It took two more years but I have finally made progress on Mount Stephenson, a/k/a the Baroque Cycle. Re-reading Cryptonomicon helped, but I knew I would need lots of dedicated time to make further progress into Quicksilver than my previous three attempts. So, I took Quicksilver and The Confusion to Costa Rica with me.
Matt commented on my original post that "Sean's approach was only to read the parts with Jack as the main character." Jack Shaftoe is certainly a more entertaining viewpoint character than Daniel Waterhouse or Eliza. I imagine Neal Stephenson must have fun writing about the Shaftoes - those sections of his novels are ripsnorters.
Unfortunately my copy of Quicksilver got stolen when I was about a third of the way into the third section ("Odalisque"), so now I have to get another copy and finish that before I move on to The System Of The World. Meanwhile I had The Confusion with me and cranked through it pretty quickly. It was a great read.
I also bought and read James Gleick's brief biography of Isaac Newton. My curiosity was piqued after all the Newton scenes in the Baroque Cycle. I liked Gleick's book very much and only wish it was longer.
2 comments:
What stupid bastard would steal a copy of Quicksilver, of all things?
He snatched the whole backpack - I don't think he knew Quicksilver was in it.
I obsessively looked in the two English-language bookstores over the next couple of days to see if it was there, but no luck. I have since read the end of the book and don't think I missed much, honestly; the main plot points I missed were summarized neatly at the beginning of The Confusion.
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