Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle

Cafe Society
1

Anybody here except me read this series?

If you’ve got time, it is better than Cryptonomicon. It takes some time though, with 3 hefty volumes (all greater than 800 pages). Briefly, it follows the lives of several main characters from around 1660 to 1715. Some of these characters are relatives of the characters from Cryptonomicon: Daniel Waterhouse, Jack and Robert Shaftoe. Qwghlm is a plot point as well, and Enoch Root makes appearances. Daniel Waterhouse is a Natural Philosopher in the Royal Society, and a friend to Leibniz, Newton, Wren, Hooke, Wilkins, and Locke. Jack Shaftoe is a Vagabond, who has entertaining travails around the world. Robert Shaftoe, his brother, is a career sergeant in the Queen’s Black Torrent Brigade. Newton, Leibniz, King William of Orange, Louis XIV, Princess Caroline (wife of the future George II), Wilkins, and Hooke all are quite major characters.

The story basically flows around the rise of the Enlightenment, with Natural Philosophy at its core, and the birth of the modern economies, sciences, and politics. The birth of the calculus provides a strong plot point, as do many successions of the British crown (from Charles I onwards to George I).

The characters are multidimensional and interesting. The best thing about the series is that Stephenson writes a good, gripping ending that makes sense (unlike Snow Crash) without leaving too many loose ties (unlike Cryptonomicon) and without coming to a screeching halt (unlike The Diamond Age). Then again, he gives himself 500 pages to end the sucker. The downsides are that he is waaaaay too verbose (as the length attributes), some of his descriptions of complex phenomena still fall short (I still don’t understand some of the economical machinations in Book 2), and he has an irritating trend to make the world a little too small: it seems like every character manages to meet every other character at the most opportune time. The pieces sometimes click together too neatly for a 2700 page series with dozens of major characters. In some ways, the series superficially reminded me of Gravity’s Rainbow: it was impeccably researched, it had many characters interacting in an historically accurate setting, there was tons of attention to detail, it had quite a few anachronistic humorous streaks (but none too obvious), and you ended up learning quite a lot about historical oddities. I ended up looking up most of the events in Wikipedia to see the real happenings, which Stephenson often subtly has changed to suit his story. For instance, he spends a lot of time talking about the CABAL in Charles II’s reign. In reality, it was Clifford, Arlington, Buckley, Ashley, and Lauderdale; in the series it was a different C, A, B, A, and L, all of whom were important characters. It was very similar to the role of Turing in Cryptonomicon.

Anyway, since the third book only came out a few months ago, since the series is still all in hardcover, I think it would be appropriate to only have boxed spoilers in the thread…

2

See, I loved Cryptonomicon, and liked Snow Crash and Diamond Age, but when I read the first book of this series, I was bored to tears. Nothing happened in the whole book! Did it get better in the last two?

3

I would say that more happens (but not much) more) in the Baroque Cycle than in Cryptonomicon. But it has around 4 times as much space to work with. I would say, total, that the cycle moves at around 1/2 speed. As I said above, he is very, very, wordy. Mostly, like Cryptonomicon, it is about the characters.

4

Previous threads that you’d probably like to read:

The Confusion

Quicksilver

and just for fun, this one:

Qwlghm

5

I loved these books (the first two, still trying to find time to assult the third), but their deffinately an aquired taste. Basically, it’s a story wrapped around a history text book, so if you don’t really enjoy learning about the science, politics, economics or kidney stones (really, the first books unifying theme is kidney stones) in the 17th century, I’d steer clear of these books.

Of course thiers a lot of great characters, swashbuckling adventure, hilarious prose, etc. to go along with the history. But these books are long, and so all this leaves a lot of room for explaining the family trees of the kings of England and details long series of letters written from one character to another about economics and binary arithimitic.

I’m encouraged by edwino’s claim that they end strong. I loved Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, but they both felt like Stephenson got to a certain point and just stopped writting instead wrapping it all togeather. I hope to get to System of the World soon.

6

I wonder if this might be my problem - not that I’m not interested in these things, but they’re things I already know. This stuff he’s revealing as he moves his story along are often things that are already lodged in my brain. I dunno.

7

I am reading it – done with one, ready for two, three not yet in my possession.

I’m also a big fan of Stephenson, although disappointed with his problem with endings. In that regard, his best book thus far is Zodiac. It ends in a rush, but it fits the story, and because of the relatively low level of complexity of the plot, he doesn’t have nearly as much to wrap up.

8

I was a fan. Love Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. Reread both of them about once a year.

I just finished the third book. (The 2nd book never appeared at the local libraries. No big loss as it turns out.)

OMG, what a long boring plod of crap! The first book was bad enough, but the third just completely sucked.

Imagine taking the good sub-stories in Crypto, adding 100 pages to each, and then removing anything the least bit interesting or relevant from them. That’s what System of the World is like. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There are large sections that are clearly uneditted glurge. Completely unreadable. Doesn’t the publisher have editors anymore? Jeez.

Do not buy these books. If you are truly curious, get a library copy or borrow from a friend.