump a new reader right in the middle of an established storyline.
If you have read Neal Stephenson's books, then you probably have a good idea what to expect, unless of course all you have read is Snow Crash.This book is much more detailed than now Crash, in both technical and periodic detail, as well as personal development.
Also, one other caveat, this book does require a good attention to detail.If you are after something that you read, and put down, rather quickly then this is probably not for you.
However, if you are after both an interesting story and a taster for further investigation of the baroque era, certainly you may find this book worth the effort.

a must for Stephenson fans
Excellent.This continuation of the Baroque Cycle Saga is even more enthralling than Quicksilver.Stephenson maintains his storytelling style of exquisite detail, interspersed with quirky, ribald humor and intellectual subtleties. Expanding the domain of action beyond Europe to North Africa and the meso-American colonies, The Confusion surely sets the stage for a resounding conclusion in System of the World.A masterpiece of intertwined storylines, unexpected developments, and personal struggles. This vast voyage also provides the reader with the context from which our current systems of economy, philosophy, and science emerged.If you have the hours to devote to these tomes, grab all three volumes and immerse yourself in the saga.

Watch out for the binding
Maybe I'm quibbling, but I feel like I should warn prospective buyers that the binding on the hardcover version of this book is totally insufficient for its size and length.I'm only 200 pages in (so my rating isn't wholly meaningful, but it's required in order to post a review), and the binding is cracking and the book feels as if it's ready to fall apart.The content is great so far, but the prospective buyer should be forewarned.

Confusion in the timeline too
Even Amazon is confused about the numbering in the series. Timeline-wise, Confusion isn't volume 2; it's volume 4. Its characters' lives pick up right after the end of Odalisque, which followed King of the Vagabonds, which followed Quicksilver.
Having said that, the first three books were a good read, as was Cryptonomicon. I look forward to Confusion.
Confused yet? ... Read more