I bought Quicksilver, the first volume of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, when it came out in hardback last year. His previous novel, Cryptonomicon, came out in 1999. Oh, how I loved Cryptonomicon. It led me back into reading about codes, a subject that held particular interest for me when I was young. (I have no idea why, but I made a scytale at the age of seven.)
Unfortunately, after two attempts, I surrendered to Quicksilver. It was just too boring. The historical setting just didn't grab me, unlike, say, An Instance of the Fingerpost.
I am now finishing a re-read of Cryptonomicon and its 900+ pages in the hopes that it will inspire me to make a third assault on the Baroque Cycle (which Al gleefully dubbed "Mount Stephenson" many months ago and which metaphor I borrow gladly). I am glad to report the book holds up and I am enjoying it just as much as I did the first time around. This success is encouraging, and with some dedication to duty I may conquer the Isaac-Newton-featuring Baroque trilogy yet. I wish myself luck.
(There's a website about the book - http://www.cryptonomicon.com - but it doesn't have a lot of content. It is decorated in fashionable black though and has an interview with the author.)
1 comment:
That's funny - I had no problem with Quicksilver, although I haven't started The Confusion yet (got it for XMas). Sean's approach was only to read the parts with Jack as the main character. He read Quicksilver and The Confusion that way, but he said when he got to System of the World, he found that he had no idea what was going on, so he had to go back and reread QS and Conf. I just thought that was kind of funny.
Since I am now working at a market trading company, I think I'll be able to understand more of the second book than I did of the first, which I read with basically no knowledge of markets at all.
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